I splurged and bought the RC 2 with my Air 3 after having used the regular controller with my Air 2. I’m not entirely happy with it.
It was never that big a deal to connect my iPhone to the Air 2 controller (plus I could hook up my iPad instead and have a gigantic screen, which was great).
With the Air 3, I’m finding that I have to jump through a couple of new hoops to see any of my footage. With the Air 2, photos would download directly to my phone, and I’d have 720p versions of my videos on the phone without having to transfer any files.
Now, if I want to be carrying any of my footage around with me on my phone, I need to leave the aircraft on, fire up the Fly app on my phone, connect to the aircraft using the QuickTransfer mode, and then transfer things over. This doesn’t feel fully baked. The connection attempts frequently fail, though they work on successive tries. And the files don’t move all that fast.
It doesn’t look like RC 2 owners are ever going to be able to install other apps on the device (if DJI ever releases an API for the Air 3); it was no big deal to have Maven or DroneLink on my phone and fly the Air 2 with them.
It’s irritating that the RC 2 – which is just an Android device – is so locked down. Transferring screen recording and screenshots is unnecessarily complicated. And getting the RC 2 to download waypoints may not even be possible at the moment.
Another small irritation with the RC 2 is that the joysticks attach with a tiny and fragile-looking thread, which make it really easy to drop the sticks. I’m counting the hours before I drop a stick and never see it again.
The RC 2’s map downloading is ridiculous — and it’s not something I ever had to think about with my Air 2; my phone just downloaded them. You can download maps onto the RC 2, but only a postage stamp’s worth of territory at a time.
I don’t know what the battery life of the RC-N2 is versus the RC 2 or my old controller, but I find that I’m worried more about the battery level of the RC 2 than I’m used to being. Maybe it’s because the blinking battery-level lights are very prominent?
The RC 2 has its pluses. The extra buttons on the bottom side are very useful, and I adore being able to start Cruise Control using one of them. The screen is bright (though it’s actually a little smaller than my iPhone 14 Pro Max’s screen, which I didn’t expect). It is nice to be able to use my phone independent of piloting the drone.
Overall, I’m not as happy with the RC 2 as I expected to be, and at moments I regret having bought it. Some things may improve with firmware updates, hopefully. And being able to flick Cruise Control on so easily might just make up for all of the irritations.
Having said all that, the Air 3 kicks some serious ***, and you can’t really go too far wrong with either controller.
It was never that big a deal to connect my iPhone to the Air 2 controller (plus I could hook up my iPad instead and have a gigantic screen, which was great).
With the Air 3, I’m finding that I have to jump through a couple of new hoops to see any of my footage. With the Air 2, photos would download directly to my phone, and I’d have 720p versions of my videos on the phone without having to transfer any files.
Now, if I want to be carrying any of my footage around with me on my phone, I need to leave the aircraft on, fire up the Fly app on my phone, connect to the aircraft using the QuickTransfer mode, and then transfer things over. This doesn’t feel fully baked. The connection attempts frequently fail, though they work on successive tries. And the files don’t move all that fast.
It doesn’t look like RC 2 owners are ever going to be able to install other apps on the device (if DJI ever releases an API for the Air 3); it was no big deal to have Maven or DroneLink on my phone and fly the Air 2 with them.
It’s irritating that the RC 2 – which is just an Android device – is so locked down. Transferring screen recording and screenshots is unnecessarily complicated. And getting the RC 2 to download waypoints may not even be possible at the moment.
Another small irritation with the RC 2 is that the joysticks attach with a tiny and fragile-looking thread, which make it really easy to drop the sticks. I’m counting the hours before I drop a stick and never see it again.
The RC 2’s map downloading is ridiculous — and it’s not something I ever had to think about with my Air 2; my phone just downloaded them. You can download maps onto the RC 2, but only a postage stamp’s worth of territory at a time.
I don’t know what the battery life of the RC-N2 is versus the RC 2 or my old controller, but I find that I’m worried more about the battery level of the RC 2 than I’m used to being. Maybe it’s because the blinking battery-level lights are very prominent?
The RC 2 has its pluses. The extra buttons on the bottom side are very useful, and I adore being able to start Cruise Control using one of them. The screen is bright (though it’s actually a little smaller than my iPhone 14 Pro Max’s screen, which I didn’t expect). It is nice to be able to use my phone independent of piloting the drone.
Overall, I’m not as happy with the RC 2 as I expected to be, and at moments I regret having bought it. Some things may improve with firmware updates, hopefully. And being able to flick Cruise Control on so easily might just make up for all of the irritations.
Having said all that, the Air 3 kicks some serious ***, and you can’t really go too far wrong with either controller.
