Xiaomi drone 4K unboxing

The Xiaomi Drone 4K was listed on March 3 with a price of 2,999 yuan (~$436).

Unlike the 1080p variant of the product, the Xiaomi 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.

Take a look at these pictures to see how cool Xiaomi drone 4K is.

( Images source from digi.163.com )

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Xiaomi Mi drone 4K: DJI killer?

The Chinese electronics brands Xiaomi unveiled its first drone last year in May. The Mi drone 1080p is available with a price tag of below $400. However, ever since, there has been no substantial update on the status of the 4K variant of the drone.

The company recently announced that the Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K will be listed on March 3 with a price of 2,999 yuan (~$436), whereas the battery for the same will be priced at 499 yuan (~$72), with the ambition to invite itself on a segment dominated by another Chinese company: DJI and its Phantom drone.

The Xiaomi Mi drone will be produced by FIMI Technology. To ensure its differentiation, it will bet on a price that should not exceed 4000 yuan, or about $436, where DJI proposes its drone equivalent Phantom 3 Standard from $499.

Xiaomi should therefore re-exploit its strategy already used for smartphones, offering mid / high-end products at very competitive rates by limiting its marketing expenses and playing viral marketing.

However, the product is located high enough to ensure a certain profitability despite the low margins generated, Xiaomi leaving the segment of drones entry-level that sees many new players is likely to saturate quickly.

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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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Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K: finally on sale from March 3 with many improvements!

Despite the Xiaomi Mi Drone was presented last May in two configurations, one can produce videos in 1080p and 4K in the other, only the first was actually marketed, while the second have simply gone missing.

But then, Xiaomi has announced that the Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K will be listed on March 3 with a price of 2,999 yuan (~$436), whereas the battery for the same will be priced at 499 yuan (~$72).

Of course, as always happens with Xiaomi products, these will not be available directly from us, but you can only buy them in China, on Xiaomi’s own online store, as well as a few other places such as Jingdong Mall and Suning, just to name a couple. Apparently, however, in addition to the best resolution video, the Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K will be released with better software optimization and five major hardware upgrades.

Compared to the old version, in fact, will be present two sets of independent movement of IMU and compass sensors to ensure a better accuracy in the flight data and, in case of failure, to restore stability and the flight safety.

Also the remote control system has been improved, so as to reduce the contact loss and giving the possibility of tracing the position in real time even in case of failure, when it is calculated in real time the power required to return to base. Even in case of lack of charge, then the user will be automatically notified the need to return, also calculating the routes so to avoid the no-fly zone.

The body of the Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K was made with a constructive process of 1.2 mm, has four lithium polymer batteries from 4.35V and 5100 mAh capacity for a total power of 77,52Wh and autonomy up to 26 minutes.

The photo sensor is a Sony backlit 12 megapixels, with a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and support for RAW images. Compared to the previous version, Mi drone 4K is equipped with TDMA technology to transmit images with stronger signal and a transmission distance of less than 4 km, compared to 1 km of the old version 1080P.

The Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K, then, is equipped with a self-stabilizing head brushless 3-axis which incorporates a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis accelerometer and a brushless motor to 3 axes, able to perform data acquisition and calculation of compensation up to 2000 times per second, giving the camera a level of stability and remarkable precision.

The feet landing of the drone, then, are foldable, combined with the light weight of the device, making it very well transportable.

 

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What Xiaomi Mi drone 4k interests you?

Xiaomi Mi drone was introduced on May 2016 with two variants, the 4K and the 1080p.Now the 1080P is available while the 4K will be on sale on March 3 this year.

Here are 7 cool features of the Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K.

Portability

The Mi Drone is extremely lightweight and modular. The complete drone can be disassembled to fit into a backpack. In fact, Xiaomi will itself offer a backpack for the Mi Drone at a $15.

Camera 

The Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K has an inbuilt camera that consists of 12 megapixels of resolution and a 12.4 megapixel Sony sensor. This ensures that the picture you capture will be of a very high quality. Moreover, the drone is capable of shooting in 4K; thus, providing videos with high resolutions. Though there are many more drones that offer better video resolutions, but the Xiaomi Mi drone 4K will certainly satisfy you with most of your video recording needs. 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.

Flight time

With the Xiaomi, you’ll have a flight time of 27 min. 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 diminish. It comes with a 17.4V 5199 mAh rechargeable battery that takes about three and a half hours to charge. Just like most other quads, we recommend buying a backup or two.

