I know my way around a pair of joysticks — but I’d prefer to soar. I don’t want to think about filming while I’m flying. I’d rather explore.
Now, camera maker Insta360 is launching its first drone, under a new drone company, to serve that exact demand. It’s called Antigravity, and in January 2026, it’ll ship a flying 360-degree camera which — unlike today’s drones — will always come bundled with goggles that put you inside its virtual cockpit.
It looks and flies a bit like a DJI Mini, with similar folding arms and sub-250-gram weight, but the experience of using the new Antigravity A1 is totally different. Like the Hover X1, which ditched controllers entirely, it feels like Antigravity might have just unlocked a whole new category of drone.
Because it has a 360-degree camera, you can fly up into the sky, or through a park, and simply turn your head to look in any direction. You don’t have to fly straight at things you want to see or aim a camera. And because it’s recording 8K footage in every direction simultaneously, you can direct an entire video, with virtual zooms and pans and spins, long after your flight is finished.
On the sunny day I flew a prototype in a Northern California park, I remember seeing a few birds fly by. But reviewing my footage weeks later, I discovered I’d filmed an entire flock — over 40 in all, when I pan and zoom my virtual camera and take the time to count. Check out my embedded video to see what I’m talking about.
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Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a drone, and it’s still a 360-degree camera, with inherent limitations of both. While it’s quieter than some, I still wouldn’t want its noisy blades spinning through the middle of my wedding party, even if I’d appreciate having an omnidirectional recording afterwards.
And even though it records at 8K and is aiming for similar image quality as the acclaimed Insta360 X5, 360-degree cameras spread out those pixels across an incredibly wide canvas: it’s not yet enough to zoom in on many things without a dramatic loss of image quality, or to truly immerse someone wearing a VR headset, particularly since it’s limited to 30 frames per second at that 8K resolution, or 5.7K at 60fps. (I tested my early footage in a Quest 3, and you can check it out on YouTube 360.)
So for best results, you won’t want to fly high above things: you’ll want to be close. But not so close that you see the stitching lines between the Antigravity A1’s top and bottom cameras. The nearly invisible stitch neatly keeps the drone’s frame from appearing in your field of view, but it’s noticeable when it artificially shortens people and objects that are perfectly level with the drone.
Still, watching my early footage was a thrilling experience, particularly because I never had to think about filming while I flew. And frankly, I didn’t need to think about flying that much, either.
In 2022, I was wowed by the new bar the DJI Avata set for beginner drones, letting me simply tilt a motion-sensing joystick and pull a trigger to feel like a pilot flying through the air, with optional goggles for a first-person view. But Antigravity’s goggles give me nearly double the field of view (roughly 90 degrees diagonally) and while its Grip controller looks similar, this one’s as easy as point and shoot. You can aim the drone to fly in an entirely different direction than you’re facing, just by pointing your controller hand that way, and get a picture-in-picture view of the direction it’s flying to help you avoid crashes. There’s also a traditional twin-stick controller in development if you prefer, as well as propeller guards.
But you should know the A1 is probably not for thrillseekers. Compared to an Avata, the prototype I tried is slow and steady, flying more like a traditional camera drone, and its front-facing obstacle sensors were very aggressive in my demo, refusing to let me easily fly under a wide-open play structure in my local park. I also hope the final version has a bit less visual artifacting and a bit stronger wireless signal than the prototype: the range and visual transmission in the headset weren’t bad, but they were definitely not up to DJI’s very high bar.
I’m also not sure about some of the A1’s snazziest features. It’s fun to watch its landing gear automatically fold and unfold, and I’m sure my kids will get a kick out of seeing where daddy’s flying on the goggles’ external screen, but I’d probably prefer to pay less for fewer components and fewer points of failure.
By the way, I can’t tell you how fast the Antigravity A1 technically is, or how much range or battery life it claims just yet. The company isn’t releasing full specs or pricing today, and it declined my request for a full interview about how this Chinese company plans to sell it in the US at a time when DJI is experiencing a de facto ban and Trump has made it clear that US drones should “dominate.”
But spokesperson Ben Liu was willing to speak to that for a bit. He tells me that US retailers like Best Buy and Amazon have been “very welcoming” even if final contracts have yet to be signed, and that the company believes the drone will make it to the United States even though “it’s definitely a really big risk.” He admits it might have different prices in different regions due to tariffs, but that the complete package with goggles and controller should cost less than a DJI Mavic, perhaps as little as $1,300.
Also, Insta360 claims it’s standing up Antigravity as a whole new company with its own dedicated team and its own servers in the US, and it’s working on features with the hopes of proactively showing governments that it’s not a threat. Before I finish my demo, Liu insists I try the “payload detection” feature that he claims is designed to prevent the Antigravity AI from being weaponized as a flying bomb. The drone, loaded down with many tiny metal weights, immediately forces itself to land after I make it take off.
”We just want to show our attitude that this drone is only for fun,” says Liu.
I don’t know if that demo proves much, as I suspect the US government would be more concerned about the Antigravity as a powerful surveillance tool since its 360-degree camera can cover more area at a time.
But for others, this fundamentally feels like a different and potentially easier way to fly and film. Even if the Antigravity A1 doesn’t wind up being a winner, I’m now convinced DJI and competitors will follow.
