Best DJI Mavic Mini Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:

After having conquered the amateurs of shots with its foldable quadavotors Mavic, DJI puts back the cover with an even more compact and light drone, to take everywhere with you: the Mavic Mini. The real replacement for Spark?

Presentation

Thanks to their foldable design, Mavic drones have managed to reach the backpacks of many amateurs and even image professionals who no longer hesitate to take their drone with them everywhere. The general public and the most nomadic have for their part gladly turned to the Spark and the Mavic Air, significantly more compact than the “Pro” models ( Mavic Pro then Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom ). Helping miniaturization, there was still room to do even better, and DJI shows it with a new Mavic even more compact: the Mavic Mini, a quadrotor taking the foldable design of its elders, but weighing this time less than 250 g and with the best autonomy for the family (30 minutes announced).

Clearly intended for the general public and positioned at the entry level with a starting price of € 399 (€ 499 in Fly More Combo pack including a case containing 2 additional batteries and a 3-battery charger, as well as propeller protections), it comes with a new simplified smartphone application, but keeps the essence of Mavic with its stabilized camera, its low latency radio transmission, its different viewing modes and its simplicity of piloting. A little gem on paper, therefore, despite some limitations related to its compactness and in order to preserve the rest of the range of DJI drones, which we will of course discuss in more detail in this test.

Best DJI Mavic Mini Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020

1. DJI Mavic Mini, CP.MA.00000120.01

2. DJI Mavic Mini Fly More Combo

3. DJI Mavic Mini Combo – Drone FlyCam Quadcopter UAV with 2.7K Camera 3-Axis Gimbal GPS 30min Flight Time, less than 0.55lbs, Gray

Significantly more compact than the Mavic Air – which already made the Mavic Pro look like a behemoth -, the DJI Mavic Mini really fits in the palm of your hand, since its dimensions are reduced to 13.5 cm in length by 8.5 cm wide and 5.5 cm high.

A great feat since it thus becomes less bulky than that which until then occupied the place of the manufacturer’s smallest drone, the Spark . The secret ? Its foldable arms, of course, the most striking feature of the Mavic series drones, significantly reducing the size of the device for transport.

Once unfolded, the DJI Mavic Mini shows a larger wingspan than the Spark (14.3 cm side), since it then measures in width (without taking propellers) 20 cm at the front and 18.5 cm at the back, for a total length of 16 cm. What gain a little stability and especially away from the propellers of the camera field. It remains nevertheless more compact than a Parrot Anafi.

Small size and lightness oblige, the Mavic Mini takes on the air of a miniature drone, and one might even believe in a toy at first glance, like the innumerable low-cost devices such as the Eachine E58 , for example. The comparison ends happily there, the Mini being the rest, like its big brothers, a real flying camera and not a gadget intended simply for fun. Admittedly, its manufacturing quality still drops a notch compared to other Mavic and even Spark, evidenced by the thin and flexible plastic now used, but the finishes are still very correct.

Flight

Controllable only with the supplied remote control, the DJI Mavic Mini is even easier to use than its big brothers. Takeoff: is done by a simple press on the virtual button of the touch interface or manually by orienting the sticks down and the center of the radio control. In automatic mode, the drone takes off and stabilizes about 1.50 m above its starting point. The device’s unique sensors, located on the underside, serve to keep it in a horizontal and vertical position, with a certain efficiency, even in windy conditions. It is also quieter than other Mavic, approaching in this way the Anafi.

If it is fatally less fast than the Mavic Pro and Mavic 2 of this world, the Mavic Mini can nevertheless count on good engine power, allowing it to quickly gain height, to resist winds up to 28 km / h and fly up to a speed of 29 km / h in Position mode and even 47 km / h in Sport mode. Make no mistake, it is still moving much more slowly than its big brothers (72 km / h for the Mavic 2, 68 km / h for the Mavic Air), the filmed sequences will be more laid. 

