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DJI Pocket 4: The 92 Changes They Didn't Tell You About
I found over 92 differences between the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 and Pocket 4 — from the new 37MP sensor, bigger battery, and 107GB built-in storage, 4k timelapses RAW images, to features DJI actually removed like 2.7K mode and D-Log M in slowmotion. Watch before you decide to upgrade!
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► CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:00 Introduction
00:35 Physical differences
03:00 Differences in the video mode
04:46 Pro Mode differences
06:23 Autofocus differences
07:30 New gestues & Improved Active Track
08:19 Low light mode differences
08:44 Slow-motion mode differences
09:34 Photo mode differences
11:03 Panorama mode differences
11:22 Hyperlapse / Timelapse / Motiolapse mode differences
12:58 Playback mode differences
13:13 Quick menu differences
14:42 Main menu differences
15:45 New microphone differences (DJI Mic 3 vs DJI Mic 2)
17:45 A few last differences...
18:37 Conclusion
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- 0:00 Intro
- 0:35 Physical differences
- 3:00 Differences in the video mode
- 4:46 Pro Mode differences
- 6:23 Autofocus differences
- 7:30 New gestues & Improved Active Track
- 8:19 Low light mode differences
- 8:44 Slow-motion mode differences
- 9:34 Photo mode differences
- 11:03 Panorama mode differences
- 11:22 Hyperlapse / Timelapse / Motiolapse mode differences
- 12:58 Playback mode differences
- 13:13 Quick menu differences
- 14:42 Main menu differences
- 15:45 New microphone differences (DJI Mic 3 vs DJI Mic 2)
- 17:45 A few last differences...
- 18:37 Conclusion
Hello everyone. I found over 80 differences between the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 and the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. If you think you know what all of these are, I guarantee you you don't. Let's get started by rolling the intro. For those of you new to this channel, I'm Luke Ben Mford, a young photography filmmaker on become better at this side. If you're wondering if you should be upgrading from the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 to the DJI Awesome Pocket 4, you should attentively watch this video because DJI did a bunch of weird decisions where they removed some important features from the DJs Pocket 3, but there's also a lot of amazing new features inside of DJI Osmo Pocket 4. Let's get started right away because we have a lot of things to cover inside of this video. The first thing we're going to talk about are the physical differences between both of these. The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is slightly bigger by 4 millimeters in height and 2 millimeters in width. It's also slightly heavier with 11.5 grams more than the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. Both of them have a very similar screen which is the same size, same dimension, and same resolution. But the one on DJ Os Pocket 4 is a,000 nits instead of 700 nits. But to be honest, I don't really see a difference when we're outside. The bigger difference between these two cameras is actually the new sensor inside of the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. But unlike most people say online, both cameras do have a 1 in sensor. This is not new from the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. The difference is that now the sensor is 37 megapixels instead of being 9 megapixel and also has a much higher ISO, basically double for all the different options, which should allow the DJI Awesome Pocket 4 to gather a little bit more light in low light situations. One very exciting new feature for the DJI Small Pocket 4 is its new light connector that simply comes on top and allows you to get better footage at nighttime. One of the most visible differences between these two camera are the new buttons on the DJI Osmo 4. One can be customizable and the other one can be used to zoom inside of the shot. The DJI Osmo 4 also has a new joystick, but personally, I don't like it as much. It's a little bit more responsive. You can control if you want to go slower or faster, but it's also limited to only going up and down, left and right, and double click on it or click on it for more options. One physical difference we cannot see between both of these cameras is the much bigger battery inside of DJI Osmo Pocket 4. It charges up to 80% in 18 minutes, where it used to be 80% in 15 minutes on the DJI Pocket 3. But a bigger difference is that now the DJI Pocket 4 can film up to 240 minutes of a full HD where it was only 166 minutes on the DJI Pocket 3. Another difference we don't see is a new built-in storage inside of the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. It's 107 gigs and it already saved me where I didn't have an SD card. So I can simply record on it directly. A small difference is on the side here. We now have a protector for the SD cards, which is very welcome if there's water or something like that going on it. Finally, there's a new protector for the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 that simply clips on instead of the bigger case that was really annoying to use on the