DJI Avata (2022): info, price and first look at the FPV drone

Consumer drones fall into two categories. Classic drones, and FPV drones. In the second family, there are drones piloted via VR headsets, in order to be able to see the view from the drone live and thus guide it. Unlike traditional drones, these aircraft are piloted completely manually, with no attitude control. The pilot can both take more fluid trajectories and closer to those of an aerobatic plane, just as he can crash his aircraft much more easily.

Its shots are still different from those of traditional drones, which always keep their horizon line straight. The plans are more aerial and on YouTube, many of the clips have generated millions of views for their stunning points of view. DJI, the specialist in consumer drones, sensed the interest coming. Where most FPV drones are handcrafted, the Chinese firm has embarked on the industrialization of the FPV drone. A year and a half ago, it presented its first model. But the volume of sales seem to be questionable.

Very expensive, quite big and far from being as advanced in terms of maneuverability as a home-made drone, the DJI FPV has not found its target. Today, DJI returns with a second opus, called Avata. More compact, it was designed by the engineers to be both more relevant for amateur and professional pilots, as well as accessible to novices. Different modes allow you to configure the controls and the level of difficulty as you wish. The format is more like that of FPV drones as we imagine them.

For once, DJI has not made a clean sweep of the past. Several equipment from the first generation of his drone are in the game. We think in particular of the one-handed controller, which allows you to direct the drone by making gestures. No competitor offers such an experience which can be more fun. Especially since on the headset side, users will be able to enjoy a resolution of 1080p at 100 fps. A smooth image, with a delay of only 30 milliseconds.

Functionality rather well thought out, DJI now uses augmented reality. Elements are added to the image captured by the camera. One of the most practical is certainly a point targeting precisely the place where the drone took off. With first person piloting, this kind of information is important to really have “in view”. Although DJI’s drone can hover, it is still not as easy to fly as a conventional consumer drone, where the pilot only has to operate a joystick for the drone moves straight ahead, up, down, or spins.

In the event of a difficult landing, where the drone lands on its back, DJI has thought of everything. A “turtle” mode offers the possibility of putting the device on the right side. Compared to the DJI FPV released in March 2021, this new DJI Avata is also more solid with protections around the propellers. Protections that also serve other purposes: “Built-in propeller guard allows Avata to bounce off of a collision with an object, stay airborne and continue flying”wrote DJI in its press release.

With a range for the headset of 10 kilometers, pilots should not encounter any problem in addition to its autonomy of 18 minutes. A warning device is also present on the device in the event of a plane or helicopter nearby.

DJI Avata: between the DJI FPV is the Mini 3 Pro

Gone is the FPV drone only designed for speed (the DJI FPV can go up to 140 km/h and reach 100 km/h in less than 2 seconds). The new Avata returns to the key word that connects all DJI products: image. The goal of the new drone is to be able to offer the maximum possibility for shooting. The more compact appearance of the device offers its owner the possibility of filming outdoors as well as indoors. Its weight is only 410 grams (against 795 grams for the DJI FPV), in a smaller format than the DJI Mini 3 Pro. That is to say…

In horizontal flight, the device can reach a maximum of 97.2 km/h, which is already good for a drone. The camera, meanwhile, offers 4K at 60 frames per second, or 2.7K up to 120 frames per second. Enough to allow slow motion on quite honorable image definitions. The 48-megapixel sensor opens at f/2.8 and includes three types of corrections to vary the types of shots digitally: normal, wide and ultra-wide. In comparison, the DJI PFV could not offer 2.7K at 120 frames per second.

More generally, the model does better than the first version of FPV drone from DJI but is however not up to a Mini 3 Pro in terms of images. We note the absence of photo support in RAW format for example. The autonomy remains smaller (the Mini 3 Pro can offer 34 minutes).

As for the price, it is 579 euros for the drone only, and 1,429 with the headset and the motion controller. A “Fly More” pack is also available, for an additional 249 euros and notably adds two batteries and a charging station.