Just a few months after DJI announced its drone foldable Mini 3 Pro with improved obstacle detection, the company has followed up with another release for 2022: a radical redesign of the DJI FPV called Avata, the company’s first drone with full propeller protection, and its second drone focused on first-person viewing. These characteristics make it more suitable for flights where unplanned impacts are a real risk, ideal for a beginner pilot like me when I tried it in the park.
The original DJI FPV was a great starting point for DJI, which has generally targeted its drones at content creators, selling them on its ability to capture smooth, stable aerial footage without requiring the skills of an experienced pilot. Instead, FPV catered to a growing market of drone pilots who are primarily interested in the thrill of flying and virtually “climbing” into the cockpits of their custom-built quadcopters with video goggles streaming live from the drone. their drones. The DJI FPV was built for speed and performance, trading in the foldable design and fully stabilized camera of most DJI drones for a design that wasn’t as portable.
With Avata, it seems that DJI is trying to bring back some of that portability, to make it easy to take the drone to unique places. At the same time, DJI is making its foray into the first-person view drone segment even more appealing to novice pilots who want to get into FPV without building their own drone.
Like the DJI FPV, the DJI Avata places the drone body, including the single-axis gimbal camera (can only look up and down) and the battery, on top of the propellers and motors. Most DJI drones invert that design so you can get better ground shots, but that’s not the focus here.
The most obvious upgrade to the DJI Avata are non-removable aerodynamic propeller guards that add strength to the fuselage and protect it, as well as the delicate propellers, from minor collisions. The DJI Avata can even automatically right itself if it lands upside down without any physical intervention.
The Avata is somewhere in the middle of the scale when it comes to weight, at least for small drones. It is heavier than Mini 3 Pro, which DJI specifically designed to weigh less than 250 grams so that when used for non-commercial recreational purposes it does not have to be registered. But DJI FPV it weighed 795 grams, and DJI has managed to cut that almost in half, as the Avata weighs 410 grams. Depending on where you live, the drone may need to be officially registered, and in my case, it also required a beginner drone license to fly.
Custom FPV drones with built-in cameras (often referred to as cinewhoops) typically boast flight times of a few minutes to 10 minutes, depending on their size, but DJI promises flight times of up to 18 minutes with Avata. Can you really fly for 18 minutes on a fully charged battery? No. Conditions like wind, flight speed, and even how often you go up and down will affect battery life. DJI also promises a 10km flight range with the Avata, so you also need to factor in the flight time needed for the drone to return to you. But during the handful of test flights I’ve done so far, where I was definitely taking it easy as a novice pilot, I was able to fly for more than 10 minutes.
Although the DJI Avata is potentially a sturdier drone to fly thanks to its propeller guards, it does not have a pair of sensors to avoid obstacles on his forehead like the DJI FPV: a victim of the extreme size reduction. But at the bottom has a sensor system infrareds and a couple of downward pointing cameras to help you out to precisely hold your current position when you activate its Emergency Brake and Flyover mode. These features can also improve indoor flights, where satellite navigation is not an option. Downward-facing cameras also help the Avata auto landing, which ensures the drone comes down to a safe place and warns to the pilot when an alternate landing location is recommended. During my tests, it was never willing to land on grass.
Probably not the drone you would choose if content creation is tu priority, but the DJI Avata features a 1/1.7-inch 48MP CMOS sensor (larger than the one in the DJI FPV) capable of recording 4K video at 60fps, or 2.7K at 120fps, through a lens with an f/2.8 aperture and a slightly expanded 155-degree ultra-wide field of view. The onboard storage has enough capacity for about 20 minutes of video at full 4K resolution, but it can be expanded with a microSD card.
Users can also activate two different modes of electronic image stabilization for smoother images: RockSteady, which tries to eliminate all camera shake, and HorizonSteady, which tries to keep the image perfectly level. But with only one gimbal of an axis, you will see that the drone is shaken by strong winds during a flight.
Users have access to two different flight modes when using the DJI Avata with the motion controller from DJI optionally included along with the original DJI FPV: normal mode, where the speed of the drone is reduced and all safety features are active, and sport mode, where the speed is increased and some of the safety features are disabled. When used with the DJI FPV Remote Controller 2, a manual mode is also available, where users have full control over the DJI Avata, including advanced maneuverability and speeds in excess of 144 km/h.
They also debut today together with Avata the successors of the DJI FPV Goggles v2 – A much smaller, lighter and sleeker alternative now simply called DJI Goggles 2. They come on a leash it just goes around the back of the head. Despite the smaller size, the DJI Goggles 2 now feature a micro-OLED screen with adjustable diopters, so, in theory at least, they can allow some people who wear glasses to use the Goggles 2 without them. The new headset now also transmits video digitally from the DJI Avata at full 1080P resolution at 100fps with a latency of only 30 milliseconds, while its predecessor did a 1440×810 a 120 fps.
Although buttons are often the preferred option for those who need rely on muscle memory, the DJI Goggles 2 have none. Instead, on the right side of the hullyou’ll find a small operable touch panel with one finger. Using intuitive swipe gestures, you can access several different menus that slide on the screen and quickly exit any menu or window with a quick two-finger tap. It actually works quite well and becomes very intuitive to use over time, but since it only comes on one side of the headset, right-handed pilots using the motion controller of DJI will have to pause your flight to make quick configuration adjustments.
Like the DJI FPV Goggles v2, the DJI Goggles 2 relies on an external battery that can be stored in a pocket connected physically to the glasses with a wire. Help keep DJI Goggles 2 light and more comfortable to wear, but it would certainly be welcome to have the ability to mount this to the back of the head strap.
The DJI Avata is available starting today at DJI online store and most authorized resellers. For those who already have control and compatible video glasses, the drone itself costs $629, but there are also packages available for those just starting out. The most expensive option is the $1 DJI Avata Pro-View Combo388, which includes the drone, the controller DJI and the new DJI Goggles 2 goggles (which don’t seem to be available on their own yet). For those looking to save a couple hundred bucks, the $1 DJI Avata Fly Smart Combo168 combines the drone and DJI Motion Controller with the older DJI FPV Goggles V2. Also recommended is the DJI Avata Fly More Kit, which adds two additional DJI Avata Intelligent Flight Batteries (which cost $129 each) and a slim charging hub that holds four batteries for $279.