DJI announces Mavic Air 2 with 34 minute flight time
Rumors and leaks have been calling for DJI’s next aerial drone to make an appearance in the company’s April 27th announcement, and now it’s official. The Mavic Air 2 is coming to market with some notable improvements over the original Mavic Air, and a few changes that set it apart from the original in some interesting ways.
Changes have been made to virtually every part of the Mavic Air 2. The body is larger and heavier than before, weighing in at 570g compared to the 430g of the original. Part of the increase comes from packing in a 3500 mAh battery, up from 2375 mAh. This will give the new model a much more useful 34 minute max flight time, whereas the predecessor topped out at just 21 minutes.
The camera is always an important factor in drones of this size, and the Mavic Air 2 looks pretty good. The sensor has been sized up a bit, growing from 1/2.3″ (11mm) to 1/2″ (12.7 mm). It’s still a 12MP sensor, but it can now stitch together shots to produce up to 48MP still images.
There are also some notable intelligent features to help with flight safety. Advanced Pilot Assistance (APAS) 3.0 improves the object avoidance system, and there’s a new featured called AirSense that detects ADS-B signals to prevent collisions with larger aircraft like planes and helicopters. And of course, all of DJI’s semi-automated flight modes like ActiveTrack and Quickshots are here so you can rely on some automated flight patterns.
The Mavic Air 2 won’t replace the Mavic 2 Pro (or Zoom), but it does borrow a lot of the design and features that make them so popular; and it puts more distance between the Air line and last year’s Mini, which was released to squeeze just under the new 250g restrictions in Canada and some other countries.
