The Gear 360 app is relatively intuitive. If you want a more seamless-looking photo - with no fingers - you'll still want to use a selfie stick. When holding the second-gen Gear 360 in your hand, you will notice the stitching at the bottom of the image part of your fingers and thumb get cut off. But, those are the compromises you make with a smaller camera. There was a slight fuzziness to all of the details, especially when compared with the original Gear 360's photos. Regardless of the setting, I wasn't thrilled with the sharpness of the photos. (Image credit: Mike Prospero/Tom's Guide)Ī photo in an indoor market was, naturally, much darker, and there was a lot more noise in the photo, but the pink, blue and yellow umbrellas mounted on the ceiling were still fairly vibrant and much better than comparably-priced 360 cameras such as the Giroptic iO. The menu button lets you switch between recording modes, and the camera is quick to snap a photo or start recording once you press the button on its handle. Simply press the power button, and the camera springs to life with a sound that's best described as a bubble popping. It's remarkably easy to use the Gear 360, even without your smartphone. Still, it's (moderately) easy enough to download videos to your phone and then post them online. You also can't livestream to Facebook or YouTube, which is a bummer.

For one, you can't see a live preview of what you're recording in video mode. If you're using the Gear 360 with an iPhone, there are a few limitations. Still, Samsung and Apple make up nearly 73 percent of all smartphones in the U.S., according to comScore. If you have an Android phone that's not made by Samsung, then you're out of luck. And, it will only work with the iPhone 6s and later. It will only work with the previous three generations of Samsung Galaxy phones, starting with the Note 5, S6 and S6 Edge. Another thing that's improved with the second version of the Gear 360 is that it's compatible with both Android and iOS devices - to an extent.

Gear 360 actiondirector review