YI made waves with its low-cost 4K Action Camera, a $250 model that's right up there with pricier GoPros in terms of features and video quality. Its follow-up, the $339.98 4K+, is almost as pricey as the GoPro Hero5 Black, but does something the Black can't do—record 4K video at 60fps. It doesn't support 24fps recording, a must-have for capturing video with a cinematic look, and it isn't waterproof without a case, two qualities you get with the Hero5 Black. If 60fps capture at the highest possible resolution is what you're after, the 4K+ is a solid purchase, but it's not quite enough to oust the Hero5 from its spot as our Editors' Choice for action cameras.

Design

The YI 4K+ ( at Amazon) is small, at just 1.2 by 2.6 by 1.7 inches (HWD), and light at 3.4 ounces. It has an ultra-wide fixed focus lens, a USB-C port for charging and accessories, and a standard tripod socket on the bottom. It works with microSD memory cards and is available in black only.

The camera itself isn't water resistant, but YI includes a plastic case that's rated for use at depths of 132 feet. I wasn't able to take it down that far, but I did submerge the encased camera in some water and it was perfectly dry when I later removed it. Like the camera, the case has a standard tripod socket in its foot.

Folks with a lot of GoPro accessories may be turned off by the tripod socket design, but if you don't have a heavy investment in mounts and accessories, it's a big plus to be able to simply mount the camera to a traditional tripod. And it's also pretty easy to get an adapter to fit in the tripod socket to use existing GoPro mounts—so you get the best of both worlds.

There's only one button, an oval on the top that can be used to control power, snap a photo, or start and stop a video recording. Everything else is done via the rear touch screen, a 2.2-inch LCD that dominates the back. It packs in 691k dots for a crisp 330ppi resolution, is quite bright, even in the sun, and can be viewed from an askew angle with ease.

I ran our standard action camera battery test on the YI. Recording at top quality, 4K 60fps, the camera ran for 55 minutes, but then stopped recording—not because it ran out of battery (it had about 25 percent power left), but because of overheating. Extended recording like this isn't the typical use case for an action cam, but if you do plan on using huge memory cards to roll footage, be aware that you'll need to keep the camera cool, or give it a rest every hour or so.

You can expect about 73 minutes of video on a single battery charge when rolling at 4K 60fps. That's right in line wth YI's published estimate of 71 minutes. If you need to go longer, you'll need a big memory card, and you'll need to power the 4K+ via USB-C. It can draw power from an outlet or external battery pack when recording. Lower resolutions aren't as demanding on the battery or processor, so you can expect longer runtimes—YI states you can roll 4K footage for 109 minutes at 30fps, while opting for 2.7K or 1080p capture extends that to about two hours.

Companion App

The 4K+ sports built-in Wi-Fi, and works with free YI Action app (for Android and iOS) for wireless file transfer and remote control. It's relatively easy to connect—the camera broadcasts an SSID signal and you just need to connect to it with your smartphone; the default password is 1234567890. Once the connection is established, you can jump into the app to take control of the 4K+. Bluetooth is available, so you can control the camera with a selfie stick, a $46 accessory.

You don't have to use the app—the YI isn't like an old action cam without a big screen. If you want to just adjust settings you can easily do so from the touch LCD. But the app makes the options bigger and easier to see. All of the video resolution and frame rate options are on one page, for example, where you need to change the resolution on one screen and set the frame rate on another when using the camera's interface. If you frequently tweak settings, the app is worth your time to install. And, of course, it's a solid option for travelers to use to transfer images or video to a phone or tablet for social sharing on the go.

The app also includes basic image editing tools, including typical Instagram-style filters and a more flashy AI Art filter gallery. It can give your images the look of different painting and art styles, similar to the Prisma (Free at Apple.com) app that was all the rage last year.

