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Mavic Air 2 Phone upgrade

Maverick88

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I know, I know. This subject has been discussed 1000000x times. But at this point I would welcome any 1st hand experience/feedback on a phone upgrade compatible with my Mavic Air 2.

The following parameters/notes should ideally help with your reply, as my goal is to purchase a phone that works with Verizon Wireless:

1.) From my own experience Samsung makes quality phones and I've been using my Galaxy S7 up until recently (phone is starting to die/malfunction/low battery life) -- So Samsung is where I want to ideally stick with, although I'm open to more outside quality suggestions.

2.) Having spent the better half of the day researching I've looked at Best Tablets and Phones for DJI GO & DJI Fly (Updated Daily) | Phantom Help & The Latest DJI Fly (DJI Air 2S / DJI Mini 2 / Mavic Air 2) Compatible Device list | Cult of Drone. If there's another list I should review please let me know!

3.) Based on the above lists, I've somewhat narrowed it down to the following: Samsung Galaxy S10+, Samsung Galaxy A51, Samsung Galaxy A71, Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy A70.

4.) At first I was leaning towards the A51, since other posts on this forum seemed to praise it for compatibility with the DJI Fly app; but I found online reviews saying how it would stop working as well after only a few months and would easily crack/become damaged. The other phones have pros and cons for each, but my biggest concern would be the longevity of the phone, (mine is from 2016 after all). So if I can get 4+ good years out of this new purchase, that would be ideal.

5.) Again, I'm sorry for repeating this age-old question on the forums but would be incredibly appreciative of your thoughts as I love flying my drone and recently got my 107 license.

Thanks Mavic Pilots!!
 
Hi, little feedback from Belgium, am flying my MA2 through an A51 with quest 2, and it is great experience.
But also by experience, after about 2Y time, most Samsung loose heavily on performance, so my suggestion is not to buy a too expensive one, just powerful enough with a bit of reserve.
My humble suggestion.
 
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I know, I know. This subject has been discussed 1000000x times. But at this point I would welcome any 1st hand experience/feedback on a phone upgrade compatible with my Mavic Air 2.

The following parameters/notes should ideally help with your reply, as my goal is to purchase a phone that works with Verizon Wireless:

1.) From my own experience Samsung makes quality phones and I've been using my Galaxy S7 up until recently (phone is starting to die/malfunction/low battery life) -- So Samsung is where I want to ideally stick with, although I'm open to more outside quality suggestions.

2.) Having spent the better half of the day researching I've looked at Best Tablets and Phones for DJI GO & DJI Fly (Updated Daily) | Phantom Help & The Latest DJI Fly (DJI Air 2S / DJI Mini 2 / Mavic Air 2) Compatible Device list | Cult of Drone. If there's another list I should review please let me know!

3.) Based on the above lists, I've somewhat narrowed it down to the following: Samsung Galaxy S10+, Samsung Galaxy A51, Samsung Galaxy A71, Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy A70.

4.) At first I was leaning towards the A51, since other posts on this forum seemed to praise it for compatibility with the DJI Fly app; but I found online reviews saying how it would stop working as well after only a few months and would easily crack/become damaged. The other phones have pros and cons for each, but my biggest concern would be the longevity of the phone, (mine is from 2016 after all). So if I can get 4+ good years out of this new purchase, that would be ideal.

5.) Again, I'm sorry for repeating this age-old question on the forums but would be incredibly appreciative of your thoughts as I love flying my drone and recently got my 107 license.

Thanks Mavic Pilots!!
I have been running my Air 2 off an iphone 11 Pro for a year with no problems at all. I keep my iphone in a rugged Lifeproof case which required me to buy a new straight through type of cable to plug into the RC - see also an earlier post of mine for a link. I get all of my updates for the Go Fly App straight to the phone. DJI makes a nice economical sun hood that clips over the iphone, too. Performance is excellent and basic video editing can be done and saved on the phone (and emailed or posted direct to YouTube). I hope this helps. ????
 
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It's a long shot option but the Tripltek tablets accept the sim cards from providers and have the brightest screen of all tablets and phones for drone use.

I put my Verizon sim card in my TT Pro and it worked.

It's a brick to carry around and I don't use it for my primary phone.

Here are the specs.



.
 
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The i-sheep just can't help themselves.
Why would you say that? Seriously, Android phones are fine, but as with the original Apple poster, I have enjoyed using the DJI apps on my iPhone 12 Pro. So what if we like the iPhone? If you like an Android, more power to you. I hope the original poster finds what works best for him. Without prejuidice.
 
