Autel EVO Lite+ vs. DJI Mini 2 SE (Right here’s My Favourite) – Droneblog

Welcome to my assessment of the Autel EVO Lite+ and the DJI Mini 2 SE.

These two handheld drones are geared towards pilots who by no means like to remain in a single place, as they’re filled with options for facilitating simpler (learn: autonomous) and extra fulfilling flights.

Nevertheless, except you’re stocking up for a complete fleet, you solely want considered one of these drones. I’ve examined the EVO Lite+ and Mini 2 SE over many hours apiece that will help you determine which is one of the best of the bunch.

This assessment will dive deep into the variations between the Autel EVO Lite+ and DJI Mini 2 SE and share extra of my insights and experiences flying them each. You’ll study why the EVO Lite+ has what it takes to outshine a DJI drone, which isn’t any simple feat!

Let’s discover your dream drone!

Temporary overview

Autel EVO Lite+

The EVO Lite+ got here out on the similar time that Autel revised the sensor dimension of the unique EVO Lite and launched the EVO Nano (two variations).

Though that was so much suddenly, the EVO Lite+ stands out for myriad causes. It decreased the price of what you’d need to pay to personal an OG EVO Lite.

It additionally simplified the gimbal system, going from a four-axis to a three-axis gimbal.

Possibly that doesn’t sound so nice should you’re of the mindset that extra superior tech is all the time higher, however let me let you know this.

4-axis gimbals are fairly darn cool, however a three-axis gimbal continues to be greater than satisfactory.

For my part, it’s a kind of “don’t repair what isn’t damaged” eventualities.

However I digress. Let’s examine what else rocks in regards to the EVO Lite+:

• It lasts within the air for 40 minutes at a clip, so you may get extra performed with out having to spend hours charging your battery.
• The transmission vary of seven.4 miles is just not too shabby for a DJI competitor and is lots competent for brand new pilots.
• Its 1-inch CMOS RGGB digital camera shoots in unparalleled 6K video at 30 frames per second and 20 MP picture decision.
• It has computerized flight options like Lively Observe and SkyPortrait for hands-off pictures and videography, one other A+ function for social media stars and influencers. SkyPortrait is even branded as “your private paparazzi,” which is correct up your alley should you’re chronically on-line.
• Wonderful pictures and videography modes, from Defog Mode to pure colour restoration, the Moonlight Algorithm, adjustable aperture, HDR composites, and twin autofocus.

» MORE: Autel EVO Lite+ Video Overview (Video)

DJI Mini 2 SE

The DJI Mini 2 SE got here out in 2023 as a follow-up to the Mini 2. It’s a stable drone, providing loads of options pilots covet, particularly novices.

They embody:

• A neat weight of below 249 grams, so that you don’t have to hassle your self with drone registration.
• A stabilizing three-axis gimbal that homes a digital camera with a 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor that shoots in 12 MP picture high quality and a pair of.7K video.
• Newbie options reminiscent of single-tap launching and touchdown, a Propeller Guard (should buy individually although), and tutorials by means of the DJI Fly app. Now novices can really feel like consultants in file time!
• Artistic templates and enjoyable edits by means of the DJI Fly app for enhancing and posting your footage whilst you’re nonetheless within the area (nice for constructing your portfolio or maintaining with the Joneses on social media).
• Enjoyable Clever Flight Options like QuickShots that maneuvers your drone for you, fully hands-free (effectively, you continue to want to carry the controller, however you get what I imply).

» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE App (Learn This Earlier than Downloading)

Fast verdict

Though I largely fly drones for enjoyable, I all the time understand buying choices from the opposite aspect of the coin, as I do know most pilots are in it for industrial acquire.

Right here at Droneblog, we delight ourselves on recommending the highest merchandise in the marketplace after lots of of hours of analysis and testing.

By means of my expertise with each drones, I’m assured in saying the Autel EVO Lite+ is the higher drone in comparison with the DJI Mini 2 SE. The DJI drone has video and picture high quality that’s been surpassed a number of occasions over by the EVO Lite+. The Autel drone has extra options to bolster your picture and video high quality and higher security options.

Something the Mini 2 SE can do, the EVO Lite+ can do higher.

Picture high quality? Video high quality? Images settings? Flight time? These are all areas the place the EVO Lite+ excels.

Nevertheless, I don’t wish to fully forged the Mini 2 SE apart. In the event you’re brand-new to drones or looking for a light-weight, ultra-portable resolution, the Mini 2 SE will serve you effectively.

