DJI silently released a new drone, the DJI Mini 4K, but you’re not going to find it on their website. I have it here in my hands and I want to tell you all about it. Let’s get started.
Overview of the DJI Mini 4K
This right here is the DJI Mini 4K. This drone is a refresh of one of the most popular and cheapest DJI drones that you can find, the DJI Mini 2 SE. This is an improved version of the Mini 2 SE and, like I said, you’re not going to find it on DJI’s website. It’s a silent release which will be available only on Amazon, and you’re not even going to find it on global Amazon websites. It’s only going to be available in Europe and in the US.
The Mini 4K as an Affordable Option for Beginners
This right here, like I said, is a refresh version of the Mini 2 SE which brings a couple of new improvements to the whole drone system. But I think the biggest advantage of this drone is the price. We’ll talk about the price, but this is the cheapest drone that DJI offers, and it’s making it so much easier for beginners to get into the hobby of flying drones, to get into aerial photography or videography, to kind of see if that’s something that is for them or not. This drone is the one that I would personally recommend to anyone starting out with drones who doesn’t want to spend a fortune on their very first drone.
Official Statement from DJI
So why does this drone even exist and why is it not on DJI’s website? Well, here is their official statement:
“We have noticed that people are looking on Amazon for an affordable drone that can shoot 4K and that, from its name, can be easily recognized as a drone that can shoot 4K. This drone is affordable in the same price range as the Mini 2 SE, and this drone will be exclusive for Amazon. So we won’t announce it on our website or official channels. It will just appear on the US Amazon or the European versions of Amazon as well.”
4K Video and Improved Bitrate
As the name suggests, this drone now shoots 4K in 24, 25, and 30 frames per second. The bitrate has also been increased to 100 megabits per second. And of course, if you want to shoot in a bit of a higher frame rate, you can do that in 2.7K up to 60 frames per second.
Design and Transmission System
The shell is exactly the same as before. We don’t have any obstacle avoidance sensors in any direction besides the sensors that are on the bottom of the drone to help you with taking off and landing. We have the same sensor size of 1 over 2.3-inch CMOS sensor. We have the same battery mechanism which has this little flap which opens up. You can extract the battery, put it back in until it clicks, and you can just close this little flap and it stays closed.
The Mini 4K still comes with the O2 transmission system which supports up to 10 km of flight distance in FCC mode and up to 6 km in CE mode. I wish they had used a little bit of a better transmission system because O2 is quite an old technology, but I guess to keep the cost down and keep the cost to a minimum on this drone, they had to sacrifice a few features. They had to put in some older tech and not use the latest technology that they have in their more expensive drones.
Remote Controller
Speaking about features and things you’ve seen before, this is the remote controller that the drone comes with. Now, this is the Fly More Combo which also comes with two additional batteries and this little strap that holds the propellers. But the remote controller is exactly the same as the RC-N1. However, this one is called the RC-N1C. I’m not exactly sure what the C stands for, but if I have the information, I’ll put it on the screen. This is exactly the same remote controller that we’ve seen on other older DJI drones. We have Cine mode, Normal mode, and Sport mode. We have these little thumbscrews on the bottom here, and we have the built-in antenna to accommodate your phone here with a cable.
Weight and Flight Time
Something else about the drone which, of course, is extremely important when it comes to starting out with drones and putting this in the hands of a complete beginner is the weight. This drone weighs 246g, which of course puts it in the C0 category of drones. This means that you don’t have to pass any online tests for you to fly it, and it makes it super convenient for you to just go in the store, pick it up, and start flying straight away.
Speaking about flying this drone, you can extract up to 31 minutes of flight time with each battery that you have here on the Mini 4K. Now, of course, that’s the maximum flight time that you should expect. Traditionally, it’s about 5 or 6 minutes less, depending on how you fly this drone, how much wind there is, how much you’re flying with the wind or against the wind. But traditionally, you can expect around 25 minutes of solid flight time with a single charge of the battery of the Mini 4K.
Quiet Operation and Wind Resistance
And something else which I’m a big fan of is how silent the drone is. As soon as you take off and you get maybe to 15, 20, 30m of height with it, you are almost starting to not hear it, which is super nice and very convenient if you don’t want to get a lot of attention from everyone when you fly.
Now, this also has Level 5 wind resistance. So one thing I was always skeptical about with these small drones is how wind resistant they are because they are being pushed around very easily by the wind. But this one has Level 5 wind resistance, which is great, similarly to the other Mini drones that DJI recently came out with. Level 5 wind resistance is great, and you don’t have to worry about flying it in stronger winds because it will be able to do it.
QuickShots and Panorama Modes
As usual, this drone supports QuickShots and Panorama modes. The QuickShots are the ones that you’ve seen before on any other DJI drone. Now, keep in mind, if you want to execute these QuickShots, they will have to be executed in a place that doesn’t have a lot of obstacles around, because this drone does not have any obstacle avoidance. So if you make it do a circle around you and set the radius to about 30m, for example, and you have some trees around you, it will crash into them without seeing them, because it doesn’t have any sensors to detect them.
So just keep that in mind if you’re just starting out. If you’re not sure how to use these QuickShots, find a large open field, check them out there, and only then start incorporating them in your usual workflow, in your usual shooting, because it’s dangerous to execute these types of movements that are being applied automatically from the drone when you don’t have obstacle avoidance. Just a little heads up from me.
Camera Performance
Besides that, the camera works great in my opinion. It records fantastic footage that is just usable straight out of the box. You don’t have to color grade anything, you don’t have to apply any different LUTs or different Filters or anything to the footage. The camera is great and the 4K quality with the 100 megabits per second looks fantastic on my screen.
Now, one thing that I’m super happy about is the fact that this drone also shoots RAW photos. So you don’t have to only rely on JPEG. If you want to play with your photos a little bit in RAW, you can do that. You can add them to your Lightroom catalog and start editing them there to apply a little bit more color or to play with the shadows and highlights and just extract a little bit more out of your photos.
The photos are very sharp, they are great looking, they’re bright, punchy, contrasty, and all the footage that I shot with the Mini 4K has been exactly like that. So I’m a big fan of that, not because I would use it personally like this, but because in the shoes of a beginner, I can see that this will be a great advantage to not have to worry about extracting the most out of your drone and how to achieve that great looking punchy, vibrant colors in your footage and in your photos, because you’re getting them straight out of the SD card with this drone, even when shooting in completely automatic camera settings.
Pricing and Availability
I have the price list for the Mini 4K and I want to go over it real quick. The Mini 4K drone-only package will cost $299. The Fly More Combo with three batteries in total will cost $449. Like I said, this drone will be available only on Amazon US and the European Amazon stores. So make sure you check the link in the description if you want to check out more information or if you want to buy it from Amazon US or any of the European Amazon stores. I’ll drop them down there.
And this is pretty much everything I have for you from this quick overview of the brand new DJI Mini 4K that DJI just launched. This is Mik from Drone Supremacy. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, drop a like, don’t forget to subscribe for more videos like this one, and I’ll see you very, very soon in my next one. Ciao!
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