DJI Mavic Mini. Tiny box, this is the base package that you can get for € 399 With the drone, controller and 1 battery. For € 100 extra, you’ll get the Fly More Combo with a case, 3 batteries, battery charging station, extra props and prop guard. More on that in detail later, back to the base package first. In the box you’ll find the Mavic Mini and its remote controller. Some booklets… And a white box with USB cable, 1 set of 2 spare propellers, spare sticks for the controller, and 3 different smartphone cables for the controller. Up close: those spare controller sticks, spare propellers, unfortunately just 1 set of 2… And there’s screws and a tiny Philips driver with them, which we’ll show you more about later on. And so 3 smartphone cables: USB-C, MicroUSB and Apple Lightning. And there you have this super compact and light DJI Mavic Mini. In folded form. Cute little drony to look at, right? In folded form, those props keep flopping around… A little annoying, so be careful there. Good accessory idea there: propeller holders. In any case: yes, it’s really small and super light. You can’t go around that. It unfolds like so, same as the earlier Mavic models… Front arms outwards… Rear arms from underneath… And then you see that it just belongs to the Mavic family. In any case by the looks. And that’s a good moment to compare the size with the Spark. That other small DJI drone. And with the Mavic Air, now not the smallest Mavic anymore… Next to the Mavic Pro… And last the Mavic Mini next to the Mavic 2 Pro. Alright, and one more shot of the entire Mavic family. The Mavic Mini is all made of this pale gray plastic. It feels robust, has been put together well But it’s also flexible here and there. You can slightly push it in at some spots And the arms are flexible as well. They have some give. In combination with the low weight this implies that the Mavic Mini could be better resistant to some rough landings and not too serious of crashes. And that low weight of the Mavic Mini is by the way very interesting here. It’s mentioned prominently on the box… Even on the right side of the drone here. Because with that 249 grams, the Mavic Mini just falls in the max 250 gram ‘toy drone’ category of the European Aviation Safety Agency, the EASA. That is the lowest weight class, also known as Category 0, or ‘C0’. When those new drone rules come into effect summer 2020, the C0 category allows for the most, and you have to do the least. For example, the Mavic Mini doesn’t require official registration, and you won’t be needing a theory certificate for it. On the scale, with battery and without gimbal cover… 247 grams. Is ours 2 grams lighter than specification? Or maybe the scale’s not that precise… Anyway: it’s still under that 250 grams. On the back of the Mavic Mini we have some cooling vents… And be aware: these on the front are NOT obstacle avoidance sensors! They’re just openings with a black plastic plate in there, for the show. Can be a little deceiving on pictures Because on all other Mavic’s there actually are obstacle sensors on that same spot. At the bottom more vents… And the power button with 4 leds to show the battery status. At the rear end we have the multicolor status led… And these are the ground sensors, luckily it has at least those… in the form of an infrared TOF sensor, and tiny camera in the center for altitude calculation and to realise a steady hover when there’s no GPS, namely indoors. At the back there’s this cover, opens like so… And there you can find the battery. Press here to release, and there comes a black, 7.2V 2400 mAh battery Promising a max 30 minutes of flight time. Extra batteries cost you € 45 each. And that Fly More Combo gets you a total of 3 in the box. There is no charger in the base package, but you can use pretty much any USB charger together with the included MicroUSB cable. The Mavic Mini works with any 24W or lower USB charger, and also supports Quick Charge 2.0. Charging is done via the MicroUSB port on the rear And that port is for the computer connection For e.g. firmware updates, and next to the port you’ll find a MicroSD slot. A MicroSD memory card is also not included… And you do need one to store pictures and video’s. Cards up to 256 GB are supported. On all arms there’s this small and pretty flat brushless motor with propellers that are screwed tight on the motors, per blade. So that’s why there’s a screwdriver included… So you can easily replace your props. The props are also flexible by the way, so that’s great for durability. As for landing gear, there’s the feet on the front, where the antenna’s are in also and two little ones here, so the Mini sits low on the ground, just as its bigger brothers. So watch out for uneven or rough terrain. And of course, under a protection cover: a 3-axis camera gimbal. Rubber anti-jello suspension… And a camera with 1/2.3” (6 mm) 12 Megapixel sensor with 24 mm lens… Providing 83 degrees field of view. Unfortunately, there’s no RAW photo shooting with the Mavic Mini Only compressed JPG (12 Megapixel) And the max video quality is 2.7K at 30 fps With a max bitrate of 40 Mbps. So, sadly