Mavic Air "real" pros and cons...
Pros:
1. The size is much smaller and it does matter. The easier it is to carry the drone and the remote the more likely you will take the drone with you and capture some great things.
2. The added automated obstacle avoidance path controls and preset automatic shots are great. Hand gestures to me are a gimmick but not like they are hurting anything.
3. The added rearward obstacle sensors are a good thing.
4. The new remote that fits fatter phones and has sticks that store inside the remote is all nice to have.
5. Cheaper than the Mavic Pro without making it seem the drone has significant compromises like the Spark had.
Cons:
1. The 4k camera in some of the side by side comparisons released on Youtube seems to have a fuzzier end result than the 4k camera in the Mavic Pro, despite having a higher bit rate. That's not great because I don't think the Mavic Pro 4k camera is anything to write home about in 2018. I think at best they are close, but I see nothing to indicate the Mavic Air has improved image quality over the Pro at all.
2. The range is significantly less than the Mavic Pro. While 2.5 miles is plenty for me, the reality is I have flown my Mavic Pro pretty far out and I like knowing that I'm not pushing the ultimate range at all, that I have margin to spare... with the Mavic Air I would be far closer to the actual limit and I assume more likely to have interference that results in a loss of signal and a stressful return to home event.
3. Battery life is MUCH less than the Mavic Pro. My drone flights tend to be 15-20 minutes on my Mavic Pro because I like having a big safety margin and to have the same safety margin with the Mavic Air I would be limited to 10-13 minute flights.
I like the product, don't get me wrong but as a Mavic Pro user I don't see anything that makes me want to buy this thing. The size is awesome but the size of the folded Mavic Pro is still awesome. OBVIOUSLY the
Mavic Pro 2 is going to come out in the next few months to compete with the Autel Evo and because it is untenable having the Mavic Air and even Spark have features that don't exist on their 2 year old and more expensive Mavic Pro. I assume we will see a
Mavic Pro 2 in the same basic body design but with ALL of the features found in the Mavic Air. I assume the
Mavic Pro 2 may even get upwards avoidance sensors and a significantly improved 4k camera with bigger sensor and 60 fps recording.