First impressions of the DJI Mavic Air

On the 23rd of January 2018, DJI launched the Mavic Air — a new drone in the Mavic line-up that builds on the folding design and 4k camera of the Mavic Pro, while adding the advanced gesture control and portability of the Spark.

Let’s face it, the Mavic Pro was already incredibly small and powerful –30 mins flying time (with the latest Platinum edition), 4k camera, folding design — an amazing piece of engineering.

Coming from owning a Phantom 3 then Phantom 4, the Mavic Pro had everything I wanted – it could be carried easily and flyable with both a controller and phone over WiFi – it was almost perfect.

When the DJI Spark was launched in 2017, I was sold on what was an even more portable device — it only had a 1080 HD camera; had fixed propeller arms, but it’s size was so compact and portable. Flight time was drastically reduced at around 12 minutes but with the additional charging station carry case it was easy to keep three batteries topped up and it was perfect for quick shots on-the-go.

My problem with the Spark was that it had lots of issues, especially with controller / video signal. Whereas the Mavic Pro sports Occusync, a reliable, stable transmission system that works perfectly with the controller and DJI Googles, the Spark used a WiFi connection between both your phone and controller, and the controller and the Spark itself.

This “double WiFi” led to all kinds of issues – during my first flight it crashed into a tree when the Spark decided to do the opposite of what the controller was telling it to do. It would regularly suffer from interference from other devices leading to having to fly it with both phone and watch in airplane mode or least with Bluetooth switched off. Adding an unsupported OTG (on-the-go) cable between the phone and controller eliminated one WiFi issue, and improved connection somewhat, but it still wasn’t reliable.

With the Mavic Air, it seems DJI have learnt from these mistakes and mixed all the portability and convencience of the Spark, with the incredible engineering of the Mavic Pro.

It’s by no means perfect — there’s no Mavic Pro Occusync and no wireless connection to the DJI Goggles, but the “Enhanced WiFi” it comes with is significantly better and more stable than the Spark. It also comes with an official OTG connection, so no “double WiFi” to deal with.

First impression opening the fly combo box is how well this thing is packaged. Everything is in it’s place – either it’s own case or in the bundled travel bag.

The Mavic Air itself is small — incredibly small compared to the Mavic Pro — and when folded, smaller than the Spark. Unlike both it comes with fixed props so they don’t fold. This is fine based on the design, but makes it slighly uncomforable (for me) to fold and unfold the arms – I don’t feel as confident as I do the Mavic Pro. It also has two little “feet” at the front that fold open to act as a landing pads — they double as antenna.

The controller is really nice – not as feature rich as the Mavic Pro with it’s display of telemetry data, but does the job — the control sticks unscrew which is a new feature and tuck away nicely in little slots covered and protected by the phone grips. They also include a replacement set of sticks which is a nice touch. I’m sure we’ll see third party sticks coming out that are smaller and can be left installed.

One thing I love is the new gimbal protector — far less fiddling is required try than was the case with the Mavic Pro, it slips on and off easily and securely.

The travel bag that comes with the combo kit is slightly unusual — it has a flap pocket that covers one whole long side and wraps around the short sides a little — I was able to get the prop guards in there with room to spare for more bits and pieces, cables etc. Still not sure what it’s really for as it’s not explained in the manual.

Out-of-the-box I had no issues with firmware updates — all done from the DJI Go 4 app without a problem — way less problematic than the Spark was to update.

The Mavic Air comes with a small, compact charging station — it can take 4 batteries and charge them in sequence and folds up into a neat little package that can be tucked into a bag easily. You also get a little adapter for plugging into a battery so you charge a USB device such as the controller or the DJI Goggles. There’s also alternative cables, a USB-A to USB-C cable, a converter, and some spare props.

The gesture control system they’ve adapted from the Spark is incredibly fast on the Mavic Air — it’s instant — there’s no lag or delay at all, at least I didn’t notice any.

The Air won’t palm launch like the Spark – I’m guessing because of size and weight, but you can take off and land with just a gesture.

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a way to get it to turn on gesture mode without using the phone. It would have been great to be able to launch it like the Spark and take a quick photo / video without needing any kind of controller / phone connected.

Despite the “enhanced WiFi” I did have some blips with signal and transmission when testing in the garden, but it was on 2.4ghz and there was probably a lot of interfence.

When I took it out the next day into fields nearby, it flew over 1000ft into the distance with no issue. That’s more than far enough for my liking and it felt considerably better than the Spark and more akin to flying the Mavic Pro with Occusync.

The DJI Goggles work via a USB cable — you have to disconnect the phone first and then plug it in. I like the DJI Googles but they are big and heavy and frankly without stereoscopic cameras and a proper 3D view of what’s going on, I find it much easier to just fly it normally with a phone screen and by eye.

DJI have really improved obstacle detection with the Air — it comes with front, back and bottom sensors for obstacle avoidance and will stop automatically if it sees something in the way. You can also configure it via the app to fly over obstacles, and unlike the Mavic Pro and Spark it can also intelligently fly around obstacles as it’s flying forward. This means you can have the Air following you down a trail, and it’ll fly around and avoid trees and other obstacles.

Overall the Mavic Air is an incredible device. I get all the pleasure I had flying the Mavic Pro, with all the portability of the Spark without any of the frustration and connection issues it came with.

Yes, it absolutely could be better – 30 minute flying time would be amazing, obstacle sensors on the top and sides would be most welcome, especially when features like return-to-home kick in and it’s flying back autonomously.

Occusync would make the wireless connection even stronger, and able to use DJI Goggles without a cable, but obviously this requires more power, and a bigger battery.

If DJI released a Mavic Air 2 with better flight time, Occusync, all round obstacle avoidance, and folding propellers, it would be absolutely perfect.

I’m currently selling my Spark and Mavic Pro, and aim to have the Mavic Air as my everyday device – well, until the Mavic Pro 2 maybe ;)