Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K: the drone at $460

The Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, known for its smartphones and cheap accessories, has announced that it will be launching a version of its Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K on March 3rd.

With this drone will unveil this week in China, Xiaomi becomes a serious competitor of Parrot and DJI, whose drones are sold much more expensive with equal skills. The Xiaomi Mi Drone looks like a brother to the model of DJI.

According to reports, Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K has so far received more than 400 software optimization along with five major hardware upgrades to turn it into a worthy competitor to the more established brands (in the drone market) such as GoPro.

From a remote control that can be attached to a smartphone ( for example a Xiaomi model ), the drone can be controlled up to a maximum distance of 4 kilometers according to the company.

The forthcoming drone will have a built-in multi-security feature, real-time location tracking, seamless remote control using PCB array antenna, real-time calculation of the power required to return, and more. Also, there is a built-in mechanism for preventing the drone from accidentally flying into a no-fly zone.

The Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K is a quadcopter with a 5,100mAh battery that allows for just under half an hour of flight, so bringing an extra battery pack may be a good idea. Users can connect to the drone via an app or a controller, allowing them to follow what the drone is seeing in real time. In both versions of the Mi Drone, the camera has a 360-degree viewing angle thanks to a special base that can tilt and pan with ease.

Unlike the 1080p variant of the product, the Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K is based on the new-generation TDMA technology that not only boasts anti-jamming but also can transmit from a distance of up to 4km.

What makes the Mi Drone pretty cool is the automatic pathfinding that has been built in, allowing the little device to travel along a set trajectory, or pick a certain spot and hover there as long as the battery can handle it. It also boasts a single-button control for telling it to hover, land, take off, etc. So far most customers seem fairly pleased with it thanks to its ease of use and pilot-friendly controls.

Whether the 4K camera is enough of a draw to entice enthusiasts to buy the upgraded Mi Drone or the DJI killer remains to be seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Whether we can benefit from the Xiaomi Mi drone?

Xiaomi unveiled its first drone on May 2016, the very well named Xiaomi Mi Drone. It is very similar to DJI Phantom.

Aesthetically speaking, the Xiaomi Mi Drone is in the form of a quadrocopter. It is therefore equipped with four arms with as many propellers and engines. The manufacturer also placed a removable camera underneath, framed by two imposing feet.

The Mi Drone weighs about 140 grams and the camera is mounted on a three-axis stabilization system. It also incorporates a 5,100 mAh battery and it will be able to hold no less than 27 minutes in flight. It is not bad and it is also equipped with all the usual sensors.

Moreover, it can even follow the user, or even return to its take-off point in case of loss of signal.

It will be sold with a remote control of course and the Mi drone 4K will offer a range of four kilometers according to the company. If the user wishes, he can attach a base and put his phone on it in order to have a video return.

The camera of the drone is equipped with a Sony sensor of 12 million pixels. Beware, however, because the device will be available in two versions: 1080p and 4K. In the first case, it should be limited to Full HD (1920 × 1080) with a frame rate of 60 frames per second, compared with 4K (3840 × 1250) at 30 frames per second in the second.

Ah, and he can shoot in RAW, otherwise.

But the best thing about the Xiaomi Mi Drone is its price. True to its habit, the manufacturer has indeed opted for a very aggressive price positioning and the device will be offered 2,499 yuan for the Full HD version and 2,999 yuan for the 4K version, which gives something like $380 and $460 by applying the conversion rates currently in force.

So of course, these tariffs do not take into account taxes possible. It remains to be seen whether we can benefit from it in America.

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Is Xiaomi Mi drone a bang?

The Xiaomi Mi Drone is a new drone released by one of China’s most popular consumer electronics brands. It’s a quadcopter drone with a three-axis gimbal and a 4K camera. There’s also a remote control that uses your Mi smartphone as a viewfinder.

It wouldn’t be unfair to say that Xiaomi has officially entered the drone industry with a bang with the Mi Drone!

Camera

The Xiaomi Mi Drone is available in two variants, the 4K and the 1080p. The 4K model has a 12.4 megapixel Sony sensor, with an Ambarella image processor and can shoot 4K (3,840 x 2,160-pixel resolution) at 30fps.

Both the variants have a detachable gimbal mount and provide corrections for up to 2000 vibrations/sec, which for the lack of a better word, is insane for how much they cost!

The camera is mounted on motorized three-axis gimbals so that you get amazing images. Moreover, to make traveling easier with your quad, you can remove the cameras and fold the landing gear.

