The DJI Air 3S Drone Is Almost Perfect!

I’ve been flying the DJI Air 3S for over a month now. I even bought one myself, but I’ve found a few issues that make me question if I made the right choice. Here’s my honest take on what’s good and bad about this drone. Let me start by saying I do like the Air 3S—it’s the best drone I own. I was a fan of the DJI Air 3 when it came out, so when the 3S was announced, it felt like an easy decision to buy it.

Camera Quality and Performance

Overall, the camera is great. It’s got a larger 1-inch CMOS sensor on the wide-angle lens with 12-megapixel or 50-megapixel options. The 3x telephoto lens, like the Air 3, uses a 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor with 48 megapixels—an upgrade over the Air 3. We now have 4K at 120 frames per second, which beats the 100 frames per second on the Air 3. But here’s my first issue: we’re capped at 4K.

The Air 2S had 5.4K, and it’s an older drone. DJI hasn’t made many drones with 5K—only the Air 2S and Mavic 3 Pro come to mind (not counting the Inspire 3, obviously). Why not include it? Is 5K not popular enough? I wanted to ask Maria Davis, an Emmy-nominated drone pilot who worked with the Air 2S, about this.

Flight Experience: Air 3S vs. Air 2S

Flying the Air 3S feels smooth—like butter. With the Air 2S, you could feel it chunking through the air, but the Air 3S is just fun and amazing to fly. How often do I use 5.4K? Honestly, not much—less than a handful of times. We don’t even use 5K when it’s available unless we need to punch in later. Recording at a higher resolution is nice because you can zoom in, get more details, and downsampling looks better. But it’s a weird decision to leave it out.

Is It Worth Upgrading from the Air 3?

If you already have an Air 3, I don’t see a strong reason to upgrade. The Air 3 and 3S are so similar. If you compare footage side by side, the biggest improvement I notice is in dynamic range and overall image detail. The Air 3 isn’t that old and still a great drone. The main upgrade is the 1-inch CMOS sensor on the 3S, compared to the 1/1.3-inch sensor on the Air 3. However, we’re capped at a smaller maximum bitrate—130 megabits per second—compared to 150 on the Mini 3, Mini 4 Pro, and even the Air 2S, which is years old now. Software updates might offset this, but I don’t get why we’re going backward here.

Bitrate Tests and Footage Quality

I’ve seen people online say they’re not even hitting 100 megabits per second, so we tested the Air 3, Air 2S, and 3S. The Air 2S is rated for 150 but hit 152 in 4K, 10-bit H.265. The Air 3 was at 130, though it’s rated for 150. The Air 3S came in lower at 90 megabits per second. Still, I prefer the Air 3S footage—it’s sharper and cleaner. The Air 2S looked a bit softer. Bitrate is just data captured per second.

On YouTube, for example, it’s re-encoded to around 10 megabits per second. Can you tell the difference between 150 and 10 versus 90 and 10? It’s like megapixels in photos—not a huge visible difference unless you know what to look for. In my tests, I couldn’t spot much difference between the drones at higher or lower bitrates—the footage still looks great.

Auto-Tracking and Ease of Use

With older drone models, I tested flying while holding a baby. Now that baby’s a toddler, he’s the perfect subject for the Air 3S’s auto-tracking. Highlight him in the green box, enable ActiveTrack, and it works well. In areas with poles, if he runs behind one and the drone loses him briefly, it picks him back up quickly. One issue: the focus wheel sometimes won’t adjust, showing an error message. It’s not a dealbreaker for me, but it might be for some. I’m still waiting for an update that lets me change a diaper mid-flight—maybe with the Mavic 4!

Codec and Storage Considerations

There’s no H.264 option on the 3S. H.265 files are smaller but need more computer power to play back. It’s like a zip file—compressed data saves space on your camera, but your computer has to decompress it. H.265 takes a lot of memory. Windows 11 doesn’t natively support it—you need an extension from the Microsoft Store, which is surprising. On Mac, H.265 has worked fine for years, so it’s never been an issue for me—smaller files, better quality.

Comparison to the Mavic 3 Pro

I was surprised how close the Air 3S is to the Mavic 3 Pro. Side-by-side, a lot of the footage looks very similar, even though the Mavic 3 Pro costs much more. The Air 3S is still a consumer-level drone, but it’s nearly at Mavic 3 Pro quality. In some shots, I preferred the 3S—details in highlights and shadows were comparable, which impressed me.

Battery Life and Final Thoughts

One small gripe: despite the 42GB of internal storage (which I love), the Air 3S has less flight time than the Air 3. I don’t like seeing new models lose battery life. Is it the bigger sensor or tech onboard? Hard to say. The Fly More Combo now includes ND Filters (ND8, ND32, ND128), which is great, but I’d prefer an ND16 or ND64 for my work. Did I make the right decision with the 3S?

Despite the minor issues, I think the Air 3 and 3S are the best value for the money. It’s still the best drone I own. Want to learn more? Check out our free deep dive video on the Pilot Institute website—it’s pretty great. See you in the next one!

Thanks to Maria Davis for contributing music (“Pulsar” and “September”) to this Review. Find her at MariaDavisMusic.com.