DJI Mavic Air Leaks & Rumors

 DJI Mavic Air Leaks & Rumors

Everything about the DJI Mavic Air including launch details, Rumors and leaks. An announcement event is taking place on January 23rd 10AM EST. We expect to officially hear about the DJI Mavic Air at this event. The next Drone release from DJI is around the corner. Stay tuned to all updates, enter your email at the end of the article!

DJI Mavic Air

DJI’s consumer drones haven’t seen a real update to the Mavic segment since the Mavic Pro’s launch in October 2016. The following evolutionary update was the Mavic Platinum which featured an up to 4dB reduction in take-off and landing noise, as well as an improved flight time reaching up to 30min. The Mavic Platinum was released in August 2017. Shortly thereafter the Mavic Pro received a fully white version edition called the Alpine White Edition in November 2017. The Mavic Air will be the first big update to the Mavic line since the Mavic Pro’s debut in 2016.
The next version of the Mavic was rumored to be the Mavic 2. This drone would see the inclusion of a camera similar to the 1″ sensor found on the Phantom 4 Pro/Adv. The Adventure Unfolds event could see a launch of two new Mavic drones. One being the Mavic Air with a 1/2.3″ sensor (12 MP) with zoom capabilities and the other being a Pro model with the 1″ sensor (20 MP). The next few months will see a Mavic Pro II & Phantom 5.



Read on to find out about expected features & pricing information.

Update 11: Detailed image of Mavic Air bottom facing sensors and battery compartment leaked

Update 10: Further images of the DJI Mavic Air in the wild

In this image a white edition of the Mavic Air is visible being shown:

(White Mavic Air in the wild)

Update 9: Mavic Air Retail Packaging leaked

Further confirmation of the DJI Mavic Air being announced tomorrow. The retail packaging has been leaked.
Features include:

• 32 MP Panorama Photos
  • Auto-stitched in camera
• Foldable legs – horizontal fold (less complicated than Mavic Pro)
• 4K camera
• Front-, Bottom- & Rear-facing obstacle avoidance sensors
• Hand Gesture compatible
• 21min flight time
• At minimum White and Red Editions available

Our best guess at the translations: “DJI Aerial photography now portable” “32MP panorama” “Folding portable” “Metaphysical perception of the environment” “4K” “Hand shot”

(DJI Mavic Air Retail Packaging)

Update 8: First production DJI Mavic Air Image

The following image hit the web just a few minutes ago. You can see the new Mavic Air with a red shell. There will be multiple color options.

(DJI Mavic Air leaked)

Update 7: Mavic Air propeller to feature low-noise design

The Mavic Air will feature a low-noise style propeller as seen on the Mavic Pro Platinum. One of DJI’s Web forum Admins posted the following image in the Adventure Unfolds thread. Interestingly there is no mention of this “New Adventure Unfolds” image on the official Adventure Unfolds Event Page.

(Initial Image as posted by DJI Admin)

We took the image posted by the DJI employee and lightened the image where the propeller was visible. We then adjusted the curves of the image in an editing program and came up with the following result. That Mavic Air propeller sure reminds us of the propeller available standard on the Mavic Pro Platinum.

(Lightened propeller image)

To check our hunch of the matching propeller we took an image of the Mavic Platinum Propeller and laid it ontop of the leaked image.

(Mavic propeller overlayed on leaked prop)

Finally, when we reduce the opacity of the overlaid propeller you can see that the new Mavic Air propeller is very similar to the Mavic Pro Platinum propeller.

(Opacity reduced to show both propellers in one image)

Update 6: Mavic Air Concept Leaked

We have received concept rendering of the Mavic Air. It shows what the Mavic Air could look like when released. We took the images gathered from the DJI teaser video and combined them with the render below.

(DJI Mavic Air Concept Rendering)

Further concept drawings have made their rounds. Here is one which is supposed to show a fixed wing Mavic Air:

(Fixed-Wing Mavic Air Drawing)

Update 4: Mavic Air rumored to include dual lens camera or mode

DJI has been promoting a campaign/contest on Facebook where entrants upload a cropped portion of an image and then the source image the crop is taken from. Of course, the hashtag #AdventureUnfolds is listed within the campaign’s text. Contest entrants are entered for a prize in preparation of the Jan 23rd Adventure Unfolds launch event.
This gives a dual lens camera such as known from the iPhone Plus and now the iPhone X models. Another solution would be a pure digital zoom function where the camera consists of a single lens and sensor and just digitally zooms in to provide the same effect of a dual lens setup.

Update 3: DJI URL confirms Mavic Air

A confirmation of this being a Mavic Air launch can be found on DJI’s own site. If you follow the url dji.com/mavic-air you get redirected to the homepage of DJI (This was changed by DJI on Sunday the 21st). Any other fictitious name such as dji.com/phantom-5 will redirect to a 404 Error page. Almost like they are getting ready for the page to come online on the 23rd!

Update 2: DJI releases video teaser for the Adventure Unfolds Event (DJI Mavic Air)

(Link to Mavic Air teaser video here)

During the video, you get a few glimpses of the Mavic Air. The initial few flashes of the new drone make it even seem that this may be a fixed wing aircraft. The large swooping areas which appear to be the top of the drone seems to go on forever. This is where the rumors of a fixed wing drone (flying wing) similar to the Parrot Disco come from. While this would be an interesting product for DJI the later images below sure remind us of the original Mavic Pro. The following images of the Mavic Air are visible if you examine the video frame by frame:

(The smooth top surface of the Mavic Air)

(Another angle of the top shell, kind of looks fixed wing-ish doesn’t it?)

(Initially, this appears to be the battery of the drone. The three octagons could be battery LEDs)

(However taking this image and doing some photoshop work, you can see that what we initially thought to perhaps be the drones battery, is really a mesh guard. This appears to be an exhaust port for heat coming from the processing unit, much as the original Mavic Pro has come out of the back of the drone)

(An image put together by a FB Groups member, further fuelling the fixed-wing rumor)

(And this image speaks totally against the rumor of a fixed-wing drone. This looks like the rear leg of the Mavic Pro. It appears to house an object recognition sensor in the upper right of the leg)

DJI Mavic Air Features and Pricing

We expect the Mavic Air to feature:

• 20-25 minute flight time
• Forward, Downward and Rearward facing Obstacle Avoidance Sensors
• New foldable design which folds even easier than the original Mavic Pro
• Redesigned Camera and Gimbal offering improved optics with 1/2.3″ Sensor
  • Dual Zoom Feature
• Silent Edition Propellers and improved ESC’s and motors similar to that of the Mavic Platinum

The Mavic Air is rumored to be at a price point between the DJI Spark and the Mavic Pro. If this is true we expect a sales price for the Mavic Air of between $600-$900.

DJI to hold Adventure Unfolds Event

DJI has sent out following invitations to a media event titled “Adventure Unfolds”. The event takes places well after the media hype of CES 2018 settled down. Companies with a large enough audience such as DJI opt to hold special events after large trade shows like CES (Consumer Electronics Show):