Dave: 00:00

Hello, friends. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Dave from Chase's Summit, and this is the Trail Talk Podcast. We are back. I know it's been a minute, and before we get into the whole episode, I do wanna apologize.

Dave: 00:13

If you are a regular podcast viewer or listener, I know I sort of fell off the planet for a couple of months. I think the last episode I uploaded was back in July before the Vermont 100 endurance race, which we'll talk about a bit a little bit in this video or podcast today. But, yes, I it's been a minute, and the reason why I haven't been uploading as much is because, honestly, life just got kinda crazy around here. And if you follow the main channel, you know, like, in September, I think I published 18 different videos. It's been a very busy time of year.

Dave: 00:48

Lots of product releases, lots of reviews going out, which is both awesome because there was a lot to talk about, but also very stressful and hard to keep up with with all, like, the embargoes lifting and stuff. So that's the long story, between, you know, the YouTube main channel, all of the reviews and stuff, and then, like, my life with my family and my kids. There's been a lot going on there. My wife's been marathon training, which she just ran last weekend. I'll talk more on that in a minute.

Dave: 01:14

But, yes, long story short, very busy. And then last week, I came down with some sort of awful illness. I had a fever of a 103 degrees, and I was burning up, and I was, just not feeling great for, like, a week. I think I had, like, the flu or something, but I'm alive. And today, we're gonna do sort of a catch up episode just to prove that I'm still alive, and, that's why I'm here.

Dave: 01:39

Another thing you might you might notice if you're watching this on YouTube is the setting I'm in right now, and this was a big premeditated thing. So if you watch the main channel, you might have noticed, like, my my main shot has kinda changed, and that's because I've kind of reorganized this whole space. I'm in my little YouTube studio here, and now I've got this dedicated, podcast space. So now I can sit down, hit record, and just start going without having to set up and break down. I've got my lights set up.

Dave: 02:14

My camera's here. So, hopefully, the idea behind this is that I'll have a more I'll be more consistent with, future podcasts. And not only that, I've actually got a seat across from me with another microphone. So if I do have a guest, I will be able to have them on very easily without any setup. Do you care about that?

Dave: 02:33

Probably not, but I'm talking about it because this is my podcast. Okay. So we've got lots of topics today. I just wanna catch you up on what's been going on with me, how the Vermont 100 went. We'll talk about some of the anxiety and stress that I've been facing, over on the main channel a little bit in, you know, I'm just talking to myself here, so forgive me if you don't care about that either.

Dave: 02:58

We're gonna be talking a little bit about my training, what's coming up, what's, what's gonna be happening in the next couple of months. We'll be talking about the HoverAir X1 Pro Max drone that I've been testing. It's actually right over here. I should probably have it for the video. We'll be talking about the Oura Ring Gen 4, the new Polar Vantage M3, the Insta 360 Ace Pro, and a little teaser that, Coros has put out there.

Dave: 03:24

And, you know, this that release is right around the corner. So whether or not it's happened by the time you listen to this podcast, I don't know. Hopefully, you catch it in time. Okay. So without further ado, let's dive into the first topic, and that's just the Vermont 100.

Dave: 03:42

The last episode of this podcast, I was talking about Vermont. I was planning. I was talking about training and what's going on and how I'm feeling and stuff, and the race has come and gone. That race happened back in July. And if you haven't yet, I really, really if you're interested in this sort of thing, definitely go over to the main YouTube channel and watch the Vermont 100 race video that I put up.

Dave: 04:07

I put so much work into that video. I was super proud of it. I did, like, voice overs, and I had b roll and just I tried to I tried to really make it like a documentary and put a lot more effort into it rather than it just being a silly little vlog video. And I think I was, you know, I was really proud about the the outcome of the video mainly because, it has, like, actual story line line arc to it. And I had some help filming it because my wife, Jen, and my brother-in-law, Adrian, did come up to crew and pace me at the race, so I had more people there with cameras.

Dave: 04:44

So there's a lot more interesting footage rather than just me with my little GoPro. So if you if you haven't yet, go check out the the full length documentary. I'll use that word even though I'm not a true filmmaker. I'm just some guy on YouTube. But, I am really proud of the video.

