DJI looks set to announce its most affordable drone to date.
The Mini SE quadcopter has already been spotted in a Walmart store by at least one eagle-eyed shopper, along with a $299 price tag.
The diminutive flying machine is also listed on Walmart’s online store, though at the time of writing it says, “delivery not available” and “pickup not available.”
DJI’s Mini SE appears to be the first-generation Mini, which launched in 2019, bundled with the controller that ships with the Mini 2 and Air 2s drones. It’s also reported to have an improved chassis.
The Walmart listing says the Mini SE features a 2.7K camera, while the Mini 2, which launched in November 2020, has a 4K camera. The Mini SE also has a range of 2.5 miles (4 km) while the Mini 2 can go as far as 6.2 miles (10 km) thanks to the inclusion of OcuSync technology.
With the Mini 2 costing $449 and the original Mini still listed on DJI’s store for $399, the Mini SE at $299 would be DJI’s best-priced drone yet, coming in even cheaper than DJI’s inferior Spark quadcopter that cost $499 when it launched in 2017.
With those specs at that price, the sub-250-gram Mini SE would make a great starter drone, though it’s worth noting that neither the Mini (SE) nor the Mini 2 comes with obstacle avoidance sensors.
We first heard about DJI’s apparent plan to release an SE version of its smallest quadcopter earlier this month when reliable DJI leaker OsitaLV posted a photo of the packaging.
More recently, DroneDJ spotted a tweet that appeared to show the Mini SE on sale at a Walmart store.
Now we just need confirmation from DJI that the Mini SE is actually a thing. We’ve reached out to the company to see if it can offer any information and we will update this article if we hear back.
In the meantime, if you’re in the market for an affordable drone, check out these up-to-date deals featuring machines costing as little as $75.
