Best smartphone to use with a DJI Mavic 2 drone?

[thesotman]

Hi, I have a Samsung Note 9 that I use to fly my Mavic 2 Zoom with but I'm having problems with the screen. After around 20 minutes of flying my drone, the brightness of the screen on my Note 9 starts to get so dim I can hardly see what's on the screen. So I want to sell my Note 9 and buy a new phone. I'm thinking of getting one of these phones: Samsung Galaxy A70 Samsung Galaxy A80 Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Asus Zenfone 6 LG G8 ThinQ I don't want to spend more than $600. What do you guys think about my choices? Is there any other phone you guys can suggest that has a bright screen and is under $600? Only Android phones, don't like Apple. Thanks.

 

[msinger]

Is there any other phone you guys can suggest that has a bright screen and is under $600?

Check out my list of commonly used phones here:
Best Tablets and Phones for DJI GO & DJI Fly (Updated Daily)

 

[thesotman]

Check out my list of commonly used phones here:
Best Tablets and Phones for DJI GO & DJI Fly (Updated Daily)

That list is not up to date.
Mostly older phones.

 

[Radpuppy]

Dji products and apple are like biscuits and gravy they just go together lol

 

[msinger]

Mostly older phones

Yep! Most people aren't flying with phones that were released in 2019.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

The best device to use with these things are tablets that are NOT phones, IMO.

I use an iPad Air 2. You can probably find an Android with around the same basic specs, but it won't work as well with DJI products as an Apple will (as Rad sez above).

Chris

 

[Gizmo6257]

I use my Samsung Note 8 and S10 Plus and just set britghness to high, make sure you turn off adaptive brightness.

Hi, I have a Samsung Note 9 that I use to fly my Mavic 2 Zoom with but I'm having problems with the screen. After around 20 minutes of flying my drone, the brightness of the screen on my Note 9 starts to get so dim I can hardly see what's on the screen. So I want to sell my Note 9 and buy a new phone. I'm thinking of getting one of these phones: Samsung Galaxy A70 Samsung Galaxy A80 Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Asus Zenfone 6 LG G8 ThinQ I don't want to spend more than $600. What do you guys think about my choices? Is there any other phone you guys can suggest that has a bright screen and is under $600? Only Android phones, don't like Apple. Thanks.

 

[Gizmo6257]

I use Samsung Note 8 and it's better than my New iPad. It's easier more convenient and brighter. Android works so good. That is why the Smart Controller is Android. I never have issues with my Smartphones. Note 8 or S10 plus so much easier than a tablet. Once you get good at flying, all u need to see, shows up good on a Phone like Note 8.

The best device to use with these things are tablets that are NOT phones, IMO.

I use an iPad Air 2. You can probably find an Android with around the same basic specs, but it won't work as well with DJI products as an Apple will (as Rad sez above).

Chris

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Android works so good. That is why the Smart Controller is Android.

I have a feeling there are other reasons for it, like Apple not giving DJI a license for using iOS on the SC. Even if they did, the cost per unit would be much higher than just using Android (which is likely free or low-cost for DJI to use).

Don't get me wrong, I have a Samsung Tab here at home. I'm not anti-android I also have a DAP that's Android-based.

But these forums (including DJIs own) are littered with complains from Android users about the slow updates to DJI GO for their device (while the iOS version gets more frequent updates). That was the reason I decided against the SC, with the (deleted by moderator)update history for the android-based Crystalsky

Chris

 

[dbj702]

Your Note 9 should be sufficient. Try setting the screen to a lower resolution like 1080p or lower with airplane mode and do not disturb. The phone is dimming to compensate for processors heating so you need to reduce its workload. Unfortunately your not going to beat Apple performance as their chips are much faster.

Unless you go with the iPhone X or later you wont match the brightness of most android phones. Until i got my iPhone 11 Pro, I have yet to see a smartphone weather a series of back to back flights without dimming due to heat. I also own a Galaxy S10+ and i switch between the two when it begins to dim due to overheating.

 

[PURSUER01]

I use a Huawei m5 MediaPad 10.8". This tablet has an excellent screen. Very bright in the daylight. It starts up fast with the DJI FLY APP. and the DJI GO 4 APP.
I use the MediaPad with my Mavic Mini, M2Z, and Phantom 4 pro v2.0. No App. drops or crashes.

