This will be my next purchase! Believe me!
Taken from Engadget … the Mavic Mini ($399), the company’s most diminutive drone to date that boasts up to 30 minutes of flight time.
The Mavic Mini is so small and light (just 249g) you won’t need to register it with the FAA — you were registering your larger drones with the FAA, right? But that size isn’t just about doing less paperwork, it’s about doing more flying. With a drone you can literally slip in your back pocket, there’s almost never an inconvenient time to bring along, assuming you have a second pocket for the controller. (You can’t fly the Mini with just your phone like you could the Spark.)
The second notable compromise is the camera. As with the Spark, there’s no 4K video here but the Mini will record in 2.7K/30 (along with FHD up to 60 fps at 40Mbps), so there’s at least some form of high resolution to enjoy. Another trick the Mini has that the Spark doesn’t is the ability to fold down its arms. The Spark’s body is a similar size, but its fixed arms make it much less portable.
The Mavic line’s foldable design has become something of a calling card. What makes drones unwieldy are those all-important protruding arms. DJI came up with a clever design for the first Mavic, and it’s been present in nearly all its consumer drones since. When fully folded down, the Mini is about the size of a soda can and weighs about as much as a large phone (my OnePlus 7 Pro with a case comes in at around 230g).
It’s also fun enough and capable enough for would-be pilots who simply want to get a feel for whether they might want to invest in a bigger drone further down the line. For the most part, though, I see this being the go-to option for anyone with an interest in aerial photography that doesn’t need all the bells and whistles of a full-size option. Though if the Mavic Mini 2 comes with ActiveTrack, modest exposure settings and even rudimentary obstacle avoidance, that would make it pretty hard to beat.
Source: Engadget
