I Tested Dji's Palm-sized Drone, And It Captured Things I Had Never Seen Before (and It's Now Only $159)

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The DJI Neo is disposable from DJI and Amazon for $199 for nan basal kit, and $289 for nan Combo kit.
• This 135-gram drone is incredibly portable and highly capable, making it cleanable for bloggers, YouTubers, and societal media types.
• The Neo's upwind guidance is little than different DJI drones, and real-world artillery life is importantly little than advertised.

What's nan deal?

The DJI Neo now starts astatine $159 for Amazon Prime Day, nan lowest value that I've seen for this drone truthful far.

Drone operators mostly autumn into 2 categories: those who usage drones arsenic devices for tasks for illustration inspections, existent property photography, aliases imaginative projects, and those who alert for nan thrill of flying.

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I autumn into that first class -- personification who takes a drone retired of nan lawsuit to do a job, and sometimes that occupation is reviewing a drone. That said, nan position of a recreational flyer is peculiarly important erstwhile evaluating DJI's latest drone, nan Neo.

First impressions

The Neo is simply a compact, almost palm-sized drone, making it 1 of nan astir portable drones available. Palm-sized mightiness beryllium a spot of an exaggeration unless you person elephantine paws, but astatine first glance, nan Neo looks much for illustration a artifact than a superior drone.

Weighing conscionable 135 grams, it is importantly lighter than DJI's Mini bid and moreover lighter than nan Mavic 3 Pro. For context, it weighs 96 grams little than an iPhone 16 Pro Max.

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The Neo resembles an FPV drone pinch its integrated propeller guards and a camera mounted connected a single-axis gimbal. This creation not only enhances information during flights astir group but besides provides durability against insignificant bumps. The drone's artillery life offers up to 17 minutes of formation clip successful optimal conditions.

I took this changeable while mounting up nan Neo for its maiden flight.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

The Neo comes bundled pinch an RC-N3 controller, a cost-reduced version of nan earlier RC-N2 controller designed to suit nan Neo drone's specs. It offers a reduced flying clip of 3.5 hours compared to nan N2's runtime of six hours and a reduced max transmission range, down from 20 kilometers offered by nan Mini 4 Pro to 10 kilometers. 

While fewer group are -- aliases should beryllium -- flying their drone kilometers away, this does raise questions astir really nan drone operates successful areas pinch obstructions and interference, specifically municipality environments.

It's still difficult to usage a bigger telephone pinch DJI controllers.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

This caller controller has a problem carried guardant from nan older versions successful that nan clamp connected nan controller is excessively mini for bigger smartphones. 

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The Neo tin execute various preprogrammed QuickShot maneuvers without a controller, including Follow, Dronie, Circle, Rocket, and Spotlight. It besides features a Custom mode pinch DirectionTrack, Helix, and Boomerang, allowing for imaginative aerial shots.

These on-drone controls fto you usage nan Neo without a controller.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

With 22GB of built-in storage, nan Neo reduces nan request for a microSD card, simplifying nan personification experience. This is adjuvant if you for illustration hassle-free cognition and don't want to faff astir pinch microSD cards.

Flying nan Neo

During my testing, nan Neo demonstrated agility and easiness of use, moreover successful ray winds. It tin return disconnected from your palm, making it perfect for launches successful challenging environments for illustration beaches aliases bedewed areas.

Palm landings are easier than ever, excessively -- conscionable hover it complete your unfastened palm, propulsion nan instrumentality down, and nan Neo lands and shuts off.

DJI states nan Neo is OK to alert successful upwind speeds up to 8 m/s (17.9 mph), compared to 10.7 m/s (23.9 mph) for drones specified arsenic nan Mini 4 Pro. I could consciousness this difference. It felt for illustration nan Neo was fighting overmuch harder to enactment still successful ray winds than immoderate different DJI drone I've flown.

During periods of debased winds, nan drone was overmuch much stable, allowing maine to alert it in, around, and nether a train (a existent train, but not an operational one). So, nan upwind was causing nan issues. 

All of a sudden, I'm doing worldly pinch nan Neo that I wouldn't dream of doing pinch nan Mini 4 Pro aliases Mavic 3 Pro, and it's each alternatively impressive!

Battery life

In real-world conditions, nan Neo's batteries supply astir 12 minutes of formation time. I particularly admit its upgraded charging hub, which tin complaint 3 batteries simultaneously successful conscionable an hr pinch a 65W USB-C charger.

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The hub's simultaneous charging capacity is simply a important advantage, allowing for flying pinch minimal downtime.

Camera value

The Neo's camera supports 4K video astatine 30FPS and 12-megapixel JPEG photos, suitable for wide usage and societal media. While it lacks RAW photograph options, its output is comparable to mid-tier smartphones, making it perfect for non-professional applications.

The Neo's support for Wi-Fi transportation of photos and video to your smartphone is accelerated and easy to group up.

Transferring photos and video from nan drone's soul retention to nan smartphone complete Wi-Fi is accelerated and easy!

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

Despite nan drone battling nan upwind connected galore occasions, image stableness was almost ever exceptional, a testament to nan value of DJI's cameras and gimbals. Unless you expect to seizure a cinematic short aliases you want to make immense prints from your photos for framing connected your walls, nan Neo is much than enough.

ZDNET's buying proposal

As mentioned, location are 2 types of drone users: those focused connected capturing high-quality contented and those who alert for fun. The much I alert nan DJI Neo, nan much it seems designed for nan latter. It's an enjoyable portion of equipment, and while I seldom usage autonomous formation modes, galore do, and nan Neo excels successful this area. 

You tin seizure stunning footage without a controller, making it cleanable for nan Instagram/TikTok crowd. The Neo is unique, too, successful that its size allows it to task into areas inaccessible to different drones, offering unsocial angles and shots.     

Its pricing is besides a game-changer: a 4K drone from a apical shaper starting astatine conscionable $199 for nan basal kit and $289 for nan Combo battalion pinch other batteries and charger. This is exceptional value.

DJI Neo tech specs