My Honest Review Of The Opkix One After 3 Months Of Use

The Opkix is unlike anything else on the market right now. If wearable tech and action-cameras had a child together, the result would be the Opkix. We previously reviewed it on Owner’s Magazine. See the review here.

However, our team was so impressed with the Opkix that we decided to test it for 3 months and write a much more in-depth look at what it can really do. In our extended review of the Opkix we discovered a lot of things that weren’t obvious at first. We found even more things to like about it and also unearthed quite a few issues.

Here’s what we found after 3 months of using the Opkix on a daily basis.

How Did I Use It?

The Opkix comes with accessories to clip it onto your glasses or hat. Luckily I wear prescription glasses 24/7, so it was fairly easy to adapt it to my daily routine. For the most part, I just carry the Opkix in my bag with me and have one of the cameras clipped onto my glasses at all times.

One of the best use for the Opkix that I found was having it as a video camera that was literally always on and always within reach. Whenever an opportunity for a video comes, I would simply press the bottom on the camera, and it would start recording.

The Opkix Is A Game Changer…

If I wanted to record something smartphone where I’d have to take it out of my pocket, unlock it, open the camera app, choose “Video”, focus…and then finally hit record. I’m usually discouraged from trying unless the moment absolutely NEEDS to be captured.

Everything changed with the Opkix. One of the most amazing yet subtle features of the Opkix is that there’s no on/off buttons on the cameras. You just tap the “record” button and it begins recording. The fact that it’s always on and always available makes it so easy and seamless to record quick clips. It was so easy to record that I find myself recording even the silliest moments in my day that I would’ve never thought of capturing.

At the end of the week, I’d have a whole collection of these short funny clips of my week that I never had before. This little device completely changed the way I capture moments in my life. It’s not just the important moments that deserve to be captured anymore. Now it’s everything in between.

Immersive 1st Person View

This is the first time you’re able to create immersive 1st person view content. Holding your phone up to your face is awkward. Having a Go-pro mounted in front of your chest or helmet makes you joke in normal settings. The only product on the market right now that lets you actually record AND be a part of the conversation and experience is this Opkix. For the first time, you can record people singing “Happy birthday” AND clap at the same time.

The cameras can also be used in any orientation. No matter what orientation you record in, your videos will never be upside-down.

My one concern with the Opkix is that the halo light around the camera can’t be turned off when you’re recording. This is often obvious and glaring to others that you’re recording them and can also take you out of the moment. The lights are especially noticeable under lowlight. Hopefully, this gets fixed in future updates.

Battery Life & Portability

The actual record time is about 10 – 15 minutes for each camera. After they’re depleted, I can just put them back into the egg and recharge. Recharging the cameras from 0 – 100% is fast and I’m usually able to get back into the action quickly. Considering the cameras are always on, battery life is pretty good. Leaving the house with a fully charge egg it’s able to last me an entire day and returning home usually with 20 – 25% juice left.

Having the cameras always on my glass also wasn’t much of a hindrance because it’s so lightweight you forget it’s there. Although I do get a lot of questions about it since it does stand out.

Video Quality

This was a hit and miss for me. Video quality was capped at 1080 resolution, which isn’t a problem. The problem is the quality of the videos. The lenses are great during day-time and when there’s an abundance of light. However, the camera fails to accurately capture colors when you’re indoors or in low-light situations. The halo light around the lens doesn’t do much.

There’s also a lot of over-saturation in some of my clips. I certainly can edit these clips to be perfect, but that defeats the purpose of the Opkix. It’s meant to be a user-friendly device for the average everyday person to capture moments. I shouldn’t need to boot up any video editing software to correct the clips.

If this was a $99 device, I wouldn’t complain. But given its $299 price tag, most would expect better quality videos.

Connectivity Issues

After a day’s worth of recording, I usually plug both cameras back into the egg and then try to extract the clips. You can’t plug the egg into your computer via USB to extract the clips. The only way to get the clips off the cameras is through the App via Bluetooth. The App is very well designed and you can see a lot of work went into refining it. It’s intuitive, easy to use, and has a lot of great features. Overall, a polished product.

The connectivity on the other hand – a complete failure. Pairing the egg with your device the first time was easy. But connecting the egg with your device afterward is a nightmare. It would connect sometimes but not always. When you hit “Connect” on the App, it takes a lot longer than it should connect. The wait is usually between 10 – 15 seconds before it tells you connection failed and to try again. I tested this with an Asus Zenfone 6 (Android), Samsung S20 Ultra, and iPhone 11, all with the same connection problems.

Eventually, I learned that the device connects best when the egg is above 30% battery. I don’t know if this is a bug or done for a specific purpose. However, a warning or some instructions on the App to connect would be appreciated.

Recording videos with the Opkix is an enjoyable good experience. Exporting them is another story.

The App

The App is about 50% of the product if not more. The egg can’t function without the app. It’s available for both Android and iOS. Usually, tech hardware that has an app companion tends to overlook the user experience and functionality of the app. Not this time. The team over at Opkix invested heavily in the design and development of the App, and it shows. The main connection screen shows you a neat image of the egg.

The app works flawlessly and does everything you’d expect it to. However, there is one major downside. Exporting videos from the cameras to your device takes far too long. For a 10 minute clip, you’d probably wait about 5-10 minutes to be fully exported.

Image stabilization

The image stabilization process is actually done via software through the App. And for the most part, it’s pretty good. After you’ve exported the video clips from the camera, there’s an option for you to Stabilize the video. Again, this was another source of pain for me. I wish video stabilization was done automatically. Given the nature of 99% of the video clips, I can’t imagine anyone NOT choosing to stabilize their videos.

Time-consuming Video Processing

I do believe the folks at Opkix thought extensively about their user’s experience. However, they missed a major one. The time it takes to export and process the videos. My smartphones, although clunkier to use, can automatically stabilize everything I record in real-time.

I understand there may be a hardware limitation given the size of the cameras on the Opkix, but having the video stabilization be an extra step AFTER I export the videos is a mistake. The export time is already extensive. Now I have to wait just as long all of the videos to stabilize.

Not to mention, there’s no option to “stabilize all”. I have to sit there and manually click “Stabilize” on every single video. All the fun, seamlessness, and intuitiveness of the Opkix is completely derailed because of this.

Final Verdict

The Opkix is trying to do something new and for that alone, it should be celebrated. For my 3 months of using the Opkix to replace my smartphone as a primary video camera, I enjoyed every moment of recording. The portability, ease of use, and plethora of attachment accessories made it incredibly simple to integrate the Opkix into my day.

My biggest surprise after 3 months was the sheer volume of video clips I now have. Scrolling through my collection, I’m amazed at all the tiny little moments in my life that had been captured.

The Opkix is an innovative tech that found a specific niche in the wearable market. There’s simply nothing like it. Despite the connectivity and time-consuming video processing issues, I still think it’s a great product with massive potential. At $299 it might look expensive, but trust me you’ll be recording with this thing a lot. For countless hours of footage you’ll be able to capture on-demand with the Opkix, $299 is a steal.