UPDATE: The DJI Mavic Mini will officially available in Malaysia this mid-November for RM1,599, while the Mavic Mini Fly More Combo set is priced at RM1,999. You can purchase the drone at VSTECS re-sellers and DJI retailers.
DJI’s Mavic series has changed how consumer flying drones can look like when it comes to portability and friendliness, the Mavic Mini is now the new kid in the family that is the successor to the popular DJI Spark, which was announced almost two years ago.
The Mavic Mini weighs similarly to a modern huge screen smartphone at 249g, it can be folded like its larger siblings and will measure 140mm long, 82mm wide and 57mm tall. Once unfolded, the length and width expands to 245mm and 290mm respectively with the propellers. Compared to the Spark, the Mavic Mini is 50g lighter and takes up lesser space when folded
DJI rates the Mavic Mini’s flight time to be 30 minutes on a 2400mAh battery, its remote control uses an enhanced WiFi connection that supports up to a 4KM range and streams 720p30 live view to your smartphone with up to 4Mbps bitrate, unlike the Spark, you will need to tether your phone to the remote control to manuever the aircraft, which is of course safer just in case your phone’s WiFi chip is bad.
A 3-axis gimbal supports the 12MP camera on the Mavic Mini, it is a 1/2.3″ CMOS sensor with a f/2.8 aperture and 83-degree FOV, though it is a pretty capable camera hardware for a drone, it lack’s the Mavic Air’s ability to shoot 4K videos at 100Mbps, video resolution is limited to 2.7K at 40Mbps and records in MP4 H.264, which is sufficient for casual content creation.
DJI has intended the Mavic Mini to be an extremely easy drone to fly and take great shots, it supports the usual complex shots such as Dronie, Rocket, Circle and Helix, it also has cinematic video stabilization which slows down the drone’s flight speed in tight spaces, customers can also purchase an optional 360-degree propeller guard to prevent it knocking into obstalces, and nope, it doesn’t have sensors to avoid crashing into obstacles.
Instead of using the DJI GO 4 app, the Mavic Mini will use a new DJI Fly app, which is like the drone version of the DJI Mimo app with built-in editor and templates for you to edit videos, and browse through the company’s SkyPixel social network, you will however miss out some features such as ActiveTrack and live streaming in the camera interface, which is quite a shame since this is meant to be an everyday drone.
The Mavic Mini will start at US$399 (RM1667) and as usual, comes with a Fly More Combo that includes more accessories such as a two-way charging hub, propeller guards, three batteries, three extra sets of propellers and a carrying case, which will cost US$499 (RM2085), it will ship in the US starting November 11th, local launch dates shouldn’t be far off too.
