YI Technology's new YI 4K Action Camera just went on presale at Gearbest for $249.99. The updated version adds 4K recording and some girth to the original YI, which came out last year as a budget alternative to GoPro's cheapest Hero edition cameras. The YI 4K does the same but with GoPro's high-end Hero4 Silver and Black editions, which retail at $399.99 and $499.99, respectively.
The YI 4K uses the Ambarella A9SE chipset and has a 2.19-inch, 330 PPI resolution touch display that's similar to the one found in the GoPro Hero4 silver. The updated YI 4K is slightly wider than the preceding version, but still much smaller than the GoPro Hero4 at 2.36 x 0.83 x 1.65 inches. The YI 4K has an updated battery life that can record 110 minutes of 4K video with 30 FPS. It also supports 1080p and 720p recording. It comes in black or white, which is kind of a bummer, since I'm a big fan of the original YI's lime green option:
Banggood.com and geekbuying.com are also selling preorders, although not as low as Gearbest's price point.
Correction July 7, 11:00 AM ET: An earlier version of this article misnamed the featured product as the YI 4K Action Camera 2. The actual name of the camera is YI 4K Action Camera. The earlier version also misattributed the camera as a Xiaomi product. The camera is sold in Xiaomi stores, but is made by YI Technologies. The earlier version also stated that most YI products aren't available in the US. This is incorrect and the article has been changed to reflect that. The earlier version also incorrectly stated the YI 4K Action Camera uses the same Ambarella chip as the GoPro Hero4 Black. It does not, and instead uses the Ambarella A9SE chip. The headline of this article has been changed to reflect these corrections.