Welcome to my overview 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 pleasant flights.
Nevertheless, except you’re stocking up for a complete fleet, you solely want one among these drones. I’ve examined the EVO Lite+ and Mini 2 SE over many hours apiece that can assist you resolve which is the most effective of the bunch.
This overview 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 is not 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 , the EVO Lite+ stands out for myriad causes. It lowered 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 if you happen to’re of the mindset that extra superior tech is at all times 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 sufficient.
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 concerning the EVO Lite+:
- It lasts within the air for 40 minutes at a clip, so you will get extra achieved 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 a lot competent for brand spanking 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 automated flight options like Lively Monitor and SkyPortrait for hands-off images and videography, one other A+ characteristic for social media stars and influencers. SkyPortrait is even branded as “your private paparazzi,” which is correct up your alley if you happen to’re chronically on-line.
- Glorious images and videography modes, from Defog Mode to pure shade restoration, the Moonlight Algorithm, adjustable aperture, HDR composites, and twin autofocus.
» MORE: Autel EVO Lite+ Video Evaluation (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 strong drone, providing loads of options pilots covet, particularly newcomers.
They embrace:
- 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 couple of.7K video.
- Newbie options resembling single-tap launching and touchdown, a Propeller Guard (should buy individually although), and tutorials by way of the DJI Fly app. Now newcomers can really feel like specialists in document time!
- Inventive templates and enjoyable edits by way of the DJI Fly app for enhancing and posting your footage whilst you’re nonetheless within the subject (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 (properly, 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 principally fly drones for enjoyable, I at all times understand buying selections from the opposite facet of the coin, as I do know most pilots are in it for business acquire.
Right here at Droneblog, we pleasure ourselves on recommending the highest merchandise in the marketplace after a whole lot 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 instances 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 need to fully solid 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 properly.
It’s bought first rate video transmission and battery, making it extra relevant for leisure than business endeavors.
DJI by no means mentioned the Mini 2 SE is a business drone. Its web site is stuffed with folks utilizing this drone for enjoyable, a function I’ve primarily used it for as properly.
If that’s what you persist with, you possibly can nonetheless have a blast with the Mini 2 SE.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE vs. Autel EVO Nano (Right here’s My Selection)
What are the principle variations?
It’s comparability time.
I really 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 way of cautious consideration and analysis.
What higher means to do this than by analyzing what these drones have and lack?
Right here’s some data that may allow you to make up your thoughts.
- Weight: A reputation just like the EVO Lite+ would most likely make you assume this drone weighs below 250 grams. Nicely, it doesn’t. As an alternative, it weighs 835 grams or nearly three kilos. The Mini 2 SE, by comparability, is way lighter. It weighs beneath 250 grams. That’s about as a lot as your smartphone.
- Evening photographs: Isn’t nighttime videography and images simply the best? You’ll definitely agree if you happen to 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 evening in restricted eventualities, having evening footage in your portfolio might allow you to land gigs or promote your footage sooner. The Mini 2 SE doesn’t have a characteristic just like the Moonlight Algorithm, though later DJI drones have their reply to this characteristic.
- Security options: The strategy to security every drone producer took is wildly completely different right here. The Mini 2 SE comes outfitted with…properly, 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 will possibly’t actively keep away from obstacles. The prop guards aren’t sufficient to put it aside 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 barely out there in white, with no choice to customise your drone shade except you place a pores and skin on it.
- Newbie-friendliness: The EVO Lite+ has some beginner-friendly options, however principally, this drone’s viewers is the extra established pilot. Oppositely, the Mini 2 SE is made principally for newcomers. Skilled pilots would possibly discover a few of its options too rudimentary.
- Value: The Mini 2 SE is on the market for below $350, which isn’t dangerous for a brand new drone launched in 2023. By comparability, the EVO Lite+ is properly 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 business 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 bought good options to rival any DJI drone, with automated flight modes resembling Flick, Fade Away, Orbit, and Rocket which are very similar to DJI’s QuickShots features.
These single-button modes shoot routinely, simply as DJI QuickShots modes do.
Higher but, you should utilize 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 routinely embrace 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 Monitor 2.1.
This improved model of Dynamic Monitor permits the EVO Lite+ to trace nearly something. I’m speaking about folks, automobiles, even animals.
The drone will seize footage, so you continue to have to watch it, however you possibly can 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 images in new and sudden methods. Pure shade restoration renews the hues of your photos with out oversaturating them.
