DJI Neo design & operation

The plain, gentle grey DJI Neo is admittedly tiny. Measuring a mere 15.7 x 13.0 cm, it’s so long as the palm of my hand and about 50 % wider. It simply matches into the pocket of my winter jacket and, tipping the scales at 135 g, is hardly noticeable. Nevertheless, do not let the mini kind issue idiot you—the drone actually has quite a bit going for it!

An important issues to notice:

• Dimensions: 130 × 157 × 48.5 mm.
• Take-off weight incl. battery: approx. 135 g.
• Battery weight: approx. 45 g.
• Flight modes: Management through drone, management through app, management through app and distant management, management through distant management and video goggles.
• Automated flight modes: Observe, drone, circle, rocket, highlight, route, helix, boomerang.
• Security options: propeller safety, return-to-home (RTH).

As talked about within the bullet factors above, there are three fundamental methods to regulate the drone: utterly autonomous, through the smartphone app, through the smartphone app with a distant management, or through video goggles. Simply what are the benefits and downsides of the completely different modes?

Controlling the DJI Neo with out every thing

On the highest of the DJI Neo you will see that two buttons, 4 spherical and one elongated LED in addition to six illuminated LED pictograms. That is all you must management the drone. By tapping adopted by urgent and holding the decrease button, you’ll be able to activate the DJI Neo, whereas the 5 LED indicators present you the battery standing.

Utilizing the higher button, now you can select between one in all six flight modes, represented by the small symbols. The sixth mode is a “Customized Slot”, which you’ll assign to one of many different present three modes. An extended press on the choice mode then triggers the launch course of:

• Place the drone on the palm of your hand and maintain it steadily at head peak with the digital camera dealing with you.
• The drone acknowledges your face and declares the beginning of its ‘journey’.
• The DJI Neo begins the chosen flight maneuver and routinely takes photographs or movies.

The flight maneuver all the time ends with you. Merely maintain out the palm of your hand and the drone will routinely land. As loopy as that sounds, it normally works very properly in actuality.

Controlling the DJI Neo through the app

If you would like extra management, you can even join the DJI Neo to the smartphone app. To do that, the drone launches a WLAN and also you join your smartphone to it. Within the evaluation, this normally works after the preliminary setup, though we needed to undergo the connection wizard a couple of occasions. This solely took a couple of seconds, however remains to be a bit annoying. Hopefully a future firmware replace will present a treatment.

The launch course of is then virtually similar to the three steps talked about above for controlling the drone alone. Choose the specified mode within the app, press the beginning button, and maintain the drone within the palm of your hand in entrance of your face.

The primary benefit of the app is how one can customise the completely different modes. In comply with mode, as an example, you’ll be able to decide the gap or altitude at which the drone flies after you. In orbit mode, you’ll be able to specify the radius wherein the drone flies round you. We’ll return to the assorted flight maneuvers in additional element momentarily. The second benefit of the app is how one can view the video picture and monitor whether or not the drone is capturing the proper picture part always.

Third, you can even management the drone remotely through the app, though that is reasonably restricted enjoyable with the digitally responsive controls. You possibly can solely rotate the drone in flight—or not. It’s not doable to start the rotation easily or differ the rotation pace, and movies are correspondingly uneven. Nevertheless, in the case of photographs documenting a building website, this does not actually matter. As for video followers, there are distant controls from DJI or the pre-programmed maneuvers.

Controlling the DJI Neo remotely

As talked about at first, the DJI Neo helps numerous distant controls from the producer. The RC-N3 is included within the “Fly Extra Combo”. You possibly can clamp a smartphone onto the highest of the distant management, from the place you hook up with the smartphone utilizing a USB-C or Lightning adapter.

One other benefit: as a substitute of utilizing Wi-Fi in app mode, the distant management makes use of a proprietary wi-fi customary that considerably improves the flight traits. We are going to return to this later within the flight conduct part.

Controlling the DJI Neo with utilizing goggles

Sadly, we didn’t have any DJI video goggles accessible to check this function throughout the evaluation period. Nevertheless, for the sake of completeness, we don’t wish to withhold this selection from you. The particular side of this function is the way you now not want a smartphone to fly—the DJI Goggles 3 with the built-in wi-fi module will take over.

Automated flight modes

The DJI Neo provides a complete of eight automated flight modes, all of which run utterly autonomous and ideally, start and finish within the palm of your hand. Until explicitly talked about, the Neo additionally begins video recording the second it takes off.

These 5 modes could be chosen through devoted icons on the drone itself: Observe, Dronie, Circle, Rocket, and Highlight. There are three additional choices for the sixth icon on the drone, which is a customized slot: Path Monitoring, Helix, and Boomerang. As an alternative of describing these modes intimately, I like to recommend the next video from DJI, which explains how they work:

These automated flight modes labored as promised within the evaluation and delivered actually cool pictures. If you wish to begin the modes instantly through the drone, then it’s undoubtedly value configuring them beforehand by means of the app. As talked about: guarantee that the Neo has a transparent path for the deliberate maneuver as a result of there isn’t a collision detection as a consequence of a scarcity of sensors.

DJI Neo flight traits

The DJI Neo seems to be like a toy, and the $199 value for the essential model doesn’t essentially counsel it to be a racing drone. Nevertheless, the small drone is spectacular by way of pace and maneuverability, particularly for rookies.

