GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) is expected to launch its Hero 5 Black camera before the end of this year. Though the official launch of the camera could still be a month or two away, a few things are already known about the device and some of them might surprise you.
What’s coming in Hero 5?
One of the surprising changes that GoPro is making to its line of action cameras is inclusion of GPS feature. Until now, GoPro never gave GPS feature a thought, but competitors such as Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE) and Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN) kept on adding the feature to their cameras, thus giving them a competitive advantage.
It seems GoPro has felt the need to catch up with the competition by making GPS one of the new features in its Hero 5 camera.
The other feature that Gopro is adding in Hero 5 Black is a faster Wi-Fi that is expected to facilitate faster sharing of videos between the camera and the user’s smartphone. The faster Wi-Fi is also expected to enhance live video streaming on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s Periscope app and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Facebook Live.
GoPro’s Hero 5 Black camera is also expected to come with dual lenses to support 360-defree image capture.
What’s not there?
But the Hero 5 Black will not come with cellular connectivity support. That is a feature that was widely rumored to be coming to GoPro’s new action camera but it seems the company wants to delay it a bit.
To support the GPS feature, it seems Gopro is putting a larger battery in Hero 5 Black. The camera weights 118 gram compared to its predecessor that only weighs 87 grams. The difference in weight hints at a larger battery in the new camera device.
Gopro is hoping that launch of Hero 5 would help boost its flagging camera sales.