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DJI has enjoyed near-total dominance of the global consumer drone market for years, but more recently a couple of challengers have identified a gap in DJI’s lineup – tiny selfie / FPV drones – and exploited this space to offer this new line of drones for beginners.
HoverAir’s X1, successors for which have just been announced in the form of the Apple-esque monikered X1 Pro and X1 Pro Max, and BetaFPV’s Cetus X were both well reviewed last year. Now, DJI is looking to take on those rivals with its latest model, the aggressively priced Neo, which is its smallest and lightest 4K drone ever.
Weighing just 4.76oz / 135g, the Neo can take off from the palm of your hand, and capture stabilized 4K videos with AI subject tracking and DJI’s Quickshots feature. It can track you and stick close, keeping you center of the frame for selfies with a difference, plus it can perform six automated flight moves: Boomerang, Helix, Circle, Rocket, Dronie, and Spotlight, before returning to your palm.
It can be controlled without a remote, or paired with DJI’s Fly app, remote controllers and FPV goggles, as well as being voice operated, while its tiny size and propellor guards allow you to safely maneuver into and around tight spaces.
The DJI Neo also has a tempting standalone price tag of just $199 / £169 / AU$299 – in fact, I’d call that pretty aggressive pricing. The Neo Fly More Combo kit (including three batteries and an RC controller) costs £299 / AU$539 but isn’t available in the US, where there’s a Combo kit instead (three batteries, no controller) for $289.
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Neo knows kung-fu
Positioned somewhere between the Ryze Tello beginner drone and DJI’s FPV drone, the DJI Avata 2, the Neo is designed to be as simple a drone as they come, equipped with impressive flight and camera features to quickly elevate your flights skills and aerial content.
The simplest option for getting airborne is to select your desired shooting mode on the drone’s mode button, after which the Neo takes flight from your palm, capturing 4K 30fps / 1080p 60fps video or 12MP stills, before returning to your hand, all without the use of a remote.
Alternatively, you can control Neo using the Fly app on your phone using virtual joysticks, or explore FPV piloting using DJI’s Goggles (which are an extra cost).
Whether you want to be intelligently tracked as you’re moving, or after some cool flight moves from above, such as Boomerang, which sees the Neo fly in an oval pattern around you, the idea is that you won’t need any prior drone experience to get the aerial shots you like.
With single-axis stablization, DJI says the Neo can hover steadily in up to level 4 wind conditions. It packs 22GB of internal storage, which equates to around 40 minutes of 4K video or 55 minutes of 1080p video.
There’s a built-in mic if you want audio too, with the app automatically eliminating propellor noise, while if you’re serious about audio quality you can connect a Bluetooth mic such as the DJI Mic 2.
We’re in the early days of conducting our full review of the DJI Neo. If it delivers on its impressive specs, it could be the gateway to aerial piloting and photography for a whole new wave of beginners.
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