DJl Mini 4K Unboxing & First Flight – Is This The Best Drone for Beginners?

All right, so DJI just released their beginner entry-level drone. This here is the DJI Mini 4K and replaces the older DJI Mini 2 SE, giving us a better camera allowing us to capture higher resolution video.

So what I want to do in today’s video is unbox the Mini 4K to give you an understanding of what comes inside of the box, then we’re going to go over everything you need to know about the specs and performance of this drone, and then we’ll actually go outside and take our very first flight with the Mini 4K so that you can see how this drone performs in a real-world scenario.

Because the Mini 4K is DJI’s entry-level drone, price point is going to be very important as this is their least expensive option to get you into their drone lineup. There are people out there that are beginners that want to buy a drone that don’t want to spend close to a thousand or a couple of thousand dollars on DJI’s higher-end drones and want something that they can practice and learn on, and the Mini 4K is going to be perfect for them.

So if you’re in the United States or in Europe, you’re going to have access to this drone for two different prices. You’ve got the Mini 4K that’s just the drone, the battery, and the controller for $299, or you can buy the Fly More Combo that comes with extra batteries and accessories for $449. So it’s $150 extra for all the accessories and I think that that is going to be your best bargain.

Unboxing the DJI Mini 4K: What’s Included?

Okay, so why don’t we stop the talk and get into the actual unboxing of the Mini 4K here. Now, as I mentioned, I’ve got the Fly More Combo. So if you look on the side of the box, it lists out everything that comes inside, from the drone to the remote controller to the three total flight batteries.

So there’s two extra that come with the Fly More Combo, you’ve got the charging hub that charges all three batteries, you’ve got the shoulder bag as well as some extra cables, some spare props, the screwdriver, and of course, the manuals.

All right, so cracking open the box here, you’ll see that everything comes inside of the shoulder bag. So they pretty much use the bag as a means of shipping and the box is kind of just a shell. If you go ahead and set the bag down and unzip, you’ll see that inside is everything nice, neat, and tucked away and kind of wrapped up in this plastic. So for the sake of the video, I’m going to kind of tuck the bag over to the side.

We’ll first go ahead and take a look at the remote controller. This is DJI’s RC-N1 remote controller. So that means that it doesn’t have the built-in screen, but instead, you’re going to be using your actual cell phone to fly with this controller. So if you go ahead and move this little clamp up, your phone will fit right inside of there. So there is the remote controller.

We of course also have the actual drone itself. So this is the Mini 4K in all of its glory. We’ll go ahead and rip open the plastic. This is very resemblant of like the Mini 2S and the Mini 2, so it’s that old Mini style. We do also have a propeller guard here which is great. So all the propellers tuck inside of this guard, making it really easy to kind of store things inside and they’re not all flopping around in your bag. So that is a great addition to have.

Inside of here we also have our charging hub. So we go ahead and we will tear this open. This one’s a little bit more difficult. So in here we have the charging hub as well as the two extra batteries. So this is what comes with the Fly More Combo, is the hub and the two batteries. The other battery is already inside of the Mini 4K there, but this is great because you can set all three batteries on the charger, plug it in, and make sure that they’re all charged up before you go out and fly.

Also, the two extra batteries are going to be great to give you more flight time while you’re out. Speaking from some experience here, it sucks going out and only having one drone battery and you just have to do one flight and then come back home. It’s no fun. So having extra batteries is always key.

And then as far as all the extras in here, if we go and open up the zipper, there are extra cords, there are extra propellers, and all of that stuff inside of there, but we won’t really cover all that in depth. You guys really just want to see these things here, which are the charging hub, the drone, as well as the remote controller.

DJI Mini 4K Specs and Performance: A Closer Look

Okay, so now that we have this drone out of the box, let’s take a look at what makes the Mini 4K so special for its price. This is all of the important information that you need to know about this drone, from the weight to the flight time to its range, its top speed. We’ve also got information up here about its camera, so the sensor that it uses, the resolution and the bitrate that it shoots in, the still image quality.

So the megapixel count of the actual camera and look at everything up here, this is a solid drone for $299. You get a great flight time, the drone is pretty fun to rip around at its maximum speed in sport mode, but look at the camera specs: 4K video at 30 frames per second with a 100 megabit per second bitrate. This camera is going to capture phenomenal images, which is really why a lot of people buy drones in the first place, is to take those great aerial photos and aerial videos.

Now I mentioned that the Mini 4K is based off of the older Mini body style, and that’s because after the Mini 2, so with the Mini 3, Mini 3 Pro, and Mini 4 Pro, we’ve got this newly designed drone that can accommodate the obstacle avoidance sensors, the auxiliary LED, and the new camera system that can rotate vertically for portrait photos and portrait videos captured natively. So in order to keep the cost of this drone low, DJI opted to use that older body style to again make this an entry-level affordable drone.

