The New Mavic Looks Like The Ultimate Backcountry Drone

It’s the season of new drones. This years crop looks amazing with a huge focus on creating smaller, more portable drones that can easily move from spot to spot. At first glance this new Mavic drone looks like it could be the ultimate backcountry drone.

I don’t even know where to begin to describe this drone, it looks so incredible. The Mavic starts with a much smaller form factor. That’s huge for getting it up into the backcountry. I love the idea of being able to have it on you, similar to your DSLR. If you think something would make a cool shot, whip out the drone and launch it. The goal is to create amazing aerial shots wherever you go.

The other jaw dropping feature of this drone is how many features still come out of the box. With such a small form factor, you’d expect there to be massive cuts in the performance of this smaller drone. But after watching the video, I couldn’t find anything. It looks like DJI loaded this drone up.

It is capable of reaching an absolute max flight time of 27 minutes and a maximum distance of 8mi (13km) due to its powerful, high efficiency motors.

Those motors also propel the drone forward at over 40mph. It feels like a combo aerial videography platform and racer built into one.

Enough of me rambling, you need to watch this video.

If I have one concern it’s that weird glass over the camera lens. I’m not sure what purpose that serves? Is it to protect the camera on landing? Either way it looks like it will require care to make sure it’s clean prior to launch. Which is just one more thing. As with all my DJI purchases over the years I’ll probably give it a few months out in the wild and then read the reports on performance and durability.

Overall this drone looks incredibly exciting and I can’t wait to fly it.

Tech Specs:

  • 4K Ultra HD Video at 30fps
  • 12MP Still Camera on 3-Axis Gimbal
  • Sensor: 1/2.3” (CMOS), Effective pixels:12.35 M (Total pixels:12.71M)
  • Lens: FOV 78.8° 28 mm (35 mm format equivalent) f/2.2 Distortion < 1.5% Focus from 0.5 m to ∞
  • Image Max Size: 4000×3000
  • 4.3 mile range, up to 27 minutes of flight
  • Remote control operating frequency: 2.4 GHz to 2.483 GHz

Key Features:

  • 24 high-performance computing cores
  • Dual-satellite connectivity
  • Small Size & Portability
  • Obstacle Sensing System
  • Vision Positioning
  • Autonomous Subject Tracking
  • Gesture Control