It feels as if DJI are now in the habit of releasing a new drone every few months. Just as we'd recovered from the hugely anticipated and much hyped release of the Mavic 3 just after Christmas, DJI decided that the sector needed another refresh of their biggest selling consumer drone, the Mini 2. With increasing competition from the likes of Autel, Parrot and Skydio over the past year, it seems as if DJI are pulling out all of the stops to ensure that their new sub 250g drone will cement its place for the next couple of years as the consumer drone to beat.

Like the Mini 2, the new Mini 3 Pro will still weigh in under 250g, which is a hugely important consideration when purchasing a drone. In many countries, the magic figure of <250g enables drone flyers far greater freedoms compared to drones like the Mavic 3, Mavic Air2S and the DJI FPV. All of these drones weigh in well over this figure which means that without taking an A2 CofC qualification (or an equivalent license depending on your country) you may be limited to flying no closer than 150m horizontally from people. This can be reduced to 50m horizontally with this qualification but importantly you still cannot fly over people. In the UK this is only possible with either a GVC (formerly PfcO) certificate or operating a drone weighing less 250g.

The Mini 2 is no doubt still a fantastic drone for both its price point and the technology if offers. That being said, it does have a few limitations that the Mini 3 Pro is looking to address.

• DJI Mini 3 Pro
• Under 250g
• 1/1.3" (0.77") 48MP f1.7 Quad Bayer CMOS Sensor
• 4K 60 fps with HDR
• 1080p 120fps
• Horizontal and Fully Vertical camera orientations
• Obstacle Avoidance Sensors
• Intelligent Flight Modes
• Flight times of up to 47 minutes (with the optional larger batter) or 25-30 minutes with the standard supplied batteries.
• New Smart Controller with 1080p 30fps
• Maximum flight speed of 16 m/s
• Maximum flight height of 4000m
• Maximum horizontal range of 8KM

The Mini 2 came with a 1/2.3" 12MP f2.8 CMOS sensor which was capable of recording video at up to 4K 30fps and capturing RAW photos. In many ways it is still a fantastic little sensor capable of taking fantastic RAW photos with enough dynamic range to create some amazing imagery providing you're careful with your exposure.

The Mini 3 Pro will sport a new 1/1.3" (0.77 inch) 48MP (true 12MP) f1.7 Quad Bayer CMOS sensor which will record video at up to 4k 60fps with HDR (High Dynamic Range). The sensor is over twice the size of the Mini 2 which lends itself to better low light captures helped by the larger fixed f1.7 aperture.  

The most important aspect of this new sensor is the pixel size. It has been confirmed that each pixel will be same size as on the fantastic Mavic Air 2S measuring in at 2.4µm. Though the Air 2S comes with a larger true 20MP 1" Sensor. This is still a huge upgrade from the Mini 2 and huge technical achievement given that all of this has to be contained within a drone weighing less than 250g. 

The Mini 3 Pro will be able to capture video in DJI's colour profile D-Cinelike. This flatter colour profile will allow users to have better control over the colour grading process when editing as well as potentially finer control over shadows and highlights compared to the baked in 'Normal' profiles.

The Autel Nano+ is currently the Mini 3's only comparable alternative which comes with a slightly bigger 1/1.28" f1.9 and highly regarded RYYB sensor.

The camera will also come with the ability to rotate 180° on the vertical axis to allow the camera to point completely upwards. It will also be able to rotate the camera to a vertical aspect which will make it easier to capture vertical panoramas with a reduced reliance on stitching algorithms from traditional horizontal panoramas. This will likely also lend itself well to capturing native 9:16 content for pilots that like to share their content to social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

The DJI Mini 3 Pro comes with built in obstacle avoidance sensors, unlike the Mini 2, which didn't have any at all. There will be 2 large front sensors, 2 sensors pointing backwards and 2 downward facing sensors. This will give it the ability to detect obstacles from the front, back and below and will work in tandem with APAS 4.0 to detect and dynamically avoid obstacles. This system has proven itself to work extremely well on the Air 2S and the Mavic 3 so there is no reason why this won't translate equally well to the Mini 3 Pro.

The new sensors also means that some of the more complicated autonomous flight modes such as Active Track, POI, Master Shots and Spotlight will now be available.

The batteries for the Mini 3 have a larger capacity and will allow a flight time of up to 47 minutes. However, it is expected that this flight time is based on a larger battery type that DJI will offer as a separate purchase from the standard batteries that ship with the Mini 3. The standard smaller batteries will maintain its weight class of sub-250g but it is expected that the larger batteries will tip the scale over this figure. 

The Mini 3 Pro's total redesign will presumably allow better aerodynamics compared to the mini 2 (thanks in part to its larger propellers) so even with the standard batteries you can expect a flight time of between 25-30 minutes.

The Mini 3 Pro will ship in a number of different configurations. The base packages will come with the standard and well proven RC-N1 with Ocusync 3.0 and 1080p 30fps image transmission. This allows users to retain the standard configuration of using a smartphone with the DJI Fly App connected to the controller.

The higher end packages will ship with a new DJI Smart Controller with a built in 1080p high brightness screen. Having used many iterations of DJI smart controllers over the past few years, this will definitely be worth the initial investment, if your budget allows it. It is not expected that the overall brightness will be on par with the DJI RC-PRO at 1000 nits but will still be sufficiently higher than the average smartphone screen which can be challenging to operate on bright sunny days, especially with their glossy reflective screens.

If you already own the DJI RC-Pro or the original DJI Smart Controller, it is not currently know if DJI will make these compatible with the Mini 3 Pro in the future. Given that the original smart controller was eventually capable of controlling the Mini 2, there is no reason why this shouldn't be possible via a firmware update some time in the future though.

The DJI Mini 3 Pro with Smart Controller is expected to retail at very reasonable £859 ($1000 or €1025) and is expected to release on May 10th 2022.