The DJI Mavic Pro camera drone is finally official, and it packs high performance in an ultra-portable, foldable body that fits in the palm of your hand.
Despite its greatly compact body, the DJI Mavic Pro packs plenty of DJI prowess, from the ease-of-use to the top-end performance of the Phantom 4. In fact, it may even be better than DJI's larger drones in some areas, such as live streaming video from up to 4.3 miles away. The top-notch DJI Phantom 4, for instance, maxes out at 3.2 miles.
The new DJI Mavic Pro comes one week after GoPro unveiled its Karma foldable drone, going down the compact path for more portability without compromising power. While a GoPro Karma vs. DJI Phantom 4 shootout was definitely interesting, the DJI Mavic Pro could give both a run for their money.
According to DJI, its new Mavic Pro revolutionizes personal flight by packing the company's most innovative technologies into a sleek and foldable drone, allowing users to take it virtually anywhere. It's compact enough to easily fit into a bag since its foldable design can compress the whole drone and make it as small as a water bottle.
The DJI Mavic Pro comes with a stabilized 4K camera, visual navigation system, 4.3-mile range and 27-minute flight autonomy, raising the bar for compact drones.
"Mavic Pro is a technological triumph filled with features that once again show how DJI leads the industry," says DJI founder and CEO Frank Wang. "Most importantly, Mavic Pro allows you to reach the skies easily, see the world with new eyes and tell your stories like never before."
The ultra-portable camera drone sports four folding arms and propellers designed to fit neatly against its body. In addition to making it easier to carry, this also makes it easier to use and saves time since users no longer have to mount the propellers before each flight.
Operating the DJI Mavic Pro is easy as well, as users can do it either via the long-range remote controller or via their smartphone, albeit at a shorter range. With a smartphone serving as a short-range controller, the system takes less than a minute to set up and fly.
To further sweeten the deal, the Mavic Pro can livestream 1080p video to YouTube, Facebook, Periscope and other such services, marking a notable step up from the 720p video the latest Phantom was able to stream.
The DJI Mavic Pro also features technology to avoid obstacles in the air, as well as air-to-ground sensors designed to ensure safe indoor flights. A new "FlightAutonomy" guidance system, meanwhile, employs GPS and GLONASS navigation, five cameras, two ultrasonic range finders, 24 computing cores and redundant sensors.
This advanced guidance system can prove a great ally in positioning, navigating and planning routes for the foldable camera drone, enabling the DJI Mavic Pro to easily avoid obstacles in a range of environments even without satellite signals. According to DJI, FlightAutonomy will successfully bypass most obstacles at speeds of up to 22 mph.
A Sport Mode, meanwhile, allows the Mavic Pro to reach speeds of up to 40 mph, boosting its responsiveness and agility. DJI also takes pride in the stability of its new drone, noting that the Mavic Pro will remain stable even in winds of up to 24 mph.
Another neat trick is the company's GEO geofencing system, which enables the drone to recognize restricted area and prevent flight in such locations. At the same time, the Mavic Pro is also designed to automatically come back to its launch location if it's no longer in contact with the controller or if its battery drops to critically low levels.
To ensure the drone lands precisely at its launch location, a new Precision Landing feature will record a video burst with two stereo cameras each time the Mavic Pro sets for flight. When it returns to land, the Mavic Pro will use the video and the satellite information to return within an inch of its launch location. Should the pilot let go of the controls, the Mavic Pro will just hover in place.
DJI says the Mavic Pro is its most intelligent drone ever, and the smart features it packs leave little room for doubts.
The DJI Mavic Pro is currently available for preorder directly from DJI, sporting a $999 price tag, and will start shipping on Oct. 15. The foldable camera drone wll also hit Apple retail stores in early November. Until then, see it in action in the video below.
