First impressions

[rod goslin]

As a Phantom, and later, a Mavic Pro flyer, I was impressed with the spec of the mini. So, I bought one. The mini was certainly an object of delight. However as a flying object, rather less so. Several flights on, I'm rather underwhelmed with the results. Take-off was a dream, a quiet, stable hover. It all looked good. On taking it up, and away, several things were noticeable. Firstly, finesse with the controls was rather lacking. Smooth transitions from the norm seemed lacking, with overshoot the main problem. Perhaps some delay in the system. Certainly not the smooth flight of the Mavic Pro. Taking it out further, more problems arose. The controllable range of the mini does seem to be very, very much less that I'd have expected. At anything over 400 yards, it was definitely iffy, and that in reasonably good conditions, clear lines of sight, reasonable altitude away from interference. Most excursions ended in total loss of signal and automatic RTH, and here another problem arose. The mini seemed to have some difficulty in attaining a home point any closer than 20 feet from the actual point of take-off. And where I live 20 feet will almost certainly put you in a tree. The controller display was another item to give trouble. This time, in context. The really important readouts, battery, GPS, time of flight, WiFi signal are all in the top lineof the screen, and printed in light grey. Which just happens to be where the sky is, also in light grey. So, they virtually disappear. Getting back to the RTH, the mini seems have great reluctance in coming out of RTH when near the ground and seems to insist on landing, which with the Home Point problems outlined above could be a disaster. So, in guiding the thing back to ther real Home Point, one has to put on permanant lift to stop it landing, whilst also trying with the other fingers to guide it to safety. Other points, the much vaunted endurance certainly seems rather less than the twenty minutes claimed, and the re-charge times, on the other hand do seem to be very, very long. I must confess to disappointment. I'll give it a few more tries, but I think the mini will find a home at the back of the cupboard with all the old shoes.

 

[old man mavic]

As a Phantom, and later, a Mavic Pro flyer, I was impressed with the spec of the mini. So, I bought one. The mini was certainly an object of delight. However as a flying object, rather less so. Several flights on, I'm rather underwhelmed with the results. Take-off was a dream, a quiet, stable hover. It all looked good. On taking it up, and away, several things were noticeable. Firstly, finesse with the controls was rather lacking. Smooth transitions from the norm seemed lacking, with overshoot the main problem. Perhaps some delay in the system. Certainly not the smooth flight of the Mavic Pro. Taking it out further, more problems arose. The controllable range of the mini does seem to be very, very much less that I'd have expected. At anything over 400 yards, it was definitely iffy, and that in reasonably good conditions, clear lines of sight, reasonable altitude away from interference. Most excursions ended in total loss of signal and automatic RTH, and here another problem arose. The mini seemed to have some difficulty in attaining a home point any closer than 20 feet from the actual point of take-off. And where I live 20 feet will almost certainly put you in a tree. The controller display was another item to give trouble. This time, in context. The really important readouts, battery, GPS, time of flight, WiFi signal are all in the top lineof the screen, and printed in light grey. Which just happens to be where the sky is, also in light grey. So, they virtually disappear. Getting back to the RTH, the mini seems have great reluctance in coming out of RTH when near the ground and seems to insist on landing, which with the Home Point problems outlined above could be a disaster. So, in guiding the thing back to ther real Home Point, one has to put on permanant lift to stop it landing, whilst also trying with the other fingers to guide it to safety. Other points, the much vaunted endurance certainly seems rather less than the twenty minutes claimed, and the re-charge times, on the other hand do seem to be very, very long. I must confess to disappointment. I'll give it a few more tries, but I think the mini will find a home at the back of the cupboard with all the old shoes.

sorry to hear of your disappointment in your new MM,it seems that a lot of people on the forum express similar views on its capabilities ,when you have had a mavic pro or indeed a phantom 4 before that then it is only to be expected,that you would compare the MM to your previous DJI drones
in all areas of use the MM is not going to be anywhere as accomplished as any mavic before it, but it is still streets ahead of the competition in many respects
i fly a MPP and had the MM as a present,i was not expecting anything mould breaking in the MM and the 250g weight meant nothing to me with regards to registration as i needed to do it anyway for my MPP, i do agree about the problem of reading the info at the top of the screen,i never use RTH myself i prefer to fly back manually and land myself with regards to your use of RTH you could just cancel it when you get close to home and then land it yourself,i have had no problems with lag between the controller and drone and i find that it responds very well to stick inputs i usually fly in C mode which gives smooth video i typically get 20 mins to 40% battery and find that more than enough at the moment in the cold of the winter,i hope it does not end up in the shoe cupboard

 

[rod goslin]

I have to admit, I don't use RTH, either. In fact the mini was my first experience in it's use. It was rather forced on me, since every flight ended with loss of control and automatic return under RTH, and I doubt that anywhere, the mini was much more than a couple of hundred yards away