The initial version of the Mavic Mini was a great drone at the time, packing DJI’s innovative design and technological capabilities into a small body that was just below the weight limit, which required registration in a variety of countries. The Mavic Mini was ideal for leisure exploration, but the absence of features as well as a weak camera prevented it in its use for anything other purposes. The launch of Mini 2 Mini 2 (sans ‘Mavic’ branding) provided features on par with more expensive models and an incredibly better camera however, the quality of the images was not at the level of pixels. In the present, DJI is going above and beyond incremental upgrades with its most recent model which is that of the DJI Mini 3 Pro, that combines the compact frame with a better camera and new gimbal that can rotate 90 degrees to allow vertical video.
DJI Mini 3 Pro is the most recent version from DJI’s light Mini family, with a excellent camera, which is normally to a larger drone. The Mini 3 Pro is apropos of the “Pro” name thanks to its high-quality images as well as a variety of advanced features. For the first time, DJI is allowing customers to select between two different controllers.
Specifications
Brand: DJI
Camera 48 megapixel (effective) 1/1.3-inch camera with CMOS sensor
Speed: 16 m/s (36mph)
Weight: <249g (standard battery), ~290g (Flight Plus battery)
Range: 12km (7.4 miles)
Connectivity DJI O3
Battery: 34 min (standard battery), 47 min (Flight Plus battery)
Storage: 1.2 gigabytes (expandable to 1TB with microSD)
Dimensions: 145x90x62mm (folded) Dimensions: 171x245x62 mm (unfolded)
Video Resolution: 4K (3840×2160) @ 24/25/30/48/50/60fps, or 1080p @ 120fps
Video Formats MP4/MOV (H.264/H.265) with between 150 and 150 Mbps
Color Profiles: Normal, D-Cinelike
Pros
Amazingly small and light
Amazing camera
Up-angle gimbal rotation
More than 30 minutes flight time
Intelligent flight modes
Cons
There is not enough internal storage
Smart flight modes aren’t able to support vertical video
Avoidance of obstacles isn’t great both on the back and sides.
Pricey
Hardware, design, and what’s inside the box
Mini 3 Pro Mini 3 Pro looks exactly as a smaller version of virtually every other drone that is currently available for sale from DJI, except for the FPV. It has the similar color scheme, featuring The body is white and the propellers are dark grey. The folding arms that you’ve come to know are present, however unlike the previous models it’s not necessary to fold the arms in a certain order. One thing that is unique to Mini is that Mini series is the absence of spring-loaded mounts that can be used for propellers. If they need to be changed, it will need make use of a screwdriver in order to remove the two screws from each set of propellers. However, this shouldn’t be a problem if you can stay clear of hitting structures or trees.
The most distinctive characteristic that distinguishes this Mini series is its weight. Numerous regulatory and government agencies require drones to register if they weigh 250g or greater. DJI has created this drone to fall just under the threshold of the 249g mark or lower. Be aware that certain countries still require pilots to have an authorization to fly even though the drone doesn’t require registration. Review the drone laws of your country (or the countries of destination) for more details.
If the arms fold when the arms are folded, it’s a mini 3 Pro. Mini 3 Pro has about the same footprint as a larger smartphone (say Pixel 6 Pro) Pixel 6 Pro) and measures just 2.5 inches tall. It’s compact enough to be tucked away in the pockets of jackets or cargo shorts. In actuality, the controller is a little heavier and bulkier as the drone.
DJI gives customers the option of two controllers at time when you purchase. There’s the classic “RC-N1” model, which comes with every regular DJI drone that has been released in the years since Air 2 came out in the mid-2020s. There’s a spring-loaded clamp on top to secure the phone, as well as an USB-C port that has cables for connecting to smartphones with USB-C or Lightning ports.
There’s also a brand new model that’s called the DJI RC that comes with an in-built display and runs an adapted edition of Android to use DJI’s flight software. It’s almost identical with it’s predecessor, the DJI RC Pro controller released with the highest-end model last year from Mavic 3 Cine. Mavic 3 Cine. It’s much faster and easier to connect and set up as compared to the older controller and the user experience is better-designed since it’s focusing exclusively on flight operations.
The main advantage to this DJI RC controller would be the elimination of your personal phone out of the equation. This means that messages and phone calls don’t have the potential of interrupting the display when you fly. A lot of drone owners have switched into consideration carrying additional phones to get around this issue However, it comes with certain disadvantages. In addition, as many Android users have found following a fresh OS update that DJI Fly’s DJI Fly app is often incompatible with the new OS releases for the initial three months following their release and will not be an issue for DJI RC controllers. DJI RC controller.
