DJI has been knocking it out of the park recently with the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 and DJI Mic 2 both improving hugely on the original, so when I learned that a DJI Avata 2 was on the way, I was eager to see how it improved and it does across the board.
The DJI Avata 2 is a little action-packed drone that is super light and zips around extremely quickly, but it’s unique features that seperate it from other DJI drones are its Goggles which allow for a first-person view as you fly the drone as well as the super intuitive RC Motion 3 controller which has also been improved.
Speaking of the design of the Avata drone itself, it’s a lot more unified with the camera housing being less prominent, with the battery compartment feeling a lot sleeker and more part of the actual unit.
There’s a new battery charger which houses the batteries more securely, but can also transfer remaining battery left in those batteries that aren’t full into one unit so that you can take advantage of the new and improved 23 minutes of battery life in each battery.
The Avata 2 comes with 46GB of internal storage which is a huge improvement and the image quality has been improved thanks to the new 1/1.3-inch sensor that now also supports D-Log M. Just like other DJI products, you’ve got RockSteady and HorizonSteady to ensure that your footage is super smooth as well.
Low-light footage has been improved and you can still take advantage of 4K/60FPS and HDR for good measure as well. In terms of sharing footage back to your phone, there’s now an improved connection speed between the drone and your app in order to share footage quickly.
The most exciting updates come in the way of the DJI Goggles 3 which now includes two cameras on the outside to let you quickly tap on the side of the goggles to let you see around you either in 2D or 3D with a good amount of depth. You can also view a picture-in-picture mode which shows you the view from the Avata as well as the view from your camera so that you can have full spatial awareness of what’s around you whilst flying.
Whilst I didn’t use the original Avata, I feel like this is a huge improvement on the previous goggles that were just used to show you the view from your drone, and frankly, I can’t imagine flying without both views.
They’ve also been improved with a more integrated forehead pad and they still include the Diopter adjustment, and I was surprised just how clear the vision was with minimal adjustment without wearing my glasses (that I rely quite heavily on). This is also down to the Micro-OLED lenses that have a 1080p resolution as well.
The other part that made the Avata so special was the RC Motion controller which has been upgraded to the DJI RC Motion 3. It’s now a lot-lighter with double the battery life, with the buttons and dials re-adjusted, and it’s just an absolute joy to use to control the drone.
Think of it has a mix between the Wiimote and the Nunchuk and that’s how intuitive it is to use. The trigger is used to accelerate with a great amount of precision, and you literally just subtly twist your arms left or right to turn and angle up or town to control the pitch.
It’s still a little daunting at first, but once you get the hang or speeds and how much movement is required, it’s not only super joyful to use, but it also allows for some epic shots that I just don’t know would be possible without it.
There’s also an AR cursor that makes getting around the menus through the Googles a joy, and can be used to pick a landing spot among many other things, that can just really add to the ease of the whole experience.
Whilst I wasn’t super keen to rush into any crazy flying experiences, you can perform acrobatics using the drone with just one flick of a button on the controller including a 360 front/back flip, left and right rolls and a 180 degree drift, which if you were into action sports, or just capturing landscapes, you’d feel confident doing this without spending too much time with it.
If you’re more of a seasoned drone flyer, you can also grab the DJI FPV Remote Controller 3 which cleverly has its sticks snap away and placed into the controller. If you’re a gamer, you’ll feel right at home with this as it literally mimics a gaming controller, but honestly, the RC Motion controller is too much fun to put down.
All-in-all, it’s another home-run from DJI with the Avata 2. It really feels like DJI are looking at every single facet of its products and associated accessories and making both minor and major improvements to re-invent the entire product and it’s no different here.
