The ATN ThOR 4 thermal scope is a great choice if you are looking for an affordable yet capable thermal riflescope.
We love ATN optics because of their balance between affordability and performance. You get a lot of bang for your buck.
The ThOR 4 starts at less than $2,000 but offers really good, useful imaging and a cool features you won’t find in more expensive scopes.
Minimum specs for the ThOR 4 series include a 384x288 next-gen sensor, variable magnification, and a long range.
Beyond the basics, you get built-in video recording with live-streaming, a ballistic calculator, an integrated rangefinder, and 64GB of SD card memory.
The battery range is also amazing, at nearly 18 hours. No other thermal scope comes close.
Read on to find out why the ATN ThOR 4 is one of the most popular new thermal riflescopes.
If this is not what you are looking for, check out our cheap thermal scopes buying guide for other great (and super-affordable) recommendations.
New Processor
ThOR 4 is a relatively new series of smart thermal scopes from ATN. They offer many improvements from the older ThOR HD series.
The biggest update is the new Obsidian IV Dual-core processor. It’s smarter and more powerful, allowing the ThOR 4 scope to offer better performance and more features.
It also greatly improves power efficiency and cooling performance, that are few of the reasons for the 18-hour battery life.
384x288 Thermal Sensor
There’s a higher resolution 640x480 version of the ThOR 4 available – for more money, of course – but we think the 384x288 sensor is plenty good enough for most hunters.
The new core extracts more light from the sensor, delivering a sharper image when observing distant targets.
With the 1280x720 HD display, image quality is also surprisingly good.
Variable Magnification
The cheapest ThOR 4 scope has a magnification range of 1.25x to 5x. It offers a detection range of up to 750 yards for a human-sized target.
The 7-28x magnification version offers a detection range of 3,000 yards and a useful identification range of 720 yards, which is about as far as any thermal scope can reach today.
60Hz Refresh Rate
The high refresh rate of the ThOR 4 series generates much smoother images during movement - yours or your target.
90mm Eye Relief
This is a major improvement from the 65mm eye relief in older ThOR HD scopes. It makes for more comfortable viewing and if you wear glasses like I do, the extra room lets you to keep your glasses on when hunting.
Ballistic Calculator and Range Finder
Similar to ThOR HD scopes, ThOR 4 thermal scopes come with a built-in range finder and ballistic calculator.
The ballistic calculator uses altitude and environmental conditions (windage, pressure, humidity, and temperature) and your gun’s profile to calculate an accurate bullet path.
Together with the range finder, the ballistic calculator helps you increase shot precision so you don’t waste ammo.
Built-In Video Recording with Dual Streaming
Another feature carried over from ThOR HD is video recording and live streaming. The ThOR 4 comes with a 64GB removable SD card to store videos.
But ATN has added another feature to enhance your media experience. With previous scopes, you could either live stream to your smartphone/tablet or record video on the SD card, not both at the same time.
With the new dual-core processor, you can now do both simultaneously. ATN calls it dual streaming.
If you are streaming live footage to your smartphone, you can also record to the SD card at the same time so you can relieve the best moments later.
ThOR 4 also includes RAV or recoil-activated video. It records video automatically when it senses a shot. You can adjust how long it records before and after the shot.
18-Hour Battery Life
Even with the new features and a more powerful processor, the ATN ThOR 4 scope has managed to more than double the battery life of the ThOR HD scope.
The new scope achieves the 18-hour battery life in three ways.
ATN has made an effort to provide good imaging performance, but you still can’t compare a 384X288 sensor to a 640x480 sensor.
The image is not quite as sharp, and you’ll experience greater deterioration at longer ranges and when you magnify too much.
The ATN ThOR 4 is probably the best thermal scope sold today at this price range. It delivers all of the modern features you want, provides excellent visibility down range even when your targets are moving, and the price it tough to beat.
