Within the nice battle of the manufacturers, it nearly all the time comes right down to Autel and DJI when evaluating one of the best drones. It might probably’t be helped!
DJI continues to steer the drone {industry}, with the Mini 3 Professional as certainly one of its most interesting improvements to this point. It’s been certainly one of my favorites since its launch, and though the Mini 4 Professional has come out since, there are nonetheless many days the place I’d reasonably 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 evaluate will evaluate and distinction the Autel EVO Lite and DJI Mini 3 Professional, inspecting their variations in areas like efficiency, digicam and video high quality, transmission distance, security options, battery life, and sensible options. As you learn, it’s possible you’ll understand why the Mini 3 Professional – my private choose – is a troublesome 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 determination so that you don’t waste a cent of your hard-earned moolah.
Temporary overview
Autel EVO Lite
The Autel EVO Lite has among the best possible options you’ll find in a shopper drone, particularly for below $1,000.
Granted, the EVO Lite simply squeaks by for that value if you choose the Premium Bundle, nevertheless it’s decrease price 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 nicely over a 12 months in the past. I stored ready, considering some product from DJI would have a four-axis gimbal moreover the Ronin 4D, nevertheless it hasn’t.
That makes the EVO Lite the king of its citadel. 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 the planet,” however what’s clear is that you just definitely can’t discover this in any DJI shopper 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 shade filtering. The share of sunshine absorption that occurs with this gentle array is bigger than most, resulting in crystal-clear pictures and excessive ranges of element for constructing a robust portfolio.
Wonderful impediment avoidance cameras that may see as much as 150 levels in entrance of the drone, enhancing your security whether or not you’re a newbie or a seasoned vet.
A battery lifetime of 40 minutes, a normal for Autel that continues to be spectacular, nonetheless. Working extra effectively is simpler with Autel.
Configurable choices, like a normal or upgraded bundle, and two colours, together with my private favourite – orange. It’s an excellent 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, positive, 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 lots of different drone pilots can’t cease speaking about it a 12 months and a half after its preliminary launch.
Truly, there are numerous causes, they usually embody the next.
An ultra-lightweight profile of below 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 listing, as you possibly can all the time discover area 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 information are stuffed with wealthy, unique 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 possibly can ship on the go utilizing QuickTransfer.
Three-direction dual-vision impediment sensing and APAS 4.0 for impediment avoidance, a function the Mini collection has not all the time had. This makes the Mini 3 Professional one of many most secure within the collection to fly.
Assist for daytime and nighttime flights (for those who’re legally allowed to) so you possibly can proceed having fun with the enjoyable along 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 here are two drones that got here out inside the final 12 months and – much more pertinently – inside six months of each other. But they’re so distinctive in lots of ways in which selecting one of the best one was troublesome.
I’ve loved flying the EVO Lite and Mini 3 Professional, and whereas they shine in numerous areas, you’re not right here since you need 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 options come after lots of 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. Nevertheless, its Clever Flight Modes can’t be beat.
The EVO Lite will all the time stay certainly one of my favorites.
It has loads the Mini 3 Professional doesn’t, akin 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 excellent drone for a lot of pilots, however I believe the Mini 3 Professional remains to be higher.
» MORE: Autel Evo Lite+ Evaluation
What are the principle variations?
Now that you just’ve seen my advice for one of the 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 in search of.
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 value noting. The extra axis provides a pan mechanic, giving the EVO Lite’s digicam a larger diploma of management and precision throughout operation, however a three-axis gimbal is simply wonderful 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. Nevertheless, the DJI drone additionally takes RAW footage, so I might 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 reasonable 835 grams, nevertheless it looks like 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 accessible in vibrant orange for nice visibility or grey for an understated fashion. You may’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 prepared 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 Sequence.
Let’s get proper to it and talk about the gimbal as a result of it’s some of the 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 function DJI has already supplied in a number of of its drones, so that is Autel’s reply to that.
Talking of capturing, you’ll end up getting carried away with this drone’s video and photograph capabilities, as they’re unbelievable. Its tiny 1/1.28-inch CMOS sensor has a 50 MP picture decision and 4K HDR video decision.
That’s not the best video res in an Autel drone, however it’s among the many finest picture high quality you’ll find in its drones.
Autel calls the digicam “supersensitive,” and I might agree with that sentiment, in one of the best ways.
The RYYB shade filter array has extra gentle than common and a brighter palette of shade.
Your sunrises might be vibrant pink and orange, your daytime pictures an ideal blue, and your evening 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 one of the best dynamic vary, distinction, and publicity settings.
This can be a function Autel has replicated throughout a few of its drones, and I’m so glad to seek out it within the EVO Lite. It’s certainly one of my favorites for saving time in put up.
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 Would possibly Be Shocked)
The automated path the drone takes is nice for social media experts desperate to appear like drone professionals 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 automobiles.
SkyPortrait is your finest good friend for those who reside for selfies, as it would take them for you, together with all your mates within the shot.
Then there’s this drone’s impediment avoidance. Autel has confirmed repeatedly that it excels in impediment avoidance in ways in which generally DJI doesn’t, no less than not persistently.
The EVO Lite has an ultra-wide impediment avoidance digicam, 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 function will make you are feeling safer when flying, particularly for those who’re nonetheless studying.
In case you’re a extra skilled pilot, you’ll recognize how one can focus extra on the EVO Lite’s dazzling cinematics and let it care for the remaining.
DJI Mini 3 Professional
The Mini 3 Professional has one of the best traits of the Mini line to this point, and that’s saying one thing, contemplating how critically acclaimed these DJI drones have been.