Dave: 05:00

So if you haven't yet, go go check it out. I'll link it in the show notes or the YouTube description down below. Long story short, leading into Vermont, I had big goals, big expectations of running that race a 100 miles, 17,000 feet of elevation gain in under 24 hours. I thought I was ready for it. I thought I was in the right shape for it.

Dave: 05:22

And I think I was, but the day did not go as planned. It wasn't my day per se. And I don't even know why. You know, I just sort of bonked at mile 60, and I ended up having to throw the whole day away by sitting down for essentially an hour with my crew, my wife, and my brother-in-law, feeding me fruit and and water and Gatorade and all kinds of stuff just to get me back to life because I ended up throwing up and feeling sick, and, it just it didn't go as planned. So, again, watch the video, but to summarize, I finished in about 27 hours.

Dave: 05:59

So I did cross the finish line. I got it done, but, man, I had to dig deep for those last like, the last 40 miles of the race. I had to dig real deep. It was a it was a painful day. I had problems with my ankle, my knees, my legs, and hydration, nutrition kinda went off the rails, but we did get it done.

Dave: 06:21

So that's just a quick recap of the race. Again, go check out the video if you haven't yet. I also wanna talk about, I don't know if you care about this. I wanna just get it off my chest, though, so we're gonna talk about it. Recently on YouTube, I know this is my own little world of being a YouTuber or whatever.

Dave: 06:42

I hate the words that go along with with the whole thing, like influencer, YouTuber, like, all that stuff is a little bit painful. I like to call myself a creator. Hopefully, I'm not influencing anything. I just wanna add value and create things, and I enjoy it. It's fun.

Dave: 06:57

And it's also my job now. But, lately, the main channel has been getting a lot more views, which is both good and bad because with views comes negative negativity. A lot of I don't know. Like, all the trolls come out of the woodwork when you start to get more reviews and traction. And it's really come to a head lately in the past couple of months.

Dave: 07:19

The first instance of this was back when I published my review of the Amazfit T Rex 3, which is a GPS multi sport watch. And that watch, it's super cool. It's a $280 watch. It's it's a very affordable, watch. You can pick up at Amazon or or on Walmart, or it's it's available in brick and mortar stores.

Dave: 07:41

You can go to Best Buy and buy 1. So super affordable. And on paper, if you read the spec sheet, it's like kind of a clone of the Garmin Phoenix 8, but the T Rex 3 is $280. The Garmin Phoenix 8 is $1100 in some cases. So, huge price gap difference.

Dave: 08:04

And I posted a pretty positive review of the Amazfit t rex 3 because it actually did perform pretty well in my testing. Had good battery life. The user interface is great. It's very smooth and responsive. And, surprisingly, the GPS and heart rate accuracy in my testing was surprisingly good.

Dave: 08:24

I did not expect that because my history with Amazfit devices generally hasn't been amazing. But this time around, the Amazfit, t r x 3 really pulled it off. The accuracy was there, which was surprising to me, and, you know, it o it overall, it performed as expected. There were some quirks, like, the health and wellness stuff was a little bit off. It's always a little bit generous with, like, the sleep score and recovery and stuff like that.

Dave: 08:51

Anyways, I posted the review. It it got pretty positive feedback from the comments and the engagement I saw, but a lot of the comments on that video were that people wanted me to do, like, an a b comparison between the T Rex 3 and the Garmin Fenix 8, which in my mind did make sense. So I went ahead a couple of days later, and I made this in-depth comparison video of the Amazfit T Rex 3 against the Garmin Fenix 8. And not surprisingly, the Garmin Fenix 8 in just about every way does outperform the T Rex 3. I mean, it is 4 times more expensive.

Dave: 09:28

So is it a shocker that it outperformed the T Rex 3? Not in my mind. But in the comments of that video, that comparison video, everybody was like, hey, man. Garmin must have paid you or, like, oh, Garmin gave him a call and a lot of people just accusing me of maybe being paid off or that I had some bias towards the other brands because of, you know, maybe that brand being mad at me or something like that, and that wasn't the case at all. I simply made a video that was highly requested in the first video, and I that's what I do.

Dave: 10:04

I sort of chase the demand of the audience. Like, what what are you interested in? I wanna make that. So I did make that comparison. So this was sort of my first exposure to getting all this criticism my way.

