Pros: Easy & comprehensive settings Samsung's smartphone controls and live feed Size Cons: Long stitching process for videos The Gear 360 comes with a wrist strap, a micro-usb cable, a cleaning wipe and a pouch to store it all with the product. The initialisation was really quick and straightforward. The buttons and menus make sense in my opinion. I've never had to go back through the manual or online to find out how to do something. The manual will help you pairing your Gear 360 with a Samsung smartphone (not all devices are supported). It's really quick and give you a quick access to the recording modes. Best of all is the live feed on your phone, so you can have a good idea of what your shot's going to be like. The photos and videos are recorded via 2 cameras (front and back) which you can choose one, the other, or both. The raw recordings are showing as 2 circles (for each camera) and need to be processed for a full 360 experience. The process is call stitching, which cuts out the black segments and joins the 2 pictures together on common points. Whilst this process works seamlessly with pictures, it will take a long time for videos so I recommended to use the video software provided in the box (digital download and access code in box). Overall it was a really fun and easy camera to use. I have had a great time showing it to my family and friends at dinners and parties. I have got some really cool footage with this camera. Now I'm looking for occasions to use it, which to be fair may come less than I wish

You are able to use as 360 camera or 180 for a really wide shot. I've found that you can take the still and view them using google cardboard as well as the Samsung headset. The cons: I've had intermittent issues connecting the phone to the camera, usually when I have poor mobile signal. The stitching is not great, and the quality is average. The general post processing is a bit cumbersome. As a 1st gen consumer 360 camera, it is good but sure that it will be improved on.

The quality of this camera vs the competitor version I also own is excellent, especially at the price point. I love the design, its compact enough to stick in a pocket, and easy to attach to a long monopod to shoot a 360 away from yourself. The included stand/grip is very well designed and pretty sturdy for the small size of it. One slight downside is the app, which is a little bit slow and unreliable (as well as only working with very limited samsung devices - It would be great if it worked with other android devices too for future proofing), but really its a minor gripe as this can be improved over time, and in the end I only really care about the final photo/video. The external controls on the camera are excellent allowing access to most of the main features without needing to get your phone out. I also love the removable battery, which is critical for travel use which is what I see myself using this for in the future. Overall I'm very happy with the camera so far.

I was very excited to try the new Samsung Gear 360. In my every day life I am always using Facebook to share pictures and videos and hoped this device would make it a lot more interesting (and I do love trying out something different)! First experience unpacking the camera from the box was very good. All very easy to use (although I do miss just a basic instruction manual). I instantly was able to get it set up with my phone (and I am no technical wizard!) It was night time so I was interested to test it out with artificial light. In my opinion, sadly it's not at it's best in low light. I used my cats to test it out and found the small red light always seems to light them up. It's not so much of a problem, when moved away at distance but with the shape of the lens, I really wanted some nice rounded 'cat nose' photos! It's better in day light but still seems to be a niggling issue that irritates me using the camera. The photos are 'often' in focus. I find I have to keep it very still and sometimes by the time it takes to click the photo, my cats head has moved and I have a blurry photo! I am on holiday later this month and do feel this camera will come into it's own when we are looking at beautiful scenery in the right light. I feel it's definitely more of an outdoor - catch great photos whilst travelling - type camera, more than a 'photo people at a party' type camera in my opinion. It's very easy to use and to hold. I like the little tripod which makes it both easy to hold on to but also quite solid to set up and take a still photo- As I've said, I do feel the tripod will often be needed to get a great image. It's easy to upload onto social media - Photos are very quick. Videos take a little longer so best to keep them short as possible unless you want to wait 30 minutes for it to upload! It's designed very well and is so easy to use in live mode with my Samsung Galaxy S6. Overall, I am very pleased and feel I will probably keep the camera to take with me whilst we are travelling but I'm not sure how much use it will get in every day life. I also hope it's sturdy enough to be put in my bag. whilst away and hope the lens won't get scratched. Overall, I'd say a nice little gadget but can be a little difficult to get clear, non blurry images. I love the video element, which is absolutely perfect but needs a little more improvement on the photo side. The 'red light' on the front of the camera is my greatest irritation on using it! 5/5 for video and 3.5/5 for photos. It's a handy tool but will not be replacing my normal camera.

