Mavic Pro: Fantastic foldable drone

When folded, the Mavic Pro fits in the palm of your hand.

Previously we tested the Phantom 4 and were impressed with it, as DJI had made ­significant improvements to the drone.

However, there’s one thing that the Phantom 4 lacks – portability.

This is something that the latest model, the Mavic Pro, addresses. It offers practically everything that the Phantom 4 does but folds up into a really tiny unit.

And we really mean tiny – when fully folded up, it’s about the size of a 500ml water bottle.

Two options

The Mavic Pro can be controlled in two ways. You can either control it using your smartphone (Android or iOS) or use DJI’s wireless remote (although you will still need a smartphone to act as the screen and to change settings).

Since it can be controlled ­completely with a smartphone, the Mavic Pro is sold in some countries without a ­controller. However, in Malaysia it’s only available as a bundle – it’s more expensive but is the better option as the controller has a much longer range.

The Mavic Pro unfolded looks a bit like a rather cute frog.

In keeping with the Mavic Pro’s tiny size, the controller is also designed to be small yet comfortable to use, as it has big buttons.

The only drawback is that the controller limits the size of smartphone you can use with it. We managed to squeeze an iPhone 7 Plus with a leather case but that’s about the maximum size that you can fit into the ­holder.

Just like the drone and the controller, the battery charger is also pretty compact and it can charge both the controller and the Mavic Pro at the same time.

Once you have them charged up, the only thing left to do is to connect your smartphone to the controller. DJI provides two custom cables – microUSB for Android and Lightning for iPhones.

You fly the drone with the two joysticks and there are also buttons and dials for ­controlling the camera as well as the gimbal head.

The controller has its own screen for showing information like battery life and GPS signal strength while the smartphone’s display is used to show live feed from the camera.

The gimbal head on the DJI Mavic Pro is incredibly tiny compared to the one on the Phantom 4. However, both shoot video at the same maximum 4K resolution.

Like the Phantom 4, you get a bunch of really cool features, including TapFly which allows you to tap on what you see on the screen and have the drone fly there.

You can also choose to have the drone ­follow an object or just fly forward while maintaining a certain height from the ­terrain.

Shooting and flying

In use, the Mavic Pro performed remarkably well – it flew stably and stayed in position even when being buffeted by winds.

DJI claims battery life is about 28 minutes but we only got about 15 minutes probably because the drone had to work harder due to strong winds – this is on par with the Phantom 4.

The Mavic Pro shoots at a maximum ­resolution of 4K at up to 30fps (frames per second) and the quality was pretty darned good.

You also get a couple of D-Log flat profiles – they may look really low contrast but ­preserve a lot of detail in light and dark areas so professional editors can adjust the final image to their liking.

Folded up, the Mavic Pro controller is pretty small and can be easily stowed in most bags.

Like the Phantom 4, the high quality ­footage is stored on a microSD card on the drone itself – all you’re getting through the wireless connection on your smartphone is a relatively low resolution video for flying purposes.

We tried the Mavic Pro in a variety of ­situations and it worked as well as the Phantom 4, which is great. And the obstacle avoidance system really helps if you’re a novice flyer – it’s really easy to get fantastic footage with the drone.

If you’re interested in checking out some of the 4K footage we shot with the Mavic Pro, go to youtu.be/o9TtyUQxElY.

Conclusion

If there’s one drone that we are tempted to buy, it has to be the Mavic Pro – it packs all the features of the Phantom 4, but, more importantly, it folds into a small package that is really easy to carry around in a backpack.

The video quality is about on par with the Phantom 4 – there are slight differences between the two but it’s hard to tell which is better.

In the end, it’s the size that makes all the difference and what’s even better is that the Mavic Pro costs a little less than the Phantom 4.

Pros: Compact and foldable; 4K video recording; well-designed controller; relatively good battery life.
Cons: Controller won’t fit very large smartphones or tablets; not water resistant.

Mavic Pro
(DJI)
Quadcopter with 4K camera
Specifications: 12-megapixel image sensor, 4K video (up to 30fps), obstacle avoidance system, TapFly, ActiveTrack, GPS, dual compass
Battery: 2,970mAh Lithium-polymer
Weight: 734g (with batteries)
Website: www.dji.com
Price: RM4,557 (inclusive of GST)
Rating: Four and a half stars
Review unit courtesy of ECS ICT Bhd, [phone]