Which controller?

[wco81]

Some people rave about the RC2. The brightness of the screen is worth the expense they say.

From my POV, I’m coming from a Mavic 2 Pro which has a tiny folding controller, probably lighter and smaller footprint.

They tout the Air 3S as a travel drone. The aircraft is lighter than the Mavic Pro drones but these new controllers, even the ones without the screen, look huge and heavier.

Is there some functionality benefit to having the integrated screen, offsetting the greater weight and expense?

There have been times when I’ve had issues connecting to the aircraft, maybe because the cable to my phone wasn’t secure. So it would be nice to avoid that kind of glitch.

 

[Sherifftruman]

I got the RC2 but I’m not really traveling with it. I’m a home inspector and often my phone would dim when using the controller during the summer when I was flying my current Air 2. . I also have an issue where the app will not stay up long enough to transfer more than 8-10 photos at a time. I wanted to go with a separate controller to hopefully pit these issues behind me.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

No Cables < priceless.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[waynorth]

I’m a home inspector and often my phone would dim when using the controller during the summer when I was flying my current Air 2

Most phones have a setting where you can manually select the screen brightness. In bright conditions I set it to maximum brightness when flying, and it does not dim.
Your other issue should also be solved with a setting in the phone, often in a "save battery" setting.

 

[wco81]

No Cables < priceless.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

Well there is a price, $200 more with RC2 or $360 standalone.

 

[Cafguy]

If you do not need the option of flying with a bigger screen ...say an Ipad... get one.
If you wanna fly with a larger screen, Skip the screened controllers, you cannot output to a larger device while flying when using the screened controllers. That is for the pro model controllers and unscreened versions only.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

My take, I prefer separate screen and controller for several reasons.
Flexibility of choice of screen size being one, clips are available that allow the use of tablets with the 'dumb' mavic 2 controller etc etc.
IMO, the connecting and disconnection of cables is the work of 1 or 2 seconds and of absolutely no inconvenience.