That weight of 246 g is also really important as it not only makes it more portable and easy to carry around, but it’s also regulation friendly, as if you’re in the United States, you don’t need to register with the FAA in order to fly this drone. Now, you do need to abide by the rules: don’t fly over 400 feet, don’t fly over people, don’t fly out of line of sight, but you don’t have to register. You can just get the drone, unbox it, and start flying, you know, after having a little bit of time to think about it.

The Mini 4K really resembles the Mini 2 in a lot of ways, from the camera to the build quality to the specs to the performance. This really is a Mini 2 reincarnated in a sense, but brought back to us at a lower price and kind of slotted in as an affordable option again as DJI’s entry-level drone.

First Flight with the DJI Mini 4K: Putting it to the Test

So now what I’m going to do is go through a full flight with the Mini 4K and show you how capable this little drone is. I’ve had a lot of experience with DJI’s Mini drones dating all the way back to the Mavic Mini 1, and now I fly the Mini 4 Pro. So I’ve got a pretty good sense of what this drone is going to be able to do.

So we’ll go ahead, we’ll pinch the sticks down in the middle, that it’s going to arm the motors there. We can then push up on the stick, that’s going to let the drone fly. Now this drone is insanely quiet, it’s insanely small of course, sub-250 g. So this is going to be a great option to bring with you on travel, or maybe you’re just going out to the park, you want to snap some photos. It’s very inconspicuous, it’s not going to take up a whole ton of room in your bag, it’s not going to make a lot of commotion. And also look at this, it’s super stable. I’m not doing anything right now. It is a fairly windy day, so this drone does have like a GPS hold. It is going to be able to actually sit there and hover by itself. So it’s very easy to fly.

Okay, so let’s go ahead, take this drone up. As always with our very first flight, we’re going to flip into sport mode and we’re going to buzz down the water now. So we’re heading down the Schuylkill River. This drone is crazy powerful for how small it is. We’re doing a maximum speed here of about 25 miles per hour. The gimbal is pitched a little bit further down. That is the one thing you’ve got to worry about here with the Mini 4K and this style of Mini drones, is that if you’re going to fly in sport mode, sometimes that camera is going to angle down to compensate for the pitch of the drone. So just something to think about here.

But the main reason I want to take this thing down the water is to really show off the connection of this drone, right? So the strength from the remote controller to the actual drone itself. Right now we’re about 1,500 feet away and we have no problem with our signal from here all the way to the drone. We always usually take it just down to that bridge there, that’s about the half-mile mark. And I mean, how much more do you need out of a drone? We do get a full 10 km or about 7 miles out of this drone with the maximum range, but chances are you’re never going to use that maximum range. The biggest thing with an image transmission system is just to know it’s nice and strong for those short distant flights.

Mini 4K Camera Quality: 4K Video and 12MP Photos

So right now, 2,500 feet, we’re going to push about 3,000 feet. The signal strength is still super strong. Now as I mentioned, from here, as we see no breakup in the signal at all, we do have an upgraded camera here with the Mini 4K. So because we now have the ability to shoot in 4K, we can actually punch in and zoom digitally. So as we fly up here, we can look at the city, tap on 1X, and now we have a digital zoom. So even though right now we’re shooting in 4K, it’s going to zoom in digitally and give us a closer look at what we want to, which in this case is the city skyline. So it kind of gives us two different cameras all in one.

DJI Mini 4K vs. Mini 2: What’s the Difference?

Okay, let’s go ahead, we’ll spin around. My angular velocity is crazy high in sport mode, but we’ll bring it on back down the river now. You know, we’re flying fairly nonchalantly here and I really just don’t want that to go unnoticed, as this is a beginner drone, $299, and you’re able to do almost everything you can with DJI’s higher-end drones. I think people realize that as you kind of go through the different options that DJI has, really the only thing you get for those upgrades is like enhanced bells and whistles, of course upgrades in certain areas like the camera, but still, the core functionality of all DJI drones is the same. It doesn’t matter if I’m flying the Mini 4K, the Air 3, the Mavic 3, even the Inspire 3, all these drones are very familiar in a sense of they fly the same.

So what’s great is that if you pick up this drone, the Mini 4K, as your beginner entry-level drone, and then you go and you want to upgrade to say the Air 3, or maybe you want to take it a notch up and go to the Mavic 3, you’re still going to have a very familiar experience.

Okay, so we’re over the water now. Another thing I like to do here with my drone is do a reveal up and over the trees to kind of show off the skyline. Now, we do have kind of a crappy day here. It is a little bit windy as I said, but also we do have some clouds in the sky. So I love when there’s a nice sunset or, you know, nice set of sun beaming up against the buildings here, but we’ll work with what we can. So go ahead, we’ll do a reveal up and over the trees. Yeah, look at that. This drone feels nice, smooth, and responsive as any DJI drone does. It’s just offered at a less expensive price.