Dave: 10:18

Largely, the engagement and comments were positive, but there was this, like, 5% of the people that were, like, accusing me or making these allegations, which I did not appreciate. In fact, I made a follow-up video again to that, which, maybe I shouldn't have maybe I should have deleted it, but still there where I pretty much address those comments saying, are you guys crazy? No. I'm not biased. I try not to be biased.

Dave: 10:44

I'm not paid off. None of the brands pay me. And, I tried to clear the ear the ear, but probably made it worse for myself. So here am I I am doing it again. Maybe my maybe I let my emotions get ahead of me.

Dave: 10:56

Maybe maybe I wear this too much on my, you know, on my sleeve, and I should probably have thicker skin and probably not read the comments. That's probably the move, But I'm just a guy. I'm just a guy on YouTube, and, yeah. Anyways, that was, like, my first exposure to this whole anxiety and stress of, like, thinking people. Yeah.

Dave: 11:18

I don't like when people think a certain way of me, and, you know, it's just not true. So fast forward, a couple of new action cameras come out. The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro and just recently a couple of days ago, the new Insta 360 Ace Pro. And what I found with action cameras is that the the action camera enthusiast crowd, is very heavy in conspiracy theories, which I found to be surprising. Like, why do they care so much is the question.

Dave: 11:52

But, a lot of people in those videos even saying, you got paid by this brand to give it a positive review, blah blah blah blah. And, man, I've just been, like, I don't know. I I should probably just ignore all these comments, but it's been it's been really wearing on me to the point where I'm like, maybe I should just stop reading comments. You know, maybe that's the move. I don't know.

Dave: 12:18

Anyways, wanted to get that off my chest and maybe clear the air by saying I'm not paid by brands and if I am paid because in occasionally I am paid to do it like a sponsor segment of some or something like that, I fully disclose it in my videos. I'll tell you, I got paid to do this blah blah blah. It's a sponsored video, etcetera, but that hasn't been the case recently for a while. So I don't know why. I think it just comes with the territory of of getting more views, which is a good thing for the channel, but also, very stressful as well.

Dave: 12:51

So if you have advice for me, let me know in the comments on YouTube. I'll end that rant there. I probably shouldn't even talk about it. It's just make I'm digging myself in a deeper hole of, of being true too transparent, I think. Okay.

Dave: 13:06

Let's move on. What's coming what's up what's upcoming? What's coming next? We've got a couple of things. So first of all, if you've if you go back in time a little bit, couple of months ago, actually several months ago, Wahoo, the company Wahoo came out with or they announced their Wahoo KICKR run treadmill, and that product was announced back in March of 2024, a long time ago, man.

Dave: 13:32

And I actually went to the Boston Run Expo that happens locally in Boston, of course. To check it out in person, I got to run it run on it, test it, talk to the founder and CEO of Wahoo, and, it was a lot of fun. Now after that demo, I thought to myself, I really wanna get one of these treadmills, but it's still not available. So I think in the very near future, it's gonna become available. I'm gonna try to get it in house for testing.

Dave: 14:02

I wanna get it in my house, literally in the house, so my my wife and I can start training on it to really, try to understand if the product is worth the money because it's very expensive at about $5,000 US dollars. But it's still not I don't know if it's shipping yet. I don't think it's it's shipping yet. So I'm gonna hound them again to try to get to the bottom of it, but stay tuned. That is something I really wanna test out, especially right now.

Dave: 14:27

It's October here in Massachusetts, starting to get cold, starting to get dark out earlier, and I really want to get that in house because I know this is the time of year where people start to think about how how am I gonna train throughout the winter, and the Wahoo KICKR run could be a great way to do that. If you're unfamiliar with the product and you missed my original video on it, it's a treadmill, but the cool thing about it is it has this really interesting technology with a, called the time of flight sensor. And what it does is actually detects where your body is on the treadmill. So if you get closer to the dashboard of the treadmill, it can detect that. And if you get further away, it detects that as well.

Dave: 15:08

And what it does is it will speed up or slow down the treadmill depending on your your body position on the treadmill deck. So you can run really fast. It'll pick up the speed automatically, or you can slow down. It'll slow down automatically. And it was a trip to test it out.