 

[tmtwomey]

I have a Note 9 and I can't imagine a much better phone to fly with. The screen is great for outdoor use! The battery life is excellent and the stability of the phone and the DJI app have been flawless. I can use it on a bright, sunny day with no shade. I have flown in summer heat and below freezing in the winter and the phone has been perfect. I don't understand why your screen is getting dimmer with time. Doesn't make a lot of sense unless your battery is being rapidly depleted and you drop to a low power mode. Is this something that just started happening? Have you looked into the possibility of repairing it?

Note to users with adaptive brightness displays: I saw advice earlier that you should turn off adaptive brightness and set the manual brightness to high. I too thought this would be best when I first setup my Note 9. I was somewhat disappointed with the results and did a little online research. Displaymate is a company that publishes some very detailed reviews of various displays. Fortunately, they had reviewed the Note 9 and explained that the best brightness was achieved by turning adaptive brightness ON. Turns out leaving the display at max brightness all the time would deplete the battery way too fast. So the engineers limited the manual brightness. But knowing that adaptive brightness would automatically decrease the brightness when the phone didn't need it, the engineers allowed it to go to a much higher brightness when needed. I was using the DJI phone shade before, but now I prefer not to use any shade, since the shade actually makes the brightness decrease! The Note 9 with adaptive brightness gets close to the brightness levels of the SC and the Note 10 is even better.

I know the above applies to the Note 9. I don't know what, if any, other phones it applies to, but I wouldn't be surprised if the same logic was used when designing other high end displays with adaptive brightness.

 

[Thomas B]

I have a feeling there are other reasons for it, like Apple not giving DJI a license for using iOS on the SC. Even if they did, the cost per unit would be much higher than just using Android (which is likely free or low-cost for DJI to use).

Don't get me wrong, I have a Samsung Tab here at home. I'm not anti-android I also have a DAP that's Android-based.

But these forums (including DJIs own) are littered with complains from Android users about the slow updates to DJI GO for their device (while the iOS version gets more frequent updates). That was the reason I decided against the SC, with the (deleted by moderator)update history for the android-based Crystalsky

Chris

Everyone modifies Android... not all the same. Results in problems like the limited number of devices DJI lists for use with the MM.

interesting comment. Love my 7” CS... mature and very stable operation of my M2P. SC.... which I also have... DJI is still trying to get everything right... sigh.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

"That is why the Smart Controller is Android." no it's not - it's because thats all they got. If DJI COULD use IOS they would.

Not the debate the merits of IOS versus Android but the fact is that although I like to use the SC, there are many apps that just don't support it. Like Pix4d and Airmap. So if you have the idea of being a professional drone pilot, forget Android as you may well be required to use software that is only supported on IOS.
What's worse is that SC has some quirks in it's Android build and and many Android apps that would run on a regular android phone or tablet will not work on SC.
You've been warned. (I had to go and buy a regular controller so I could use IOS)

 

[campozinhos]

Tablets withiut sim card rth and tracking nota available and on Manu models you got black screen

 

[Hegemone]

Tablets withiut sim card rth and tracking nota available and on Manu models you got black screen

Not 100% sure I know what you intended to say but there are tablets with gps that don't have some cars. Cell service and GPS are two different things. You can also use a Bluetooth GPS receiver if a device doesn't have GPS built in. Lots of options on both Android and iOS.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Tablets withiut sim card rth and tracking nota available and on Manu models you got black screen

I can't find the translate button. Doesn't this site have a translate button?

 

[campozinhos]

Sorry about the bad english.
I was using a small smartphone and no glasses and English is not my native language.
I got a new tablet Lenovo M7 (7'') (90€ ) which has the perfect width/length to fit into the remote control. I had to return it to the shop cause the only way to not get a Black Screen was to downgrade the firmware.. which rather "stupid".
I have read lots of forums saying that the RTH function will be compromised if the tablet has not a sim card for cellular data...
Thanks a lot

 

[campozinhos]

I can't find the translate button. Doesn't this site have a translate button?

Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

I have read lots of forums saying that the RTH function will be compromised if the tablet has not a sim card for cellular data...
Thanks a lot

I don't think that is correct. RTH will work, but if you don't have GPS on the control device you can not reset it.
As for sim card I can't see why that would matter.