DJI Pocket 3. Let's talk about the most important feature for both of these cameras, and this is the video mode. The 1080p and 4K modes are exactly the same between the two, have the same frame rates, but the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is losing the 2.7K option, both horizontally and vertically. There's also no more 1x1 aspect ratio on the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. One of the slightly bigger changes here are the different zoom modes on the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. They now say that they have a losslet zoom mode at two times, which is basically just means you're cropping inside of the sensor. We're going to have to test if it's actually better on the DJ Osmo Pocket 4 than the DJI Pocket 3. There's also a new fourx zoom that wasn't available on the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 that is now easily accessible with the button on the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. One downside is that you cannot use the screen anymore to zoom in or out using the DJI Osmo Pocket 4, but the button on the screen can still be used to toggle between the zoom mode or the gimbal mode. Let's move inside of the advanced video options for both of these cameras. The menu is much wider on the DJI Awesome Pocket 4, which is great because it allows you to see much better what are the different options. There's a new beautify option that allows to tweak the smoothness, brightness, and skin tones. But honestly, this is not really something I would use. Another mode I will not really use are the new film tones, but if you want to get cinematic looks without having to do post-processing, it's now possible to get that directly from the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. A smaller tweak here is that there's no more default options inside of the texture and noise reduction, but simply setting them back to zero will give the same result. There's also a new mode that allows you to toggle automatically if you want to have low light enhancement inside of video, but it doesn't work with DLOG, but still pretty useful that you don't have to go in dedicated mode anymore to get the benefits of the low light mode. Let's talk about the differences inside of the pro mode for both of these cameras. Instead of the exposure menu, the quick toggle between auto and manual got changed to the right side. And I think this is a bigger upgrade than you might realize because it makes it much easier now to use your right thumb to quickly toggle between both of them. The minimum shutter speed has been decreased to one quarter of a second inside of the Oso Pocket instead of being 125th of a second. The new white balance menu has been completely redesigned with new colors allowing to quickly see if you're getting a colder or warmer tone and also a completely new tint option that wasn't available before. One place where I think there might actually be a downgrade between the DJ Osmo Pocket 3 and the DJ Awesome Pocket 4 is inside of the different color modes. They both have a normal 10- bit mode, but the DJI Awesome Pocket 4 should have much improved colors. Still have to test this. We're going to see if this is true or not inside of the full review. But one thing that got removed on the J Pocket 3 that I really like was the HLG mode. And if you don't know what is HLG, it's basically a higher dynamic range mode that allows capture more colors. It's very important when we're saying hodnamic range here. We're meaning that you can capture more colors instead of bright parts of the image compared to the other camera. DJ said they're doing this change because people are not using the HLG mode enough on the J Pocket 3 and also because the new DLOG mode inside of the J Pocket 3 should allow to get more dynamic range out of the images and still should be allowed to create some HDR mode. But because you're compressing the data a lot more, I'm not sure how this true is going to be in the real world. But again, we're going to test all of that inside of the full review. Another difference inside of both of these cameras are the new focus mode inside of the DJI Awesome Pocket 4. On DJ Pocket 3, there's a single, continuous, and product showcase mode. On the DJ Pocket 4, there's also a single mode, but now the continuous mode has a bunch of sub options. First of all, there's the default mode. Then there's a project showcase mode. Then there's a new subject lock tracking mode, and there's also a registered subject mode. The register subject mode is the most interesting one where you can register a face and whenever the camera sees that face inside of the shot, it's going to make sure that that face is in focus all the time. One very welcome improvement to the Awesome Pocket 4 is that whenever it sees a face or a subject like a dog instead of a shot, it's going to add a box around it to tell you that it's focusing on it. This was not the case on the J O Pocket 3 and it could be very hard to know if it was correctly focusing on it or not. There's also new audio options inside of DJI Osmo Pocket 4. So, there's a new spatial audio channel option. There's also a vocal boost option that's available on the camera and the audio zoom. So, whenever