Air 3 Battery Charging

[Droning on and on...]

@msinger no, not directed at anyone in particular, just the "camp" that is upset a charger wasn't included.

More and more of us are already well situated, and would rather not waste the money.

 

[Ridgeback65]

I really don't think DJI is being rotten in some way here, or forgot to include a charger.

Rather, I suspect this was a well-researched decision. DJI marketing decided the tipping point had been reached in standardizing PD in the world out there, perhaps even further want to encourage it. There would be more complaining from people like me that already have a sufficient PD charger for making me buy something I don't need.

That's the asymmetry in this: Those without are not really losing anything other than some inconvenience. People like me – and there are a lot of us – would be cursing DJI for making us spend money on a charging block we don't need. I could buy ND filters with that money.

So, I have the opposite take on this... I'm glad they didn't include a charger.

Perspective is everything.

As long as that is made clear by DJI in the instructions / nomenclature.

 

[Droning on and on...]

As long as that is made clear by DJI in the instructions / nomenclature.

Was it not?

This was pretty clear to me, from the DJI store:



Or the full-monty:

 

[Ridgeback65]

Was it not?

This was pretty clear to me, from the DJI store:

View attachment 166567

Or the full-monty:

View attachment 166568

I must be getting old because it is not obvious to me (from just these images) that not only is the charger not provided but also that DJI can supply if you need AND if you prefer, you can provide your own. At best it is inferred. As far as I can see not until you get to the recommended accessories page does it become clear. I understand everyone’s point and DJI’s “decision” to not include a charger to keep cost down (a good thing) but I believe the Air2s came complete so perhaps I have have an expectation that this would also come complete.

 

[old man mavic]

i suppose its easy for those of us who have purchased products from DJI before,and who realise that its necessary to go further down the store pages, to find accessories ,because we know that these are not in the kit we are buying,but it does not help when people see the influencer videos that they see on YT, and they dont realise that those people, are basically selling the product for DJI, and of course they get the battery charging brick, and the filters ,because DJI want them to plug them
i purchased the 100w charger simply because i didnt have a suitable charger to charge the Air 3 batteries in shortest time possible,and with all my drones i have always had ND filters fitted ,and i wanted to have them as soon as possible,

 

[Ridgeback65]

i suppose its easy for those of us who have purchased products from DJI before,and who realise that its necessary to go further down the store pages, to find accessories ,because we know that these are not in the kit we are buying,but it does not help when people see the influencer videos that they see on YT, and they dont realise that those people, are basically selling the product for DJI, and of course they get the battery charging brick, and the filters ,because DJI want them to plug them
i purchased the 100w charger simply because i didnt have a suitable charger to charge the Air 3 batteries in shortest time possible,and with all my drones i have always had ND filters fitted ,and i wanted to have them as soon as possible,

Yes, I can recall one of the "test / influencers" saying that with the Fly More Combo we get the ND set included with Air 3 and obviously that is not correct. As you said, they must assume this because DJI sent them "the lot" for testing.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I must be getting old because it is not obvious to me (from just these images)

Can only speak for myself, but "What's in the box" with a set of pictures and descriptive titles could not be any clearer.

Using this format, how could what you should expect to be in the box upon opening it have been made clearer to you? If it's something that is already included on the same web page, like optional accessories, that doesn't count.

Also, the A2(S) had to include a charger, it was custom.

 

[Ridgeback65]

Can only speak for myself, but "What's in the box" with a set of pictures and descriptive titles could not be any clearer.

Using this format, how could what you should expect to be in the box upon opening it have been made clearer to you? If it's something that is already included on the same web page, like optional accessories, that doesn't count.

Also, the A2(S) had to include a charger, it was custom.

I come from the “batteries not included” gen. I wasn’t aware that the A2s was custom. Must be nice knowing everything.

 

[Droning on and on...]

My main pushback here is the assertion that DJI didn't tell customers a charger wasn't included. That's not true.

Rather, it seems the issue is how thorough one is in carefully examining the A3 product page, and whether or not DJI's manner in communicating the lack of a charger is effective for any particular individual. That's a very different issue.

Another possibility is a repeat, DJI-fan customer goes to the page, rapidly finds the bundle they want, selects it and then clicks "buy" while ignoring everything else and not looking at it.