Performance

The Xiaomi Mi drone positions itself using GPS and GLONASS. It also has a visual positioning system on the bottom designed to help it fly stabely over terrain at low altitudes (where it may not be able to get a satellite signal).

There are also the drone-standard features you would expect, including takeoff, landing, return to home, waypoint navigation, and orbit functionality.

Similar to the Phantom 4, the Mi drone allows for autonomous flying. Just like TapFly, you can control where your drone goes with the tap of a finger. Open up the map and point where you want it to go. Not only that, but you also tell it what to film from your phone.

Surrounded flight is among one of its most exciting features. From your phone you can tell the aircraft to fly in a circle around a selected object. It will continuously fly in a 360 motion focusing the camera on a subject. How cool is that? Imagine balling out on a yacht while your quadcopter capture the glory. One day!

One thing we don’t see on ordinary drones, however, is the ability to create a geofence to limit the movement of your drone. If your drone strays beyond that geofence, then it will automatically return to its home base.

Battery 

The drone has a 5,100 mAh rechargeable battery that takes about three and a half hours to charge. According to Xiaomi, you can expect to get 27 minutes of flight time on a single charge. However, you can deplete battery life at a much faster rate when using features such as automatic departure and return. Just like a phone, when you push it to a certain limit, you’re going to see battery life Just like most other quads, we recommend buying a backup or two.

Xiaomi Mi drone has priced the the 4K variant at $460 and the 1080p variant at $380. These prices are less than half the prices of the majority of professional drones out there.

 

 

 

 

 

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Xiaomi mi drone first flight test

Announced with technical characteristics, the Xiaomi mi drone is a competitor to the DJI Phantom 3.

The cardboard of the Xiaomi mi drone is relatively flat, which may seem surprising for a drone of this format. This can be explained by seeing the retractable landing gear which manually unfolds. It is therefore not intended to rise automatically when you fly, but rather for easy storage. Then you will notice the slightly different format compared to a DJI drone that forms a perfect X.

Then you find all the accessories to load the Xiaomi mi drone, notably with its charger of 1.5A and a power of 46.4W. It will recharge the 4S 5100mAh HighVoltage 17.4V battery. This battery weighs 442 grams and offers up to 27 minutes of flight according to Xiaomi.

The propellers are in the 1046 format, which means they have a length of 10 “and a pitch of 4.6”. They are called self-locking, for quick fixing by screwing them on each of the motors. The screw threads are not linked to the propellers, it can be tedious to fix these … To protect them we find protections of orange propellers to fix with the provided screws. For this, a screwdriver is included, but you will not be able to count on it for very long in view of its fragile design.

The camera was delivered to us separately, which confirms that the Mi drone remains the same in the version 1080p and 4K. Only the version of the camera changes according to your choice. The camera can be fixed easily under the drone by removing a small hatch, and by coming to the clip. We have not recorded any images yet, but the features look correct: Sony sensor of 12.4Mpx, lens with field of view of 104 ° and a video recording rate of 20Mbps. In version 4K, which we have not received yet, the field of view will be limited to 94 °, but it will have a recording rate of 65Mbps.

The remote control has five buttons, a smartphone holder and two USB ports. It is lit by the power button, pressing briefly and then pressing down. The diode will remain red until the drone and the remote control are connected. A take-off and landing button is available to perform these actions automatically. It will also remain red as long as you have not established the connection between the drone and the smartphone application. The orange button on the top of the remote control allows you to activate the RTH mode. Simply moving this button will automatically return your Mi Drone to its take-off point. Two adjustable buttons, A and B, are present at the rear of the radio control. The USB port allows you to connect your radio to your smartphone, and the microUSB port recharges the battery. The remote control has an internal battery that is recharged using the supplied USB cable on a 2A power supply.

To fix a smartphone, it is enough to extract the support integrated to the radio control, and to place it between the two fixations. This system is well thought out and will save you even more space during transport. Unfortunately you will not be able to fix a tablet since the distance is 8cm max … The two antennas will therefore be oriented downwards since the support smartphone does not allow to leave them up.

