DJI revealed the Osmo Pocket 4 yesterday, April 16, ending a leak cycle that honestly started back in September. The thing had been so thoroughly spoiled by the time the official stream went live that there were basically no surprises. Which isn't neccesarily a bad thing. Sometimes you just want the camera to be exactly what you expected.
And mostly it is.
The 1-inch CMOS sensor is the same one from the Pocket 3, paired with the same 20mm f/2.0 lens. DJI didn't reinvent the optics here. What they did was push almost every supporting spec forward in ways that actually matter for the people who shoot with this thing every day.
The headline number is 4K at 240fps. The Pocket 3 topped out at 4K/120fps for slow motion, so this doubles that ceiling and gives you 10x slow-mo at 24p playback. If you shoot anything that moves fast, weddings, sports, kids, concerts, that extra headroom is genuinely useful. Not a gimmick.
Photos jumped from 9.4 megapixels to 37 megapixels. That's a big number and I'll be honest, most people buying a Pocket 4 are buying it for video. But it means the still image quality finally feels like it belongs on a modern camera rather than a side feature nobody uses.
The weight dropped from 179 grams to 116 grams. A 35% reduction. Nobody is leading with that and I think they should be. If you carry this camera in your shirt pocket or clipped to a bag strap all day, that 63 gram diffrence is something you feel over hours of shooting. It doesn't sound transformative on paper but in practice losing that much mass from something you wear consistently is meaningful.
Built-in storage is now 107GB with USB 3.1 transfer speeds up to 800MB/s. Battery life went from 166 minutes to 240 minutes. The OLED screen brightness went from 700 nits to 1,000 nits. Every single one of those is a real-world improvement for creators shooting outdoors or offloading footage on the road. The no microSD decision will annoy some people who prefer card-based backups, but for most vloggers the onboard storage at that transfer speed is probably fine.
Dynamic range expanded to 14 stops with a true 10-bit D-Log profile. One stop over the Pocket 3. That sounds small but in pratice it's the difference between losing your sky or losing your subject in tricky lighting. Colorists will appreciate it more than casual shooters will, but it matters either way.
Now the part that's awkward if you're American.
The Osmo Pocket 4 will not launch in the United States because the application for authorization is still pending. DJI landed on the FCC Covered List in December 2025 and the review that was supposed to clear them never got completed before the deadline. DJI sued the FCC in February 2026 and that case is still unresolved.
So if you're in the US and you want one, you're looking at importing it from Europe with the customs paperwork and warranty headache that comes with that. The standard Combo starts at around £445 and €499 for global markets. Figure out the conversion, add import costs, and decide if it's worth it to you.
Global availability starts around April 20, timed to coincide with NAB Show week. The timing is pretty clearly deliberate. DJI wants to be the conversation at NAB and this gets them there.
There's also a Pocket 4 Pro coming. Expected in June, it's rumored to have a dual-camera system with 3x optical zoom and a larger battery. If you're on the fence between buying now and waiting, that's the thing to know. The Pro reportedly won't have a clear path to US retail either, which makes the decision more complicated than it should be.
The Pocket 4 as a camera is genuinely good. Better slow motion, better stills, lighter body, longer battery, brighter screen. It doesn't feel like a revolutionary product but it doesn't need to be. The Pocket 3 was already dominant in this category and this is a clean step forward from it.
Whether it stays dominant is a different question. Insta360's Luna is waiting in the wings and DJI clearly knows it because the April 16 timing right before NAB is not an accident. By the time the Luna actually ships and reviewers get proper hands-on time with both cameras, the compettive picture might look pretty different. Or it might not. DJI has been in this position before and usually comes out fine, but the US distribution situation adds a layer of uncertainty that wasn't there a year ago and I'm not sure how that plays out over the rest of the year...
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