Getting the Mavic Pro from unboxing to flight is about as simple as it could be. First you unfold the Mavic and then find an area clear of tall buildings, wires, planes, people and cars. You get the picture; it can be difficult to find legal places to fly a drone these days (also, don’t forget to get your $5 drone license at the FAA.gov).
The Mavic Pro comes pre-paired with its shockingly small remote. This is easily my favorite drone remote ever. It’s light, rugged, comes with a built-in monochrome LED screen and grippers that fold out to hold your smartphone. You don’t need to use a smartphone to fly the Mavic Pro (you can also fly with just the phone app), but then you miss out on the live feed of what the Mavic Pro’s 12-megapixel, 4K gimbal camera can see. There is also a significant amount of touch-screen control added through the excellent, free DJI Go app.
As soon as you power up both the drone and the remote, they pair. The bottom of the remote unfolds and acts as a secure holder for your smartphone. The default plug on the drone one I tested was a micro USB. I flew the drone with both an iPhone 6 and a Samsung Galaxy S7. For the former, I had to use a separate lighting cable that plugged into a USB slot on the remote and then directly into the iPhone.
Take-off is easy and you even have two launch options: Lift-off through the app or via the remote-control joysticks. In the app, I selected the takeoff icon on the screen and then used an on-screen slider to initiate the take-off. Launching with the remote joysticks is more fun and maybe a tiny bit easier. To launch with this mode, you have to simultaneously push or pull the sticks to the inner or outer corners. Once the motors start, you release the joysticks and the Mavic Pro takes off. It’s drone flight simplified.
Like every other drone I’ve flown over the years, the Mavic Pro is full of sensors. It has ultrasonic sensors to know its altitude, so it automatically hovers to a little over a meter high, waiting for instructions. There are also forward-facing vision sensors for obstacle detection and, of course, a GPS and compass. Put simply, the Mavic Pro knows where it is, where it’s going and if there’s anything in its way.
When I launched the Mavic Pro and started using the remote control, I was immediately impressed by its control. Not only is the Mavic Pro responsive, but I could precisely control its movements in a way I have never experienced before with a drone. While I comfortably flew in a large open field, I also successfully flew it in my tiny backyard, did a couple of test-flights inside my house and one in Mashable’s New York City studio space (without GPS, it had a little trouble responding to my land command).
It also helps that, obviously, the Mavic Pro has built-in obstacle detection. Anytime the Mavic Pro got too close to anything and it would slow down or stop, the Obstacle Detection Bar on the app would turn orange and the remote would vibrate. I could not force it to run into anything. The drone can still back into stuff; there are no rear obstacle detection cameras.
If you want the Mavic Pro to respond more quickly (or radically) to the control and to fly at its max speed of 40 miles per hour, there’s a small slide switch on the side of the remote that lets you enable Sport Mode. I wouldn’t suggest drone newbies using this or enabling this mode indoors.
It’s also worth noting that the Mavic Pro is among the quietest drones I’ve flown. I’m not saying it’s not loud, but once you get it a hundred feet in the air or so, it’s fairly hard to hear.
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