We review the Liquid Image Ego!

While GoPro is the defacto brand for action cameras nowadays, there’s no denying there are a ton of alternatives floating out in the market. One such alternative is the Liquid Image Ego, which is made by the same people who created the Liquid Image Torque HD+ Google Camera that we unboxed a few weeks ago. While that camera was pretty good, it was integrated into a pair of goggles which limits its applications. The Ego is a stand-alone action camera that can be mounted on bikes, helmets and almost anything else much like a standard GoPro.

Unique shape for an action camera

The Ego’s shape takes a rather different approach compared to other action cameras – instead of a square or triangular shape, the Ego kind of looks like an egg with its curved body. The body of the Ego is made of durable plastic with a matte rubber finish and the right side of the device houses ports and slots for the microSD, mini HDMI and micro USB. The body is rated to be water resistant, though Liquid Image doesn’t specify how deep you can take it before water overcomes its seals. If you’re really raring to take it underwater, you may want to buy the separate underwater housing that’s rated to 40 meters, or 130 feet. On the top is an LED indicator that lets you pick in what mode (video or photo) to shoot.

The Ego’s camera is a 3MP megapixel sensor that’s paired up with a 135 degree wide angle lens. It can take up to 12-megapixel still shots and capture video in either 720p at 60fps or 1080p at 30fps. It’s not impressive as compared to GoPro’s or Sony’s recent offerings, but much like its rivals the Ego has WiFi capabilities that allow you to control it remotely and frame your shot properly.

Controls and frames the action via WiFi

Connecting to the Ego via Wifi is pretty fast. To Liquid Image’s credit, the Ego uses the same app as the company’s other action cameras which makes things simple if you own multiple cameras from them. While the interface uses icons than text menus that made navigation simpler, the interface isn’t as slick and updated as other apps today, and some of the icons are a bit pixelated and could use better labeling. As for the preview, the live feed could use more improvements as it previews very dark photos which is anything but when you finally press the shutter. Even when there’s plenty of light, the preview image in the app looks very dark. There’s a very noticable lag in the feed (around 1-2 seconds) which is expected.

Mounts and clamps can be a pain to find

While the Ego showcases a clamp that’s similar to the GoPro, it has a different width so it’s not compatible at all. This means all accessories must be bought from Liquid Image if you want to get the most out of the device. There’s a clear faceplate included for better water protection but it doesn’t allow (total) water submersion unlike with the included casing with GoPro cameras.

Good image quality

We strapped the Ego into its bike mount and gave it a test run. The result of the video shows accurate and detailed sharpness, though the software of the optical image stabilization could be better – we noticed warping when encountering bumps or rough terrain while biking. Low light performance is pretty satisfactory, as it managed to capture the inside of the Ninja Academy pretty well while we were using it.

Battery life as advertised

We did a video of 720p (60fps) until the battery indicator kicked in and it took a more than 100 minutes before we got to that. That’s pretty close to the 90 – 120 minutes battery life that Liquid Image promises with the Ego. Unfortunately unlike other action cameras the Ego’s battery isn’t removable, so you just can’t do a battery swap when you do run down the Ego’s battery.

Another solid action cam alternative to GoPro’s offerings

Overall the Liquid Image Ego delivers a satisfactory performance in battery and video quality. For Php10,499 (Lazada Price) its worth a look if you need an affordable action camera with Wi-Fi functionality. The only downside we see is you need to purchase the accessories dedicated for it, which could be costly.