Video and Image Quality

The 4K+ records in 4K, but also a lot of other resolutions. You can check out the full breadth of options in the chart to the right. Basically, you've got 60 or 30fps when the camera is set to NTSC mode, or 50 or 25fps when set to PAL. There's no option for cinema-style 24fps—shooting at 25fps gets you close to that look, but won't match up with footage shot with other cameras that roll at 24fps.

There are faster frame rates, up to 120fps, and narrower fields of view at 1080p. And if you drop down to 720p HD or 480p standard definition, you can crank the frame rate to 240fps. For any of these options you'll need to slow down video yourself using editing software. In-camera slow motion is available, but only at 720p.

Video quality is very strong, especially at 4K, but footage isn't stabilized. If you're mounting the camera to a surfboard or car that's not a big deal, but it makes handheld footage look a bit jittery. There's a 2.7K option, better than HD, but not as crisp as 4K, which includes a digital stabilization option. It does a good job steadying video, but also adds an unnatural shimmering effect. Most editing software has some sort of stabilization tool, and YouTube will stabilize shaky video if you want it to. I recommend skipping the in-camera option due to the shimmery look.

Video quality can be tweaked in camera—you can set the quality level, choose between YI Color or a flat color profile that's more easily gradable, and set the amount of sharpening. If you just want crisp video out of the box, YI Color and medium sharpness is the way to go, but pros will want to turn down the sharpening and use the flat profile.

Audio performance is solid for a camera of this type. It picks up my voice loud and clear on the soundtrack, and also does a good job gathering the ambient sounds of the forest and other environments. If you're looking to cut out background noise or shooting in an environment where you need a top-quality mic, you can connect an external one via a USB-C adapter.

YI promises to add live streaming support with a future firmware update. As of now, it's not available. That's also true of Raw image capture. YI's information page touts the feature, but it's not yet implemented.

Instead you can shoot in JPG format. Stills are captured at 12MP resolution, with your choice of the full wide-angle field of view or a corrected version that removes the fish-eye barrel distortion. You can see the difference above.

Image quality is what you'd expect from a point-and-shoot camera. The 4K+ uses a 1/2.3-inch sensor, the same size used in most pocket superzooms. Image quality is a little bit better than a smartphone. This is a video camera first, and while I'm happy to see it capture stills, there are better tools available for photography.

Still capabilities are leveraged in time-lapse capture. The 4K+ shoots images at a set interval and automatically puts them together in a 4K video file, or saves individual images for you to put together yourself. It's a fun way to show progression of time, or to compress a long event into a very short duration. There's also a combination mode that records video and also creates a time-lapse simultaneously.

Other recording options include burst still mode and looping, which records a video with a capped duration—set it to five minutes and record for 10 and you'll only save the last five minutes.

Conclusions

The extreme sports crowd loves 60fps, and everyone loves 4K video—it packs 8MP of resolution into every frame, so video is a lot crisper than 1080p footage. That makes the YI 4K+ a compelling camera for anyone looking to capture action footage. But it falls short in some other areas—it's not waterproof outside of its case like the GoPro Hero5 Black ($182.99 at Amazon) , nor is it as rugged. It's also missing 24fps video capture and Raw image support, although the latter is promised in a firmware update. Overall, the Hero5 Black is a slightly stronger performer, and remains our Editors' Choice.

YI 4K+ 4.0 See It at Amazon MSRP $339.98 Pros Compact design.

Ultra-wide lens.

Touch LCD.

Simple operation.

Records 4K video at 60fps.

Time-lapse and slow-motion options.

Flat color profile available.

Waterproof to 132 feet with case.

External mic via USB-C.

Full-featured companion app.

Supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. View More Cons Doesn't support 24p.

Digital stabilization introduces artifacts.

No stabilization at 4K.

Raw photo support not yet implemented.

Requires case to be waterproof and rugged.

Gets hot when recording long clips. View More The Bottom Line The impressive YI 4K+ records in 4K at 60fps, but is missing some other features that would make it our top action cam.

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