Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “DJI Mavic Mini 2 vs Mavic Air 2 – Ultra-Compact Drone Battle!”.
What’S up folks how’s it going, this watch hope you guys are all doing well and today we’re going to be talking about the dji mavic mini 2. Now i’ve been having a lot of fun with this thing for the past couple of months and i was actually a pretty big fan of the original mini that came out last year. Obviously, now we have 4k capturing capabilities as well as a whole bunch of other feature set. That makes us not only a great successor to the original mini, but also gives the mavic air to a big run for its money and speaking of money. The mini 2 is actually around half the price as the air 2 about 420 dollars versus 800 dollars. On the air too, when we take a look at the overall share common feature sets and capabilities of both drones. It really begs the question is why would anybody get the air 2 when you have something so much more compact and yet potentially has almost the same capabilities? Well, today, in this article, we’re going to be taking a look at the mini 2, comparing it directly against the feature set of the air 2 and, first and foremost, we have to talk about the size. The mini 2 is about the same size as the original mini about 249 grams under 250 grams versus the air. 2 is actually more than double that weight around 570 grams and when we take a look at the actual size comparison in the folded position. The mini 2 at around 140 by 82 millimeters has the same overall footprint as your average day smartphone.
But it’s not as thin as a smartphone at 57, millimeters in thickness, certainly a lot smaller and a thinner than the air 2 in terms of overall size. So in terms of pocketability, the mini 2. Definitely has that advantage there.
You can carry it with you in your pocket, fairly comfortably or in a small bag without being too burdensome, and that’s really a huge thing with drones. These days, you want to kind of fly under the radar, be as minimalistic as possible, not attract too much attention. Even though you might be authorized to fly in a specific area, it’s still better to fly under the radar and again be as quiet as possible and due to the fact that it’s so small, so compact and lightweight the props, don’t have to work as hard and The overall noise level is quite low on this thing, even quieter than the air 2. In my experience now, in reality, the mini 2 and the air 2 from architectural platform share a lot of common feature sets, but in terms of the core differences between the two, there are only a couple that you should really be aware of. One is the video and steals capabilities on the air. 2 is slightly superior in the sense that the mavic air 2 can record 4k video at 60 frames per second versus you’re, looking at 30 frames per second at 4k on the mini 2, you can also shoot 240 frames per second at 1080p resolution on the air 2 versus your top dad at 60 fps on the mini 2., interestingly, in terms of the maximum video bitrate you’re, only looking at a slight difference about 120 megabits per second on the air 2 versus 100 megabits per second on the mini. Furthermore, on the air 2, you can capture steels up to 48 megapixels versus 12 megapixels on the mini 2, and perhaps the most significant difference between the two is actually the imaging sensor itself. It’S slightly larger on the air to about a half inch cmos chip versus half point three inch: chip on the mini two, which gives a better low-light capabilities, as well as a higher iso range of up to 6400 versus 3200, and you also have the ability to Capture hdr photos and videos, which is definitely important. If you want to capture more details on the highlights and shadows such as this sunset scene over here, that i shot with the mini two, you can see that we’re losing a decent amount of information in the shadow and highlights versus in a similar scenario using the Air to retain most of that information, so in these situations, uh people that are more serious into their aerial videography and photography would probably go with the higher end drones.
But for most people i would say 95 of drone users uh. The video quality coming out of the mini 2 is absolutely fine and super impressive, given the form factor of the drone. Now, in terms of the flight dynamics, both drones are super easy to fly extremely stable, have precision hovering capabilities with gps guidance as well as their on-board multi-directional camera systems.
The mini 2 also has the quick shot mode capability, so you can do things like droney, helix circle rocket or the boomerang movement. You don’t, however, have the advanced focus tracking system built inside the air 2, such as the active track 3.0, the spotlight 2.0, as well as the point of interest 3.0 system, also coupled with the advanced pilot assistance system built into the air too. So, in terms of the active tracking capabilities uh, this is where the mini is still lacking. Furthermore, apart from the fact that in sports mode, the air is still a little bit faster than the mini about 64 kilometers v-max versus 57.6 kilometers, there’s actually not a big difference when we take a look at the other parameters in terms of the monitoring capabilities actually Share the exact same controller interface with the same battery life, both transmission systems are utilizing ocusync 2.0 technology with built-in auto switching there’s a minor difference in terms of the live feed coming through the smartphone. You can typically sometimes get 1080p at 30 frames per. Second, on the air too, as well as a relatively low latency about 120 to 130 milliseconds versus you’re, looking at 720p, 30fps live feed, typically on the mini, as well as a slightly longer latency of 200 milliseconds.
However, the maximum communication distance is rated the same on both platforms about 10 kilometers and we both have about a relatively similar flight time on the battery life over a 30 minutes. Dji says 34 minutes on the mavic air 2 versus about 31 minutes on the mini 2.. Now, based on our experience with these drones and over a dozen individual flights, the flight time range from lowest to highest was around 25 to 30 minutes on the air 2 versus 23 to 27 minutes on the mavic mini 2.. Now, of course, the big question that some of you guys might be asking is: is the mavic air 2 really worth double the price compared to what we have on the mini 2 and in most case scenarios i would say no, unless you’re an enthusiast or doing This for a commercial application where you need to have every single detail and the most control over your image quality.
Even perhaps the air 2 isn’t good enough. You might need to get the pro in that circumstance, but if you don’t need some of the active tracking capabilities and just want great 4k 30 frames per second video in most case center, you’re going to be perfectly happy and extremely satisfied, especially due to the form Factor and the convenience sake of the mavic mini 2 and plus that price range is definitely very comfortable, allows you to invest in other things, such as more memory cards, uh extra batteries and, obviously a whole bunch of different accessories. That dji and other third-party manufacturers are creating uh for these drones, but for me personally, i think the mini 2 is extremely impressive. Just the amount of technology they crammed in to such a tiny package is pretty darn remarkable. This thing completely blows the original phantom drones out of the water, and it’s just a great example of how technology progresses. It becomes more compact and more convenient and easier to use, and in 99 of the times that i would ever use a drone to be completely perfectly fine, and i would probably go with it and again save that money or use it to get other things to Make my experience a little bit better, but definitely love to hear your thoughts check out the description down below for more details about everything we’ve talked about.
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