DJI has successively launched the DJI Mavic Air 2 integrated with Hasselblad, as well as the Mavic Mini, a mini drone that can fly indoors. However, Mavic Air has not been updated.
Two years later, we finally waited for the upgraded version of Mavic Air-Mavic Air 2. After two years of dormancy, what surprises will the new DJI Mavic Air 2 bring us? Before the release of Mavic Air 2, Sina Digital has obtained this drone, and I will share with you a few days of flying experience. More upgrades
Mavic Air 2 Design 
At first glance, I was very surprised to see DJI Mavic Air 2. Although it is only the second generation product, the entire design style has changed a lot. It is completely shifting to the Mavic series. Mavic Ai r2 continues the folding structure of the Mavic series. But the volume and weight are increased compared to the previous generation.
Compared with the previous generation products, it is significantly larger (left: Mavic Air 2)
First of all, I obviously feel that DJI Mavic Air 2 is bigger than Mavic Air. After querying the official parameters, I learned that Mavic Air 2 is 12mm longer and 28mm wider than the previous generation. Mavic Air 2 weighs 570 grams, which is heavier than Mavic Air At 140 grams, the unfolded volume is also significantly larger than the Mavic Air.
The weight has also increased significantly
You may want to ask, why should Mavic Air come in the opposite direction? But in fact, there is no 1 gram of weight on the DJI Mavic Air 2 fuselage that is redundant. Let’s first understand the hardware parameters of Mavic Air 2, you will know that the weight and volume increase is worthwhile.
Compare Mavic Air and Mavic Pro
DJI Mavic Air 2 is equipped with a 1 / 2-inch CMOS sensor, can take 48 million pixel photos, supports recording 4K / 60fps video and 8K mobile time-lapse video; also has a 34-minute battery life and a high-definition digital map of up to 10 kilometers Transmission distance; the speed of P file is increased to 43km / h, and the maximum flight speed in sports mode is 19m / s. The ability to fly intelligently has also increased significantly. Compared with Mavic Air, it has definitely improved qualitatively. Its weight is not wasted, and it is moving closer to the Mavic 2 series.
Although the fuselage is heavier and larger, the DJI Mavic Air 2’s portability has not been greatly affected. After folding, the drone can still be easily taken into a backpack and taken away. It’s just the official standard package, Mavic Air 2 can’t be put in …
The silent paddle is also standard for DJI Mavic Air 2
DJI has previously developed a brand-new mute paddle, which is also standard for Mavic Air 2 this time, which can improve flight performance and enhance noise control. Similarly, due to the folding design of the blade, this blade can also increase its damage resistance to a certain extent.
In addition, a major advantage of the folding design of the drone is that after each flight, only the arm of the drone needs to be folded and carried, without removing the blade; when flying again, it only needs to be unfolded Just the arm, the propeller will be deployed to the flying state under the action of inertia after the motor is started so that the player can complete the flight preparation in a short time. If you look closely, you can see that the tip of the DJI Mavic Air 2 blade has been bent to help reduce noise.
There are binocular vision sensors on the front and back of the drone
Mavic Air 2 has binocular vision sensors in the front and rear of the fuselage. It is equipped with an APAS3.0 advanced flight assistance system, which is a bit similar to the car assisted driving system. To ensure a consistent shooting experience.
Lower body
The lower part of the fuselage has a down-view binocular vision sensor and an infrared distance sensor, which can achieve precise hovering within a height of 50 meters. The LED fill light allows the drone to rely on binocular vision sensor positioning at night. It is a little regret that there are no visual sensors on the left and right sides. So you need to be careful during the flight, after all, obstacle avoidance is not omnipotent.
The battery moved to the top of the drone
Due to the increase in battery life, the Mavic Air 2 ’s battery has also moved to the top of the fuselage, which is also thicker and a green circle will appear when charging.
The battery is larger but has a longer battery life (right: Mavic Air 2 battery)
Mavic Air 2 still uses a foldable remote control and needs to be used with a smartphone. However, this time the remote control has a new design, which is a bit larger than the traditional Mavic series remote control, and the clamping structure has also been changed.
