Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “DJI Spark vs DJI Mavic Pro – What’s the Best Compact Drone”.
Hey, what’s up folks how’s it going. This is waj hope you guys are all doing well and for the past couple of weeks i’ve been testing out the new dji spark drone, and what i wanted to do is actually see how it compared against. Probably one of my favorite drones out there, the mavic pro now we’re going to take a look at the overall design and feature sets of both flying camera platforms and see which one is right for you. So the first thing that we’re going to take a look at is the overall physical size comparison between the two. Here we have both units side by side. Now the cool thing about the mavic pro is that it has foldable arms. So it’s actually really really mobile friendly. You can pretty much carry it with you anywhere. You go in a small bag.
It only measures about 83 millimeters in terms of width at about 198 millimeters in terms of length. So it is a little bit longer than the spark. Unfortunately, the spark doesn’t have a foldable design, but it’s fairly compact at around 143 millimeters by 143 millimeters, and it’s also a little bit uh shorter in terms of its overall thickness at 55, millimeters versus 83 millimeters. For the mavic pro now, the cool thing about the spark is that you can actually launch it off of your hand, so it actually weighs less than half of the mavic pro around 300 grams versus the mavic is around 734 grams, and that’s really one of the Key distinctions between the spark from the other uh drones from dji is the fact that it’s pretty much something you can have with you at all times you can put in your backpack and get a small carrying case with it, and you don’t necessarily need to use A smartphone or dedicated controller to actually use the thing you can launch it off of your hand.
It actually recognizes your face. By doing so and using the palm control method, you can do some basic commands, such as moving the drone left right up and down, etc. You can also utilize some of its gesture capabilities, so you can make it follow. You take selfies, and it also has some basic obstacle: avoidance technology uh to keep it safely in the air and avoid obstacles and hazards in the environment and plus, you can also land the drone once you’re done using it right on the palm of your hand.
Very, very cool stuff, and all of these features actually work really really nicely. I’Ve been testing out for a couple of weeks haven’t had any major hiccups to report thus far now, even though the spark can be used without any smartphone or dedicated controller, you can still control the drone with using the on-screen controls on your smartphone range is limited To about a hundred meters, based on your wi-fi signal, strength between the drone and your smartphone, but if you do decide to get the dedicated spark controller, which is very similar uh to the one found with the mavic, you can increase the distance to two kilometers and You’Ll get a much stronger, capable a drone by using that controller and plus it’s nice to have physical controls in those certain times where you want to be a little bit more creative with your drone flying capabilities. Now it comes to the feature sets when comparing the mavic pro to the spark uh you’ll soon uncover that the mavic pro is pretty much a very fully featured uh flying camera platform. Firstly, one of the big advantages is battery life and that’s probably the weakest part of the spark drone.
I typically got anywhere between 10 to 12 minutes dji rates, the battery for about 16 minutes, and the capacity is uh 1480 milliamp hours versus we have a 38 30 milliamp hour battery on the mavic pro dji rates it for around 27 minutes. I typically get anywhere between 18 to 25 minutes, depending upon how i’m flying the drone, which is really really good, almost double the battery capabilities of the spark, which is pretty darn impressive now in terms of flight dynamics and capabilities uh. Firstly, the mavic pro is very stable in terms of its hover. Deviations is very, very minimum. It also has a higher top speed capabilities, a faster descent capability, so it’s certainly a much more capable drone by itself in terms of range uh. The controller that comes with the mavic pro allows it to go up to seven kilometers for unobstructed maximum communication distance versus with the dedicated spark controller. That does not come with the spark drone. You get a maximum distance about two kilometers which isn’t bad, but still not nowhere near as powerful as what you get with the mavic pro, and also the hd feed that comes from the camera to your smartphone is a lot more consistent and better quality.
Overall. On the mavic as well now, both cameras on these drones are effectively stabilized with a three axis gimbal uh. So your footage is going to look pretty smooth on both platforms in terms of actual uh sensor of the camera. Both are using a half point. Three inch cmos chip with 12, effective megapixels and the field of view, or the lenses on both of them are a little bit different. The mavic has a more slightly telephoto 28 millimeter lens gives you effective field of view about 78.8 degrees versus a 25 millimeter lens? Is found on the spark giving that a field of view about 81.9 so a little bit wider uh the uh aperture is a little bit larger on the mavic, so f, 2.2 versus f 2.6 on the spark.
So low-light capabilities might be slightly better on the mavic. But when it comes to overall resolution or camera capabilities and everything like that, the mavic pro has the spark completely beat. Basically, the spark can really be limited to about 1080p at 30 fps. This is really not a cinema quality, a gray drone.
It’S really something of a companion piece again built for a price and a budget kind of an ideal drone for somebody just starting out and doesn’t want to fork over a lot of cash for their first drone. Now the mavic can do a cinema 4k at 24 frames per second standard uh, ultra hd 3840 by 2160 from 24 to 30. Fps also can shoot quad, hd and full hd uh up to 96 frames per second, and if you want to do a little bit of slow motion, it has that capability of shooting up to 180 frames per second at 720p. Also, the maximum bitrate on the mavic is more than double of the spark at 60 megabits per second versus 24 megabits per second.
So in terms of video quality and overall footage, uh, there’s really no contest or competition. The mavic pro wins hands down and that’s understandable, because again, the spark is really kind of an entry model, drone great for first time, drone operators. Now, with all that, in terms of the price uh perspective, the mavic pro uh starts around a thousand dollars for the drone and the controller itself versus the spark uh just by the drone itself is purchased around for around 4.99. And if you want the spark controller, it’s another 149 dollars on top of the drone, but again it’s not mandatory to buy the spark control.
You can utilize it with just a smartphone or even just with the palm controlling features, as we mentioned earlier in the video. So, generally speaking, uh for half the price, you can still get a pretty darn cool drone to operate using your hand or with your smartphone, but if you want something a little bit more capable, certainly something that has a little bit more range and distance capabilities. I would probably recommend somebody to eventually get the spark controller. It’S a great companion piece, but besides that guys, hopefully this video gave you some sort of insight between the differences between these two flying camera platforms in a much more compact size. Overall, the mavic pro is still one of the best drones out there on the market when it comes to feature, sets design and everything like that.
So i would still recommend it above anything else, but if you’re on a little bit of a budget and are not that serious in terms of getting the absolute best quality, the spark is a great entry point, but other than that. Thank you. So much for watching check out the description for more detail information about everything we talked about and we’ll see you next time take care.
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