The latest drone from embattled UAV maker DJI is a quick, light little beast that costs only $299 and weighs less than 249 grams or 8.74 ounces.
One other useful thing about it, aside from the Mini 4K drone’s specs, is that it doesn’t require an FAA flying license to be operated, making it useful if the U.S. government really does ban DJI drones from the skies.
This of course only applies if you live in the United States, but it’s handy to know.
DJI itself is a company facing increasing scrutiny and an increasing series of legal sanctions in the United States. This isn’t due to the quality of its drones, which is as high as it’s ever been, if not higher.
Instead it’s due to a rising wave of sentiment against the Chinese government by some high-level members of the U.S. government, and arguments by many of them that DJI may be a threat to U.S. national security due to purported ties with the CCP.
None of this however takes away from the specs or features of the DJI Mini 4K drone, which are rather nice and packed into a very affordable device.
With the Mini 4K, we see one of the most useful drones yet released from a major brand like DJI at such a low price.
This little drone could be particularly useful as a lightly-priced entry into the world of quality aerial photos and video.
The DJI Mini 4K can record 4K UHD video at up to 30fps while also being capable of capturing aerial footage in a respectable 2.7K resolution at a robust 60fps.
It also comes with many of the usual essential features that any starting drone buyer would need for all kinds of photo and video work.
Built into the 4K Mini is a 3-axis camera gimbal, plenty of flight range, a very durable battery life and a 2x digital zoom that even works with the drone camera’s 4K video setting.
The little drone doesn’t have the 4K/60p HDR video of its bigger cousins such as the Mini 4 Pro, but they both have a similar size and form factor.
Most crucially though, if you want to start playing with drones without spending too much, the DJI Mini 4K is just about as good as it gets.
Its price tag of just $299 makes it far cheaper than the Mini 4 Pro, which costs $759.
Another very useful factor with this little drone is its very size and weight.
Because it weighs less than 250 grams or 8.8 ounces, at least in the United States, it doesn’t need a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) registration or federal Remote ID procedures to be flown.
In other words, as long as you’re flying it recreationally and in permitted airspace, you can just unpack it, charge it up and let it buzz its way up into the sky.
The DJI Mini 4K can go quite high and far into those skies too. It has a ceiling of 4,000 meters or 13,123 feet and a range of roughly 10 kilometers or 6.2 miles.
The little drone’s flight speed is pretty good too. With its brushless motor, it can move along at 16 meters per second and has enough wind resistance to handle wind speeds of up to 24mph or 38 km/h. This is roughly equal to a strong breeze.
With one battery charge, the Mini 4K drone can fly for as long as 31 minutes. However, if you splurge $450 on DJI’s Fly More bundle with the drone included, you can expand its total flight time to an hour and a half.
This may seem pricey but bear in mind that the same bundle package for the DJI Mini 4 Pro costs $1,100 or so.
Overall, this newest, extremely affordable drone from DJI offers everything a beginner needs to really enjoy a flexible, quality drone flying experience.
Essential features like one-tap takeoff and landing, a return-to-home setting and several preset flight modes are also part of its internal feature set.
You can of course also learn how to fly your Mini 4K drone on the fly via step-by-step instructions through DJI’s phone app.
For capturing photos and videos, the DJI Mini 4 drone may not be as robust as its cousins, but it has several useful photo settings for easily taking excellent photos with its camera’s 48MP, 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor.
Overall, it’s one of the best starter UAV options I’ve seen released so far from a top brand at this kind of low price.
