INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The $399 Mavic Mini lives in a sweet spot of core features and a low price
It packs everything critical to be a quality drone
It has a good camera, good range and a good controller
It holds up well in the wind and is quick enough to be fun
And it so small that you&re more likely to throw it in your bag and take it on Instagram adventures.
The small size is the Mavic Mini main
It weighs 249 grams, and that odd number isn&t an accident
Drones that weight 250 grams and above have to be registered to fly
And yet, even though the Mavic Mini is lightweight and foldable, it packed with core features: 30-minute flight time, 4 km HD video
transmission, three-axis gimbal holding a 2.7K camera and a physical controller that works with Android and iOS devices
At $399, it a lot of drone for the money even though it missing features found in DJI other drones.
There are more expensive drones packed
I own most of those drones
They&re fun, but several years ago, feature creep started sneaking into DJI products
Now, with a convoluted product line, a spreadsheet is needed to decipher DJI drones
Most come loaded with countless features owners will likely never use
The Mavic Mini is something different
It basic, and I dig it.
Here what missing: collision detection, ultra-long-range connection, 4K camera, gesture control and advanced camera
features like trackable follow, panoramic, time lapse and optical zoom.
The Mavic Mini is quick enough to be fun, but it won&t win any races
It responsive and fast enough
Compared to a Mavic 2, it feels smaller and less powerful — because it is — and yet it never feels too small or underpowered
The Mavic Mini is well-balanced, and owners should find it enjoyable to fly.
Despite its tiny size, the Mavic Mini holds up well in high
I took it up to 200m on a windy fall day in the Midwest
The wind was clearing leaves off the trees, and I was bundled up in hat and gloves
The Mavic Mini didn&t care
It took off like a drone much larger and stood tall against the wind
What more, the video didn&t suffer
The gimbal held the camera steady as it recorded the autumn landscape.
The drone uses DJI new app, and I&m using a beta version to test the
Called DJI Fly, it a streamlined version of DJI Go and packs several enhancements
Safe fly zones are better integrated into the app and have an additional level of detail over the older app
DJI also offers better built-in support for its social community app, SkyPixel
However, as this version is streamlined, it lacks a lot of information standard on the Go version, most notably, a mini-map in the bottom
I&m hoping DJI adds more features to this app after it launches.
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The camera
The pictures here were taken from the drone and not altered or adjusted
They were taken on cloudy and sunny days
The range is surprisingly good, as the drone can capture blue skies and dark highlights
Occasionally in direct sunlight, the camera colors become washed out.
They say the best camera is the one you have with you
That where the Mavic Mini comes in
The best drone is the one you have with you
For years, I lugged around a massive Pelican case containing Phantom 2 and later a Phantom 3
I thought I was the coolest
At a moment notice, I could go to my car trunk and retrieve a suitcase containing a flying camera
A few minutes later, after my phone synced to the drone, and the controller joined the drone network, I had 15 minutes of flight time
Then came the foldable Mavic, which fit alongside my camera gear like a large telephoto lens
Other drones came and went
I liked the GoPro Karma for a time.
The tiny Mavic Mini is a game-changer
It small enough that I&ll bring it everywhere
It small and light enough that it feels like a large point and shoot in my computer bag.
Want more features and a better camera but keep the
portable size? Earlier this year DJI announced the $919 foldable Mavic Air that has a 4K camera and five-mile video transmission.
The Mavic
Mini gets everything right
It small, comes with a lovely case, and in a $499 bundle, two extra batteries with a clever charging pack
The camera is surprisingly good though admittedly less powerful than DJI more expensive drones
The Mavic Mini is the perfect drone for a first-timer or experienced drone enthusiast
DJI stuffs enough features into the 249 gram body to make this a fantastic drone for anyone.
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ids="1907939,1907948,1907954,1907968,1907942,1907934,1907935,1907941"]
DJI Mavic Mini announcement
