Austin and Alex review a production model of the brand new DJI Mavic Pro drone ahead of its release!

To help give you an accurate picture of the Mavic’s capabilities, we rated on performance, portability, camera, features and the controller.

Performance: 10 out of 10

Performance refers to the physical performance of the drone and refers to things like flight time and battery life.

The Mavic includes a 3900mAh 3S intelligent battery, which includes extra safety features, alerts you when power is low and brings the drone back to home when the battery is running out of power.

The Mavic’s 25 minute flight time is pretty standard for drones, and it can fly about 45 MPH in Sport Mode. The Mavic flies faster than the Phantom 4 in both Regular and Sport Mode.

Performance-wise, we gave the Mavic a 10 out of 10. It has the fastest, smoothest and most stable flight characteristics of the DJI models.

Portability: 10 out of 10

The Mavic folds up really compact for easy transport and has a small profile even when fully extended compared to other quads with similar capabilities.

Camera: 9 out of 10

Next up, camera! The Mavic’s 4K camera uses the same sensor as the Phantom 4, but has a different lens with a narrower field of view. The Mavic camera is super tiny and doubles as the brushless gimbal motor for the roll axis for physical stabilization instead of digital stabilization that is common in other models.





The Mavic also includes a tap-to-focus feature, which we recommend using within 25 meters. Outside of 25 meters, the Mavic uses the same infinite focus on the Phantom 4.

Overall, the Mavic does a pretty good job of processing. The footage looks phenomenal considering the size of the camera, and it has an 8 second exposure for still photographs.

Smart Features: 10 out of 10

These were pretty comparable to the Phantom 4, including standards like tap to fly and all the computer aspects of the Phantom 4 despite having a smaller form factor.

The smart features work really well. Tap to fly automatically sends the drone to a position that you determine. The Spotlight feature makes the drone do whatever it can to keep you in frame.

The Profile feature follows alongside your profile, and the Trace feature makes the drone fly in front of you or behind you and locks on you to keep you in frame.

The Mavic also has Arm Control, which follows commands you make with your arms. This feature works pretty well, but is probably better for personal use than professional use.

One new feature on the Mavic is Tripod Mode, which is specifically for using indoors 10–15 feet in the air. It’s super stable and has a downward vision positioning system that works fantastically.

Controller: 9 out 10

The controller is small without sacrificing any features or performance. Rather than using Lightbridge like previous DJI models, the Mavic controller uses OcuSync. This allows you to fly up to 4.3 miles away and maintain a 720p connection. It also includes a full 1080p HD link within the 4 mile radius.





OcuSync seems to have resolved some of the glitches in Lightbridge, which is a huge plus.

Another cool feature of the Mavic is to record and livestream on Facebook, YouTube and Periscope.

Overall, the Mavic is a really good buy. Check out more details on the Mavic on DJI’s website.

Let us know what you want us to review next!