It's a heated, take no prisoners rivalry, and that's a good thing for us. These two makers, and specifically these Flagship Drones are designed and built with some key differences in philosophy; the end product demonstrates this in some obvious and some not so obvious ways.
I will comment as I have both a V2 Evo 2 Pro and a
Mavic 3 Standard -each with the
Smart Controller dedicated to giving the best experience and interface with the aircraft.
While there are strong loyalties among the people who spend big bucks to own these, I try to be a bit pragmatic and take a brutally honest approach to both.
Without getting into the hardware design differences, the Autel is an awesome piece of hardware. A brick in terms of mass, and not as agile in flight as the
Mavic 3. It's camera is outstanding and given me great joy as a photographer- utilizing the Sony IMX383 Sensor it was the King of The Sky, pre-
Mavic 3 release. I bought it, less than a year into flying drones, tired of waiting for the
M3. If part OF DJI'S motive in releasing the
Mavic 3 early (no one will dispute this point) they still were too late to stop a lot of E2P sales.
Again the hardware, especially the cameras will be the deciding factor for many, and will be the source of many forum bickering and SHOUTING. Few can afford both, and one might ask why anyone would need both. A: No one does. But I wanted the dream team of drones, I had the funds (not Mr. Moneybags, I don't spend a lot on other stuff, I buy tech because it's my discipline and I ride the bleeding edge when possible.
BIGGEST DIFFERENCE: Something I think people should top their pros/cons list with is knowledge of the development and support of these products. Yes both companies have praises sung as well as others who swear them off for terrible support experiences. Unfortunately it's near impossible to get a sense of this until you are in the deep end of the pool.
I will say this. Autel is the classic underdog. They are hungry for success and market share. But they are small. Very small. They aren't even 10% of DJI's size and resources.
The Autel hardware is top shelf. Their Software/Firmware development is no where near the level that DJI does. They often seem stretched thin. ALL of their release dates slip. If they struggle to keep up with their releases up to now, I truly worry what EVO 2 support and software development will look like when not one but two new lines of consumer drones are out there. It may not be as bad as that sounds, but if pressed I would posit the theory that the Automotive Diagnostics parent company is not providing enough resources to the Robotics division. This is my own view, based on empirical evidence, but without any specific knowledge.
DJI? Outstanding and the true early innovator here. They contributed so much to drone flight systems and associated tech, it would take a book to thoroughly explore their role. If I were to state my biggest criticism of them it would be a major case of too big for their britches, as my dear ol' dad might have said. And a recent focus on profiteering, sometimes at the expense of other things. Fill in your own examples - mine is $19 pair of
Mavic 3 propellers vs 11 for
Air 2S, and RC Pro at $460 price increase over its predecessor.
Obviously there's more to this than the drone, but at the end of the day it IS the drone. If you have a strong preference for one of these two Masters of the Sky, I say buy it, deal with the BS that comes with owning a product that didn't exist (as attainable tech) a decade ago. Take the good, deal with the difficult, and admit we have a **** expensive hobby, and get out there and fly.
Today I am leaning Autel. Ask me tonight, I might feel differently.
