DJI Mavic, DJI Air, or DJI Mini - which is right for you in 2022?

Over the last few years DJI has gone through a slight renaming of its products, in this case removing the Mavic brand from its Air and Mini line-up of drones, making it easier to differentiate the three series.

But which one is right for you?

At the time of writing this DJI has the following drones out under its Mavic, Air, and Mini lines. Listed in order from oldest to newest.

Mavic line

• DJI Mavic Pro - 2016
• DJI Mavic 2 Pro - 2018
• DJI Mavic 2 Zoom - 2018
• DJI Mavic 3 - 2021
• DJI Mavic 3 CINE - 2021

Air line

• DJI Mavic Air - 2018
• DJI Mavic Air 2 - 2020
• DJI Air 2S - 2020

Mini line

• DJI Mavic Mini - 2019
• DJI Mini 2 - 2020
• DJI Mini SE - 2021
• DJI Mini 3 Pro - 2022

What's the difference?

The three product lines, Mavic, Air, and Mini have split up what used to be known as the Mavic line.

• Mavic = prosumer/professionals
• Air = consumers
• Mini = consumers wanting a drone under 250 grams

There are three main differences to look at when deciding between these three lines, price, camera specs, and obstacle avoidance.

Price

The Mavic line-up is by far the most expensive because of the higher specs. The Mavic 3 starts at $3,099 for the base packaged here in Australia. Air 2S starts at a $1,699 for the base package, $1400 cheaper than the Mavic 3. Mini 3 Pro starts at $1,199 for the base package, $500 cheaper than the Air 2S.

Camera specs

Other than price, the biggest focus point when buying a drone has to be the camera, unless you are specifically looking for a sub-250-gram drone, which then it would be the weight.

The Mavic 3 features a dual-camera system, a main 4/3' Hasselblad camera capable of 20MP photos, 5.1k video, HDR video, RAW photos, and support for Apple ProRes (Mavic 3 CINE) recording. The second camera is zoom camera capable of 28x hybrid zoom, and RAW photos.

The Air 2S features a 1" CMOS sensor capable of 5.4k video, HDR video, RAW photos, and 20MP photos. The Mini 3 features a 1/1.3" CMOS sensor capable of 4k video, 48MP photos, RAW photos.

All drones feature DJI's smart camera modes for easy shooting.

Obstacle avoidance

All of the latest drones from each of the product lines features at least three directions of obstacle avoidance. The Mavic 3 features obstacle avoidance sensors on all six faces of the drone, allowing for 360-degree vision.

The Air 2S features obstacle avoidance sensors in four directions covering the front, top, bottom, and rear of the drone. A decent amount of coverage for most drone flights, with only the two sides being left out.

The Mini 3 Pro features obstacle avoidance sensors in three directions, forward, rear, and bottom facing, which is really all you need when starting out in drones and allows the drone to stay under the 250-gram legal limit for drone registration and regulations.

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