Fantastic drone, despite obstacle avoidance blindspots – TechCrunch

I’m supposed to get Photos as soon as I take something out of the box. I know it better. The rule is not to play with the gadget first. I’m going to crash the drone. I always do.

I crashed it DJI Mavic Air 2 and broke a landing site. I flew the drone before taking photos, and of course the drone found a tree. I swear it’s not my fault this time. I quickly realized that Mavic Air 2’s obstacle avoidance technology couldn’t keep up with the competition.

And yet I love this drone. The Mavic Air 2 builds on the success of the original and is equipped with updated technology. Now it can go faster and further and take better pictures while performing automated flight paths and object tracking.

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Flying the DJI Mavic Air 2 is a pleasure and offers everything a drone needs: fast speed, high-resolution camera, long battery life, enormous range and avoidance of obstacles. And it’s relatively cheap at $ 799.

I am happy. And I don’t say that often when I check gadgets. Little is missing from this product. It’s not perfect – the avoidance system has trouble recognizing obstacles on the side of the drone – and yet I can easily recommend this drone. The DJI Mavic Air 2 is the best consumer drone to date.

I wish I could show a video of an epic kayaking tour where the Mavic Air 2 follows our boats on rapids and around a gnarled river. But I am writing this review during the COVID-19 lockout. The best thing I can do is watch videos of my Golden Retriever Nova chewing on a stick and mowing my garden.

It is fast and able to reach 40 miles an hour. The range is excellent – I was able to stream videos from almost the stratosphere. The automated flight paths are a great way to add drama to any video. Simply pick a person or a lawn tractor and the drone will follow and even circle if prompted to do so.

The crash

I love the Mavic Air 2 even though it crashed while running an automated video. Twice.

Here’s the thing. I’m known at TechCrunch as the guy who crashes drones. I want to think that this is because I use them a lot during the review process to find their limits and shortcomings. Maybe I’m just a bad pilot. Our original coverage of DJI Mavic was delayed because I plunged the drone into an aviary and snatched a handful of props. Replacement had to be shipped from China. With the Mavic Air 2, I missed the bird house but found a tree and a landing leg halved when it fell to the ground. Later, when the drone was filming me on the mower, it got stuck in a tree after not seeing a massive branch.

I don’t think these crashes are my fault.

The DJI Mavic Air is pre-installed with flight routines. The idea has its roots in the drone selfie – where someone stands on a picturesque cliff and lifts the drone backwards and points to the waving group of people as it reveals the breathtaking landscape. This DJI drone can do this automatically. Just pick a topic – me on a mower – and click start. The drone counts down from three and begins to fly while the person or object remains in focus.

As you can see in the video above, everything went great. The drone took off from a distance of about 3 meters, scanned the bird house where another drone had previously been used, and slowly circled my garden until it found a tree. I assumed the drone’s obstacle avoidance system would have stopped the drone if it detected an object. That happened during the last twelve flights. But this time the drone didn’t identify the branches and crashed.

I don’t think it’s my fault.

The drone has difficulty recognizing objects when it moves from side to side. There are several sensors on the front, back and bottom of the drone and none on the side. In the second crash, the drone was in a similar motion, moving from side to side as it settled on a large branch.

The drone has survived both crashes and can still fly and I have a great time. The drone is fast and stable. The range is incredible, but when the FAA reads this, the drone has never left my line of sight.

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According to the DJI, the Mavic Air 2 has a video transmission range of 10 km. In my experience, these area numbers are not achievable in the real world. Often the range is more than half this distance, but still impressive and far out of the operator’s line of sight.

Drones are increasingly adding technology to capture personal experiences and objects not far away. The Mavic Air 2 seems to have been developed especially for this task. Sure, it can fly in a straight line forever, but it has the ability to track an object and offer a unique viewpoint.

The Mavic Air 2 incorporates the latest DJI object tracking technology and works well as long as the limitations are understood. Simply drag a field around an object and the software snaps onto the object and keeps it centered in the field of view of the camera. Combined with the obstacle detection sensors, this offers the Mavic Air 2 an impressive range of functions.

DJI’s new property tracking is an improvement over previous generations. Apparently, there are no problems detecting large objects in front of, behind or under the drone.

In my experience, the Mavic Air discovered 2 power cables, birdhouses and large branches as long as they weren’t on the drone side. And it sees people and vehicles well. Nova is difficult to track down. Most of the time, the drone loses it even when it is running. When the drone detects a possible collision, the controller beeps with anger.

With object tracking, the operator is freed from being in front of the camera. With this function, the possibilities are suddenly unlimited. As stated above, the Mavic Air 2 sensors are missing on the side of the drone, which is its limiting factor. Use it in a field or in a parking lot and you are good. Use it on a forested river or path and you will have a bad time.

Skydio makes a consumer drone with similar functions. However, in my experience, the object detection of the Skydio drone is better than that of the Mavic Air 2, which makes the tracking functions more useful. With a Skydio drone, users can autonomously fly the drone through areas where the Mavic Air 2 cannot navigate.

The Mavic Air 2’s camera is fantastic considering the price of the drone. It easily captures the blue sky and blurry clouds, which is often difficult for cameras in consumer drones. Colors pop and landscape photos come to life. The 48MP sensor provides enough detail to enlarge areas with little loss of quality. The camera can record RAW files, and DJI has released a range of ND filters that can be attached to the front of the lens to give the user more control over the lighting.

The best thing is that the Mavic Air 2 has excellent battery life. When using the drone in normal mode, I had an average flight time of 30 minutes in moderate wind. The battery life drops to around 25 minutes in strong wind or spirited flying in sports mode. During my time with the Mavic Air 2, I flew the drone more than a dozen times. I don’t think I’ve ever had to charge the controller.

Conclusion

The Mavic Air 2 was a long time coming. I’ve used almost every DJI consumer drone since the original phantom, and every generation skips the last in terms of features and convenience. The original Mavic freed me from carrying a large pelican case with a phantom drone. The second generation of Mavic has added a better camera. The little DJI Spark made drones even more portable, but the camera and range were missing. The DJI Mavic Mini met this need with updated technology in a foldable design, and yet the camera is overwhelming.

The Mavic Air 2 builds on the success of the original, but is equipped with updated technology. Now the Mavic Air 2 can fly faster and further and take better pictures while performing automated flight paths and object tracking.

The Mavic Air 2 is the drone for most consumers. It hits the sweet spot of skills for the price.