However, the new controller isn’t perfect, and there’s room for improvement. The screen is quite large and attractive however it is rated with 700nits. It’s not bright enough to rival direct sunlight or an overcast day. If you’re in those conditions, you’ll stare at a screen that has minimal discernible details. Although, the majority of older phones aren’t much brighter than a modern flagship, but some have a brightness of more than 1,000 nits. This is sufficient to give you adequate brightness on a bright day. Additionally, DJI should think about installing a screen protector in the beginning of production since microabrasions will likely develop over time, and will be evident in bright sunlight.
The controllers are both very comfortable to hold, even though they’re not as bulky to the Xbox and PlayStation controller. Both come with a removable thumbstick made of metal with naked teeth that are comfortable enough to grasp, but they’re not recommended to be left on during transportation. The RC-N1 comes with an antenna that is built inside the phone clamp that is spring loaded The new RC comes with an antenna that folds. Both are designed for the same range of transmission. The latest RC also comes with an option at the bottom that can be used to hold microSD cards that can be used to store screen recordings , or low-quality video footage that was directly derived from video transmission.
Stability and performance of the flight
Its Mini 3 Pro design is slightly better optimized for forward movement as compared to its counterpart, yet it typically flies just similar to any other recent Mavic drone. All the drones in this group are extremely comfortable and relatively easy to control, which means there’s nothing to worry about.
Moderate to high winds will cause it to move around just like any drone. The lightweight frame that is Mini 3 Mini 3 does make it slightly more vulnerable to strong wind gusts. The built-in gimbal will take care of any shake that generated by the wind, but you might need a more powerful drone to be able to stay in the air for a long period of time. If winds increase after you’ve taken off. In this case the updated body and the stronger motors of Mini 3 Mini 3 seem to make it more able to fly against headwinds than the older Mini models.
One thing that I was not getting from larger models is more significant obstacle elimination. The Mini 3 Pro Mini 3 Pro has sensors that detect obstructions at the front, bottom and rear, the last of which I did not find to be completely reliable. The sensors offer a broad perspective. But, they have an incredibly large blind spot in the side that doesn’t be able to protect you, especially as they’re mostly disabled when you fly in smart flight modes that include lateral motion.
Battery life
The length of flight times will always go by a bit with each generation. This trend continues with Mini 3 Pro’s flight time increases. Mini 3 Pro climbs to 34 minutes in the air , compared to 31 minutes on Mini 2. Mini 2. Three minutes might not sound like much when you take into landing, takeoff, and the time it takes to frame a shot the additional 10% is closer to 15 percent or 20% more time spent actually shooting.
If you’re looking for longer duration, DJI is also selling the “Flight Battery Plus’ that can last for up to 47 minutes. But, the battery weighs greater than the normal version which means that the total weight exceeds the 250g threshold that allows the drone to stay out of registration.
In my experience with my Mini 3 Pro using the standard battery, I was able to attain up to around 27 minutes of flight time and record 4K video before I had to return it. Then, it took around an hour for the battery for the battery to fully charge. The “Plus” battery was not available for testing when we conducted our this review.
Camera and Gimbal
In the majority of DJI’s time the quality of the cameras grew in proportion to the size of drones. The bigger the drone is, the better the camera it was mounted to. Internet commenters have claimed for many years that there’s no reason why DJI should not be able to put one of its best cameras on one of its smaller drones it took nearly 10 years before DJI proved that the commentators were right. It turns out that it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
The new camera system is the reason for the “Pro” designation. Without it this could be an essentially minor upgrade. Mini 3 Pro Mini 3 Pro comes equipped with the 1/1.3-inch sensor which is a significant leap over the 1/2.3-inch sensor in Mini 2. Mini 2. It’s not just leaping ahead of the Mini 2, but this sensor is more powerful that the smaller 1/2-inch one in the bigger Air 2 drone. It’s true that it does not have the same sensor as the one-inch that was found in Air 2S. Air 2S — which was actually a professional version from Air 2. Air 2. It’s actually not appropriate to compare Mini 3 Pro with Mini 3 Pro against the Mini 2 since it has more in common with Air 2 and 2S.
