Within the nice battle of the manufacturers, it virtually at all times comes right down to Autel and DJI when evaluating the very best drones. It could actually’t be helped!
DJI continues to guide the drone {industry}, with the Mini 3 Professional as considered one of its most interesting improvements up to now. It’s been considered one of my favorites since its launch, and despite the fact that the Mini 4 Professional has come out since, there are nonetheless many days the place I’d somewhat fly my Mini 3.
However oh, the Autel EVO Lite and its four-axis gimbal. That’s a factor of magnificence, proper there.
So, which is best? It’s time to resolve.
This overview will examine and distinction the Autel EVO Lite and DJI Mini 3 Professional, analyzing their variations in areas like efficiency, digital camera and video high quality, transmission distance, security options, battery life, and sensible options. As you learn, chances are you’ll understand why the Mini 3 Professional – my private choose – is a tricky one to beat.
I’ve loved utilizing each these drones completely, and I’m glad to share my flight experiences with you to information your resolution so that you don’t waste a cent of your hard-earned moolah.
Temporary overview
Autel EVO Lite
The Autel EVO Lite has a number of the perfect options yow will discover in a client drone, particularly for beneath $1,000.
Granted, the EVO Lite simply squeaks by for that value if you choose the Premium Bundle, however it’s decrease value if you buy the usual version.
This drone got here out in January 2022, which already appears like a coon’s age within the drone world, because it was effectively over a yr in the past. I stored ready, pondering some product from DJI would have a four-axis gimbal apart from the Ronin 4D, however it hasn’t.
That makes the EVO Lite the king of its fort. So, what sorts of options does this drone have? Let’s have a look.
- An industry-leading four-axis gimbal. Autel calls it the “first on this planet,” however what’s clear is that you just definitely can’t discover this in any DJI client drone. The gimbal goes the additional mile for the drone’s stability, guaranteeing your pictures and movies are laser-sharp and lightning-focused.
- A world-class 1/1.28-inch CMOS sensor that shoots in 4K HDR and 50 MP picture decision with RYYB colour filtering. The proportion of sunshine absorption that occurs with this gentle array is larger than most, resulting in crystal-clear pictures and excessive ranges of element for constructing a powerful portfolio.
- Glorious impediment avoidance cameras that may see as much as 150 levels in entrance of the drone, bettering your security whether or not you’re a newbie or a seasoned vet.
- A battery lifetime of 40 minutes, a regular for Autel that continues to be spectacular, however. Working extra effectively is simpler with Autel.
- Configurable choices, like a regular or upgraded bundle, and two colours, together with my private favourite – orange. It’s an amazing alternative for higher visibility!
» MORE: Autel vs. DJI – Which Drones Are Higher?
DJI Mini 3 Professional
The Mini 3 Professional got here out later than the EVO Lite, in Might versus January 2022. It’s an upgraded model of the unique Mini 3 and was later adopted up by the Mini 4 Professional.
So, certain, the Mini 3 Professional isn’t the leading edge anymore, however this drone nonetheless has a lot to like.
There’s a cause I and plenty of different drone pilots can’t cease speaking about it a yr and a half after its preliminary launch.
Truly, there are lots of causes, and so they embrace the next.
- An ultra-lightweight profile of beneath 250 grams, making the Mini 3 Professional gentle sufficient that you just don’t must register it when flying as a hobbyist. It’s additionally transportable, foldable, and able to go on each journey in your bucket checklist, as you’ll be able to at all times discover house for it in your carry-on or checked baggage.
- A 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor that shoots photos in 48 MP RAW and 4K HDR. The RAW recordsdata are stuffed with wealthy, authentic element, simply as you captured them.
- Prime Clever Flight Modes, together with slow-mo video, True Vertical Capturing, Hyperlapses, MasterShots, Digital Zoom, FocusTrack, and Panorama. These modes automate drone flight for cinematic masterpieces you’ll be able to ship on the go utilizing QuickTransfer.
