As someone who has been reviewing camera drones for over a decade, it's rare for me to encounter one that feels genuinely new. While DJI's continual stream of steadily improving, ever-reliable drones almost always impresses, what Antigravity has done with its first-ever product, the A1, essentially invents an entirely novel subcategory: the 360 drone.

Using the same shoot-first, frame-later technology as the Insta360 X5 (Antigravity is technically a distinct company from Insta360, but the brands have close ties), the A1 has twin cameras to capture everything around it, allowing the user to reframe the footage later using mobile or desktop apps.

Each of the cameras uses a 1/1.28-inch sensor and an ultrawide lens to capture a hemispherical view. In-camera software then joins the two views into a near-seamless single spherical video, completely removing the drone and its propellers from view (in much the same way Insta360's cameras remove a selfie stick).

The 360-degree clips can be as high as 8K and 30 frames per second in resolution, but 5.2K and 4K options are available for users requiring 60 fps or 100 fps frame rates. When output to a standard "flat" video, however, the resolution is limited to 4K or 1080p. The camera performs best in bright, clear conditions, and while there's noticeable softening and motion noise in certain parts of the image, getting great-looking clips out of it isn't difficult.

I think the output video looks very good for an aerial 360 camera, and it's clear that Insta360's know-how from making several generations of non-flying 360 cameras has been put to good use. The footage is easy to edit on both desktop and mobile apps, and although I preferred the former for its UI and the fine level of control it offers over scene trimming and image quality, I enjoyed the immediacy and AI-assisted highlight choices of the mobile app, too. If you just want to create a quick clip to share on social media, the mobile app is more than capable.