That would be me. I'm that sort of DJI customer. I suspect I'm not on this island alone.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I come from the “batteries not included” gen. I wasn’t aware that the A2s was custom. Must be nice knowing everything.

It really is. I hold regular classes – PM me for schedule and pricing.

 

[msinger]

Can only speak for myself, but "What's in the box" with a set of pictures and descriptive titles could not be any clearer

Had I never purchased a DJI product before, I would assume the charging hub actually came with everything needed to charge the batteries. While that information can be found elsewhere by digging through the DJI site, it would be nice if they made it extremely clear. And they'd probably be able to upsell many people on a 65W/100W charger then too.

 

[Wild Drone Pilot]

I received my Air 3 yesterday and have been charging one via the drone and one via the charging hub for hours ands both of them do not seem to move past the 2 bars. Am I missing something? Thanks.

Takes longer than I had hoped
Why is it that only the DJI Spark did all 3 batteries at once

 

[Droning on and on...]

I understand the assumptions. Especially for us non-youth. I understand the frustration. When things change from what we're "used to", it can be confusing. Especially when expectations are not met.

But change will keep happening. Technology will keep advancing. So what do people expect DJI, Samsung, Sony, etc. to do when they move along technologically with the rest of the world? Send email to everyone?

They did what was necessary, sufficient, and long-standing common practice: They provided this information in the marketing collateral for the new product.

It's not unexpected that some people won't bother to examine this material in detail (like I said, me). Also not a surprise that it's not totally clear to some people.

At the same time, none of that is DJI's fault. Criticism of DJI for not telling customers there wouldn't be a charger seems awfully misplaced when it's not true.

 

[msinger]

At the same time, none of that is DJI's fault. Criticism of DJI for not telling customers there wouldn't be a charger seems awfully misplaced when it's not true.

It's valid constructive criticism and a missed opportunity by DJI to make their offerings crystal clear to all potential customers.

 

[Droning on and on...]

It's valid constructive criticism

Agree.

and a missed opportunity by DJI to make their offerings crystal clear to all potential customers.

Impossible.

 

[msinger]

Impossible.

Why would it be impossible?

 

[Droning on and on...]

Why would it be impossible?

We may just have to agree to disagree. I simply don't think it's possible to ever satisfy 100% of any large, randomized group.

When it comes to communicating understanding, you don't know what they (individually) don't know. The bigger the random sample, the broader your own ignorance about your audience. It will prevent understanding by all, 100% of the time

 

[msinger]

We may just have to agree to disagree. I simply don't think it's possible to ever satisfy 100% of any large, randomized group.

And then we might be talking about different things here too. I'm only suggesting DJI could make it clear that a charger is also needed in the what's "In The Box" listing. It's such a simple thing to clarify and oh so many support hours would be saved.

 

[DARKSeifer]

While every potential buyer of an Air 3 is supposed to have a 30-100W PD USB-C charger (I have three, including the one that came with the Mavic 3), there's no excuse to not include at least a 60W charger in the Air 3 bundle.

Same for the Avata not including a combo with a proper controller, or several drones not including a bag or not having a fly more combo by default or all the official DJI charging bricks being sequential instead of parallel.

The problem is that they don't have a proper competitor on the drone market, so they can do whatever they want.

They are selling drones like they were smartphones (buggy at release, design flaws (DJi Goggles 2 / Integra being super uncomfortable), marketing flaws, etc) instead of finished products like DSLR cameras, that get firmware updates from time to time, but they work perfectly fine since day one.

We basically need a new Japanese drone manufacturer (Canon/Nikon) to rise the quality standard to something acceptable instead of the buggy mess and flawed bundles we get with every DJI new release.

 

[Droning on and on...]

And then we might be talking about different things here too. I'm only suggesting DJI could make it clear that a charger is also needed in the what's "In The Box" listing. It's such a simple thing to clarify and oh so many support hours would be saved.

On that we're in total agreement

Heck, seeing this discussion right here (which, we're told, does happen), they could spend a few hundred $ of someone in marketing to change the graphic like this:



And here's the part we may have to agree to disagree on: There will still be people that don't understand. No matter how much they perfect the wordsmithing.