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DJI Mini 4 Pro

dji.com

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Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#251

Post by bloodyplonker22 »

nebula8804 wrote: post #242
GraceCat123 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any good US competitors recommend?

No because DJI, XPENG, BYD, and a ton of other Chinese companies have this 'move fast and break things' mentality X100 that most American firms don't have. They ran circles around GoPro and their attempts. Closest analog is Tesla/SpaceX but who knows if even those guys last long term when the guy running it is so easily distracted by nonsense (eg. Buying Twitter, starting yet another company, playing hours of Polytop…

Come on. American software startups literally invented that motto. Just because you may be working at a slower paced company doesn't mean America does not have it.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#252

Post by system2 »

javchz wrote: post #156
nickthegreek wrote: post #18

$759 for those wondering.

As someone who is not familiar with drones, it's this a good bang for they buck deal?

For the tech you are getting yes. Phantom 4 was $1700 3 years ago. You get more tech in a very tiny package and especially at toy class which is under 250 grams. This it 249 so you can fly nearly everywhere as long as you don't bug people with it.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#253

Post by palata »

nebula8804 wrote: post #242
GraceCat123 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any good US competitors recommend?

No because DJI, XPENG, BYD, and a ton of other Chinese companies have this 'move fast and break things' mentality X100 that most American firms don't have. They ran circles around GoPro and their attempts. Closest analog is Tesla/SpaceX but who knows if even those guys last long term when the guy running it is so easily distracted by nonsense (eg. Buying Twitter, starting yet another company, playing hours of Polytop…

> No because DJI, XPENG, BYD, and a ton of other Chinese companies have this 'move fast and break things' mentality X100 that most American firms don't have.

Respectfully, that's ridiculous. The Silicon Valley has a long tradition of "move fast and break things".

No no no, this time, it's just that the Chinese companies are simply a lot better than the Western drone companies. Yes, there are many excuses to make ("it's cheaper for them"), but even without considering the price, the Western drones mostly feel like DJI 10 years ago.

The Parrot Anafi has been fairly nice for a few years now, but for some reason Parrot struggles to sell them (I suspect that US companies dismiss them because they are not from the US?). Skydio just announced a new drone that seems reasonable. Both quite a lot more expensive than DJI, so here is your excuse.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#254

Post by system2 »

willio58 wrote: post #62

Whoever developed this website was probably told "We want it to look like Apple.com" and didn't veer one inch from that request. Not to say it looks bad, but it does feel unoriginal to me.

It might look like Apple but their product demo in pages are extremely well thought. Especially video intros blending with mid-page areas. I am always excited to see their new product pages because they are one-upping every time they release a new one.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#255

Post by system2 »

endisneigh wrote: post #20

it would be neat to mount some sort of weather proof container on a tree with a solar panel that it could go into, so then it's like a bird. could imagine some shared spec and network of these so they can charge, lying in wait.

They have industrial models for that. It is so futuristic.

https://enterprise.dji.com/dock

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#256

Post by quailfarmer »

devit wrote: post #216
steve_adams_86 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my experience with the mini 3. It’s incredible for sure, but once some trees and/or structures are in the way, it falls apart in a hurry.

Is there any system that works for at least 10-20km without line of sight, supporting a video feed usable for guidance, without cell phone network coverage? Maybe something where there are two drones, and one flies high with line of sight to both the user and the low-flying drone so that it can act as a relay like a satellite would? Or something that uses radio frequencies that bounce over the atmosphere, and if band…

Those things are all possible, but you’re not going to find it in a COTS product.

The key terms in the link budget is directionality. If you use a phased array (like Starlink) or a parabolic dish, you can boost your range tremendously. This is how 4x4 MIMO WiFi can achieve gigabit speeds with the same power limit.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#257

Post by palata »

GraceCat123 wrote: post #228
ben7799 wrote: post #22

I've had the original Mini since it came out. Other than damaging a prop from it hitting a blade of grass on landing it is in perfect shape. Yes, they are so fragile I landed very smoothly in the grass and soft grass is enough to damage the props! I don't fly it as much as I used to. These new ones are certainly an engineering marvel with how much they have added and still kept it under 249g. The big one to me though…

Are there any good US competitors recommend?

As a consumer, honestly, go for DJI.

A few years ago, assuming you had been willing to pay more for something worse but for ideological reasons (like you would buy a Fairphone, I totally get that), I would have adviced for an Anafi. But now the Anafi AI and Anafi USA are a lot more expensive, that's not for consumers anymore IMHO.

As a company, if you cannot go for DJI, then the alternatives to Mavic are Parrot Anafi and Skydio, I guess. For the bigger drones (like the Matrice series), honestly it's hard. Just be prepared to pay a lot more for a much worse product.

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#259

Post by palata »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #64
coder543 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The size of the drone is not some secret... you can search for the Mini 4 Pro on YouTube and find a bunch of hands-on reviews. The DJI Mini drones are very compact. The DJI Air 3 is arguably the next level up in the lineup, and it weighs 3x as much and is noticeably larger. The "teeny-tiny drone" you're describing just doesn't sound comparable or particularly useful.

It isn’t useful at all. Quite boring, frankly. I just realized the DJI that my friend has, is a mini. It’s small, but some of his hand-built ones are smaller.

> It’s small, but some of his hand-built ones are smaller.

Aside from the size, how do his hand-built ones compare in terms of camera, gimbal, remote controller, radio, battery life, and potentially SDK?

Re: DJI Mini 4 Pro

#260

Post by willdr »

Saris wrote: post #77
spankalee wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a new thing? I had the original Mavic Mini and installed the DJI Fly App (v1.2.1 on my phone now) from the Play Store. edit: here's the listing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dji.go.v5 Though it doesn't show up in search from the web. edit 2: The Android download on their site is definitely an APK and not a Play Store link: https://www.dji.com/downloads/djiapp/dji-fly Why in the world would th…

Even their play store app downloads a bundle of files to run after you launch it for the first time, which is against Google ToS.

Is it? Pretty much any serious game on Android does this.
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