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I have a DJI Mavic Mini and I want to get a phone just for that.

Raven2955

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I am wondering if I can get a phone just for flying the Mavic Mini. don't want to make phone calls etc. can I just buy a phone just to use with Mavic MINI
 
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I am wondering if I can get a phone just for flying the Mavic Mini. don't want to make phone calls etc. can I just buy a phone just to use with Mavic MINI

Make sure you get a phone with a 64bit cpu/infrastructure and operating system to be able to run DJI Fly.
You will need a cellular plan for real time map updates although you can cache them via wi-fi when you have a connection.
 
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Get a used iPhone. My current phone, the one that I fly with, call with, text, email, etc is an iPhone 6sPlus. While I haven't done extensive testing I can fly my Mini 2 with my old tiny iPhone 5 with iOS 12.4.9. Any iPhone later than 6 should be solid. Perhaps an older tablet instead of a phone.

Fun fact: In spite of my iPhone 5 not having any cellular service it is still fully functional on wifi. I can make facetime/whatsapp calls with it, watch YouTube or send email or do many other wifi related things with it still, as long as I have a wifi signal.
 
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I agree a smartphone can be quite useful connected only to WiFi. For many tablets that's the only option, not counting hotspots, but that's just a portable wifi.

For Fly on Android, best that it has at least 4GB RAM, though others have been successful with as little as 2GB.
 
As others have mentioned, you can use an old phone without a sim card or cell service. You will be able to connecting to local wifi to cache maps if you want and also the option to connect to a smart phone by using it as a hotspot.

You might consider using a tablet (using a mount/holder) instead of a phone for the ease of viewing on a larger screen. Some Android tablets cannot run the FLY app so I suggest checking if your phone/tablet is capable of running the FLY app by downloading it and see if it installs. I occasional use my old iPad Air - 2012 (which only has 1 gig of ram) and like the bigger screen. As I said I just preload the map of the area I plan to fly or hotspot it with my iPhone 8 if I forget or fly in a different area.
 
I just use one of my old android phones exclusively for my drones.

****Word to the wise, because of Covid-19 I haven’t been flying as much and let the phone die. Had to relink the drone and controller, and setup my Air password with the DJI app again.
 
Get a used iPhone. My current phone, the one that I fly with, call with, text, email, etc is an iPhone 6sPlus. While I haven't done extensive testing I can fly my Mini 2 with my old tiny iPhone 5 with iOS 12.4.9. Any iPhone later than 6 should be solid. Perhaps an older tablet instead of a phone.

Fun fact: In spite of my iPhone 5 not having any cellular service it is still fully functional on wifi. I can make facetime/whatsapp calls with it, watch YouTube or send email or do many other wifi related things with it still, as long as I have a wifi signal.
Just purchased an Ipad mini 4 screen seem big enough and was told it will fit the controller without extra stuff
 
Just purchased an Ipad mini 4 screen seem big enough and was told it will fit the controller without extra stuff

For the iPad Mini 4 turn off the "cache when recording" in the advanced camera settings menu.
 
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