The DJI Mavic Mini’s high-grade camera captures compelling footage in 2K high definition, and its new DJI Fly app’s suite of creative features seamlessly transforms photos and videos into professional-quality productions. Its enhanced, stable flight performance provides more opportunities to explore using one of the longest flight times for a drone of its size. Users can unleash their imagination with Mavic Mini’s exciting accessories, including a DIY Creative Kit and a 360° Propeller Guard for added safety.
Design & Durability
The Mavic Mini has four propellers, each one mounted on an arm that folds into the body. With all four arms folded in, the Mini is not much bigger than a smartphone, save for its overall height, of course.
With the arms out and propellers installed, the Mini is roughly the size of a couple of books placed next to each other. In other words, when it comes to drones, the Mini fully deserves its name.
On the front of the Mini is a 12-megapixel camera that’s attached to a gimbal that keeps the camera steady and free of shakes or vibration when in flight. The gimbal is what keeps your photos and videos looking crisp and clear, despite the camera being attached to a flying object.
DJI designed the Mavic Mini to weigh 249 grams, about 9 ounces, putting it just below the Federal Aviation Administration’s 250-gram weight limit that requires a drone to be registered. It’s probably a good idea to register your Mavic Mini anyway, especially if you add any accessories like the propeller guards that will bring its total weight over the 250-gram mark.
On the bottom of the Mini is the power button, along with four indicator lights and a trio of sensors that are used to detect the ground and help with landing the Mini.
A door swings open on the rear of the Mini and provides a spot for the 2,400-mAh battery, a micro SD card to store photos and videos, and a micro USB port to charge the Mini’s battery.
DJI Mavic mini controller
On the left side of the controller is a micro USB port for charging and connecting it to your phone. The drone also ships with Lightning, micro USB, and USB-C cables, so whatever smartphone you have, provided its software is compatible with the DJI Mavic Mini’s Fly app, you’re catered for.
The controller’s jog-dial at the top pivots the camera vertically through 90 degrees, so it can look forward through to down. Unlike the Anafi, it can’t look up, which would have been a bonus, but its range is typical of most drones. Buttons of note include the L trigger, which starts video recording, and the R trigger, which takes a photo – perfect if you’re operating the drone while wearing gloves.
Setting up the flying experience is a little fiddly – you have to feed cables from the controller to your phone, screw on the joysticks, and fire up the app, all of which takes about a minute. From a portability point of view, though, the experience is about as compact as we could hope for when the drone and controller are collapsed, while still feeling robust and natural across the board when flying.
Camera
The DJI Mavic Mini shoots 2.7K video at 30fps or 1080p video at 60fps. Its 1/2.3-inch sensor can also capture 12MP images across a range of modes, including Position mode for basic operation, Sports mode for more high-speed flight, and CineSmooth mode, which lengthens breaking time and slows things down for smoother shots and more cinematic footage.
The fact that there isn’t a 60fps 2.7K option also compounds the need to slow things down in the sky, as you won’t have the option to do so in the editing phase with 30fps footage. If you’re happy shooting in 1080p, however, then frame rates do climb up to 60fps.
Footage looks punchy, detail captured is solid in good light, and dynamic range is fair, though we noticed clips crying out for an ND filter on a couple of occasions. There isn’t a huge amount of scope to pull detail out of highlights on bright days, so the Mavic Mini isn’t going to be a pro filmmaker’s dream drone, but its image quality is still great for what it is, and good enough for relatively seamless inserts with other drone footage, or casual aerial videography.
You can take control over photos with manual mode, with the option to use shutter speeds as long as four seconds, and up to ISO3200; as a result, low-light shots are perfectly usable. Low-light video has improved since we first got our hands on the Mavic Mini, but it still isn’t something you’ll want to capture on a drone with a 1/2.3-inch sensor, unless you’re going to edit it heavily and stylize it, or are okay with a healthy amount of noise
DJI Mavic mini vs Mavic air vs DJI Spark
| Aircraft | DJI Mavic Mini | DJI Mavi Air | DJI Spark |
| Takeoff Weight | 249 g | 430 g | 300 g |
| Dimension | Folding:140 × 82 × 57Unfolding:160 × 202× 55 | Folding:214 × 91 × 84Unfolding:322 × 242 × 84 | 143 × 143 × 55 mm |
| Diagonal Distance (propellers excluded) | 213mm | 213 mm | 170 mm |
| Max Ascent Speed | 4 m/s (S mode ) | 4 m/s (S mode ) | 3 m/s (S mode ) |
| Max Descent Speed | 3 m/s ( S Mode) | 3 m/s (S mode) | 3 m/s (S mode ) |
| Max Speed | 46.8km/h (S mode) | 68.4km/h (S mode) | 50 km/h(S mode ) |
| Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level | 3,000 m | 5,000 m | 4,000 m |
| Max Flight Time | 30 minutes | 21 minutes | 16 minutes |
| Max Hovering Time | / | 20 minutes | 15 minutes |
| Operating Temperature Range | 0°C to 40°C | 0°C – 40°C | 0°C – 40°C |
| Satellite Positioning Systems | GPS+GLOSNASS | GPS+GLONASS | GPS+GLONASS |
| Hovering Accuracy Range | Vertical: +/- 0.1m (when Vision Positioning is activeHorizontal: +/- 0.1m (when Vision Positioning is active or +/1.5m | Vertical: ± 0.1 m (when visual positioning is working normally)Horizontal: ± 0.1 m (when visual positioning is working normally) | Vertical: ± 0.1 m (when visual positioning is working normally)Horizontal: ± 0.3 m (for normal positioning during visual positioning) |
| Transmitter Power (EIRP) | 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz | 2.4 – 2.4835 GHz | |
| Operating Frequency | 2.400 – 2.483 GHz; 5.725 – 5.825 GHz | 2.400 – 2.4835 GHz;5.725 – 5.850 GHz | 2.412 – 2.462 GHz;5.745 – 5.825 GHz |
Obviously, with a drone this small and light, you aren’t going to get all the features of the Mavic 2 or Mavic Air quadcopters.
The Mavic Mini is aimed at a particular market. It is fast and quiet. It has an excellent camera and fantastic intelligent flight modes for making flying and filming very easy.
The Mavic Mini also has a great price.
In this Mavic Mini review, we cover all the features, specifications including Mavic Mini video reviews at the end