Dave: 15:23

It was a real trip because, like, it takes a second for your brain to realize that you can just run on it. It's super cool, very natural feeling. So I'm excited to to actually put it through its paces literally. The other thing that's coming up in January is CES. And there are a the Consumer Electronics Show, if you're unfamiliar, happens in January every year in, Las Vegas where they set up a whole bunch bunch of booths in areas where you can see all the latest and greatest tech, not just from, like, a fitness and wearables perspective, but also from, like, Sony, LG, Samsung, all the big brands are there as well.

Dave: 16:04

But last year, I went to CES, and I had a great time. It was really an eye opening experience to be there for the first time and see what it was all about. And this year, I'm considering going back. There's a lot of brands that are going to be there, a lot of products that are gonna be there that I think would make it worthwhile, but I haven't committed to it yet. Like, you get to buy flights and hotel rooms and all that.

Dave: 16:30

But I wanna hear from you. Or is there something that you think is coming to CES where I think where you think you should where I should let me re rephrase that. I can't talk. Do you think I should go back to CES again this year? And if I if I do, what booth should I visit?

Dave: 16:46

Comment down below. Okay. Let's move into the world of tech and news. I got a few few things to talk about today. So for the past, like, I think, 3 weeks, I've been testing out the new, 00 robotics hover air X1 pro max.

Dave: 17:05

This is a fully autonomous drone that can literally fly itself. And this is nothing new because, 0 0 put out a product earlier this year called the Hover Air X1, which is like the more consumer grade version of this drone. But that drone was limited to a low resolution of 2.7 k. Had some limitations like it didn't have a lot of sensors to detect collisions for example, and it wasn't like a really full fledged drone. It was really like a little selfie drone that goes in your pocket.

Dave: 17:40

The new version of this drone called the Pro Max takes it to the next level. So they added 8 k resolution. They added more sensing, higher top speeds, better battery life, and a lot of accessories that make it more of like a real drone. I've had it, like I said, for, like, a month, and I've been testing it. The problem is the firmware was not in a place to be reviewed.

Dave: 18:06

A lot of quirks early on. So first of all, the the remote control accessory called the beacon, really cool idea in theory, but the firmware was really bad at first. I couldn't even use the thing. It was basically unusable. But they updated the firmware on that.

Dave: 18:23

It made it very usable. Now it's in a place where I can actually use it pretty easily. And then the second part of that was the actual drone firmware. I had a lot of quirks where the drone would restart or, like, the voice that talks like, when you turn it on, it basically talks to you to tell tell you what mode you're in. That voice would, like, repeat itself or, like, garble and then restart restart the drone.

Dave: 18:47

A lot of weird things happened early on. And then, like, one of the biggest claims to this device is that it can shoot 8 k video and it can shoot 4 k 120 slow motion video in this tiny little drone. I have it over here. I should probably just get it if you're watching on YouTube, but it's crazy. Like, the spec sheet is crazy.

Dave: 19:07

8 k 30 frames per second, 4 k 120 frames per second, fully autonomous, will fly and follow you. Really impressive. But, again, the firmware on the drone was a little bit half baked early on where 8 k wasn't even available, wasn't even an option. However, just a couple of days ago, I was able to update the firmware to the latest the latest firmware, and now 8 k is available. So this drone is finally finally in a place where I think I'm gonna be able to review it and actually finally share my thoughts on it.

Dave: 19:40

And I guess I'll just give you, like, an early an early review of it because I have been using it a lot. First of all, the fully autonomous flight of the HoverAir X1 Pro Max is kind of bonkers. I post a little reel on Instagram, kind of a little sample reel of what it can do, and I took this thing trail running. I went into, like, a densely wooded forest with this drone. I put it in my hand.

Dave: 20:07

I clicked follow, and then I just took off running full speed, not looking back, not being careful about where I'm going. And this drone was weaving through the trees, following me around. And, yes, it did crash multiple times, but the but the environment that it was flying through and the fact that it didn't crash all that often was mind blowing to me. Like, I was running and not looking back, and I could hear it behind me, like, whizzing around. And I fully expected, like, as I went through a couple of trees, like, splitting between 2 trees that are, like, couple of feet of apart, I expected to hear a thunk and then the thing hit the ground, but it it navigated like a freaking champ.

