So finally here we are – the DJI Spark has been announced and we have all the information you’ll need about it!

Without any further ado, let’s go into more details:

Flying

So..to put an end to every rumour so far – yes, the DJI Spark is a selfie drone! It’s the latest product from DJI and it comes with the ambition to take over the non tech-savvy people who have never flown before.

And I’m sure it will, because it seems super easy to fly. Matter of fact, you don’t even need a remote for it (Although you can use it, but don’t need it per se) – the Spark drone has automatic takeoff – you simply double press the power button and it will hover in place.

From then on, you can control it with your palm – maneuvering left/right/up/down, push it away or pull it towards you – all works with hand gestures and by active tracking.

By waving at the drone, it will fly 10 feet away from you and will keep you centered in the middle of the shot, actively tracking you constantly. After you’re done taking your pictures, you can wave at it again and it will land in your palm.

Camera & Range

Now, the selfie capabilities of the drone have limited range – you can capture selfies within 10 feet of the aircraft. If you want to fly further – you can do that by using your smartphone. This boosts the range of the drone up to 109 yards away, and if you connect the optional remote controller, you get the range which DJI is known for – up to 1.24 miles away.

It seems DJI has focused on providing a lot of versatility for its potential customers, so having plenty of options to control the drone and shoot with it is definitely great.

The camera itself is a 12MP shooter for still photos and a Full HD for video (1920×1080 30p) – unfortunately the Spark will not shoot in 4K, and that by far is my biggest complaint about it.

However, we get a 2-axis gimbal and a new technology called “UltraSmooth” – this is a technology that removes shake and rolling shutter in your videos, which DJI promises will make your videos a lot smoother and overall much better.

You also get frontal obstacle avoidance system and VPS sensors for better indoor stability.

Colors

Like I’ve mentioned in the previous section, DJI has put a lot of effort to maximize the versatility of this drone. And to confirm that, they’ve also put some efforts into creating the Spark into multiple colors – you have the following color options:

Alpine White

Sky Blue

Meadow Green

Lava Red

Sunrise Yellow

Remote Controller

The remote controller of the DJI Spark is just like the one we’ve seen in the Mavic Pro, but just without the telemetric screen. Again, it’s able to hold a large smartphone (such as the iPhone 7 Plus), and you get the same sticks and antennas as the Mavic Pro.

Like we’ve mentioned before, by using the controller you’ll be able to get a flying range up to 1.24 miles.

Battery & Charging

The battery will allow you to fly for a maximum amount of 16 minutes with no wind at a consistent 12.4 mph (20 kph), which I guess is OK from such a little device. After all, I think we were all getting spoiled with 25-30 mins of flying time from the bigger DJI aircrafts so having the same expectations for this little guy has always been unrealistic.

I wanted ~20 minutes of flight time and I would have been much happier though!

As far as charging – there’s no wireless charging as we hoped, but at least you can now charge the battery via the micro USB slot on the side of the aircraft. Another way of charging is via the charging hub which can charge up to 3 batteries simultaneously. The charging hub is included in the Fly More combo, but can also be bought separately.

Price

The price of the Spark depends on the package you select. You can choose between the regular version and the Fly More Combo. Here’s what you get in each of those:

You only get the drone, and you can control it with your hands or mobile device.

DJI Spark

Propeller guards

Extra Propellers

Additional battery

Shoulder Bag

Battery Charging Hub

Spark Remote Controller

Orders & Shipping Date

You can order the DJI Spark at the official DJI store and the estimated shipping date is June 15, 2017

DJI has released an official link for their live event, where you can watch the Spark reveal. Use this link to watch the event, or come back soon to this page as I’ll be constantly adding new info as soon as we get it!

The event will be live on May 24 at 11:30 AM EDT (4:30 PM GMT)

DJI has just released the official teaser of their event on May 24 at 11;30 AM EDT. It’s safe to say the DJI Spark is coming on that date!

Well since we didn’t get the Spark on DJI’s April 24 event in Las Vegas as we previously thought, there’s now a new clue to when we might be able to witness the official DJI Spark announcement.

Take a look at the picture below:

As you can see, the date is 24 May, this time in New York City. Since it says “Join us for a BIG announcement”, I think we can actually witness the announcement of two drones – the Spark and the new Phantom 5. Who knows?

The topic of the announcement is “Seize the moment”, and with all those joyful and playful lines above the title, I can’t help but think of something small and agile that can be easily maneuvered – just like the Spark, which we all think could be a selfie drone.

Anyway, there’s not a lot of time left until we know more details about the event. Make sure you come back to this article regularly, as quite possibly there will be plenty of new DJI Spark leaks that will surface soon.

DJI Goggles have finally bean released today! There will be only limited numbers available for pre-order, and they’re priced at $449 USD.

Delivery date is expected to be around 20 May.



Hopefully this will push the Spark release to a sooner date. Stay tuned!

Well, the joke is on us.

Everyone was anticipating the release of the Spark on the event held on April 23 at 5pm PDT in Las Vegas.

Instead, the Ronin 2 was introduced. You can learn more about it on the official DJI Official site here.

Stay tuned, as the Spark is expected to be announced very very soon. I’ll update this as we go.

We’ve received information that the Spark might be officially announced by DJI on a special event held on April 23rd!

Stay tuned for more info.