no 4K. 1080p at 60 fps is also an option, also with 40 Mbps And that’s 20 Mbps lower than the original Mavic Pro And about 40 Mbps less than than the Mavic Air and Mavic 2 on the same resolution. We’ll look at the images in a bit. Then the remote controller of your Mavic Mini. Same design and idea as the other Mavics But without display, and everything is plastic, no aluminum parts here. The phone holder unfolds like before… And there’s two antenna’s that open and position like so. Same as with the Mavic Air and Mavic 2, the sticks are stored here… And screw into the controller gimbals. They’ve been saving on those sticks, as they’re plastic and not aluminum as with other models But at least there’s spares included, as we showed earlier. On the left there’s again this MicroUSB compatible port Used to charge the controller Or to connect one of the three smartphone cables. This is the power button, press once to show the 4 led controller battery status… This is the return-to-home button… On the left here the video record button… On the right the photo capture button… And here the gimbal tilt wheel, to move the gimbal up and down with. And that’s it… No more buttons or ports on this controller. The holder fits phones up to 16 cm in length, and 8.5 mm thick. And there’s a new app for the Mavic Mini: DJI Fly. Available for free in the Google Play and Apple App Stores. Big chance that the first thing to do is to update the firmware… And we’ll show you more about the app later on during the flight. The video transmission system of the Mavic Mini is Wi-Fi based And provides (on paper) amaximum range of 500 meters on 5.8 GHz And up to 2 km on 2.4 GHz, both for CE territory. And no, the DJI Mavic Mini unfortunately cannot be used with the Goggles… And also not with the Smart Controller. About those extra’s in the € 100 more expensive Fly More Combo… Apart from 3 batteries, you’ll get this nice case Fitting your Mavic Mini, controller and charging hub. This is that charging hub, where you can insert 3 batteries… Connect a USB charger, and the batteries will be charged in sequence. Then, there are the propeller guards. Sturdy, but still flexible Forming a cage around the Mavic Mini and the propellers. You have to close the clamps on each arm of the Mavic Mini And the drone’s now protected Or rather everything you can hit with the spinning props is now protected And that comes in handy for when flying inside. And that Mavic Mini can take some beating, especially with the prop guards… We’ve tried! No problem here! Just reboot, and continue flying! The Mavic Mini flies well… Actually, it doesn’t feel all that different than other DJI drones. It’s stable, the controls feel precise GPS positioning keeps it steady without stick input Actually there’s not much to complain about here. And that for a drone this light… Look, there shouldn’t be too much wind Because then you’ll find that 250 grams indeed is very light… Like we mentioned earlier in this video: You’re flying your DJI Mavic Mini with your iPhone or Android phone On the remote controller, with that new app: DJI Fly. The DJI Fly app is more or less a simpler version of DJI GO and DJI GO 4 with also your live camera image in 720p and 30 fps in this case. In the bottom left there’s an icon for the map That you can click on to show a mini map And that opens to a fullscreen map to easily see the area and the drone’s position and direction. DJI Fly of course also lets you control all the Mavic Mini and camera settings… And here in the CONTROL settings, you can switch between the three flight modes. Set it to ‘Sport’, and the Mavic Mini switches to Sport Mode With agressive flight controls and a top speed of 50 km/h. And so that is all being done from that remote controller with your smartphone and DJI Fly app. So, changing the flight modes is done from the app As the Mavic Mini doesn’t have a dedicated button for this on the controller, like other models. The third flight mode is ‘CineSmooth’ Just a speed and angle limitation, so that you can fly smooth and slow To capture some smooth and controlled footage. Speaking of footage, here are some examples of 2.7K 30 fps shots… For this video downscaled to 1080p… But it gives you a good impression of the Mavic Mini cam. Naturally, pictures and video’s can best be judged unedited and straight from the SD card on a good display… But we must say that the results aren’t bad, especially for a device like the Mavic Mini. Colors look good, details also… It’s pretty much as DJI themselves say: ‘The Everyday Flycam’ And we think it does that job just fine. And then some pictures to check out… And there you have it: the DJI Mavic Mini. Small, featherlight, but still can be called a serious drone With a flight time of about 30 minutes, that we actually reached… Unless flying Sport Mode And perhaps the most interesting would be the price. € 399 gets you the base package with drone, controller and battery And that is, definitely for a DJI drone, a great price. Or you spend the extra € 100 for the more complete Fly More package… Anyway: the Mavic Mini is and flies like a true DJI drone.