» MORE: Autel EVO Lite+ Evaluation
The HDR characteristic takes a composite of your photos with the optimum spotlight and shadow stability, and Defog Mode is ideal if you happen to’re up with the solar or taking pictures vivid movies from a mountain.
The form of footage you possibly can put collectively utilizing the EVO Lite+ is nothing wanting astounding. This can be a drone designed that can assist 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 one among my favourite elements concerning the EVO Lite+: the way it toes the road between newbie and seasoned pilot.
Autel Robotics Evo Lite+ Premium Bundle
1” CMOS Sensor with 6K HDR Digicam, No Geo-Fencing, 3-Axis Gimbal, 3-Means Impediment Avoidance, 40Min Flight Time, 7.4 Miles Transmission, Lite Plus Extra Combo.
We earn a fee if you happen to make a purchase order, at no further value to you.
11/07/2023 12:36 am GMT
DJI Mini 2 SE
The Mini 2 SE is a member of DJI’s long-running Mini sequence.
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 business drone pilot? I suppose, however I ponder why you’d need to.
There are numerous extra drones within the Mini sequence higher suited to your objectives, 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 can assist you study the ropes of drone flight that I’d advocate the Mini 2 SE as the primary drone for any pilot.
Heck, I want it had existed after I realized to fly a drone. I really feel it might have made issues so much simpler.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 SE Battery (All You Have to Know)
And positive, most 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 attraction and enjoyable options that make the expertise with this drone one in one million.
It has a full extent of the Clever Flight Options. This can be a DJI drone we’re speaking about right here, and although it’s a primary one, particularly by right now’s requirements, it nonetheless makes use of QuickShots.
You may select from 4 modes: Rocket, Helix, Dronie, and Circle.
You can too take off with out manually doing it, and land routinely. 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, Beneath 249 g, Automated Professional Pictures, Digicam Drone for Inexperienced persons.
We earn a fee if you happen to make a purchase order, at no further value to you.
11/06/2023 05:31 pm GMT
Head-to-head comparability
Digicam 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 one among them.
The three-axis gimbal is okay.
That’s the identical kind of gimbal the EVO Lite+ has, lowering 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 couple of.4K video high quality don’t lower it.
When you think about that the EVO Lite+ has 20 MP picture high quality and 6K video, that distinction is big!
The Autel drone doesn’t even have the most effective picture high quality in comparison with many different drones within the Mini sequence, however the Mini 2 SE is just not one among 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 is dependent upon what sort of drone pilot you’re asking.
If it’s a business pilot, sure, completely. You need 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, then you definately don’t actually know any higher to say definitively, “Sure, that is superior digital camera high quality.”
Nevertheless, if you happen to’re an influencer or social media star, you’ll care about picture and video high quality. You most likely bought into drones within the first place to present your self a bonus over the competitors.
In case your video and picture high quality is poor by comparability, that benefit evaporates.
» MORE: Digicam Expertise in Drones (Defined)
Efficiency
Winner: Autel EVO Lite+
I need 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 subject of frontal imaginative and prescient. It’s constructed to cut 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 right now), the shortage of an impediment avoidance system within the Mini drone is much more obtrusive.
» MORE: Autel EVO Lite Plus vs DJI Air 3 (Right here’s My Favourite)
Portability
Winner: DJI Mini 2 SE
I really 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 a giant, 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 have a good time, hobbyists. You don’t need to register it, however watch your payload to make sure your drone doesn’t push over the burden restrict.
Apart from being lighter and simpler to tote round, the Mini 2 SE can also be smaller.
This can be a newbie drone, however it’s sturdy sufficient that you may 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 larger and a 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 Methods to 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 will be finest if it got here with a display screen, 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 might 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 screen.
It’s actually not the top of the world, however utilizing your telephone because the display screen in lieu of a display screen 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 suitable with EVO Lite and Nano sequence drones, so it has extra compatibility than the Mini SE’s controller.
As for long-range flights, it is 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 barely 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 take a look at situations (and also you don’t need to drain that battery to zero, anyway), however a minimum of the battery fees quick so you will 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 instances 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 mission or not!
» MORE: Autel EVO Lite+ vs DJI Air 2S
Conclusion
It’s an attention-grabbing 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 instances, picture decision, and video high quality.
It’s additionally scant on flight options and doesn’t offer you as many choices for configuring your images settings because the EVO Lite+.
Plus, most important is the shortage of impediment avoidance in a drone launched in 2023.
Impediment avoidance and Mini drones have by no means been the most effective of associates, showing sporadically, however it’s one thing right now’s pilots anticipate as a baseline characteristic.
I discovered the EVO Lite+ a fantastic all-arounder.