A number of other camera features have been improved as well. Mini 3 Pro can now record at a speed of Mini 3 Pro can record 4K@60fps or 1080p@120fps. This is currently standard on all DJI drones, and is more than the 30fps or 60 frames per second (respectively) that were available on Mini 2 Mini 2 and a couple of other models of the previous generation. Additionally the maximum bitrate for video can reach 150Mbps, which means there are zero compression effects and it also supports natively encoded H.265 in order to minimize file size.
On the photographic side on the photography side, the Mini 3 Pro can now create images of 48MP, as opposed to the 12MP available in Mini 2. Mini 2. I’m fairly certain that this isn’t the camera’s original resolution, but instead an outcome from stitching various lower resolution images. It’s not necessarily a negative thing and is the main reason DJI advertises this as the “effective” resolution.
The most important thing is whether the picture looks great, and it certainly looks good. Mini 2 Mini 2 was notorious for oversharpening in order to adjust for its lens and sensor, but there’s no evidence to suggest that it’s the case with Mini 3 Pro has to cover up any weaknesses. In the majority of cases the quality of images is very comparable that of that of the Air 2S. The only area that I think it is significantly short is when it comes to extreme dynamic lighting, such as shooting into the sun , with dark shadows. The results are more like the results from the Air 2, or maybe even less, but they are still better than what the Mini 2 could ever accomplish.
In an update that was released within a short time after its launch, DJI also added support for the D-Cinelike color profiles with 10 bit color. This might not mean much to the majority of viewers however it’s an important feature for anyone who wants to color grade their footage. It’s a flat profile (read it appears desaturated) designed to record the details in lighting that is dynamic. In addition the support for 10-bit color provides more detail in the colors, making footage more easy to edit.
The bulk of Mini 3 Pro marketing has been focused on the ability of rotating the camera in 90-degrees in order to take vertically-oriented photos and videos and it certainly does achieve this. It’s the result that’s uploaded straight onto Instagram Reels YouTube Shorts, and other stories-style posts , without cutting landscapes and losing the majority of the quality. It’s a practical method and effective which is all that’s needed to say… isn’t it?
Unfortunately, no. If you rotate your camera in a vertical direction then all the flight modes that are intelligently designed are turned off, including ActiveTrack Master Shots and points of importance. I think this is because objects tracking tends to be lost in narrow frames however even that assumption isn’t without its flaws. Whatever the reason, DJI should consider enabling this in an update otherwise the vertical orientation is nothing more than an advertising gimmick.
The gimbal deserves the praise of one particular aspect that it can now support up-land angles. The previous models couldn’t shoot the camera further than straight forward. However, Mini 3 Pro can. Mini 3 Pro can reach an angle of around 60 degrees upwards. It offers a fantastic perspective when you fly under the bridge or even below the surface of some rock faces.
In the event that you forget to take your microSD card at home The Mini 3 Pro also has 1.2GB of internal storage that you can access in the event of a need. It can only hold around 100 seconds of video in H.265 equivalent to about 40 images in the event that you shoot JPEG+RAW. You could get more of it by reducing the resolution to 1080p or using only JPEG but it still is a bit of a waste for this drone. I would have preferred to have seen something more than 8GB, which would be about 9 minutes of footage in 4K.
Should you purchase it?
Yes. It’s true. Mini 3 Pro checks almost every box. It’s extremely compact and light and easy to carry around and allows you to fly over a wide range of locations without red tape. It’s a great camera with excellent image quality straight out of the camera and support for 10-bit D-Cinelike if you wish to grade the footage yourself. It’s even got a choice of two controllers and the flight duration is among the fastest available. Other than making the switch to the camera that are either Air 2S or Mavic 3 and Mavic 3, there’s nothing more DJI could have done to improve the performance of this drone.
Of course, all this is priced at for example, $749; and that’s even before upgrading to the latest RC remote as well as including ND filters, and Fly More Kit Fly More Kit (which sadly isn’t equipped with ND filters) as well as purchasing memory cards or other accessories. But, if you require the best quality images that you can squeeze into the smallest drone it’s well worth the cost.
But is it worth paying the money for flying to relax? It’s probably not. DJI offers Mini 2, which is a great option. Mini 2, and it’s an excellent choice with a price of $449. It’s still capable of producing excellent video, however it will not be able to make the pixel-lovers satisfied. At the other end in the range, anyone who wants the best video quality, regardless of price or the amount it weighs, ought to look at the Air 2S or the Mavic 3.