you zoom, you get closer to the audio of that person talking. A pretty cool new feature inside of DJ Pocket 4 is that now supports gestures. So, you can use the P sign to start and stop recording. So, simply by doing like this. And then you can also use your palm to start or stop the active track. So if you start here, it should start tracking me where in the past I had to kind of guess here, come on the screen and try to track my face with them. The active track algorithm has also been upgraded on the DJ Awesome Pocket 4 and it should be able to follow better the faces and different objects you're tracking inside of the scenes on the DJI Awesome Pocket 4. Instead of the right menu, and I must be honest, I often forget that it exists, the face auto detect got renamed to spotlight follow, and it also only works with recorded subjects now instead of working with any faces in front of the camera. The two other modes are exactly the same. Now, let's talk about our next video mode, and this is going to be the low light mode. DJI said that they improved the algorithm on the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, and with the higher ISO, that might be probable that they're getting better results on the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. They also have a new pro option that allows to enable breathing compensation. And also instead of the vocals, you can get the vocal boost option on the J Pocket 4 that wasn't available on the J Pocket 3. Now, let's talk about one of the biggest upgrade, but also one of the biggest downgrades between both of these cameras. And this is an other video mode, which is slow motion. They added eight times slow-mo zoom, which is 240 frames per second. And there's only a very slight crop compared to 120 frames per second. This is extremely impressive that such a small camera can actually capture 240 frames per second. So what is the downside of this? Well, there's no more DLOG. There's no more log options at all, whether you're using 120 frames per second or 240 frames per second. This is a huge bummer for me because it's going to make it harder to match some footage between the normal mode and the slow motion modes. There's also a new option inside of the audio for the vocal boost option. And there's still no zoom options inside of the DJI Pocket 4 and the slow mode option. Now, let's move on to our next mode here. And this is the photo mode. And there's actually quite a lot that changed inside of this one. So, first of all, the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 has a new live photo mode, but it seems like it's just only recording a video, so I'm not sure to understand this one. Then in the standard mode for the photos, it has a 16 by9 8 megapixel mode and a one by one 9 megapixel mode which is exactly the same as the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. But the difference here is that there's a new super photo mode that allows you to take 16x9 33 megapixel photos and also 1x one 37 megapixel photo modes. So this is a nice improvements in terms of resolution on the DJI Pocket 4. It also has new countdown options. So, there's a 0.5, 1 second, 2 seconds, and 10-second options when taking some photos. If we look at the pro options, there's also a new 4 second shutter speed. This is amazing because the DJI Pocket 3 used to be limited at 1 second, and I'm really excited to see if this is going to help take some better stars at night. Now, a weird thing is if you go inside of the super photo mode, you don't get any manual options at all. Another option that changes the new format. So you now have JPEG, JPEG plus RAW, and also a RAW only mode where you used to only have JPEG plus RAW on the J Pocket 3. Finally, for the focus modes, they're exactly the same as the video modes. They're all improved, but there's no project showcase mode on either of them. Now, our next mode is going to be very fast, and it's the panorama mode because the only thing that changed inside of this one are the countdown options that are the same as inside of the photo mode. One quick little thing I just noticed while testing both of these cameras is actually that the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is much faster at capturing panoramas. So, if it's something you use on those cameras, that might be a welcome change. Let's move on to the mode that I think is the most underrated on the DJI Osmo Pocket cameras, and this is the motionlapse mode. For the hyperapses, it's basically the same thing as the other one, and again, they added the vocal boost option inside of the sound options. For the time-lapses, the upgrades are much more interesting. First of all, they refined the menu. So, they just change the display visibility option, and this was not clear in the past what was the moon icon. So, I'm pretty happy that now it's pretty clear what it does when we press on it. There's also less presets. So, they removed the uh crowd option, but they kept the clouds and sunset options. Other small tweaks they did inside of this mode is first of all renamed the 60-cond option to a 1 minute option. That's a tiny one. But they also added a new 10-hour option for time-lapses inside of the pro mode. There's also interesting