Tuesday in New York City, the world’s leading drone maker announced its lightest and most compact drone yet. The DJI Mavic Pro is foldable, has 27 minutes of flight time and can fit into almost any bag, purse or satchel possible… and weighs just 1.63lbs.
“We’re going to show you (something) revolutionary,” DJI’s director of strategic partnerships, Michael Perry said. The Mavic Pro will allow you to “shorten the time between inspiration and creativity like never before. So you can capture those moments of inspiration whenever it strikes wherever you go.”
One of the standout features on the Mavic Pro is how portable the drone actually is. While Perry was speaking and introducing the audience to the Mavic Pro the drone and its remote were in his back pocket the entire presentation. While he didn’t exactly turn around, they were completely unnoticeable.
“We wanted to make it as space efficient as possible,” Perry said. “It’s a third the size of a piece of paper” and weighs about the same as a standard bottle of water. “We took design cues from mobile gaming devices. Small but intuitive, easy to use, easy to get up in the air and effortless to take great shots.”
To use the DJI Mavic Pro, drone users simply have to unfold the propellers and the Mavic Pro should be ready to take off within one minute after opening the app on your phone. The Mavic Pro can be controlled up to 256 ft away with a max height of 164 ft.
DJI’s Mavic Pro includes a five-camera vision system and shoots in 4K with a 12-megapixel camera. It can be controlled with most smartphones or with DJI’s smallest remote yet. The DJI Mavic Pro features several modes to help users get the exact shots they want including tripod, portrait, spotlight and the new sports mode.
Sports mode was made with drone racers, and fanatics, in mind. During Mavic Pro’s sport mode the drone can fly up to 40 mph with a max flight time of 27 minutes. One of the new accessories for DJI to pair with the Mavic Pro is its new DJI Goggle. Unveiled Tuesday, the DJI Goggles feature high-quality two 1920x1080 screens with an 85-degree field of view. You can connect these Goggles wireless to the direct feed of the drone with low latency for a seamless first-person view of flight.
“It doesn’t start and end with image making,” Perry said of the growing popularity of drones. He said many people, including him first got exciting with drone technology “because it’s so fun to fly… a lot of that feeling of the joy of flight is really driving the innovation. We want you to really feel the experience of flying.”
Gesture control is another new feature coming to the DJI Mavic Pro. Perry said you can just signal to the drone with your hands and it will start to track you. He simply waived his arms at the drone and it followed him around during the presentation. After Perry made his hands into the shape of the camera, the Mavic Pro took a selfie of him after 3 seconds.
For more information about the DJI Mavic Pro, visit DJI’s official site. The DJI Mavic Pro basic model starts at $749, the second-tier model with remote is $999 and a big drone bundle including bag, extra batteries, propellers and more is $1,299. DJI’s Mavic Pro release date is Oct. 15. Pre-orders begin Sept. and start shipping Oct. 15. Apple stores across the U.S. will have the DJ Mavic Pro available starting Nov. 2.
Earlier this year, DJI launched its most advanced drone of its popular model to date, the DJI Phantom 4.