We can see that we’ll have the option to choose between the following resolutions:

4096×2160 – 4K

3840×2160 – 4K

1920×1080 – 1080P (here we can select a few different frames per second options – 24/30/48/60 fps – we’ll probably have the same settings for the other resolutions as well)

(here we can select a few different frames per second options – 24/30/48/60 fps – we’ll probably have the same settings for the other resolutions as well) 1280×720 – 720p

Another comparison between the Spark and the Mavic Pro. Also peep that sexy glossy black color! 🙂

Motor difference between the DJI Mavic Pro and DJI Spark

The DJI Spark Drone weighs 190g without battery. It’s safe to assume this quadcopter will not require FAA registration, as even with the added battery weight it will probably weigh less than 250 grams.

The internal components are well fitted and everything seems nice and compact.

Closer look at the front infrared sensor.

Another size comparison with the Mavic Pro.

We can see the regular micro-USB connector (not an USB-C) and an SDXC card slot for removable storage.

The body frame of the DJI Spark with the battery removed.

A new photo has emerged, showing the size difference between the upcoming DJI Spark and the DJI Mavic Pro. The photographer Alexandre Suplicy has created the image by scaling a photo of the new DJI Spark using the approximate measurements provided in the early photos.

As you can see above, the difference is quite striking – the Spark is almost half the size of the Mavic Pro, which once again leads us to believe that this will be a selfie drone.

Also, here’s another interesting photo from the guys at Mavic-Guide:

The guys at HalfChrome have created a 3D CAD model of what they think the DJI Spark might look like.

Again, that’s nothing official but something that’s definitely worth checking out. I think it looks prety cool!

DJI Spark – New from DJI

It seems DJI has a new target in its crosshairs. After taking the global market drone in the prosumer and professional categories, the Chinese giant will likely try to take over the selfie drones market.

In the past few days, many images have been circulating around the web and we even saw a new trademark application from DJI for a product called Spark.

All of the recent information leads us to believe that a new aircraft called DJI Spark will likely be unveiled very soon.

Personally, my first association when hearing the word “Spark” is for something small, agile and fast. Does that mean the new drone would be a racing quadcopter? Probably not, but there’s a large possibility that the new quadcopter will include a Sport mode, which could easily turn the Spark into the closest thing to a race drone.

The emerged photos definitely point that the new aircraft will look like a smaller version of the Mavic Pro, with strong indications to be the DJI’s answer to Yuneec’s Breeze.

Size & Dimensions

From the picture below we can see that the Spark is quite small (roughly 14×17 cm). The frame itself reminds of the Mavic Pro, but unlike it, the arms are not foldable. However, the propellers seem to be the same as the Mavic’s, which means at least they are foldable and compact.

Obstacle Avoidance

On the front of the aircraft we can clearly see a black surface which reminds a lot of the side TOF sensors of the Phantom 4 Pro – something that leads us to believe there will be a front infrared obstacle avoidance system for this new quad.

Having a look at the bottom area of the aircraft is where it gets more interesting:

Camera

We can see the camera which comes with a gimbal, and will very likely include gesture controls just like the Mavic Pro (after all, it was the first DJI product that featured gesture control for taking selfies).

Bottom Sensors

Following that, there’s the VPS/sonar sensors – again, just like the Mavic’s bottom sensors, so no surprises there.

Charging

The 4 charging blocks you see on the bottom of the detachable battery can only mean one thing – this drone will have wireless charging – the package will probably include something like the wireless charging stations for the newer smartphones or the Apple Watch. I would be really neat if the drone can be quick-charged wirelessly on a device like this one:

No landing gear?

What I’m mostly surprised about is the lack of visible landing gear. This means that once you try to land the drone, you’ll have to land it on its belly – something which many people would dislike, as a stronger wind or just a harder landing could easily damage the bottom of the aircraft.

Perhaps it would be wise to only land the drone automatically (or hand catch it) and not rely on manual landing for better overall protection of the bottom part of the quadcopter.

Remote Controller

Having seen most of the leaked DJI Spark photos, I’m surprised there was not a single one of the remote controller. Of course, there could be one, but I’m willing to bet that you will be able to control this aircraft just with your phone, similarly to the way you can control the Mavic. Yes, that will probably limit your range, but since this would be a selfie drone, we shouldn’t expect a super large flying range anyway. The main idea here is to have a quick, portable and easy to use flying camera, which seems to be something the Spark will do just fine.

Price

It would be a huge speculation to talk about the price, but having in mind this drone aims to compete in the selfie drones market, I’ll be surprised if it’s priced over $600-$700.

However, DJI has proven that it doesn’t cater for the masses – instead, they build high-end drones with new features which take over the market and basically eat the competition. It would be really interesting to see if they will try to match the competition’s prices (Yuneec Breeze is priced at roughly $450 and ZeroTech Dobby is around $350). If the Spark costs anything under $500, it will probably dominate this area again.

Alternatively, anything over $600-$700 will probably lower its chances to become a huge hit, but maybe that’s just my point of view. We’ll have to wait and see.

Release date?

So far there’s not a word from DJI about an official release date. There are rumors flying around that the Spark might be released on a special event held on April 15, 2017, but nothing confirmed as of yet.

Stay tuned as I’ll keep this article updated with the latest fresh information about the upcoming DJI Spark.

Over to you

So what do you think about the Spark from the first photos you’ve seen? Do you plan to get a selfie drone or you find it just a gimmick? Let me know what you think about this new quadcopter and share your thoughts in the comments below!