It’s obtained first rate video transmission and battery, making it extra relevant for leisure than industrial endeavors.

DJI by no means mentioned the Mini 2 SE is a industrial drone. Its web site is filled with folks utilizing this drone for enjoyable, a goal I’ve primarily used it for as effectively.

If that’s what you persist with, you’ll be able to nonetheless have a blast with the Mini 2 SE.

» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE vs. Autel EVO Nano (Right here’s My Alternative)

What are the principle variations?

It’s comparability time.

I like a superb comparability as a lot as anybody. I’m very meticulous with my purchases and have to really feel like I’m making the only option by means of cautious consideration and analysis.

What higher approach to do this than by inspecting what these drones have and lack?

Right here’s some info that may allow you to make up your thoughts.

• Weight: A reputation just like the EVO Lite+ would in all probability make you suppose this drone weighs below 250 grams. Effectively, it doesn’t. As an alternative, it weighs 835 grams or virtually three kilos. The Mini 2 SE, by comparability, is way lighter. It weighs under 250 grams. That’s about as a lot as your smartphone.
• Night time pictures: Isn’t nighttime videography and pictures simply the best? You’ll actually agree should you select the EVO Lite+, which boasts Autel’s Moonlight Algorithm for noise management and readability in darkish environments. Though you’re solely legally permitted to make use of your drone at night time in restricted eventualities, having night time footage in your portfolio might allow you to land gigs or promote your footage sooner. The Mini 2 SE doesn’t have a function just like the Moonlight Algorithm, though later DJI drones have their reply to this function.
• Security options: The strategy to security every drone producer took is wildly totally different right here. The Mini 2 SE comes geared up with…effectively, not a lot. Okay, to be honest, it has a downward sensing system that makes use of infrared expertise to gauge what’s round it, however it could possibly’t actively keep away from obstacles. The prop guards aren’t sufficient to reserve it if it careens right into a tree.  
• Colours: You need colours? You bought ‘em! The EVO Lite+ is available in three hues for all tastes. Your choices are white, black, and electrical orange. The Mini 2 SE is just out there in white, with no choice to customise your drone colour except you set a pores and skin on it.
• Newbie-friendliness: The EVO Lite+ has some beginner-friendly options, however largely, this drone’s viewers is the extra established pilot. Oppositely, the Mini 2 SE is made largely for novices. Skilled pilots may discover a few of its options too rudimentary.
• Value: The Mini 2 SE is obtainable for below $350, which isn’t unhealthy for a brand new drone launched in 2023. By comparability, the EVO Lite+ is effectively over $1,000.

» MORE: Autel EVO Lite+ vs. DJI Mavic 3 Professional (Which Is Higher?)

Autel EVO Lite+

The EVO Lite+ is a mid-level drone for industrial and leisure use, though it’s handier for the previous.

This follow-up to the OG EVO Lite launched cost-effective, consumer-friendly options, proving that an Autel drone needn’t break the financial institution.

It has options to seize your consideration, however it’s way more than flash and panache.

This drone has substance, as evidenced by its 40-minute flight time, industry-leading video high quality, and high-level impediment avoidance.

It’s obtained good options to rival any DJI drone, with automated flight modes reminiscent of Flick, Fade Away, Orbit, and Rocket which can be very corresponding to DJI’s QuickShots capabilities.

These single-button modes shoot mechanically, simply as DJI QuickShots modes do.

Higher but, you should use the Autel Sky app to jazz up your footage instantly after taking pictures, apply filters, and decide a banger soundtrack.

Pilots clamber for SkyPortrait, particularly within the social media sphere. You may ship the EVO Lite+ into the air by itself trajectory to trace you and your buddies, then take photographs.

The digital camera will mechanically embody everybody and make changes, so that you don’t need to.

That’s solely a style of this drone’s superior topic monitoring, because it additionally contains Dynamic Observe 2.1.

This improved model of Dynamic Observe permits the EVO Lite+ to trace virtually something. I’m speaking about folks, autos, even animals.

The drone will seize footage, so you continue to have to watch it, however you’ll be able to depend on its main impediment avoidance sensor and digital camera system to forestall it from crashing into a close-by tree.

You may increase your pictures in new and sudden methods. Pure colour restoration renews the hues of your photos with out oversaturating them.