- Three-direction dual-vision impediment sensing and APAS 4.0 for impediment avoidance, a characteristic the Mini sequence has not at all times had. This makes the Mini 3 Professional one of many most secure within the sequence to fly.
- Help for daytime and nighttime flights (should you’re legally allowed to) so you’ll be able to proceed having fun with the enjoyable together with your Mini 3 even after darkish.
» MORE: How you can Join DJI Mini 3 / Mini 3 Professional to Wi-Fi (Step-by-Step Information)
Fast verdict
Listed below are two drones that got here out inside the final yr and – much more pertinently – inside six months of each other. But they’re so distinctive in lots of ways in which selecting the very best one was troublesome.
I’ve loved flying the EVO Lite and Mini 3 Professional, and whereas they shine in varied areas, you’re not right here since you wish to purchase each. You solely need one.
Right here at Droneblog, we’re dedicated to recommending solely probably the most wonderful drones to you for leisure {and professional} use. These solutions come after a whole bunch of hours of flight testing.
We’ve concluded that the DJI Mini 3 Professional is superior to the Autel EVO Lite, though granted, it isn’t by a lot. The Mini 3 Professional has equal video high quality and comparable picture high quality, whereas its security options are in the identical league as Autel. Nonetheless, its Clever Flight Modes can’t be beat.
The EVO Lite will at all times stay considered one of my favorites.
It has lots the Mini 3 Professional doesn’t, comparable to an extended battery and a greater gimbal. It’s a wonderful alternative in so many respects and a drone I’m personally fairly obsessive about.
It’s an amazing drone for a lot of pilots, however I feel the Mini 3 Professional continues to be higher.
» MORE: Autel Evo Lite+ Overview
What are the principle variations?
Now that you just’ve seen my advice for the very best drone of the 2, let’s take a deep dive into how they’re completely different.
There are sufficient options between these two drones that it doesn’t matter what you like, you will get what you’re on the lookout for.
- Gimbal: The Mini 3 Professional has a three-axis gimbal, the usual for DJI drones. Oppositely, it’s a four-axis gimbal for the EVO Lite, a distinction price noting. The extra axis provides a pan mechanic, giving the EVO Lite’s digital camera a larger diploma of management and precision throughout operation, however a three-axis gimbal is simply superb for many pilots.
- Picture high quality: Right here is one other class the place the EVO Lite excels. It shoots in 50 MP picture high quality, whereas it’s solely 48 MP for the Mini 3 Professional. Nonetheless, the DJI drone additionally takes RAW footage, so I’d argue the standard and element are comparable.
- Weight: Right here’s an space the place the distinction between these two drones is extra obvious. The EVO Lite weighs a average 835 grams, however it looks as if a heavyweight in comparison with the Mini 3 Professional. You’ll recall that it solely weighs 249 grams, so the Autel drone is about 4 instances heavier.
- Colour choices: The EVO Lite is obtainable in brilliant orange for nice visibility or grey for an understated type. You’ll be able to’t select the colour of the Mini 3 Professional, or any DJI drone, for that matter.
» MORE: DJI Mini 3 Professional – How you can Manufacturing unit Reset (Step-by-Step Information)
Autel EVO Lite
Autel proved that it’s keen to push the envelope and innovate simply as a lot, if no more so, than DJI when it launched the EVO Lite, a starring version in its EVO Lite Collection.
Let’s get proper to it and talk about the gimbal as a result of it’s one of the vital distinct options of the EVO Lite.
It’s a four-axis gimbal able to panning, yawing, pitching, and rolling with extra precision and accuracy than three-axis gimbals.
The EVO Lite can shoot vertically, a characteristic DJI has already provided in a number of of its drones, so that is Autel’s reply to that.
Talking of taking pictures, you’ll end up getting carried away with this drone’s video and picture capabilities, as they’re unimaginable. Its tiny 1/1.28-inch CMOS sensor has a 50 MP picture decision and 4K HDR video decision.
