Ultra-compact Mavic Air drone a worthy sequel to Mavic Pro
PALOS VERDES PENINSULA, Calif. – Drones keep getting smaller, with one of the latest a new, high-quality flying camera the size of travel headphones.
Chinese drone powerhouse DJI offered us a first look at the just-announced Mavic Air, a sequel to 2016’s Mavic Pro. The Mavic went on to become the best-selling consumer drone, with a $999 price tag.
On Tuesday, DJI introduced the Air, which is about 40% smaller than the Pro, has a similar high quality camera that can shoot video in 4K resolution, a lower $799 price tag and can do all sorts of cool flying tricks.
With seven cameras used for navigation, the Air knows to get out of the way of a bush, building or a trash can.
We flew the Air toward us and saw the drone head toward our faces before getting the hint and flying over our heads instead.
You’ll get less flight time from the smaller battery, at 21 minutes to a reported 27 minutes on the Pro. Easy solution: Buy an extra battery before you go out, or spring for the deluxe $999 edition, which comes with three batteries and a carrying case.
Another new feature we like: The Air has a slot for memory cards but also comes with 8GB of on-board storage. So if you’re flying and run out of room on your card, you’ve got an additional 8GBs to play with.