Dave: 20:50

But even more impressive to that is it's got this mode called Dolly track. It it calls it it a Dolly track is essentially when you put a camera on rails and then it, like, moves away from you. And the idea behind dolly track mode on the hover air x one pro max is that it kind of acts like that where you put it in your hand, it detects you, and then it will fly away from you as you advance towards it. So I did the same thing on the trail. I was able to put it in my hand, turn it on dolly track, and then send it off, and I would run towards it.

Dave: 21:21

And as I ran towards it, it would fly further away from me, tracking me as I'm running. And the cool thing about the Pro Max version of this drone is that it has a crash detection sensor on the back of it. So while it's in dolly track mode, it can see behind it so it doesn't crash into a tree. And it was shockingly good at this. If you haven't seen it, go check out my Instagram, the little reel I made.

Dave: 21:46

Really impressive. The the flight modes are really impressive. Now what limits it right now in my opinion is it's got a maximum altitude. So if you try to fly it in manual mode, that's like with the remote that you can buy separately. It only goes up to about 50 feet in the air, and then it's it's kinda stuck there at a ceiling unless there's a setting I'm missing.

Dave: 22:07

And then there's, like, some quirks to it. Like, the image quality isn't mind blowing even though they advertise 8 k and 4 k 120. I feel like a really high quality 4 k drone from DJI still looks a little bit better, but that's the trade off you make. And when it comes to the price on this thing, I think it starts at, like, $699 for the Pro Max, which is kinda steep. Like, you are starting to get into that territory of DJI, like, higher end drones.

Dave: 22:33

But if you compare it to other selfie drones out there, like DJI just came out with the Nio drone for a couple $100. But that drone, like, the image quality is not great, and it lacks some of the sensors that you get on the Pro Max. So it's a really interesting drone, and I will have a full review on it in the near future. Stay tuned for that. All I can say right now is it does look very promising, and I'm pretty interested to see how it plays out in especially with all the firmware updates that will be coming out in the near near future.

Dave: 23:05

The next topic I wanna talk about in this podcast is the new Oura ring. I don't have one yet. I am planning on getting one. In fact, I should probably go get one today. I think they're available, like, at Best Buy right now.

Dave: 23:17

So the new Oura ring 4, it's kinda weird. The naming convention changed. I have the Oura ring gen 3 horizon. The new Oura ring is just called Oura ring 4, no gen 4, even though it is gen 4. And on the new Oura ring, there's only one version where on the Oura ring gen 3, there was the horizon, which is like the round one, and then the the standard, which was had that little flat thing on it.

Dave: 23:42

So what's the deal with the Oura ring gen 4 or the Oura ring 4 for that matter? The big change is the form factor. So on this Oura ring that I'm holding here, this one is a mix of titanium on the outside, like the shell of it is titanium, but the inside is this like clear epoxy resin situation that they used to like house all the sensors in electronics which makes sense. But on the new version, the new Oura Ring 4, they figured out how to encapsulate the interior sensors with, titanium. So the whole ring inside and out is now metal, which is kind of amazing.

Dave: 24:24

I think that's the only smart ring on the market to pull that off because every other smart ring kind of followed suit on the gen 3 Orang where they use that, like, plastic interior, whether that be ultra human or the galaxy ring from Samsung. They all do this. The new Oura ring has metal inside and outside, and I think some people who maybe maybe have, like, an irritation to the plastic material or an allergy even, might appreciate that on the new one. You get titanium on the inside. But more importantly, on the inside of the Ouring 4 is they were able to remove the little bumps on the heart rate sensor.

Dave: 25:00

So on the Ouring Gen 3, there's 3 little nubs that are clear and they're used to sort of press up against your skin to get better contact for the heart rate and sp02 sensor on the ring. Somehow, in this new version, the inside of the ring is completely flat. There's no more little bumps which is really cool. They also claim that they've improved the accuracy of the Oura Ring 4 by using more signal paths or better computing. There's there's also gonna be 5 colors available of the Oura ring gen 4, and it's also slightly lighter.

Dave: 25:35

I don't know how they pulled it that off, but I think maybe the titanium material on the inside is a little bit lighter than the plastic material of the past, and they also added a slight bump to the battery life. The Oura Ring Gen 3 here gets about 7 days on a charge. The new gen 4 or 4, will get 8 days on a charge, and they also added a new sensor. That's the temperature variation sensor. I don't actually know what that's that's used for.

