Mavic Air is a new compact quadrocopter from DJI. In size it is between Mavic Pro and Spark. We will consider the most important aspects of each drone, compare them and try to give answers to the questions that have accumulated.
Meet on clothes, so let's start with the design.
Mavic Pro has been around for more than a year, Platinum is half a year old and they still look better than most UAVs, in my opinion. The sleek body, sturdy in sight and in fact, and the new Mavic Pro Platinum propellers make it also incredibly quiet.
The design of Mavic Air is significantly different from Mavic Pro. This is a mixture of Mavic Pro, Spark and sports car. Small and clean, like a Spark, and a folding design like a Mavic Pro. The best part of the design is the new camera and gimbal, inspired by Spark. It is much more compact and durable.
The only oddity of the Air design is the screws that don't fold. At first, this may seem a drawback, but unlike other folding drones, they do not stick out of the case. A cleaner design helps to achieve more flight time due to better aerodynamics.
And a nice little thing - now the drone is available in white, black or red paint. And black and white matte, and red glossy.
The size
There is an obvious difference in size between Mavic Air and Mavic Pro. Mavic Air is about two times smaller and 41% lighter. This gives a number of obvious advantages.
If you look on the Internet, you can find a lot of photos comparing Mavic Air with ordinary objects, such as smartphones. It fits easily into pockets, bags and backpacks, which makes it super convenient to travel. Pocket size gives you the opportunity to make spontaneous shots that can not be done without a copter accidentally caught in the pocket of your jacket!
Another thing that really has nothing to do with size, but it has a lot in common with portability - the Mavic Air hanger is completely located inside the body of the drone. When you throw it into a backpack, it is protected and without a protective cover. The suspension embedded in the case reduces vibrations, which positively affects the quality of the shooting material. Suspension fixture is also a protective cap of the camera and, FINALLY, its installation made simple and convenient.
Memory
Mavic Air and Mavic Pro have built-in slots for microSD cards. However, Mavic Air supports a microSD card with a much larger capacity - 128 GB! Why this is good, understandable and without comment. But the coolest - in Mavic Air has a built-in memory! Only 8 GB, but everyone understands what it is to get to the place and understand that you forgot the card, or to find out that your card is damaged =).
Motors and propellers
Air engines, though inferior in size to Pro engines, but at the same time, speed indicators are slightly higher - 68.4 km / h versus 65 km / h.
Pro screws 214 mm against 133 for Air, and also they are wider and thicker.
The noise from the Air reminds Spark or a swarm of evil bees, and the Pro reminds more like a plane. But if you put Mavic Pro Platinum screws on Pro, the noise level will be even lower than Mavic Air.
Ventilation
Cooling Mavic Air is significantly better than the Mavic Pro. This is due to the DJI model design chip - air enters the drone through the suspension and exits through the ventilation holes in the back of the drone. The air passes through the copter thoroughly dissipates heat. We remember that Pro and
DJI Spark had problems with overheating in hot climates, so the new feature should prevent this on Mavic Air.
Speed
Maximum speed in sport mode is only one measurement, but the actual maximum speed will vary depending on how you fly.
In sport mode, both drone go about 65 km / h. When you control both of them with a smartphone, the speed difference is huge - 11 km / h in Pro and about 26 km / h in Air. When using the controller, both drons go 32 km / h, but if you disable obstacle avoidance on the Mavic Pro, it will go almost 48 km / h.
Suspension speed is a thing that most people don’t talk about. Both drones can reach 65 km / h, but this does not mean that you can fly and look straight ahead at this speed and the rays will not fall into the frame. Mavic Pro starts to tilt the camera down at 48 km / h when moving forward, however, when you fly sideways or backwards, the situation changes.
Flight time
Flight time is not very easy to measure under normal conditions, due to a number of additional factors such as wind, soaring or flying, so we take the example in ideal conditions without wind and soaring and up to about 28% of the battery charge:
- Mavic Pro - 23 minutes
- Mavic Pro Platinum - 25 minutes
- Mavic Air - 18 minutes.
Video quality
There are a few things that have changed in the new Mavic. Some are good and some are not.
Mavic Air shoot slo-mo 120 frames per second against 96 for Mavic Pro. On Mavic Air, there is no way to control the focus, but to be honest, sometimes Pro can miss it, or by accidentally clicking on the screen you can shift the focus.
Video Capabilities
Previously, 4K videos were filmed at a bit rate of 60 Mbit / s, and now on Air up to 100 Mbit / s. In addition, Slow Motion video is now available in a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. A platinum flash offered us only HD Slo-Mo.
Picture
The colors on Mavic Air seem much more realistic than on Mavic Pro.
Automatic white balance and exposure on Mavic Air also seem more accurate.
In ISO ranges over 800, Mavic Air darkens the corners of the image, unlike Pro (with the same exposure).
The JPEG images on both drones are very similar, but Mavic Air is usually a bit green, and Mavic Pro has more purple hues (a subjective opinion).
Obstacle avoidance
Mavic Air has two front-facing cameras, just like the Mavic Pro, but also has two cameras from the back. Now you can fly back without fear of a drone crashing into something behind it! Surprisingly, they were able to install a total of 7 cameras and make the Air much smaller than the Mavic Pro.
There is another new feature that makes Mavic Air truly unique. APAS (Advanced Pilot Assistance System) is a new feature that you can activate on the main flight screen. During the flight ahead, instead of stopping, when an obstacle appears, Mavic Air will automatically fly around it to the left, right or top and continue flying.
SmartCapture and Quickshot Modes
Mavic Air came out with a modified gesture control mode. The number of control gestures and the quality of reaction to them has become better than that of its predecessors. To the four intellectual modes of flight Quickshot added two new ones: Asteroid and Boomerang.
Remote controller
The Mavic Pro console is simply the best solution in every way. Unlike the Pro version, the Mavic Air remote control does not have a screen for displaying real-time flight information. This means that without a smartphone or tablet you will not be able to see the flight data. In addition to the screen on the Air remote, there are no rubber inserts, no 5-axis joystick (whose functions can be set via the application), no exposure control wheel, instead of which a button is assigned via the application there are no additional buttons also assigned through the application.
And now about $$$
The actual
DJI Mavic Air prices as of mid-June in the basic configuration cost 58,890 rubles. and 74990 rubles per set of Fly More Combo with additional batteries, propellers, charging hub and bag.
DJI Mavic Pro costs 79890 for the basic version and 99890 for the Fly More Combo,
DJI Mavic Pro Platinum version costs a bit more and the price starts at 87890 and for the quadrocopter in the Fly More bundle 107890 rubles. The manufacturer often holds sales and gives gifts and makes good discounts, and we, as official dealers of the DJI company, transmit them to our customers.
Summarizing
Understanding which drone is right for you is easy. If the flight time is more important for you, and your range is your choice. If portability, functionality and quality of shooting are in the first place, then obviously you need Mavic Air.
We also recommend you to get acquainted with the opinion of the popular Youtube blogger Wylsacom.