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Why would you say that? Seriously, Android phones are fine, but as with the original Apple poster, I have enjoyed using the DJI apps on my iPhone 12 Pro. So what if we like the iPhone? If you like an Android, more power to you. I hope the original poster finds what works best for him. Without prejuidice.
Maybe because the OP had a list of phones he wanted input on and none were IOS? It basically makes everything go off topic (like we are doing now).
 
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If I end up with some extra cash I will definitely look into this in addition to my new phone! Thank you!
 
Samsung A71 user here. I have been using it since the MA2 was released. Early on there were some hiccups with the Fly app, a couple of app crashes but the the A71 would quickly restart the app and I didn't lose video feed for more than 4 seconds. For the past year I have had zero Fly app crashes. It's been a great phone that has no trouble running the Fly app with cache and HD transmission enabled AND AZ Screen Recorder recording in the background. I run AZ to record every flight, it's a sub for a visual flight recorder. It 's not as bright as the high end Galaxy series ones, but "Vivid" mode helps to boost the brightness. This model of the A71 has the Snapdragon processor. I could be wrong but I think it's safer (fewer compatibility issues) to go with an Android phone that uses Snapdragon versus Samsung's Exynos or some other chipset/processor. And the ultra wide screen (20:9 aspect ratio) means the side icons are not blocking the video nearly as much as a 16:9 screen.

1623545046417.png
 
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I have been running my Air 2 off an iphone 11 Pro for a year with no problems at all. I keep my iphone in a rugged Lifeproof case which required me to buy a new straight through type of cable to plug into the RC - see also an earlier post of mine for a link. I get all of my updates for the Go Fly App straight to the phone. DJI makes a nice economical sun hood that clips over the iphone, too. Performance is excellent and basic video editing can be done and saved on the phone (and emailed or posted direct to YouTube). I hope this helps. ????
I have noted that some respondents have again introduced the ridiculous Apple vs Samsung arguments into this thread. In item (1) of your enquiry you stated that you would welcome alternative options, even though later you listed a series of Android possibilities. If you look at some YT videos, a lot of pilots find that the Apple ios gives them excellent performance, especially on the more recent releases of the iphone and the ipad mini. There are probably just as many Samsung users out there. But the recommendations are given on the basis of experience, which is what you were seeking. It would be nice if the fellow forum members could offer that without feeling it necessary to take stupid shots at people who happen to use a different phone platform. Do your research and pick something known to be reliable, whatever it is. That is what you need on your drone. Good luck. ????
 
I have noted that some respondents have again introduced the ridiculous Apple vs Samsung arguments into this thread. In item (1) of your enquiry you stated that you would welcome alternative options, even though later you listed a series of Android possibilities. If you look at some YT videos, a lot of pilots find that the Apple ios gives them excellent performance, especially on the more recent releases of the iphone and the ipad mini. There are probably just as many Samsung users out there. But the recommendations are given on the basis of experience, which is what you were seeking. It would be nice if the fellow forum members could offer that without feeling it necessary to take stupid shots at people who happen to use a different phone platform. Do your research and pick something known to be reliable, whatever it is. That is what you need on your drone. Good luck. ????
Thank you for saying it far better than I did.
 
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The Galaxy S10+ is the best phone on your list and I can tell you that it worked fine for me with the DJI Fly app.

That's what I have. Works great with GO4 and Fly.
 
Let me add some to this pot.
I've been using an S10e since MA 2 was launched with the correspondingly compatible FLY App. To be fair it is a good performer, and the screen was wonderfully bright. It really gets bright quickly and that is quite important. WIth a S10+ I'm sure it will be the same and it is even bigger which is great.

Recently the software of my S10e really gave a lot of issues after recent updates, to the point that it hinders my daily life (not including drone flying). It needed me to restart the phone every few hours, if not random apps will lose connection to the internet. You can google this and it is a well known issue that apparently Samsung knows since March but has not really fixed till now. Take of that what you will.



(note : It has NOT BEEN FIXED, it was fixed in Samsung's imagination only,if you read the whole topic)

And that has literally forced me to buy another phone and this time I did not hesitate to buy an Iphone.

The Iphone 12 has a great screen and rivals that of the S10. The battery life in general is a lot better. I wont even bother about the performance, of course it is better.
Specific to DJI Fly, you know that we have 2 in house developers who can force FCC mode with their own Modified Fly app, always updated, and that is only in IOS version. Android is not modifiable. Maybe a cons will be limited memory internally and a difficult path to extract the flight logs.

I hope if you do end up with S10, know that it is near the end of the support cycle and may or may not have a case of compatibility issue with Fly in the future. I did like the screen it was a 10.5/10 screen to me.
 
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