Dave: 26:01

I'm assuming some sort of like skin temperature detection to pick up whether or not your HRV or overtrained or whatever. Something's off on your body. Maybe they can raise a red flag about that. And it does come with a different charger which is like it looks metallic now instead of the black plastic, if that matters. I don't really care.

Dave: 26:20

And finally, the price is pretty much the same. So 3.49 well, it starts at 3.49 USD, and it goes up to 3.99 if you wanna get the stealth color, which is actually the color I have on my gen 3. It's sort of like a dark gray color, which I do like. So I don't have one yet, but I guess I can speak to you whether or not it's worth the upgrade. It does feel like sort of an incremental update.

Dave: 26:46

If you have an Oura ring gen 3, for example, this doesn't seem like it's gonna be a night and day difference, like a huge change to how the product actually works. But if you do have an older Oura ring like a gen 2, for example, maybe it's worth the upgrade. But I do think if you were someone shopping for an Oura ring, you didn't own one at all, and you were planning on buying a gen 3, the gen 4 is a no brainer because the price is pretty much the same. You're gonna be paying 3.49 to 3.99 depending on the color you choose, and then you do have that $6 subscription which is still there. Would love to see the subscription go away, but unfortunately, it's still there.

Dave: 27:25

So that is the Oura Ring 4. It seems interesting. I'm probably gonna pick one up to review on the channel. Let me know what you think about it. I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Dave: 27:34

The next new thing I wanna talk about in this podcast is the new Polar Vantage M3. Of course, I do have a full in-depth review about this watch on the main channel. Go check that out if you're interested, but I found this to be sort of an interesting release from Polar, because this watch comes in at $399 here in the USA, which is not super cheap, but also not crazy expensive for a multi sport watch like this. However, if you look on paper, right, you compare the polar Vantage M3 to the more expensive polar Vantage V3 or the polar grid X2 pro, you're gonna notice something and it's that the m three has the exact same specs. Every single feature from the polar vantage v 3, the grid x 2 pro to the m 3 are identical.

Dave: 28:28

It's got the same fitness test for gauging your v o two max. It's got the same multiband GPS antenna. It's got the same mapping and navigation where you can download offline maps to the watch. It's all the same. In fact, even in polar's, like, media call that we had prior to the release was, pretty much an explainer on how the m three shares the exact same software as the Vantage V3 and the Grid X2 Pro.

Dave: 28:55

This had me sort of scratching my head. On one hand, I really appreciate this, this way of doing things. For example, this is sort of what Coros does with their watches. If you look at the Coros piece 3 and then the Coros Vertex 2 s, largely, they have very similar features even though they're 100 of dollars apart. So the premium you pay for the higher end model is because of better hardware.

Dave: 29:20

You know, sapphire lens, titanium bezel, etcetera, that sort of thing. Polar is kind of doing the same thing. However, it's kinda weird because the hardware between a polar Vantage V3 and the polar Vantage M3 isn't all that different. The v three is a little bit bigger. It's got slightly better battery life.

Dave: 29:41

It may be slightly better premium build. Right? But the Vantage V3 is $599 here in the USA. So $600 compared to $400 on the Vantage M3. That's a $200 difference.

Dave: 29:56

And if you hold them hand in hand, I feel like there's not $200 difference between them when it comes to hardware. And, again, they're running the same software. So what are we paying for there? Like, I I almost feel like Polar cannibalized their own product by releasing the m three because it's so similar. It's got an AMOLED display.

Dave: 30:18

It's very bright. In fact, the AMOLED display on the m three is actually brighter than the than the v three, which is more expensive, but it is a little bit smaller. The v three has a 1.4 inch display. The m three has a 1.23 inch display. Is that worth $200 to you?

Dave: 30:36

Probably not. In either case, it's a super interesting product because of how similar it is. And I'm curious to see how this plays out for Polar. Like, is this going to help their cause? Because I think one of the major criticisms of their higher end models, the grid X2 pro, for example, is a $750 watch.

Dave: 30:57

That's a lot of money. And, like, at that price point, you're starting to creep into the price point of, like, a Garmin Phoenix 8. It's more. The Phoenix 8 is more, but you're getting close. And arguably, the Phoenix 8 has way more features and way more advanced mapping and more useful wellness tools with, like, body battery and stress tracking and all that.