Now that full-screen mobile phones are erupting, it is easy to block the screen by clamping in the traditional remote control. The new clamping structure can better fit the full-screen mobile phone, the control experience is better, and it can also charge the mobile phone.
The newly designed remote control is more suitable for full-screen mobile phones
The most important thing is that the newly designed remote control has a lifetime of up to 240 minutes. You can basically go out and fly without worrying that the remote control is dead. In actual experience, the two drone batteries are dead and the remote control is only using one grid.
DJI Mavic Air 2 Smarter shooting
Next, let’s take a look at the performance improvement of DJI Mavic 2. At the beginning of the birth of consumer drones, no one had too high requirements for its camera level. This new thing can fly and shoot, and people are already very satisfied. With the development of products, users gradually demand more for their camera level, just like mobile phones-now the camera function of mobile phones has become the biggest selling point of manufacturers.
Mavic Air 2 Bigger camera
Mavic Air 2 is equipped with a 1 / 2-inch CMOS sensor, which can take 48-megapixel photos, 4K / 60fps video, and 8K mobile time-lapse video (this feature will only be turned on when it is released). It can be said that the improvement of the 1 / 2.3-inch, 12-megapixel CMOS sensor of the first generation is very obvious.
More interestingly, DJI Mavic Air 2 has joined the smart camera mode, including scene recognition, pure night shooting, and HD three technologies, mainly to intelligently identify aerial scenes and optimize algorithms for different scenes.
This is very similar to the AI photography of smartphones now, but from the practical experience, the smart camera mode is far less intelligent than smartphones, and more simple optimizations for large scenes. But for novice drone, this function is still very practical, at least will not let you take pictures very badly.
Samples were taken insufficient light
However, the improvement of Mavic Air 2’s picture quality is real. In the case of sufficient light during the day, you can see that the high pixels increase the expressiveness of the details. The blue sky and white clouds are distinct, and the sharpness and resolution of the picture are good.
Enlarge a photo taken with 48 Megapixels
If you zoom in on the 48-megapixel photo taken, you can see that the details of the vehicle at high speed are displayed clearly. You don’t have to worry about the jitter that often occurs in mobile phone shooting. But if you are looking for contrast and color, you may still need to do it later.
Low light shooting
Dark light scenes are the best place to show the advantages of outsoles. From the proofs, due to the large size of CMOS, the night proofs have a significant improvement in noise control compared to the previous generation, and the purity is better. And the detailed performance in some dark light areas has also improved significantly.
DJI Mavic Air 2 Panorama
DJI drones have always had a lot of intelligent and interesting shooting technology, the most important of which is APAS (Advanced Assisted Flight System), which is somewhat similar to the autopilot technology in the automotive field, which not only makes flying more interesting but also safer.
This time on DJI Mavic Air 2, APAS has also been upgraded to 3.0, using a new generation of map technology and global path planning algorithms. Compared with the previous generation products, the obstacle avoidance performance, and the ability to plan paths have been greatly improved.
In autonomous flight, you can easily avoid obstacles such as large trees or tall buildings.
However, in some complex scenes, such as a small forest with many leaves and branches, Mavic Air 2 will be a bit confused …
Intelligent following and point of interest wrapping have always been popular features of DJI drones. Their biggest feature is a simple operation, and the novice can also shoot large movies.
Mavic Air 2 Smart follow shot car
This time, the smart follower has been upgraded to 3.0. The biggest improvement is the ability to re-identify the target after the target is blocked. It can predict the target position more quickly and accurately, and keep following.
Through actual testing, we can see that we turned on the intelligent follow-up shooting of this car. During the period, we encountered the obstruction of traffic signs. Mavic Air 2 not only flexibly avoided obstacles but also quickly re-locked the target.
Shooting people in more complex environments
The same is true of the filming person. The man running in the woods is too complicated, and the target is quickly lost. However, Mavic Air 2 has been locking the target’s general bearing, and the target is re-locked immediately when it appears.