An important info at a look:

• Most cilimb fee: 0.5 m/s (cine mode), 2 m/s (regular mode), 3 m/s (sport mode).
• Most descent pace: 0.5 m/s (cine mode), 2 m/s (regular mode), 2 m/s (sport mode).
• Most horizontal pace: 6 m/s (regular mode), 8 m/s (sport mode), 16 m/s (handbook mode).
• Most flight time: 17 min (18 min with out propeller safety).
• Most flight distance: 7 km.
• Battery capability: 1,435 mAh.

As with the assorted automated maneuvers, the DJI Neo can be completely secure within the air when manually controlling it. The optical sensors on the underside of the drone assist hold it secure even in gentle winds. We didn’t have a storm to check it out, however in response to the producer, the Neo is able to flying as much as a most wind pressure of 4 (8 m/s).

Flying is especially enjoyable with one of many devoted DJI distant controls. As an alternative of Wi-Fi, communication between the pilot and drone takes place through a specifically designed, low-latency and longer-range radio channel. Within the evaluation, the primary WLAN dropouts occurred at a distance of round 10 to 50 meters. In accordance with DJI, the RC-N3 distant management from the “Fly Extra Combo” has a variety of as much as 10 km in low-interference areas. Even in cities, the vary must be 1.5 to three km. Along with the vary, latency can be improved. In accordance with the producer, the numerous pause in WLAN operation turns into a barely noticeable delay of 120 ms, at the very least for non-racers.

Talking of racers: the DJI Neo flies at speeds of as much as 21.6 km/h in regular mode and as much as 28.8 km/h in sport mode. That is already fairly spectacular when flying manually and is sufficient to chase most joggers, skate boarders, or mountain bikers. Should you have been to fly manually with out stabilization, you’ll be able to even attain speeds of 57.6 km/h. A minimum of I am solely that quick on a motorcycle in free fall.

Final however not least, the built-in GPS must be talked about. If the drone loses its connection to the smartphone or the pilot loses monitor, a return-to-home operate is feasible—the DJI Neo then flies to the start line. GPS positioning additionally prevents the drone from being launched in prohibited areas or flown into such areas. The key phrase? Airports or different crucial infrastructure.

DJI claims a battery lifetime of 17 minutes with the propeller guard fitted as customary. In actuality, relying on the flight maneuvers, we get round 10 to 13 minutes per battery. Though this isn’t a nasty determine, it isn’t sufficient for extra advanced video shoots or longer sightseeing excursions with aerial help. The annoying factor is how the alternative batteries, which value $35, can’t be charged instantly through USB-C, however both within the drone itself or within the charging adapter from the “Fly Extra Combo”. Nevertheless, this prices one other $29.

Charging the battery within the drone itself takes 50 minutes from 0 to one hundred pc, at the very least in response to the producer. The charging adapter requires 60 minutes to recharge three utterly empty batteries.

DJI Neo picture high quality

Though the DJI Neo provides considerably much less digital camera tools than the opposite DJI drones, this isn’t a nasty factor, really. A minimum of in the case of non-public use or for social media recordings, the standard is ample, even when the producer’s costlier fashions are noticeably a category above.

An important options at a look:

• Digicam: 1/2 inch, 12 megapixel, F2.8, 117.6° discipline of view, 14 mm KB equal.
• Picture stabilization: single-axis gimbal, digital picture stabilizer (EIS).
• Video modes: 4K60 (4:3) with out EIS, 4K60 (16:9) with EIS, 1080p60 (9:16) with EIS.
• Reminiscence: 22 GB inner reminiscence, no SD card slot.

The DJI Neo has a 1/2 inch picture sensor with a decision of 12 megapixels. That is roughly equal to the digital camera tools that was customary in high smartphones till 2019—and roughly equal to what’s put in in present entry-level smartphones. The picture high quality of the DJI Neo can be roughly on this degree.

Whereas the 4K movies are very high-resolution in principle, the small print look much less clear. This isn’t so noticeable on a smartphone show, however on a comparatively new pocket book monitor, the recordings look reasonably grainy even for daylight pictures and the colours look considerably boring. The dynamic vary can be average. In comparison with present top-of-the-range smartphone cameras, brilliant areas of the picture are shortly overexposed. As I discussed, this isn’t so noticeable on a smartphone show.

Nevertheless, the picture stabilization is spectacular: the DJI Neo’s movies look easy and as in the event that they have been filmed on rails—the single-axis gimbal and the digital stabilizer do a extremely good job right here. Do not simply take my phrase for it, see for your self:

Ought to You Purchase the DJI Neo?

The place to Purchase the DJI Neo

You should buy the DJI Neo in three completely different configurations:

• Along with the drone and a battery, the essential $199 model contains spare propellers, instruments to swap them out, and a charging cable.
• For $289, the “Fly Extra Combo” additionally features a distant management for docking onto a smartphone and a battery charging case for the three included batteries. We reviewed this model of the DJI Neo.
• The “Movement Fly Extra Combo” features a controller for one-handed operation (DJI RC Movement 3) and video goggles (DJI Goggles 3) for $429.

Should you already personal DJI {hardware}, you can even use numerous appropriate equipment for the DJI Neo. These might be, as an example, the controllers talked about above or the video goggles from the Movement “Fly Extra Combo” or different DJI controllers such because the Avata 2.