GoPro Hero 12 Black is here with twice the battery life, Bluetooth audio recording

Today GoPro announced its latest action camera, the Hero 12 Black. And while it has a bunch of small improvements here and there compared to its predecessor, the Hero 11 Black, the thing that stands out the most is the much improved battery life.

In 5.3K60 recording mode, the Hero 12 can shoot for 70 minutes on one charge, whereas the Hero 11 Black would give up after 35 minutes. All of that improvement, however, doesn't come from packing a larger battery inside - it's still 1,720 mAh, so GoPro must have made some dramatic improvements in battery consumption instead.

Note that if you shoot in 5.3K30 the maximum longevity is 1.5 hours, and in 1080p30 it's "over 2.5 hours". You can go up to 5.3K60, 4K120, and 2.7K240.

There's Bluetooth support which means you can record audio at the same time via Bluetooth earbuds or headphones, and this is probably the second biggest addition here.

As for the third - it has to be the Max Lens Mod 2.0. Attaching this takes the field-of-view from the normal 156-degrees to a whopping (and, according to GoPro, "industry-leading") 177-degrees in 4K60. There's also support for HDR videos and photos. You can capture 27MP photos and 24.7MP stills from videos, and like its predecessor the Hero 12 is waterproof to 33ft (10m).

With Emmy Award winning HyperSmooth 6.0 + AutoBoost, you get the widest shots possible while using video stabilization, and the built-in Horizon Lock keeps the horizon level even when your camera rotates a full 360 degrees (this is not available in 5.3K60, 4K120, 2.7K240, and 1080p240).

The GoPro Hero 12 Black is available for pre-order on GoPro.com today for $399.99 or €449.99. The Max Lens Mod 2.0 can be yours for $99.99 or €109.99. The release date is September 13.

A new 48-inch-long extension pole that collapses to 10" and a waterproof Bluetooth shutter remote that makes it easy to control the Hero 12 even when this pole is extended will become available in October. GoPro's Quik editing app will be available for Macs starting in November, and Windows PCs from next summer. This will be free for GoPro subscribers.

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