I only have the money to really own one drown. So I was torn when the Mavic Air came out and I had just recently bought a refurbished Mavic Pro that I loved.
I weighed my options and sold my Mavic Pro on Craigslist and used the money to buy a brand new Mavic Air.
Now, there's a lot to like about the Mavic Air. The APAS system, the smaller footprint, the rear obstacle avoidance, the 120 fps at 1080p, ect. But in the end, I wish I would've kept my Mavic Pro.
No, it's not the battery life I'm upset about. It's the damn wi-fi system that the Air uses. The Ocusync that the Mavic Pro uses is 100x better than the wi-fi system. I cringe every time a frame drops or momentarily lose video signal at anything more than 200 ft. I know the ratings say that this should be useable in optimal conditions at up to 2.2 miles, but my real world use shows that I can only really fly it to 1,000 ft (I live in Utah and fly in a valley surrounded by mountains).
In the end, the Mavic Air could've been the product to beat. It innovates in so many areas, and yet this one crippling technology makes it almost unusable for anything more than simple hobby use.
DJI, you made an incredible product...with one crippling achilles' heel.
UPADATE: It seems there’s two factors that can change the range on my Air by about another 1,000 ft (just flew it to 2,000ft at 200ft altitude)
Antenna positing is sensitive. Imagine the controller is like a shotgun that needs to be pointed at the drone. This alone helped with interference a lot.
5.8 ghz band had very little noise compared to the 2.4ghz channels. Where I live, there must be a lot of routers throwing interference. When I switched to 5.8ghz I had much less drop in signal.
I weighed my options and sold my Mavic Pro on Craigslist and used the money to buy a brand new Mavic Air.
Now, there's a lot to like about the Mavic Air. The APAS system, the smaller footprint, the rear obstacle avoidance, the 120 fps at 1080p, ect. But in the end, I wish I would've kept my Mavic Pro.
No, it's not the battery life I'm upset about. It's the damn wi-fi system that the Air uses. The Ocusync that the Mavic Pro uses is 100x better than the wi-fi system. I cringe every time a frame drops or momentarily lose video signal at anything more than 200 ft. I know the ratings say that this should be useable in optimal conditions at up to 2.2 miles, but my real world use shows that I can only really fly it to 1,000 ft (I live in Utah and fly in a valley surrounded by mountains).
In the end, the Mavic Air could've been the product to beat. It innovates in so many areas, and yet this one crippling technology makes it almost unusable for anything more than simple hobby use.
DJI, you made an incredible product...with one crippling achilles' heel.
UPADATE: It seems there’s two factors that can change the range on my Air by about another 1,000 ft (just flew it to 2,000ft at 200ft altitude)
Antenna positing is sensitive. Imagine the controller is like a shotgun that needs to be pointed at the drone. This alone helped with interference a lot.
5.8 ghz band had very little noise compared to the 2.4ghz channels. Where I live, there must be a lot of routers throwing interference. When I switched to 5.8ghz I had much less drop in signal.
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