updates. First of all, we also get 4 seconds here. And I'm very excited to see how this is going to work for astrophotographic time-lapses. But the thing that I'm the most excited about here is that we finally get raw photos in full 4K. On the J O Pocket 3, if you use the RAW mode for time-lapses, you would only get 720p, which basically made them useless. Now, we get full 4K images on the DJI Pocket 4 for time-lapses and motion-lapses. This is insanely useful. Talking of motion-lapses, they're basically the same options as time-lapses, but there's a new menu for the way points, and I think it's a bit better because I used to forget that I could add up to four points on the Pocket 3 where now it's very easy and clear that you can do that on the DJI Pocket 4. My next change is an extremely small one, and it's simply that the volume option inside of the playback options is a little bit easier to use as it's been moved, and it's much bigger now. Apart from that, everything else seems to be exactly the same inside of the playback options. Let's talk about something that might seem a little bit boring, but it's actually pretty useful if you want to be able to take some shots faster, and this is the quick setting menu. There's now three pages inside of DJI Awesome Pocket 4 instead of only one on the DJI Pocket 3. The main menu hasn't changed that much, but things have been reordered just to be a bit more logical when you're searching for them fast. Then there's a new fill light menu from the J OS Pocket 4 that allows to control the night light. It allows to determine if you want it on or off, if you want it to be enabled automatically, change the brightness and also change the color temperature. There's also gesture control menu here that allows you to determine if you want to turn on or off the gestures, but we'll also remind you how they work and how you can use them. There's a new subject tracking option here that allows you to add or remove some subjects that will be used for tracking and autofocus on the JS PO4. There's also a quick option to go change the different options for the custom button. There's also a FT selfie mode which I don't know what it is. Honestly, I don't know what this option is. I tried looking through the different instruction manuals and couldn't find anything. If somebody know, definitely let me know down in the comments below. They also moved the selfie flip menu, the sound menus, the grid options, and the new storage options here where you can select if you want to be storing your information to the internal memory or the memory card. And you can also see exactly how much memory is left both on your memory card and also on the internal storage, which is pretty nice because in the past it could be pretty hard to find this information. Now, if we look at the main menu, there's also a bunch of change inside of here. Obviously, first of all, everything that got moved to the quick menu is not inside of the main menu anymore. They also removed the slider control here because you can just click on the screen to access it. There's a new option for the audio backup that allows to save all the different tracks simply on the video file instead of having a separate file, but you get the option to choose one or the other. So, you still have the choice. They also remove the compression options because now everything is filmed in HVC or H.265 265 on the DJI Awesome Pocket 4 in 10 bit. The H.265 option was only for 8bit on the old camera. There's also a new input log option right here on DJ Awesome Pocket 4. And again, not sure what it does. Couldn't find in the instruction manual. So, if you know, let me know. There's a new bit rate option that allows you to go up to 180 bit per second instead of the only 140 that were in the past on the J Pocket 3. There's also a new live watermark option, but again, I'm not sure what this one does and couldn't really find any information about it. Now that we talked about the cameras, let's talk about one of the most important accessories and one that comes with the creator combo kit and this is the wireless microphone that's absolutely essential to get the most out of these little cameras. I sadly forgot to bring both of them with me right now, so I can show them inside the video, but I'll overlay some of them on top here. First of all, the new DJI Mic 3 instead of the DJI Mic 2 has a 400 meter range instead of 250. Realistically, I don't think this is a big difference, but it should help remove some issues with the connections. Then, the new little microphone is so small that's only 16 g instead of 28 g. This is great because it pulls a lot less on some clothes or things like that. It now can last up to eight hours instead of six hours, which is always nice because this is one of the worst things when these little microphones die. One thing I do not like is that the new charging cable is a proprietary one instead of using USBC and that's a huge downgrade in my opinion because they make it a lot harder to charge it when I need quickly need to get more power inside of it. The internal recording also has been upgraded inside of the new DJ Mic 3 microphone and it's now 28.6 6 hours instead of 14 hours when you're using 24bit float. And then