Dave: 31:20

Polar doesn't have that stuff, although they do have really good, wellness metrics like the nightly recharge, but it just feels like they're a little bit behind for that price point. The polar vantage m 3, however, the price feels appropriate for what you're getting. Like, I'm actually happy with the price of the M3. I don't know. It's an interesting product.

Dave: 31:41

I'm I'm gonna be curious to see how it plays out for them and whether or not they continue doing this down the road. Like, are they gonna keep sharing the software between multiple devices, or are they gonna go back to the old way of setting the price points apart by features? It's gonna be interesting to see. The next new product I wanna talk about that just came out a couple of days ago is the new Insta 3 60 Ace Pro 2. So this is an action camera from Insta 360, and it's got a lot of advantages compared to the Ace Pro 1.

Dave: 32:12

One huge thing. I think the biggest reason to buy the new Ace Pro 2 compared to the original is the microphone. The audio quality coming out of this camera is, I think, probably the best in the market right now. Like, if you're not using an external microphone with your action camera and you just want really good crispy sounding audio, the audio on the Ace Pro 2 shocked me. And this was a major complaint of mine with the original Ace Pro 1 that came out last year.

Dave: 32:44

The camera was cool. It had great little light capabilities, but the audio quality from the built in microphone, I didn't love. It always felt a little bit thin and kind of muffled where the ace pro 2 is super crisp and, like, zones in on your voice. It's almost like it's a like a built in shotgun microphone. It's really good.

Dave: 33:04

There are other advantages as well like, insta 360 now added a secondary chip to the camera that's supposed to, like, offload some of the CPU processing to another chipset to make it more efficient and that's supposed to help with like making the low light performance better in all other aspects of the camera like stabilization stuff better largely like in good light the image looks very similar to the original ace pro one and in fact like by today's standards all of the action cameras out there from GoPro, DJI, Insta 360. If you're in the sun you have good lighting they all look really good including the GoPro. And and the GoPro gets a lot of hate because of how it doesn't perform well in the dark. It doesn't have great low low light performance, but, like, how often are you recording in the dark? Like, with an action camera like, I'd rather use my phone if I'm in the dark I'm gonna use my phone because it takes way better photos and video than any action camera in the dark.

Dave: 34:05

But the Ace Pro 2 does perform really well in the dark. However, I did run into like a weird quirk on this camera and if you watch my full review you'll see like I tested the camera out in front of my Halloween decorations which are like blue and purple and crazy up lights in my front yard. And I was in the dark. I had these crazy colored lights all around me and for whatever reason the camera, like, made my face super blurry almost intentionally. It was almost like the noise reduction software took the image and said, hello.

Dave: 34:39

He's got a lot of grain stuff on his face. We better clean that up. And it just ended up smudging all the details and taking all the detail away from my face. It almost looked like an anonymous character in a movie or something like that where they blur the face. That bad.

Dave: 34:54

The good news is I think they can address this in a firmer update because this is actually something that DJI faced with the early firmware on their cameras, and they ended up fixing it. So I'm hopeful that the Insta 360 can fix it as well. Another huge benefit to this camera though is that it can actually film in 8 k, which the original could too. The Ace Pro 1 can film in 8 k, but the new Ace Pro 2 can film in 8 k 30 frames per second. And I film everything in 30 frames per second.

Dave: 35:26

Even this podcast is 30 frames per second. So that was a huge upgrade for me, and the 8 k resolution looks crazy good. Like, you can only use it in good light. They recommend not using it in the dark, which makes sense because the pixels are so tiny but in good light and use that 8 k mode you can get a lot of detail I get some really good examples of this in the full review on YouTube So it's a cool camera. I suggest checking it out if you're in the market.

Dave: 35:55

$399 it starts at, which is kind of the going rate for all of the main action cameras now, like the GoPro, DJI's $50 cheaper, and Insta 3 sixties, 3.99. So you really have a lot of options, and, honestly, they're all so good now. They're all so good. One thing I will note though is in the comments of my action camera videos, a lot of people are like, my phone still takes better video or why would you buy an Osmo or a action camera when you can get the Osmo Pocket 3 by DJI? And I think people are still missing the point of what an action camera is.