That’s not the very best video res in an Autel drone, however it’s among the many finest picture high quality yow will discover in its drones.
Autel calls the digital camera “supersensitive,” and I’d agree with that sentiment, in one of the simplest ways.
The RYYB colour filter array has extra gentle than common and a brighter palette of colour.
Your sunrises will likely be brilliant pink and orange, your daytime pictures an ideal blue, and your night time images of a glimmering cityscape a rainbow of city chaos.
Activate HDR mode, and the EVO Lite will cobble collectively the last word shot based mostly on the very best dynamic vary, distinction, and publicity settings.
This can be a characteristic Autel has replicated throughout a few of its drones, and I’m so glad to seek out it within the EVO Lite. It’s considered one of my favorites for saving time in submit.
Ship the EVO Lite into the sky and watch it do its factor utilizing cinematic modes like Orbit, Rocket, Flick, and Fade Away.
» MORE: Are Autel Drones Any Good? (You May Be Stunned)
The automated path the drone takes is nice for social media professionals wanting to seem like drone execs when missing expertise.
That’s not the one automated mode, by the best way. The EVO Lite contains Dynamic Monitor 2.1 for extra precision monitoring of something that strikes, together with animals and autos.
SkyPortrait is your finest good friend should you dwell for selfies, as it should take them for you, together with all your folks within the shot.
Then there’s this drone’s impediment avoidance. Autel has confirmed again and again that it excels in impediment avoidance in ways in which typically DJI doesn’t, a minimum of not persistently.
The EVO Lite has an ultra-wide impediment avoidance digital camera, an innovation Autel created across the time of this drone’s launch. The sensors constructed into the mannequin present a frontal view that’s 150 expansive levels.
This characteristic will make you’re feeling safer when flying, particularly should you’re nonetheless studying.
In the event you’re a extra skilled pilot, you’ll respect how one can focus extra on the EVO Lite’s dazzling cinematics and let it maintain the remainder.
DJI Mini 3 Professional
The Mini 3 Professional has the very best traits of the Mini line up to now, and that’s saying one thing, contemplating how critically acclaimed these DJI drones have been.
Residing as much as its title, it weighs beneath 249 grams, so it’s about the identical weight as your smartphone. You received’t thoughts carrying this drone in your pocket or in your again for hours, even days, comparable to when backpacking.
DJI sharpened up the design in comparison with different Mini drones, growing the size of the props so the Mini 3 Professional is extra beginner-friendly.
In contrast to the Mini 3, the Professional has a greater gimbal, facilitating True Vertical Capturing. It won’t be a four-axis gimbal, however I feel it’s wonderful.
Now, what about its digital camera? The Mini 3 Professional includes a 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor with an f/1.7 aperture.
You’ll be able to’t regulate it, however the charge of sunshine is designed to brighten low-light videography and images, explaining why the Mini 3 Professional is appropriate for nighttime pictures.
You’ll be able to depend on its aperture in all types of situations, broadening your drone flight horizons and your portfolio in variety.
The 48 MP picture high quality is a few of DJI’s finest, and the identical goes for its 4K HDR video, which is corresponding to what the EVO Lite gives.
Bear in mind, the pictures are all in RAW format, which implies extra knowledge and element are retained in each shot.
You’ll be able to edit out what you don’t need in submit, which received’t be a lot, contemplating this drone has D-Cinelike Colour in its movies and pictures for a brighter, richer world your shoppers will marvel over.
» MORE: DJI Mini 3 Professional: One-12 months Overview (Video)
The Mini line has not at all times had impediment avoidance, however the Mini 3 Professional does.
Its tri-directional impediment sensing system would possibly solely gauge downward, backward, and frontal threats with a dual-vision sensor system, however the Superior Pilot Help System or APAS 4.0 is for impediment avoidance.