if you're using 32bit float, it's going to be 21 hours instead of 11 hours. So almost double the time of internal recording. Again, this is very important because the special little cable will not allow you to remove some stuff from it as easily as it was in the possible. One little downside for me is that there's no more external microphone that can be plugged inside the wireless microphone. So that's definitely a little issue if you want to use a lavalier like I'm doing right now or something like that. The buttons have also changed passing from two buttons instead of three, but it's not a big difference because you can still do everything. It just requires a little bit more clicks and to remember how to get access to different function. A final change that I really appreciate is the new detachable clip that allows to be rotated around so you can have a better angle for your microphone so it's not pointing on the side or something like that if you're trying to clip it on your clothes. I'm basically done with the video, but I realized I forgot a few tiny little things here at the end. First of all is that the design of the DS is slightly different in the materials that they use and the texture they have around. In some ways, I feel the new one feels a little bit less sturdy than the last one, but I really don't know anything about plastics, so it might be better built for the new one than the last one, but this one has gone through a lot. So, I do trust the J for doing a good job of building tough cameras. The second thing is that the JS Pocket 4 now has a display port option for a clean feed. So, you can output 4K video from the camera directly to a display port output. It's not something I would personally use, but if you're a streamer or something like that, it could be useful. And finally, when you plug it inside of the computer, you're going to get proper names for the internal storage and the SD card. Instead of only having SD card, it's going to show DJI or DJI Pocket 4, so you have a proper name to know which camera is connected to your computer. It's now time to wrap up this video before the sun completely disappears or did I transform myself into an ice cube. Did I forget anything in the comparison here? If I did, definitely let me know down in the comments below. I'll also do a comparison video where I'll share some actual footage between these two camera so you can see how they perform when we're actually taking some content, not just about the settings of both of these. If you enjoyed this video, definitely let me know by hitting the like button below and subscribe for more content on photographing film making. See you in the next one. Like the Osmo. Oh yeah, the great cameras.
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What is this video about?
I spent time diving deep into the DJI Pocket 4 to compare it with the Pocket 3, and honestly, there's way more going on under the hood than DJI's marketing would suggest. I found over 92 differences — some genuinely exciting, others surprisingly disappointing.
Let's start with the physical stuff. The Pocket 4 is slightly bigger and heavier, with a brighter screen (1000 nits vs 700), but the real upgrade is the sensor: it's now 37MP instead of 20MP, and the ISO ceiling is roughly double. That should help in low light. There's also a new fill light for nighttime shooting, redesigned buttons including a zoom button, and a much bigger battery that now gives you 240 minutes of 1080p recording instead of 166 minutes.
What really caught my attention is the internal storage — 107GB built-in. It's saved me more than once when I didn't have an SD card handy. Plus, there's a new clip-on protective case that's way less annoying than the old one.
In the video modes, you get new zoom options and film tones for quick cinematic looks, but you're losing 2.7K recording entirely — that's a real loss if you were using it. The new slow-motion at 240fps is impressive, but here's the kicker: no D-Log options at all in slow motion anymore. That makes it harder to match footage between normal and slow-mo clips in post.
The autofocus got a serious upgrade with new tracking modes, including a "registered subject" feature where you can lock focus on a specific face. Gestures now work too — peace sign to start/stop recording, palm to control Active Track. The photo mode has a new super photo option giving you 37MP stills, and timelapse finally supports full 4K RAW — on the Pocket 3, RAW timelapse was stuck at 720p, which was basically useless.
I should mention the new DJI Mic 3 that comes with the creator combo. It's smaller (16g vs 28g), lasts longer (8 hours vs 6), and has better internal recording. But the charging cable switched to proprietary, which feels like a step backward.
There are a bunch of smaller menu reorganizations, new film light controls, subject tracking options, and higher bitrate support (up to 180 Mbps). Some changes are genuinely thoughtful; others feel like DJI removed features without fully explaining why.
If you're deciding whether to upgrade, watch the full breakdown. The Pocket 4 is objectively better in many ways, but those removed features — especially D-Log in slow motion and 2.7K — matter depending on what you shoot.