» MORE: Autel EVO Lite+ Overview

The HDR function takes a composite of your photos with the optimum spotlight and shadow steadiness, and Defog Mode is ideal should you’re up with the solar or taking pictures vivid movies from a mountain.

The form of footage you’ll be able to put collectively utilizing the EVO Lite+ is nothing in need of astounding. It is a drone designed that will help you acquire a aggressive benefit.

These options are intuitive sufficient for any newbie however catered towards drone execs with extra expertise below their belt.

That’s considered one of my favourite elements in regards to the EVO Lite+: the way it toes the road between newbie and seasoned pilot.

DJI Mini 2 SE

The Mini 2 SE is a member of DJI’s long-running Mini collection.

It’s about as light-weight as a Mini drone comes and is ultra-beginner-friendly, filled with tutorials and prop guards to forestall pilot mishaps (and painful lacerations from these sharp propellers – ouch!).

May you utilize it as a severe industrial drone pilot? I suppose, however I ponder why you’ll wish to.

There are lots of extra drones within the Mini collection higher suited to your targets, together with the Mini 3 Professional and Mini 4 Professional.

In any case, the Mini 2 SE lacks any impediment avoidance, a significant shortfall when surveying or doing any form of environmental work with a drone.

Is the Mini 2 SE good for leisure drone exploration? You betcha. It’s so light-weight and intuitive that audiences, from children to adults, can decide it up and fly it.

It’s filled with sufficient options that will help you study the ropes of drone flight that I’d suggest the Mini 2 SE as the primary drone for any pilot.

Heck, I want it had existed once I realized to fly a drone. I really feel it will have made issues so much simpler.

» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE Battery (All You Have to Know)

And positive, lots of the Mini drones earlier than and after the Mini 2 SE are simply as beginner-friendly, however there’s one thing about this one which I nonetheless like.

It has a pleasant appeal and enjoyable options that make the expertise with this drone one in one million.

It has a full extent of the Clever Flight Options. It is a DJI drone we’re speaking about right here, and despite the fact that it’s a fundamental one, particularly by at present’s requirements, it nonetheless makes use of QuickShots.

You may select from 4 modes: Rocket, Helix, Dronie, and Circle.

It’s also possible to take off with out manually doing it, and land mechanically. New drone pilots can proceed with the utmost confidence because of all this cool automation.

DJI Mini 2 SE (Fly Extra Combo)

Light-weight Drone with QHD Video, 10km Video Transmission, 3 Batteries for Whole of 93 Minutes Flight Time, Underneath 249 g, Automated Professional Pictures, Digital camera Drone for Freshmen.

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We earn a fee should you make a purchase order, at no further value to you.

11/06/2023 05:31 pm GMT

Head-to-head comparability

Digital camera system

Winner: Autel EVO Lite+

I don’t need you to really feel like I’m beating up on the poor Mini 2 SE as a result of it’s an distinctive, zippy little drone in some ways. Nevertheless, its digital camera is just not considered one of them.

The three-axis gimbal is ok.

That’s the identical sort of gimbal the EVO Lite+ has, decreasing its axes from 4 to 3 between the primary and second EVO Lite. It’s additionally a DJI gimbal, so it’s greater than satisfactory.

The issue is with the digital camera itself. For a drone launched in 2023, its 12 MP picture high quality and a pair of.4K video high quality don’t reduce it.

When you think about that the EVO Lite+ has 20 MP picture high quality and 6K video, that distinction is large!

The Autel drone doesn’t even have one of the best picture high quality in comparison with many different drones within the Mini collection, however the Mini 2 SE is just not considered one of them.

As for the video high quality, it’s a steep uptick for the EVO Lite+ in comparison with the Mini 2 SE.

Do most individuals even care about video and picture high quality? That relies on what sort of drone pilot you’re asking.

If it’s a industrial pilot, sure, completely. It’s a must to, as getting high quality footage is a part of your job description.

As for leisure pilots, it relies upon. In the event you’re model new to drones, which is the viewers the Mini 2 SE caters to, you then don’t actually know any higher to say definitively, “Sure, that is superior digital camera high quality.”

Nevertheless, should you’re an influencer or social media star, you’ll care about picture and video high quality. You in all probability obtained into drones within the first place to provide your self a bonus over the competitors.

In case your video and picture high quality is poor by comparability, that benefit evaporates.