Residing as much as its title, it weighs below 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, akin 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 comparison with the Mini 3, the Professional has a greater gimbal, facilitating True Vertical Capturing. It may not be a four-axis gimbal, however I believe it’s wonderful.
Now, what about its digicam? The Mini 3 Professional contains a 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor with an f/1.7 aperture.
You may’t alter it, however the price of sunshine is designed to brighten low-light videography and images, explaining why the Mini 3 Professional is appropriate for nighttime pictures.
You may depend on its aperture in all kinds of circumstances, broadening your drone flight horizons and your portfolio in type.
The 48 MP picture high quality is a few of DJI’s finest, and the identical goes for its 4K HDR video, which is similar to what the EVO Lite affords.
Keep in mind, the pictures are all in RAW format, which implies extra knowledge and element are retained in each shot.
You may edit out what you don’t need in put up, which received’t be a lot, contemplating this drone has D-Cinelike Colour in its movies and pictures for a brighter, richer world your purchasers will marvel over.
» MORE: DJI Mini 3 Professional: One-12 months Evaluation (Video)
The Mini line has not all the time 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 may not be the most recent version (that’s APAS 5.0, as of this writing), nevertheless it greater than suffices, particularly if the choice is not any impediment avoidance in any respect.
In addition to True Vertical Capturing, the Mini 3 Professional is able to so many Clever Flight Modes.
You may cut back velocity and take slow-mo movies, an excellent function for cinematics, or velocity up all the pieces round you with a dramatic Hyperlapse.
Digital Zoom facilitates safer capturing circumstances of wildlife and harmful nature, as you will get in on the motion with out being in the midst of it.
» MORE: DJI Mini 3 / Mini 3 Professional – How you can Stay 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 sort that make me maintain coming again to DJI.
This suite of enjoyable, sensible modes has one thing for each kind of pilot, from industrial specialists trying to make their jobs simpler to influencers looking forward to distinctive footage to get these likes and clicks.
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 undoubtedly cool, don’t get me improper, 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.
Nevertheless, 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 shade filter array.
They’re altogether some sterling options.
That’s to not say the Mini 3 Professional is a slouch. It has a shocking shade show similar to the RYYB shade filter array within the type of its D-Cinelike Colour.
Its 48 MP picture high quality in RAW information preserves all of the element you can need, whether or not you’re having enjoyable capturing stunning cliffsides or on the job photographing a property on the market.
Its 4K HDR at 60 frames per second offers you an identical degree of video element as seen within the EVO Lite. I desire the Mini 3 Professional’s video, because it feels extra high-fidelity to me.
In fact, for those who’re working at 120 fps, the video high quality drops to 1080p, which isn’t so nice.
» MORE: Digital camera Expertise 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 select up and fly. It’s extra aerodynamic than ever, and it’s beginner-friendly but by no means boring for intermediates and specialists.
As a pro-level drone, it has the digicam capabilities and Clever Flight Modes to accompany you on the job, augmenting your initiatives.
These automated modes take the Mini 3 Professional additional, whether or not it’s twisting and looping via the air on an automatic route or capturing slow-mo movies or hyperlapse pictures.
The flexibility is nothing in need of wonderful, which I’ve come to anticipate from DJI.
And positive, possibly this drone doesn’t have Superior RTH or Waypoints, nevertheless it’s a Mini drone. It’s uncomplicated but reliable and has simply the proper 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 all the time discovered that no different drone model fairly matches DJI when it comes to sensible options, though Autel is getting darn shut.
I recognize how the Mini 3 Professional has impediment avoidance.
It’s not DJI’s most refined system, however APAS 4.0 remains to be higher than nothing, and mixed with the obstacle-sensing system, you need to really feel safer within the skies than you maybe ever have when flying a Mini drone.
The EVO Lite has a distinct kind of impediment avoidance than a few of its different drones, such because the EVO II Professional.
The Lite’s front-facing digicam 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 an entire.
» 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 select 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, akin to a checked bag or carry-on, or in a drone backpack to your on a regular basis adventures.
You may deliver the EVO Lite on simply as a lot of these adventures; the bundle packs even embody a tough carrying case.
The difficulty is, the EVO Lite is heavier, though no less than it’s foldable.
» MORE: Greatest Newbie Drones Below $500
RC compatibility and flight vary
Winner: DJI Mini 3 Professional
The Autel Lite and Nano collection share a controller that’s appropriately named the EVO Nano & Lite Distant Controller. I prefer it as a result of it type of jogs my memory of an Xbox 360 controller however with much less bulk and extra ergonomics.
It’s a modern black, with few buttons, transmission via 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 contains a boxier distant with a smartphone holster.
The RC-N1 is ample, but when doable, I like to recommend the DJI RC extra.
This newer, smarter, extra trendy 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 response to 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 presupposed to fly for 34 minutes with the Clever Flight Battery. DJI calls that “prolonged.” I received round half-hour of flight time, simply over.
Extra flight time is all the time higher, and Autel is main the best way for a way lengthy a drone ought to be capable of fly. The Mini 3 Professional might afford to catch up.
» MORE: Drone Batteries (In-Depth Data)
Conclusion
It was a neck-and-neck race between the Autel EVO Lite and DJI Mini 3 Professional.
Finally, the Mini 3 Professional got here out on high for qualities like a light-weight, forward-thinking design, purposeful digicam system, higher impediment avoidance than Minis previous, and Clever Flight Modes, certainly one of its strongest options.
The EVO Lite is among the finest Autel drones to this point in a group of fashions that I discover it exhausting to decide on between.
Nevertheless, 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.