Reviews are mixed when it comes to comparing DJI's new Osmo Action camera with GoPro's Hero 7. They look and feel nearly identical to use, but whether the video turns out better on either one depends on what you're shooting.

Go Pro was essentially started by a couple of action junkies who couldn’t find a way to easily capture videos of themselves while surfing. The lack of available product to suit their needs pushed them to innovate, and the rest is history. Years later, it’s this same consumer-centricity looks like what’s going to save to company from ruin.
Helmet-mounted cameras were already being utilized for single-project shoots during the 1960s. However, Go Pro is the first company to focus entirely on making it commercially available for the mass market. Fittingly, its pioneering status has crowned the company the father of an entirely new camera category – the action camera. From there, it spawned countless copycats, but none ever came close to the prestige and ubiquity of the original.
The first years was incredibly successful but after a few upheavals, the company suffered tremendous hits from a cacophony disastrous product releases. The most devastating of which is perhaps their foray into the drone market where they see their products literally falling off the skies because of some hardware issues. To make the long story short, Go Pro was out of its funk and for a while there, it looked like it was going to fold under the pressure.
But, this year’s new model, the Go Pro Hero 7 Black, looks like it’s going to get the company back on track. They’re doing so by giving Go Pro users something that they have always asked for but never got - better stabilization. Consumers had to settle for EIS stabilization software but it’s nowhere near the OIS-equipped smartphone cameras. To remedy the problem, they had to buy a separate gimbal accessory for their devices.
One of the biggest additions to the Go Pro Hero 7 Black is enhanced stabilization. However, they don’t reveal what kind of stabilization is being done. What we do know is that the company calls it the Hypersmooth and that it’s so much better than anything they’ve ever done before. Here are a few things that we can already share with you about the newly announced Go Pro Hero 7 Black:

60FPS 4K Video Capture with Hypersmooth

Go Pro has always been known for its quality video capturing capabilities. It’s one of the first to offer 1080p video recording in such a versatile form-factor. It’s also one of the first to dare to incorporate just one wide-angle lens to do all the image capture.
When it comes to stabilized action videos, other action cameras such as Sony’s had already beaten Go Pro to the punch. The inclusion of Hypersmooth in the Hero 7 Black may not build on that tradition of being at the cutting edge of new features, but it definitely stands out because of the line-up of already class-leading features already on offer.
They achieve this through the introduction of more powerful internals and some software to go with it. Since the Hero 7 Black is the only Go Pro with the GP1 chipset and Hypersmooth, it’s probably safe to assume that the stabilization feature comes with the new chipset. The Hero 7 White and Hero 7 Silver do not feature the chipset and both don’t have the Hypersmooth tech built-in.

Live Video Streaming and Vertical Content

Realizing that the market for action camera enthusiasts is largely driven by social media shares, Go Pro decided to have live video sharing baked into the system. This enables action videos to be shared instantly to various platforms across the internet. It’s a special feature that helped smartphones eat into the Go Pros action-camera market. Adding this is an excellent way to win that market share back.
This also displays the company’s aspirations to become a media enterprise. In a way, they’re continuing on their word of mouth marketing tradition through modern media such as Facebook Live, Twitch, and YouTube.
Furthermore, Go Pro is also introducing the vertical shooting mode with the Go Pro Hero 7 Black. It aims to get a slice of the consumer pie for people who use Instagram more than the other social networking sites.

Improved Audio

What some camera-makers seem to forget is that the audio-visual includes the sound quality. Go Pro is not one of those. The Hero 7 Black has excellent microphones that record high definition audio. It’s now equipped with HDR audio which means they can capture more natural voices.
The audio performance is a leaps and bounds improvement from the Go Pro Hero 6 Black that’s notorious for a shoddy job at wind and other background noise reduction. People often complained that the bad audio quality made them discard otherwise excellent shots made by their Go Pros. It was seen as a single utility device good only for taking action videos.
The Hero 7 Black’s subtly reengineered the microphone housing that helped immensely in improving audio quality. Because of this audio improvement, the Go Pro has become a veritable vlogging camera as well.

Verdict

After years of trying to innovate on their own through the introduction of new products such as the Karma Drone, it’s pretty clear that Go Pro has gone back to its customer-centric roots. They’ve added features long asked from by fans of the brand.
The small form-factor has always been the best factor for the Go Pro. The absence of an outstanding stabilization technology and poor audio quality, however, kept people from considering it their main camera. Instead, consumers considered the Go Pro as a complementary accessory to their travel vlogging gear.
It looks like the Hero 7 Black is going to be the hero that saves the struggling company from ruin. With all these improvements, the Go Pro is ready to take an even bigger role in people’s travels and adventures. Before this year, gimbals were a necessary inconvenience for decently stabilized action footage. With the addition of the Hypersmooth on this year’s Hero 7 Black, that problem is solved. The re-engineered microphone housing also does a lot for audio quality. Overall, the Go Pro looks like it can take on the role as some people's main travel camera.