Mavic Air 2 Point of interest around shooting moving cars
Point-of-interest orbit is to fly around the target, and the camera is always shooting towards the target. Compared with Point of Interest Surround 2.0, Fun Point Surround 3.0 can identify moving subjects, including pedestrians, cars, and boats.
From the actual experience, when the moving car is locked, when the speed of the car is relatively slow, the point of interest can always be shot around the car. When the speed of the car is slightly accelerated and the occlusion is encountered, the target is lost. This function is more suitable for shooting slow-moving objects.
The time-lapse shooting feature first added to the Mavic 2 series also has new gameplay on the Mavic Air 2. Mavic Air 2 can shoot 4K and 8K resolution mobile time-lapse videos, but when the retail version of the 8K resolution mobile time-lapse video function is launched In order to be open, support freedom and trajectory delay function.
Free time-lapse shooting
It takes about 4 minutes to shoot a free time delay, and the overall experience is very smooth. The camera takes 125 consecutive photos and finally synthesizes a time-lapse video. This simple straight-out solution is a lot easier, and it also allows the UAV video creation to have more expressions.
The ability to add time-lapse photography to drones really reflects DJI’s technical strength. Because this function needs to be introduced on a drone with a shorter dead time, it has extremely high requirements for the stability of the flying attitude of the drone, the battery life, and the computing power of the aircraft. It is not as simple as the delay function on other imaging devices.
Image transmission is a very important aspect of aerial photography drones. Stable image transmission is the most basic guarantee for aerial photography. DJI launched Lightbridge technology in 2014, which can transmit images up to 5 kilometers away from the drone in real-time to the mobile phone screen. To 16 years, DJI has brought OcuSync high-definition digital image transmission, the maximum remote image transmission distance can reach 7 kilometers, real-time preview 1080P images.
Mavic Air 2 Support full HD image transmission
Mavic Air 2 has also been upgraded to OcuSync 2.0 high-definition image transmission technology. The farthest image transmission distance has been expanded to 10 kilometers. It supports 2.4Ghz / 5.8Ghz automatic switching and can directly cache full HD video in flight. The newly added 5.8Ghz channel can maintain the stability of the image transmission signal in a signal-intensive environment like downtown.
Occasional loss of contact
Of course, these 10 kilometers are just theoretical figures. In actual flight, flying so far is likely to go back and forth. From the actual experience, it is about 3 kilometers. The image transmission has begun to have obvious jams. And the aircraft will occasionally lose connectivity. As for directly buffering full HD video in flight, it is still a word, “card”, it is recommended It is better to go back to the local cache video honestly.
Battery life is greatly improved
The drone’s long battery life has always been a difficult problem to overcome. This time Mavic Air 2 refreshed this number to 34 minutes, far exceeding the previous generation’s 21 minutes. And even longer than the Mavic 2 series and Mavic Pro. It can be said that ” The most durable “drone.
On the day of our test flight, Beijing happened to be relatively windy, flying at a height of about 80 meters. And the acceleration process was still very smooth. In the actual test, hovering, flying. Video recording, and taking pictures alternated during the period; after 22 minutes. 20% of the remaining power began to return automatically. It is estimated that there should be no problem with normal use for 30 minutes. Of course, you do n’t have to struggle with those few minutes of battery life. It ’s better than bringing a battery.
Check Also: DJI Mavic Air 2 User Manual Reveals Important Details About It
Mavic Air 2 Verdict
It only took two years to update the Mavic Air, and DJI was indeed a bit “squeezed in toothpaste”. But good food is not afraid of being late. The upgrade of Mavic Air 2 is still very powerful. The stronger hardware performance and smarter shooting allow DJI Mavic Air 2 to be on par with the flagship Mavic 2 series. Of course, this is also sacrificed for certain portability.
At this point, DJI’s UAV route is also very clear. If you are a beginner and just curious about drones, then the first generation Mavic Air and Mavic mini are good choices.
If you have a certain flying foundation and have certain requirements for shooting, our protagonist Mavic Air 2. And Mavic Pro or even the zoom version of the Mavic 2 series can be considered. The professional version of the Mavic 2 series is the choice of professional users.