I recevied this item as a trial from #insidersgear360. If you have all the other samsung accessories for this then this is a great camera (VR headset & Some kind of selfie stick), but if you don't then your going to have to spend some more money to get the full use out of it. Out of the box this is a great camera, and is very easy to setup link to your phone. It's fairly large but still small enough to kit in your pocket and carry around. The first couple of times I used this I was a bit nervous as I wanted to take shots without having my ugly mug in the frame, so the only way to do this was to leave it on a wall or table and walk away from it which left it vunerable for somebody to swipe. I then invested in a selfie stick so the camera is above me and all you can usually see my feet. which I don't mind :) Would be good if Samsung provided more mounting options out the box like gopro do so you can mount it to a helmet or other items for more sporty shots.

Been using this since just before Christmas and it is incredible! I've used it for family selfies for 14 people around a long table to capturing everyone's reaction on video of my son playing pie face! Great for capturing different stages of renovation projects ensuring every angle is covered! My only concern at the moment is the capability of sending the photos or videos with the 360 view other than on Facebook or You tube.

Well 2016 is out of the way...thank God but what a way to start the new year. During the Christmas period my 360 and the Gear S3 Watch arrived and I have to say I am really enjoying using and testing them out. The 360 was the first to arrive and within minutes it was out of the box. Even the packaging looks smart with its circular design window display. Samsung really have thought about everything with this camera. As a photographer I like to see what new technology can bring so first I wanted to undertsand how the camera worked. Being a "Brit" of course ..instruction manual..whats that? Whos got time for that anyway. We just want to be able to get it out of the box and use it. So I ventured on pressing a few buttons to see what each did and it powered up. I linked it up to my Samsung S7 Edge phone using the app and we were all systems go. Full 360 shooting. In good light the camera was working well without zooming. In Low light the camera performed great at full aperture but when you zoomed in the noise increased. For me looking for Hi resolution images this camera does a great job out side in good light capturing the colours fantastically but indoor is a little more tricky. Taking stills is easy with a quick buttons on the side of the ball. I got the family (wife and 2 kids) and we went for a walk up on some local hills and we got some great shots there using the highest resolution the camera offers. The kids enjoyed using it too as it was easy enough to hold using the collapsed tripod which is included in the packaging. As an action camera competing with the other major brands the Samsung 360 really competes and over performs in my view. Theres lots that can be done with it from family gatherings, blogging, attaching to your bike using a gorilla tripod, trekkiing biking, dance classes. I even saw one cute video done on the 360 which showed a little child playing hide and seek with their Dad. He had strapped the 360 to his chest, put the camera in single lens mode and sent the child of to find him. It was a great insight into a childs world and how they they think about things. In summary - Great looking bit of kit your friends will want...Get there first and enjoy:)

I have loved using every aspect of this camera and enjoy not only making videos and watching them back but also the live view through a samsung device. By using live view to get a complete view of the surrounding area you can notice things you never would have otherwise. Likewise, watching the video back later you are able to focus on a different area each time. One video becomes more like 20. The camera itself is lightweight (but still sturdy and well put together), quick to set up and can be used with most standard camera tripods and selfie sticks. Once you have done a few videos it is easy to transfer and upload them to where ever you like and the ability to drag the view in a video will be amusing to all your friends. Overall I love this camera and all the possibilities it offers, would even make the perfect gift for any gadget or camera enthusiast, or to bring home a complete experience of your travels. Why settle for a window view when you can see the world?

