Is the Air's bitrate a real improvement?

[PeteS2017]

For me, the only reason to prefer the Mavic Air to the Mavic Pro is the 100 Mbps bitrate over the 60 Mbps of the Pro. But I recently read that this is only an improvement 'on paper' as it's cancelled out by the low write speeds of even the best SD cards. Is this true?

 

[Jondachi]

I want to fly in Ecuador and im on the fence about the pro or air.Not quite understanding the wifi connection that is needed to fly the air. being in S America can it fly there if my phone has no wifi signal
as there are many locations without wifi

 

[zwt100]

You don’t need a WiFi connection on your phone to fly. The signal comes from the RC if I’m not mistaken.

 

[dwallersv]

@PeteS2017 , there are plenty of SD cards with write speeds that can handle the MA 100mbps (that is, real write speeds, not advertised, "claimed" speeds). SD card rule of thumb: Speed costs. Period. If the regular price of a card is substantially less than $1/GB (and not some sort of clearance sales price), then it won't be that fast, especially on write.

I use these for everything (MA, Rylo, etc.), and they are blazingly fast. I wait for them to go on sale on Amazon for around $32, then pick up a few. They truly do read at about 132MB/s (yes, that's megaBYTES), and write about 1/3-1/2 that speed:



@Jondachi , the MA uses wifi radio/transmission protocol whether flying with a phone alone, or with the RC. The RC gives much better range because it has a more powerful transmitter than smartphones, and dedicated antenna improving sensitivity. Still, it's wifi.

You don't need to have a wifi connection to the internet, via some Access Point, to use a smartphone to operate the MA anywhere. The wifi connection is directly between the phone and the MA -- there is no other "wifi" hardware involved. It will work just fine in the most remote locations of the Amazon, where the nearest internet access via wifi is hundreds of miles away.

 

[Jondachi]

@PeteS2017 , there are plenty of SD cards with write speeds that can handle the MA 100mbps (that is, real write speeds, not advertised, "claimed" speeds). SD card rule of thumb: Speed costs. Period. If the regular price of a card is substantially less than $1/GB (and not some sort of clearance sales price), then it won't be that fast, especially on write.

I use these for everything (MA, Rylo, etc.), and they are blazingly fast. I wait for them to go on sale on Amazon for around $32, then pick up a few. They truly do read at about 132MB/s (yes, that's megaBYTES), and write about 1/3-1/2 that speed:



@Jondachi , the MA uses wifi radio/transmission protocol whether flying with a phone alone, or with the RC. The RC gives much better range because it has a more powerful transmitter than smartphones, and dedicated antenna improving sensitivity. Still, it's wifi.

You don't need to have a wifi connection to the internet, via some Access Point, to use a smartphone to operate the MA anywhere. The wifi connection is directly between the phone and the MA -- there is no other "wifi" hardware involved. It will work just fine in the most remote locations of the Amazon, where the nearest internet access via wifi is hundreds of miles away.

thanks for that ive been looking for that answer.Not up to speed yet on drone tech so much appreciated

 

[Jondachi]

@PeteS2017 , there are plenty of SD cards with write speeds that can handle the MA 100mbps (that is, real write speeds, not advertised, "claimed" speeds). SD card rule of thumb: Speed costs. Period. If the regular price of a card is substantially less than $1/GB (and not some sort of clearance sales price), then it won't be that fast, especially on write.

I use these for everything (MA, Rylo, etc.), and they are blazingly fast. I wait for them to go on sale on Amazon for around $32, then pick up a few. They truly do read at about 132MB/s (yes, that's megaBYTES), and write about 1/3-1/2 that speed:



@Jondachi , the MA uses wifi radio/transmission protocol whether flying with a phone alone, or with the RC. The RC gives much better range because it has a more powerful transmitter than smartphones, and dedicated antenna improving sensitivity. Still, it's wifi.

You don't need to have a wifi connection to the internet, via some Access Point, to use a smartphone to operate the MA anywhere. The wifi connection is directly between the phone and the MA -- there is no other "wifi" hardware involved. It will work just fine in the most remote locations of the Amazon, where the nearest internet access via wifi is hundreds of miles away.

thanks very much appreciated