» MORE: Digital camera Know-how in Drones (Defined)

Efficiency

Winner: Autel EVO Lite+

I wish to give the Mini 2 SE brownie factors for efficiency. It’s light-weight, simple to fly, intuitive, responsive, and simply an all-around good drone.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t rightfully give it the efficiency prize when it has impediment detection however not avoidance.

The EVO Lite+ has an clever impediment avoidance system that has a large area of frontal imaginative and prescient. It’s constructed to scale back blind spots and stop unintended collisions.

When you think about this drone solely prices about $500 greater than the Mini 2 SE (sure, it’s nonetheless costly at present), the shortage of an impediment avoidance system within the Mini drone is much more evident.

» MORE: Autel EVO Lite Plus vs DJI Air 3 (Right here’s My Favourite)

Portability

Winner: DJI Mini 2 SE

I like my EVO Lite+, however there’s one factor that’s bothered me about it. For a drone that’s referred to as the Lite, it isn’t.

You wouldn’t anticipate the Nano to be an enormous, hulking drone, so why does the Lite weigh twice the restrict to register a drone recreationally?

The Mini 2 SE is certainly a mini. It’s below 250 grams, so rejoice, hobbyists. You don’t need to register it, however watch your payload to make sure your drone doesn’t push over the burden restrict.

In addition to being lighter and simpler to tote round, the Mini 2 SE can be smaller.

This can be a newbie drone, however it’s sturdy sufficient you can retailer it in a drone backpack and see the world with it.

The EVO Lite+ is greater than able to dealing with the identical form of journey situations. It’s just a bit greater and a little bit heavier, so it’d go away you with rather less area in your journey bag.

» MORE: Do I Have to Register My Drone? (And How one can do It)

RC compatibility and long-range flights

Winner: Autel EVO Lite+

The Mini 2 SE comes filled with its personal RC-N1 controller that attaches to your smartphone. It’s a boxy controller with two handles and some buttons on the entrance.

It could be greatest if it got here with a display, however what are you able to do?

That is the one distant that works for the Mini 2 SE, which makes use of OcuSync 2.0 transmission.

I’d say the Mini 2 SE’s controller is about on par with the EVO Lite+’s. Each require you to make use of your smartphone because the display.  

It’s actually not the tip of the world, however utilizing your telephone because the display in lieu of a display constructed into your drone controller drains the battery sooner, so put your telephone in low-power mode and shut down any apps you aren’t utilizing.

This Autel controller is appropriate with EVO Lite and Nano collection drones, so it has extra compatibility than the Mini SE’s controller.

As for long-range flights, this can be a no-contest. The Mini SE has about 2.5 miles of vary versus the 7.4 miles for the EVO Lite+.

That is contemplating the DJI O2 system is an improve over different fashions.

» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE Controller (All You Have to Know)

Battery life

Winner: Autel EVO Lite+

A 30-minute flight time is fairly good for a Mini drone, however admittedly could possibly be higher, particularly for a drone launched in 2023.

But DJI solely guarantees 31 minutes of flight for the Mini 2 SE.

When you think about that the half-hour is just DJI’s projection, you’ll solely find yourself getting 26 or 27 minutes out of this drone.

I couldn’t get its battery to final for half-hour in any check situations (and also you don’t wish to drain that battery to zero, anyway), however at the least the battery fees quick so you may get again on the market and fly once more.

The EVO Lite+ is meant to fly proudly for 40 minutes. Once more, it’s not fairly that. I logged some flight occasions between 36 and 38 minutes, however that’s nonetheless about 10 minutes greater than you get with the Mini 2 SE’s battery.

What are you able to do in 10 further minutes? That may be the distinction between wrapping up a venture or not!

» MORE: Autel EVO Lite+ vs DJI Air 2S

Conclusion

It’s an fascinating day when Autel bumps out DJI, however that’s the case within the battle of the EVO Lite+ and the Mini 2 SE.

The DJI drone is extra beginner-friendly however is hampered by outdated battery occasions, picture decision, and video high quality.

It’s additionally scant on flight options and doesn’t offer you as many choices for configuring your pictures settings because the EVO Lite+.

Plus, most vital is the shortage of impediment avoidance in a drone launched in 2023.

Impediment avoidance and Mini drones have by no means been one of the best of buddies, showing sporadically, however it’s one thing at present’s pilots anticipate as a baseline function.

I discovered the EVO Lite+ an awesome all-arounder.  

» MORE: Drone Security Options (All You Have to Know)