I am a person who thrives for fitness, travel and adventure but not only that; capturing and sharing it with fellow like-minded social media enthusiasts. So when my gear 360 arrived I couldn't help but be excited at what experiences I could share. On opening the packaging the 360 oozed quality as I peeled back each protective part. In the hand the 360 feels solid but heavy which led me to think two things: 1.            It is made very well 2.            How on earth am I going to use something so heavy to capture all my adventure activities and sports Having briefly read the start-up guide it was clear that the gear 360 was going to be really easy to use. I have been an avid GoPro user for a while and this is up there for ease of use with the GoPro session and easier to use than the Hero 4; I own both of these. The battery and memory card slot nicely into the camera and the dust/water cover seems like it will last for a long time. As I previously mentioned the 360 is very heavy so was limited to what attachments I could use for my bike and out doing my fitness stuff. Shuffling around I managed to find a housing that would attach the camera to my bike handle bars securely; this is the only place you are probably going to be able to attach the camera to as it is too heavy for a bicycle helmet. All attached I was ready to go; I downloaded the app onto my Samsung Galaxy S7 and synchronised the camera to the phone. This was extremely easy and the interface of the app software was a dream to use, I have to applaud Samsung as this will seriously help technophobes. On the camera you have a choice of views: front, rear, and 360 to record from, I am still yet to figure out which is the front and rear of the camera. This is confusing as you can set the default view to front or rear but doing this doesn't seem to make a difference; maybe this is user error but if I can't do it then others will experience the same issue. On pressing the easy to find and use record button the camera gives countdown beeps which is a great feature as your know are recording your moment. A feature that needs to be looked at is the standby feature; the camera and understandably so saves power by going into standby mode, this cannot be woken up by pressing the capture button and therefore you have to keep switching the camera on and then press the capture button. I missed a few video moments because of this. After a long days riding it was time to review my footage. I loved the fact you could review the footage straight from the camera on your phone by connecting via Bluetooth. This gives the option to delete or select footage without having to save it onto the phone first. The 360 video works great when viewing on the phone and is really impressive. Photos taken in 360 also work incredibly well when viewing on the phone too. The 360 records in a choice of two resolutions with the lower resolution offering poor quality when viewing within Facebook or on the Samsung Gear VR. I only recorded in the higher resolution because of this but this then dramatically reduced the length of footage that could be recorded and also takes up heaps of space on your phones hard drive; this presents another issue. The 360 app saves images and video to the phone and not the sim card which is a real problem considering my phone only has 32Gb of room; to combat this I then tried to save the images to the sim card; however, for some reason once I did this I lost all 360 capabilities of the images and video which then became distorted rendering the videos and pictures pointless.  This also presents a massive issue when uploading to Social media sites such as Instagram and twitter; for me these are huge issues. Unless the social media platform offers VR (facebook, youtube) to view media or images then the 360 is to put it blunt useless and awful. You cannot choose from which point the photo or video uploads to sites such as intagram (my most used platform) and therefore every image and photo is distorted in the most useless way. I found that I had to really manipulate images by ‘screenshotting' paused moments which then in return seriously affected picture quality. Even on the Samsung Gear VR which I also own, the footage for some reason zooms in and distorts the video making it uncomfortable to watch. I really tried to figure out why but couldn't. When taking photos using the 360 you can opt for a panoramic mode but in all honesty the Samsung Galaxy S7 does this just as well using its panoramic feature. Summary. The Samsung Gear 360 is a superb for doing a specific thing; taking 360 images and video that can be viewed on your phone, facebook and youtube. Viewing them on the VR isn't overly impressive as resolution drops considerably. The selling price is extremely high for something that only offers this purpose especially when it's not compatible on most social media sites. It also isn't water proof so limits me for other activities that I would normally use a GoPro for; I wouldn't even dream of capturing moments on my kayak or taking it near the water on beach. People would love this camera to capture those moments with family, at a festival or in environments that are calm and relaxed where you can sit the camera down and let it take it all in. if you are a sports or adventure enthusiast then maybe hold fire on spending all that money.

Fantastic piece of kit, straight out of the box you can feel the excellent build quality, it feels really good to hold, the mini tripod is great. Set up was easy and fast and I really like the way you can either use your phone as a controller and view finder or can opt to go it alone with just the device and its on board controls. The 360 footage is amazing, I filmed our whole xmas meal and the children opening presents in one roughly 50 min film, and being able to capture it all and pan round in the video playback and then take stills off that is awesome. The single lens wide angle shots are also fantastic, so are the time-lapse capabilities.11 Video and still quality is fantastic, really awesome piece of kit, would highly recommend to families who love photograpgy and the outdoors.