The range is anyway less than that of the Mavic 2 and we will therefore not have to venture too far at high speed to reach a place to film in particular. DJI still announces a distance of up to 2 km. During our tests, we were able to fly quite easily up to 1.5 km when there were not too many obstacles between the radio control and the drone. 

Image quality

With its 12 MP 1 / 2.3 “CMOS sensor (same characteristics as those of other Mavic, except Mavic 2 Pro), the DJI Mavic Mini is capable of filming up to 2.7K (2,720 x 1,536 px) 30p at an angle of 83 ° (focal length of 24 mm f / 2.8 in 35 mm equivalent). 4K Ultra HD definition point, alas, which remains the prerogative of Mavic Air, Mavic Pro and Mavic 2. It is regrettable , especially as DJI showed with his Osmo Pocketthat it was possible to do it with very small cameras. According to DJI, this absence is explained by the search for maximum compactness. 

We can also assume that this limitation reduces costs by using less efficient components, while preserving the autonomy of the Mavic Mini. From the consumer’s point of view, however, it is still much more like a simple segmentation of the range so as not to overshadow the Mavic Air. We could at least have hoped for a recording rate of 60 fps in 2.7K, but this rate is only available in Full HD definition.

In the state, it is still much better than the Full HD 30p of Spark and it is a safe bet that a good number of users will content themselves cheerfully, especially since it is much more simple to find a computer capable of editing videos in Full HD, even 2.7K, than a computer capable of supporting heavy 4K files (the Core i7-2700K of 2011 attests to this…).

Autonomy

DJI promises up to 30 minutes of flight time for its Mavic Mini with the 2400 mAh Li-Ion 2S battery. In practice, we actually approach it under ideal conditions (without wind and at a constant speed of 14 km / h, according to DJI) if we disregard the first critical battery alerts. In normal use, however, a return to take-off point is initiated when the battery capacity drops to 20%. 

We then flew about 25 minutes, which is already comfortable and enough to make beautiful sequences. By canceling the automatic landing commands, you can gain approximately 2 minutes of flight time. The 30 minutes are finally reached only by forcing the drone to stay in the air, using the left stick of the radio control. To be reserved for situations of emergency therefore. With its propeller protection which adds 50 g, the Mavic Mini necessarily flies shorter: 18 minutes maximum according to our tests.

If you want to film longer, the purchase of the Fly More Combo pack is recommended, since it allows you to take advantage of two additional batteries and a 3-battery charger. Since you cannot directly charge the battery, unlike that of an Anafi which has a USB-C port, the external charger quickly becomes essential if you want to be able to charge your other batteries while the DJI Mavic Mini is in flight. However, it takes approximately 1 hour 15 minutes for a battery to recharge (consumption: 0.02 kWh). We can therefore hope to use the other two batteries in the meantime, and finally take advantage of four full charges during the same outing (i.e. about 1 h 40 min flight). Too bad the charger only charges

STRONG POINTS

  • Compact and light.
  • Easy to use.
  • Good autonomy.
  • Charge in micro-USB directly from the drone.
  • Quieter than the other Mavics.
  • Real radio control supplied.

WEAK POINTS

  • Definition limited to 2.7K at 30 fps.
  • No obstacle detection.
  • No detection or tracking of people and vehicles.
  • Connection and charge in micro-USB and not USB-C.
  • No charge directly on the battery.
  • One-piece propeller guards, not very transportable.
  • Photo only in Jpeg, not Raw.
  • Only 4 automatic modes, lack panoramas, timelapses, 360 ° …

CONCLUSION

The smallest drone of the Mavic family – DJI Mavic Mini has no shortage of assets to seduce the general public who will disregard its few shortcomings, first of which Ultra HD 4K definition and subject tracking. It is thus more like a replacement for the Spark than for the Mavic Air, being just as easy to fly with its radio control. Obviously, you lose the obstacle sensors and the gestural controls, but you gain an even easier device to take with you, that you will not hesitate a second to slip into a bag before going for a walk, like we would do it with a small camera.

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