APAS 4.0 won’t be the latest version (that’s APAS 5.0, as of this writing), however it greater than suffices, particularly if the choice is not any impediment avoidance in any respect.
Apart from True Vertical Capturing, the Mini 3 Professional is able to so many Clever Flight Modes.
You’ll be able to scale back pace and take slow-mo movies, an excellent characteristic for cinematics, or pace up all the things round you with a dramatic Hyperlapse.
Digital Zoom facilitates safer taking pictures situations of wildlife and harmful nature, as you will get in on the motion with out being in the course of it.
» MORE: DJI Mini 3 / Mini 3 Professional – How you can Dwell Stream on YouTube (Video)
FocusTrack is like Autel’s Dynamic Monitor, permitting for topic monitoring, whereas MasterShots makes use of automated flight modes to seize reliably superior movies.
These options are the type that make me hold coming again to DJI.
This suite of enjoyable, sensible modes has one thing for each kind of pilot, from business consultants trying to make their jobs simpler to influencers anticipating distinctive footage to get these likes and clicks.
DJI Mini 3 Professional (DJI RC)
Light-weight and Foldable Digital camera Drone
- 4K/60fps Video
- 48MP Picture
- 34-min Flight Time
- Tri-Directional Impediment Sensing, Built-in RC and display screen
We earn a fee should you make a purchase order, at no extra value to you.
11/30/2023 07:42 pm GMT
Head-to-head comparability
Digital camera system
Winner: Autel EVO Lite
Congratulations go to the EVO Lite for its four-axis gimbal.
Do I personally suppose a four-axis gimbal is a gamechanger?
No. It’s positively cool, don’t get me mistaken, however I can go from flying a four-axis gimbal drone just like the EVO Lite and again to a three-axis gimbal drone just like the Mini 3 Professional and never really feel like I’m lacking out on too terribly a lot.
DJI’s gimbals provide a excessive diploma of flexibility and adjustability regardless of having three axes as an alternative of 4.
Nonetheless, a four-axis gimbal is technically higher, so the EVO Lite wins this class.
There are extra causes to reward it, in fact. It has distinctive picture high quality, top-notch video high quality, a twin CDAF and PDAF autofocus system, a 0.8-inch CMOS sensor, and an RYYB colour filter array.
They’re altogether some sterling options.
That’s to not say the Mini 3 Professional is a slouch. It has a shocking colour show corresponding to the RYYB colour filter array within the type of its D-Cinelike Colour.
Its 48 MP picture high quality in RAW recordsdata preserves all of the element you might need, whether or not you’re having enjoyable taking pictures lovely cliffsides or on the job photographing a property on the market.
Its 4K HDR at 60 frames per second provides you an identical degree of video element as seen within the EVO Lite. I want the Mini 3 Professional’s video, because it feels extra high-fidelity to me.
After all, should you’re working at 120 fps, the video high quality drops to 1080p, which isn’t so nice.
» MORE: Digital camera Know-how in Drones (Defined)
Efficiency
Winner: DJI Mini 3 Professional
The light-weight, agile flyer DJI designed within the Mini 3 Professional is so enjoyable to choose up and fly. It’s extra aerodynamic than ever, and it’s beginner-friendly but by no means boring for intermediates and consultants.
As a pro-level drone, it has the digital camera capabilities and Clever Flight Modes to accompany you on the job, augmenting your tasks.
These automated modes take the Mini 3 Professional additional, whether or not it’s twisting and looping by means of the air on an automatic route or taking pictures slow-mo movies or hyperlapse pictures.
The flexibility is nothing wanting wonderful, which I’ve come to count on from DJI.
And certain, possibly this drone doesn’t have Superior RTH or Waypoints, however it’s a Mini drone. It’s uncomplicated but reliable and has simply the precise Clever Flight Modes.
The EVO Lite has its personal sensible modes, however to not the identical diploma because the Mini 3 Professional.