Long Range FPV Video Feed

Xiaomi states that the 4K variant provides a control range of up to 2 kilometers with live video. With this, Xiaomi is gonna give all the drone manufacturers a run for their money!

What’s more, the controller of the Mi Drone comes with an attachment for a smartphone which can act as a viewfinder (aka FPV monitor) for your Mi Drone!

Safty

The Xiaomi Mi drone 4K has both GPS and GLONASS for location tracking and maneuvering of the drone. Hovering is a cakewalk due to the onboard location sensors, and it also means that the drone knows at each point where exactly it is flying.

One thing we don’t see on most of the 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.

Running the drone on low battery triggers its return function, and you will be relieved to find it back safe and sound.

Smarter in-flight

Mi Drone 4K has an auto-pilot feature included along with the easy to use flight controls. It has automatic takeoff and is also capable of landing and returning to you with just a simple command from the handheld controls.

And when you want to capture the right moment, it circles around the object to give you the perfect shots. Flight planning too gets simplified thanks to Xiaomi’s great technology.

Price

Xiaomi has priced the the 4K variant at $460. The price is 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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Should you get the Xiaomi Mi Drone?

The Xiaomi Mi Drone is a collaboration of Xiaomi and another company, Flymi, which is also based in China. The Xiaomi Mi Drone is designed with a three-axis gimbal and comes in two models. One is capable of 4K video recording while the other version is a 1080p model with a 12-megapixel sensor and a 16-megapixel Sony sensor, respectively, mounted on motorized three-axis gimbals.

The Xiaomi Mi Drone can be folded flat to make it possible to carry on a backpack without being too bulky. It also is designed with propeller guards and the gimbal camera is also detachable. The gimbal is made of 149 grams of polycarbonate and carbon fiber material.

This flyer can record at 3,840 x 2,160-pixel resolution, 104-degree wide angle lens and has autopilot options, among others. Aside from the capability to record 4K video with the 4k version, this drone can also take RAW photos. Also, this quadcopter can hover over an object on the ground, can take off and land automatically and capable of waypoint flight path planning. Another interesting feature of the Xiaomi Mi Drone is its ability to track location in real-time which makes it easier for the user to find the device in case it crashes unexpectedly. It can also determine if the battery is already running low and once it detects this, the drone automatically returns to base, so to speak.

This Xiaomi Mi Drone is equipped with GPS and Glonass support that makes it easy to use outdoors. Other features include a visual positioning system to ensure stability when GPS is not available when hovering below 2.5 meters and flying time at a maximum of 27 minutes with the power supplied by a 5,100 mAh battery that can be removed and can perform well even at a distance of three kilometers. This device also comes with a remote control that is compatible with the Mi smartphone that also doubles as a viewfinder.

Pros
– Very modular design. Easily foldable & stowable.
– 3 Axis easy snap-in gimbal with tilt control
– Camera 1080p 60fps or 4K
– Long range (1K/2K) 2.4 Ghz control and FPV achieved via printed circuit board (PCB) antennas.
– Extra precise GPS + GLONASS + Visual Positioning
– Automatic return to home/landing on loss of signal or low battery, or manual return to landing at push of a switch.
– Automatic takeoff and landing
– Orientation Lighting
– Large Battery 17.4V 5100mah. Gives up to 27 minutes flight time

“Mi UAV” App Features
– Compass and controller calibration
– Satellite and quadcopter status monitoring
– 720p FPV
– Three automatic flight modes: Fly to Point, Waypoint Route, Circle Point
– Real time position tracking

Cons
– Excessive flight restrictions. Can not fly further than 50m altitude or 100m horizontal range until the Xiaomi Mi Drone has achieved 5 hours (300 minutes) of cumulative flight time. Additionally, the quadcopter will not proceed beyond hover if flown in restricted areas.
– Official Xiaomi “Mi UAV” app is in Chinese. It’s somewhat impossible to use unless you know Chinese. There is a non official translated version in English, however it is an older version of the app.
– The English translated version of the app kept crashing on me. First would lose FPV view, then would lose app connection with Mi drone (although I still maintained manual GPS position hold flying). However, people are not having much better luck with the official version either
– Smartphones (like mine) can be very hard to see outdoors in daylight. Might be a good idea if Xiaomi included an AV output port for goggles.

Should you get the Xiaomi Mi Drone 1080p version which sells at $400 and the 4K recording version at $456.

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