Physically, the GoPro Hero 11 Black looks the same as its predecessor, the Hero 10, with a few minor changes. For example, the branding on the outside is now a slightly matte ocean blue and the side has an 11 instead of a 10. Everything else is more or less the same. The upper spine features a power switch that doubles as a trigger. Still on the left is the mode button that allows users to switch between video, photo, and time-lapse modes. Underneath is a chamber for the battery and SD card. Similar to the GoPro Hero 10, the new Hero 11 Black features a 2.27-inch touchscreen display on the back and an LCD display next to the large sensor. Both act as viewfinders with touch support limited to the main display. The LCD screen is standard on many action cameras, although it wouldn’t hurt to hope for something livelier and brighter in future models. Water resistance remains the same at 33 feet and there’s no built-in flash. The new GoPro Hero 11 Black features a larger 1/1.9-inch sensor instead of a 1/2.3 sensor on the Hero 10, without significantly increasing the size. The new sensor, powered by the same GP2 processor, enables two new (big) features – first, you can use a 360-degree horizon lock in linear mode (up to 5.3K resolution/30fps). As the name suggests, horizon lock gives the camera the ability to keep the horizon level when rotating 360 degrees. The GoPro Hero 10 already supports Horizon Lock, but adding a 360 degree lock on Hero 11 Black could be a boon for semi-professional developers who are still unsure about mounting an action camera. You can also adjust the resolution to 4K at 60 fps or 2.7K at 120 fps. In contrast, DJI’s Osmo Action 3 enables 360-degree horizon lock at a maximum resolution of 2.7K (60 fps). The second feature is a new full-screen mode that records videos (5.3K resolution/30fps) in an 8:7 frame. The final output may look distorted; The good thing, however, is that the video can be cropped to either a 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio for Instagram and YouTube, provided the subject is in the center of the frame.