So I mean, you imagine, right, the Mini 4K is going to be picked up… Oh, look at those birds. The Mini 4K is going to be picked up by people that, you know, aren’t doing drone stuff all the time. They want to get their feet wet and this is going to be a really great option. I mean, I’m going to go as far as saying that even if you are some sort of professional that offers photography services, videography services, and you just need like a drone to keep in your bag just in case, like just in case your client wants to add aerial photos or aerial video, this is really going to do a great job.

Even back here where we kind of have some interference from the building, we still have a nice strong signal between me and the drone. And really, those are like the massive things that you need to account for when you’re flying a drone, is how is the image quality and how is the transmission system. Those are like the two most important things. And of course, speed, right? We all want speed. We all want a fast drone. This little thing can really get after it. I remember flying the original Mavic Mini down here and was just blown away at how fast and quick and agile that little drone is.

From here, we go ahead, we’ll flip into normal and we’ll do a nice little reveal of that skyline in the back. Actually, why don’t we try the 2X? We’ll hit 2X here. So now we’re zoomed in twice. And now as we rise up and over, we have a tighter zoom, a tighter focal length, and we can go and reveal the city. I’m trying to figure where the skyline pokes up and out. Oh, oh man, I’m a little bit off. It’s over to the left. Let’s try that again. Let’s reset up. We’re going to come a little bit further down. I thought it would come up through those buildings on the right side, but we’ll start down here. We’ll kind of fly laterally here. We’re zoomed in of course, we can see the tips of the buildings. And now let’s rise up and over.

You know, it’s insane to think that the Mini 4K is at a $299 price point. Again, price is huge with this drone because it’s an entry-level drone. If you look at the specs and you compare it to what DJI was offering as a flagship drone, you know, say six years ago with the Mavic Pro, the specs are almost one-to-one. They’re almost completely identical: 4K video, 12-megapixel photos, 31-minute flight time. Really the only thing that you’re getting with a bigger drone is like the top speed is going to be much more, right? So the Mavic Pro was like really fast because, well, really fast in comparison to this because a smaller drone with smaller motors just isn’t going to be able to get the top speed of a larger drone.

So that’s really cool, being able to give us 2X and also, I mean, 4K video, right? You look down at some intricate areas like the trains here and you’ll see, we actually got… we got a train moving here. That’s sweet. With the train here, you know, you’re going to be able to pick up such intricate details being able to shoot in 4K. 4K really is just the standard now. I know that, you know, that 4K resolution kind of went by the wayside, but really there’s no argument for not having a drone that doesn’t shoot 4K now or really any camera for that matter. You’ve got cameras shooting 8K now, 5K, 6K. So having a drone that does shoot 4K is kind of a necessity now, and this drone does it.

I remember when reviewing the Mini 2, I took that drone up with me to Lake George and got some of my favorite photographs with it in the snow. Of course, this is just like a first flight unboxing video. We’ll kind of do a full review of the Mini 4K at a later date. Just kind of want to chase this train right now. I’m not even in sport mode, but like, to me, like drones are so fun, right? Like I think that they’re the best type of camera. I love being able to chase after things. I love being able to capture the moment with a drone. And I know there’s a lot of people out there that want to do the same, but maybe just don’t want to spend that type of money. That’s why the Mini 4K coming in at $299 is a great-priced drone. It’s right there.

And I remember when I first got a drone, I was always like embarrassed to fly it because it was so big. I had the Phantom 4 at first and it was really nice switching over to the smaller drones like the Mavic Pro and now the Mini drones, just because, I don’t know, I mean, you’re not causing a scene with such a big drone.

Nice. Well, look, for $299, this thing is hard to beat. We barely had any breakup in our signal. Do we have another… Oh no, there’s another train coming the other way. We can zoom in. We can see the other train that’s coming the other way is just kind of sitting there. It would be cool if both trains are going at the same time. I tell you what, as many times as I’ve done my first flight down here, I’ve never seen a train come both ways at the same time.

Is the DJI Mini 4K the Best Entry-Level Drone for Beginners?

Okay, so first flight of the Mini 4K, I’m going to say that this is about wrapped up. We’ve been flying for what, a good 10 minutes? I don’t even think we started with a full 100% battery, and we still have 48% left on the drone here. So in all the pillars that make up a good drone – flight time, image transmission, camera quality – the Mini 4K really does nail it across the board. It’s really impressive to see how DJI’s been able to shrink this tech to a smaller and smaller form factor and also make it less expensive and less expensive.

So let’s go ahead, we’ll bring it down, we’ll land it here. Also, DJI is using their RC… They actually, it’s not the RC-N1, it’s the RC-N1C. So it’s kind of a new controller, but this controller has been around for years. This controller has been around for years. So it’s nice to have this remote controller with this drone. It’s very familiar and in my opinion, offers a really great flight experience.

Okay, so that is our first flight of the Mini 4K. United States, Europe, $299. United States, I don’t know what that translates over to in Euros, but this is a great buy for anybody that wants to get into drones. If you’ve got any thoughts on the Mini 4K, please feel free to let me know down in the comment section below. And as always, I’ll talk to you later. Peace.