Our first flight test

We downloaded the latest version of the application, unfortunately in Chinese, to carry out our first tests. On Android, it is necessary to download the APK from the QRcode available in the manual. Once it is installed, registration to an account Mi is mandatory. Then it will be necessary to activate the sharing of your connection via USB, in order to update the radio control. For the time being, we have remained there since the application has stopped working at each of the attempts we have made. And yes, despite our many attempts on different media (tablet or smartphone) the application never managed to work properly … Xiaomi is working on it? We hope…

Do not worry, we still managed to steal the Xiaomi Mi Drone by downloading an English version of the application and taking advantage of the short time before the application closes … To start the engines it is imperative that the automatic take-off light changes to white. Once this is the case, then you press this button twice, once short, then a second long. The Mi drone then takes off on its own. Once in flight, the behavior is rather surprising with unwanted altitude losses when the drone is within two meters of the ground. This is certainly due to the analysis of the two sonars present under the drone probably disturbed by the tall grass. Once you reach altitude then the drone behaves normally.

We hope to see a stable version of the application in English soon to fully enjoy all the features of the Xiaomi Mi Drone!

Sure the drone is priced at $460 USD for the 4K version and $380 for the 1080P version. This may be a result of most drone manufacturers already making thin margins on most products to date.

When comparing the Xiaomi Mi drone against offerings by DJI. The lowest end Xiaomi Mi drone that will sell for $380 is comparable in many ways to the DJI Phantom 3 Standard that currently retails for $499.

Conclusion

The Mi Drone has potential that unfortunately can not yet be exploited because of its smartphone application which is not stable. We look forward to the upcoming updates and we will track the price evolution based on Xiaomi ads.

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Xiaomi mi drone test-Part II

In this article we’ll continue to test the Xiaomi Mi drone.

Application of Xiaomi Drone

That’s a bit complicated. In fact, officially, there is an application of Xiaomi for the Mi Drone. However, it is in Chinese. Fortunately, unofficially, there is an English version available for the Mi Drone. However, the installation did not go smoothly. The big advantage of the unofficial version is that it is understandable. For those who wish to use the official version, you can refer to our article, because we stayed on the Chinese version.

First of all, it is necessary to create a Xiaomi account. In general, problems often occur with addresses. Another option that works rather well is the creation of an account from the Xiaomi web page.

After starting the application, you must turn on the drone and the remote control by briefly pressing the start button of each device briefly and a second time a little more than two seconds. No indication is given by the app at this level. Now you need to connect the smartphone to the remote control with the USB cable.

Then you will have to validate the next window with a single click and you will find in the settings of your smartphone, from where you can activate Bluetooth and USB-tethering (if you have not already done so). At the same time, you must also activate the location function of your smartphone.

Software Update

Normally, two steps must be performed: firmware update and quadcopter calibration. To do this, you must go to the application menu behind the 6-corner symbol on the right, above the camera trigger. Then you will find this overview:

The second point with the symbol will take you to the firmware. If an update is required, it will be indicated. On the screenshot, the version is current. After two clicks, the update will be automatically downloaded to your smartphone, and then downloaded to the Mi drone. There is very little chance of making a mistake, because you just have to validate each time with a single click. Warning ! It is important to place the SD card in the camera slot of the drone.

Calibration of the Mi Drone

The point that follows directly allows, as the compass symbol suggests, to calibrate the Mi drone. This process must be done only once and is described using text, but also images. After about 6 rotations, the operation is complete. It may take several attempts.

We have been very careful with all functions that rest in any form on the GPS. Such as the automatic flight of certain points on the map and the Return Home function. The reason: the inaccurate location. First of all, after each start of the app, you can read the map of the Peking region. Our region only appears a few moments later. And the Mi drone itself is located a good kilometer from our current position, while our actual position is properly indicated by the smartphone.

The application delivers a lot of information. Fortunately, we use the Arabic numerals in China. Once understood, it is easy to use. On the left, at the top, the height of the flight is indicated; At the bottom it is the distance. Right, top, battery status and down the GPS connection. This index must remain above 14 so that the Mi drone can start. The most important information about this is in the bar at the edge of the screen; to the left; on top. If the drone does not start for any reason, an x as well as “不能起飞” is indicated. As soon as the GPS signal climbs above 14, a small tick with the “可以起飞 (GPS)” information appears, as you can see in the picture below.

With updated software and GPS connected, you can start. Depending on the circumstances, a few moments are often necessary before having a sufficient GPS connection. You must observe how the numbers at the bottom, right climb. Then press the two sticks inward and keep them V-shaped; In order to run the motors. Using the left stick, you can take off the Mi drone.

Several automatic modes

If Xiaomi has put the package, it offers nothing new. Let us not forget to consider the high price of the Mi Drone:

• Autohold / Autohover to maintain altitude automatically during flight
• Programming of the route and destination of the automatic flight (waypoint flight path planning) and “tap to fly on map”
• Turn around objects
• RTH, that is to say the manual trip of the return home. In the event that the battery is empty, the battery is triggered automatically.
• Preventing flights in prohibited areas
• Automatic take-off and landing

With regard to the faculty of Mi Drone avoiding prohibited flight areas. It is uncertain whether this option is included in the map of France. So let your common sense talk when you fly your drone instead of relying on automatic control.

