It will be interesting to see the future direction of DJI. Rumor has it that there will be no
Mavic 3 series and the
Air 2s is supposed to fill that niche.
I'm sure that DJI has thrown some cool bells and whistles into the
Air2s and will begin to bridge more of the gap between the Mavic
Air2 and the
Mavic 2 Pro. In some ways I expect the
Air2s to outperform the
Mavic 2. But it appears that DJI is once more using the same controller that they have used in the Mavic
Air2 and
Mini 2. While it's generally nice, the controller is missing some features that the
Mavic 2 comes with.
First, the
Mavic 2 controller has C1 and C2 switches, different buttons for taking video or photos rather than a shared button requiring touching a seaparate button to switch between the two modes and having to visually confirm that you're in photo or video modes. With the
Mavic 2 if you hit the left button you'll do nothing but start or stop video. Same thing with photos on the right button. The Mavic Airs/Mini also lacks a 5D button not does it have any kind of display, though generally not so important. Where a display in the controller might be important is if flying with
goggles with your phone inside the
goggles and you remove said
goggles, you still have the data at your fingertips on the controller display. Not to mention that
Mavic 2 controller packs smaller and lighter.
And while the
Air2 and
Air2s seem to have plenty of power they do lack a bit less stability in very windy conditions, though not in danger of blowing away like the
Mini 1's did. One advantage of the
Air2 and
Air2s is that it has a smaller footprint than the
Mavic 2, which will allow it to fly in tighter spaces. However, I have to question whether or not the new drone has any EXP settings and how fine the control is in the Cine mode, which (tripod mode) is terrific on the
Mavic 2 though the M2's top speed in tripod mode is a bit slow... but great for beginners.
Let's see what DJI brings us in a few days that can all be confirmed.