Dave: 36:32

Right? An action camera is for action. It's not for filming your kids around the house. It's not for, you know, vlogging necessarily. There are better cameras for that like the DJI Pocket 3 or your phone.

Dave: 36:46

Like, if I'm just gonna film myself, I'm gonna grab my phone because the the image quality is better than an action camera. An action camera is for action where you're jumping in water, you're in a hostile environment, you're strapping it to your helmet, you're putting it on the hood of a car. You're diving out of an airplane or you're diving into the ocean or something. And in my case, I like to use action cameras for trail running, hiking, cycling, that sort of thing where I don't have to worry about being gentle with it because I'm gonna throw it in my backpack or in my vest. I could be sweating.

Dave: 37:19

I could be in the rain. I could be in the snow, and I don't wanna have to worry about breaking an electronic device. I just wanna have a thing to record with. And in that situation, that's where action cameras are super valuable, and that's where the Ace Pro 2 really shines. But if you're just doing like standard filming around the house, don't buy an action camera.

Dave: 37:37

Buy a phone or a pocket 3 or a real camera because it will perform way better. Anyways, that's my little blurb about the Insta 360 Ace Pro 2. Next topic. Okay. So this is this one's interesting.

Dave: 37:52

A couple of days ago, the company Coros I'm looking it up right? Sorry. I'm typing as I talk. Coros teaser. Coros re release released a teaser of their next watch.

Dave: 38:06

You're gonna find it on YouTube and Instagram where they've got this, like, 15 second long video of what appears to be a watch. I think there's no doubt about that. There's, like, pixels dropping out of the sky onto the screen, and then the watch illuminates in the dark. And that's the whole that's the whole teaser. The date on the watch, however, indicates October 31st, Halloween at a time of 8:36.

Dave: 38:35

It doesn't specify AM or PM. I don't know what the significance of that number is, the 8:36, but I think the October 31st is pretty obvious that they're gonna be releasing a new watch on Halloween on October 31st. Now this teaser shows no detail. There's no information about the watch, what it can do, what it does, but there is an implication. An implication because of the way the display is is glowing.

Dave: 39:06

I'm looking at as I talk. The display is glowing and showing this vibrant bright display. So I think the takeaway here of this teaser is that we could expect possibly an AMOLED watch coming from Coros on October 31st. But I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. If you're watching this on YouTube, drop it in the comments.

Dave: 39:30

I've said this a bunch of times during this podcast. Drop it in the comments down below and share your thoughts on this teaser on what you think this product is gonna be. I'd like to hear from you. That's really all I got on the, Coros teaser, though, and and that's probably the end of this podcast episode. I just wanted to get a new episode up, talk about some of the stuff that's been going on lately, provide some entertainment here.

Dave: 39:55

Hopefully, you enjoyed it. If you are enjoying it, I would really appreciate it if you are listening to the audio version. Head over to the YouTube channel, the Chase to Summit Trail Talk podcast YouTube channel. Give this video a thumbs up. Subscribe down below.

Dave: 40:09

I wanna get the numbers up here on the podcast channel. Make sure to subscribe. It means a lot to me. Also, while you're down there subscribing, hitting the like button, leave a comment down below, and let me know what you wanna see here on the podcast YouTube channel. What topic should I cover?

Dave: 40:25

Should I have some guests on? What guests? Who should I talk to? I'd love to hear more on that because I'm trying to figure out and navigate and steer the helm of this podcast where it's gonna go. I wanna get more consistent here and, I don't know, have just more off the cuff episodes like this.

Dave: 40:42

And, also, while you're down there commenting and liking and subscribing, also check out the chase to summit merch store. You can get a sweet hat like this, the CTS run stealth black hat. I love this hat. It's a great running hat, fits well, low profile, moisture wicking, and it's also very affordable. And especially for you, the podcast listener, you get 20% off your order.

Dave: 41:06

Head over to chase the summit dot com and use discount code listen, l I l I s t e n, 20, the number 20, listen 20 at checkout for 20% off your order of your entire order. So get a, Chase's Summit hat or T shirt, and I'll get it shipped out to you. Alright, friends. I think that's enough of the plugs at the end of this podcast. I hope you enjoyed it.

Dave: 41:31

I hope you got some value out of this, and I'm gonna keep this train moving. I will see you in the next episode in the very near future, and, that's it. Okay. Bye.