Camera

The camera of the Mi Drone really impresses us. The 4K mode is filmed by a 12.4 megapixel Sony sensor (RAW -Export included). For the other less powerful versions, it is a 16 megapixel sensor less imposing.The lens covers an angle of 104 degrees. A three-axis Gimbal stabilizer prevents vibration from being retransmitted to the camera.

The images of the 1080p version are really good and the gimbal provides good performance. The image is transmitted without disturbance and with sharpness. In any case, filming becomes a real pleasure.

Photos with a resolution of 16 megapixels are also good. Only, the app takes a little time to load after each picture. This is why it is impossible to make a quick succession of photos. The two functions -photo and videos are controlled by a button in the application or by the corresponding key on the back of the remote control.

Conclusion

Xiaomi has actually made a successful climb in the drone market. Apart from the first installation of the drone with the Chinese version of the application in Chinese, it’s accessible even to beginners. We did not encounter any problems when connecting the drone to the smartphone and the remote control. We had a lot of fun right from the start. For those who like to tinker, and who attach importance to mount their drone personally, this aspect is unfortunately not a priority. But for those who do not make it their priority and who simply want to have a high quality drone, with a high-performance camera at a fair price, the Mi Drone will know how to give them satisfaction.

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Xiaomi Mi drone test

Now it is possible to order Xiaomi Mi drone. We have put a hand on a specimen after the announcement that we could evaluate with much pleasure despite the notice written in Chinese.

Characteristics

• Camera and video: 1080p / 60fps or 4K UHD (3840 x 2160px) / 30fps with a lens with an angle of view of 104 °.
• GPS and GLONASS with Return to Home, flight zone prohibited and location available.
• Folding landing gear (convenient for quick storage)
• Live Streaming Video on Application
• 27 minutes flying through the 5100mAh battery – 17.4V

Xiaomi Mi Drone unboxing 

The drone is delivered in a simple white cardboard packaging, typical of Xiaomi. The drone and accessories are arranged in such a way that the space is used in the most rational manner possible. And as the pictures speak better than anything, you can notice it for yourself on the picture below. Everything is written only in Chinese, until the instructions for use. There is therefore a small tension when opening the boxes.

As can be seen from the pictures, there are two sets of rotor blades with protections, the installation of which is optional. For the rest, these are the necessary accessories, and other screws, as well as the cables for the load. The Xiaomi Mi Drone‘s camera was in a separate box.

Step by step, until the first flight of the Mi Drone

Even if Xiaomi emphasizes the ease of use of its drone, which must be intuitive, the manual and application in Chinese will confuse so many pilots. That is why, apart from describing the particularities of the drone, we have also set up a guide to help you navigate through the installation step by step.

The rotor blades are installed quickly and easily. They are colored, which makes it possible to distinguish the corresponding places.

The landing gear of the Mi drone is folded in the package.

The orange color protections certainly add charm to the device, but they are not mandatory. Since they do not interfere, let us say that it is better to mount them, especially at the beginning, because they make the drone more visible. The only “disadvantage” when mounting them, is the loud noise that this causes.

The installation of the camera does not require much effort either. A small latch below releases the output where the camera plugs in. It is possible that a slight pressure is required to insert it completely.

Battery

The 5100 mAh battery is simply inserted behind the drone. You just have to be careful of what’s on the right side. The button is located at the bottom.

To recharge the battery, use the supplied cable. But an adapter for the electrical outlets is necessary.

Remote control

After the previous steps, the Mi drone is already ready for use. But the remote also has to undergo some preparations. Thanks to a micro-USB output located underneath, it can be recharged.

The other end of the cable can be useful for connecting your smartphone. Note: without smartphone and Xiaomi account, you can not do anything. A hidden support allows you to attach the smartphone to the remote control.

Despite a rather unusual appearance, the remote control holds well in the palm of the hand. It would have been even more fun if it had been a little smaller. Next to the steering sticks are an ignition button, a start or take-off button and the Return Home button.

Instead of the triggers, there are casters that allow the adjustment of the illumination and the inclination of the camera and the adjustment of the white LEDs. The two buttons on the back of the remote control allow you to take photos and videos.

We’ll update the feature of Xiaomi Mi drone in the next post, please stay tuned.

 

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