Plus, I’ve at all times discovered that no different drone model fairly matches DJI when it comes to sensible options, though Autel is getting darn shut.
I respect how the Mini 3 Professional has impediment avoidance.
It’s not DJI’s most subtle system, however APAS 4.0 continues to be higher than nothing, and mixed with the obstacle-sensing system, it is best to really feel safer within the skies than you maybe ever have when flying a Mini drone.
The EVO Lite has a special kind of impediment avoidance than a few of its different drones, such because the EVO II Professional.
The Lite’s front-facing digital camera sensors can detect obstacles in entrance of it.
It’s wonderful, and possibly just a little higher than DJI’s impediment avoidance for the Mini drones, however the Mini 3 Professional wins this class as a complete.
» MORE: DJI Mini 3 vs. Mini 3 Professional (Which Drone Is Higher?)
Portability
Winner: DJI Mini 3 Professional
Right here’s one other class the place the Mini 3 Professional wins, and it wasn’t even troublesome to choose a winner right here.
The Mini 3 Professional, as you’ll recall, weighs 4 instances lower than the EVO Lite.
You’ll have extra choices for packing it in baggage, comparable to a checked bag or carry-on, or in a drone backpack to your on a regular basis adventures.
You’ll be able to deliver the EVO Lite on simply as lots of these adventures; the bundle packs even embrace a tough carrying case.
The difficulty is, the EVO Lite is heavier, though a minimum of it’s foldable.
» MORE: Finest Newbie Drones Below $500
RC compatibility and flight vary
Winner: DJI Mini 3 Professional
The Autel Lite and Nano sequence share a controller that’s appropriately named the EVO Nano & Lite Distant Controller. I prefer it as a result of it sort of jogs my memory of an Xbox 360 controller however with much less bulk and extra ergonomics.
It’s a glossy black, with few buttons, transmission by means of the SkyApp, and a removable holster to your smartphone.
The Mini 3 Professional works with two DJI remotes, the DJI RC or the DJI RC-N1. The RC-N1 is suitable with the Mini 2, Air 2, Air 2S, and Mavic 3.
It has no display screen, just like the EVO Lite’s controller, however includes a boxier distant with a smartphone holster.
The RC-N1 is sufficient, but when potential, I like to recommend the DJI RC extra.
This newer, smarter, extra fashionable controller with DJI O3+ video transmission energy has a display screen, an excellent display screen to spare your smartphone.
The EVO Lite has a 7.4-mile transmission vary, which is nothing to sneeze at. The Mini 3 Professional’s transmission vary is 7.45 miles, so it’s only a smidge over.
Battery life
Winner: Autel EVO Lite
The battle of battery life commences. It’s the EVO Lite right here, which guarantees 40 minutes of flight time in accordance with Autel. In my expertise, it’s over 35 minutes however not fairly 40 minutes.
Each drone model overpromises on flight instances, in order that didn’t shock me.
As for the Mini 3 Professional, it’s imagined to fly for 34 minutes with the Clever Flight Battery. DJI calls that “prolonged.” I obtained round half-hour of flight time, simply over.
Extra flight time is at all times higher, and Autel is main the best way for the way lengthy a drone ought to be capable to fly. The Mini 3 Professional may afford to catch up.
» MORE: Drone Batteries (In-Depth Info)
Conclusion
It was a neck-and-neck race between the Autel EVO Lite and DJI Mini 3 Professional.
In the end, the Mini 3 Professional got here out on prime for qualities like a light-weight, forward-thinking design, purposeful digital camera system, higher impediment avoidance than Minis previous, and Clever Flight Modes, considered one of its strongest options.
The EVO Lite is among the finest Autel drones up to now in a group of fashions that I discover it onerous to decide on between.
Nonetheless, it’s marketed as a light-weight drone and is something however. It additionally barely excels over DJI in areas like picture high quality and impediment avoidance.
