The DJI Mavic 4 Professional is shaping as much as be essentially the most anticipated drone of the yr. Whereas we don’t know the complete specs but, DJI dropped a teaser this week that has the drone neighborhood buzzing.
Whereas the corporate hasn’t confirmed it outright, the imagery and tagline — “Spin Your World”— accompanied by a launch time (Might 13 at 8 a.m. ET) strongly counsel a brand new flagship drone is imminent. The promo materials, posted to networks together with X and Instagram, counsel a drone with three cameras, together with a Hasselblad digicam. The phrase “Spin” suggests a digicam that may spin (or at the very least rotate).
What is going to very seemingly be a brand new drone follows a robust and numerous lineup of recent merchandise to return out of DJI just lately. The DJI Neo is a good, budget-conscious newbie drone. The DJI Flip takes it up a notch as a still-friendly newbie drone with extra superior specs. The DJI Air 3S is my favourite drone I’ve flown to-date, interval. Maybe unsurprising that I really like its type, because it’s the very best journey drone.
So what precisely ought to we count on—and what do we would like—from DJI’s latest flagship? Primarily based on previous Mavic pitfalls, rising tech within the DJI Air 3S and DJI’s personal teaser, right here’s what I’m hoping to see within the DJI Mavic 4 Professional:
6 options I need most in a brand new DJI Mavic 4 Professional drone
1. A really rotating Hasselblad digicam
The tagline “Spin Your World” suggests one main design breakthrough: a rotating digicam gimbal. For years, vertical capturing on Mavic drones meant cropping a horizontal picture, sacrificing sharpness and determination. A bodily rotating sensor would lastly enable full-resolution vertical seize, best for social media with out compromise.
And sure, the social media submit signifies that the Hasselblad branding is again, signaling pro-grade coloration science and lens high quality. If DJI builds on its triple-camera system from the Mavic 3 Professional however lets a kind of lenses rotate natively, it may very well be a game-changer for vertical content material creators.
2. Higher battery life
Surprisingly, the DJI Air 3S truly has longer battery life than the Mavic 3 Professional. The newer, cheaper drone affords as much as 46 minutes in comparison with 43 on the Mavic 3 Professional. The Mavic 4 Professional must reclaim that crown with prolonged airtime, particularly for these utilizing high-res sensors that burn by energy.
A bigger, extra power-efficient battery system (maybe even hot-swappable?) can be a welcome improve for professionals within the area.
Associated learn: DJI Air 3S vs. DJI Mavic 3 Professional: even with a cheaper price, is the Air 3S truly higher?
3. LiDAR Impediment Sensing
The Air 3S’s precision impediment avoidance set a brand new bar. If the Mavic 4 Professional introduces LiDAR-based sensing, it may allow extra exact autonomous flight, even in low gentle or complicated environments. Suppose smarter monitoring, higher ActiveTrack reliability and safer indoor flight.
4. O4 video transmission
The OcuSync 4 (O4) transmission system debuted on the Air 3 and Mini 4 Professional, providing higher-resolution stay feeds and rock-solid connectivity. The Mavic 4 Professional must undertake this tech — and probably enhance it additional with 4K stay feed to the DJI RC Professional.
5. Extra inner storage
Talking of recent requirements, extra inner storage is a should. The 8GB supplied on previous Mavic drones is ok in a pinch, however in actuality it’s not sufficient for high-res shooters. Even the Air 3 affords 46GB internally. We’re hoping the brand new DJI Mavic 4 Professional can at the very least match 46GB , and ideally SSD speeds for ProRes workflows.
6. New flight modes and smarter autonomy
The teaser’s clean rotations trace at a brand new class of cinematic flight modes, doubtlessly utilizing the rotating gimbal for fluid pan-tilt-roll photographs. Mixed with AI-based topic monitoring and smarter impediment avoidance (à la Skydio), the Mavic 4 Professional may open artistic doorways for solo filmmakers.
How a lot will the DJI Mavic 4 Professional seemingly value?
As of at this time, the DJI Mavic 3 Professional with DJI RC is offered out on DJI’s web site—maybe to make method for its successor. That package deal was priced at $2,199, whereas the Fly Extra Combo with DJI RC Professional clocked in at $3,889.
We count on the Mavic 4 Professional to land someplace in that vary — or greater if it contains the rumored rotating gimbal and ProRes recording. Given the Air 3S begins at simply $1,099, DJI might place the Mavic 4 Professional as a real skilled’s instrument, with pricing to match.
After all, U.S. clients do must account for tariffs. Whereas different client merchandise haven’t but seen worth markups as a result of they’ve already been sitting in U.S. warehouses, that received’t be the case right here. As of now — following weeks of tit-for-tat escalation between China and the U.S. — U.S. tariffs on Chinese language merchandise have exploded to a staggering 145%.
Whereas some firms are consuming the price of the tariffs (or at the very least a number of the value), it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how that impacts costs on this all-new drones. In truth, DJI itself already hinted that tariff worth hikes had been coming.
It’ll even be attention-grabbing to see how the drone holds up at U.S. Customs. Many readers have reported having points getting their palms on the DJI Air 3S due to holdups with U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP).
“Spin Your World”: what to anticipate on Might 13
If the DJI Mavic 4 Professional delivers a rotating Hasselblad digicam, higher battery life, LIDAR-level autonomy and extra inner storage, it may mark a brand new period for drone creators. And if DJI will get it proper, the Mavic 4 Professional may not simply spin your world — it may reshape the entire drone trade.
Keep tuned to The Drone Lady for extra updates. The drone launch is on Might 13 at 8 a.m. ET, and I’ll be watching.
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