I’ve really been loving DJI products over the last 12 months, using the Osmo Pocket 3 almost daily alongside the Mic 2, and my partner who isn’t tech savvy at all, has also been using both without any issues. Whilst DJI were primarily known for their drones originally, they weren’t for the faint hearted often requiring solid investments with time to learn how to fly but also cost, but that all changes with the DJI Neo, which is one of the cheapest brand-name drones on the market, but also one that is extremely capable and easy to use.
The biggest difference with the Neo outside of its size at just 135 grams is the fact that it can take off and land from the palm of your hand with just the click of a button. Whilst this isn’t the first drone to be able to do this, it does do an extremely great job.
For those that have no interest in flying a drone, but want the fantastic shots that only a drone can provide, there’s six modes that can be performed without touching a controller. Dronie which goes in and out, circle which circles around you, rocket which goes straight up and down, helix which spins around you in at an angled motion, boomerang which spins whilst zooming out, and the most impressive one called Spotlight.
Spotlight is the one I can see most people using outside of the occasional landscape shot, it uses subject tracking to follow you around, staying at a health distance and whilst also staying extremely balanced to the point that the person on the other end of the video would absolutely think that it’s a person shooting you.
This does a fairly phenomenal job at tracking you, even whilst running, cycling or performing other fast-paced actions you can rely on the Neo being there to capture the moment, and once you’ve had this experience, you’ll be fairly amazed.
If you do want to take more manual control, you can also do that with your mobile phone or by purchasing the Fly More Combo ($539) or the Motion Fly More Combo ($839) which comes with either a standard controller that your phone can slot into to watch as you fly, or FPS goggles and a one-handed remote for those wanting more immersion.
THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $299 (STANDALONE) OR $539 WITH CONTROLLER/BATTERIES
Even if you decide to take control in this way, the DJI Neo and the Fly More app intuitively teach you every step of the way, and there’s a good amount of guards around the propellers that even if you crash (I did quite a bit), it’ll be well protected. There’s also voice control if you choose to yell at your drone as opposed to control it with a controller.
If you’re using the controller (as opposed to your phone), you can expect to get about 10km of distance, with the Neo having DJI’s fantastic return to home feature that SHOULD get your drone back safely if you run out of battery or navigation fails you. Similarly, the drone has Level-4 Wind resistance which actually did stand up in some of Melbourne’s most recent wind.
As far as video quality goes, the Neo has a 1/2-inch image sensor for 12MP stills and it can produce 4K video at 30 FPS. It’s not going to be the best on the market, but if you’re just uploading footage online, or for your own personal use it’s absolutely fantastic, especially at the sub $300 AUD price point.
The Neo comes with 22GB of internal storage which is enough for about 40 minutes of video, and you can easily transfer this off your drone using the app as well, so it’s more than enough storage.
@shannongrixti The DJI Neo is a super affordable drone that can fly itself #DJINeo #DJI #DJINeoDrone #DJIDrone #Drone #Tech
As far as battery life goes, you get about 18 minutes of flight time, so I would recommend grabbing the Fly More combo which comes with two extra batteries and a two way charging hub that can also act as a power bank to reverse charge other devices.
I’d have found it hard to recommend some of DJI’s more expensive drones to those that were thinking of dabbling in this space, but there are absolutely no hesitations with the DJI Neo based on its low cost and even lower barrier to entry when it comes to difficulty.
