Skip to main content

DJI could drop a new drone this week. Here’s what to expect

OsitaLV

Though not confirmed by the company itself, DJI is expected to unveil an update to its popular Mavic Air 2 drone this week.

The new drone is expected to be called the Air 2S, and while the name suggests an incremental update rather than a major design overhaul, there will still be some notable improvements. The news comes courtesy of OsitaLV, a reliable leaker who called it right with, for example, DJI’s FPV drone and the Osmo Pocket 2 camera.

For starters, the Air 2S could become DJI’s first consumer drone to shoot video at 5.4K resolution, up from the 4K resolution offered by the Mavic Air 2.

On top of that, the new quadcopter is expected to come with a 1-inch CMOS sensor, an upgrade from the half-inch image sensor on its predecessor, though the same size as the one on the Mavic 2 drones.

Flying range looks as if it’ll get a slight bump, too, from 6.2 miles (10 km) to 7.5 miles (12 km).

A photo (top) that apparently shows the new drone sees the Air 2S maintaining a familiar design, though the front end appears to show an extra pair of sensors, facing slightly upward. Another image, this time of the box (below), shows the controller and a couple of batteries.

OsitaLV

According to DroneDJ, DJI is planning to unveil the Air 2S on Thursday, April 15. We won’t know all the details until it finally drops, but rumors point to a $1,299 price tag for the Combo edition that includes a bunch of extra accessories. For comparison, the Mavic Air 2 Combo is currently selling for $988 via DJI’s own online store.

The expected launch of the Air 2S comes just over a month after the China-based company unveiled its first-ever racing machine, the DJI FPV drone. Flown via first-person-view goggles, the quadcopter can hit 62 mph in just two seconds before hurtling on to a maximum speed of 87 mph. Digital Trends has posted a hands-on review of the DJI FPV drone.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Nvidia is preparing new RTX 3050s — here’s what to expect
Various versions of the RTX 3050 graphics card.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 has been released very recently, but it seems that Nvidia may already be working on refreshed versions of the GPU.

New rumors suggest that we might soon see even more budget-friendly versions of the RTX 3050, including a variant with a lower TDP and a variant with just 4GB of memory, supposedly priced at $199.

Read more
See how DJI’s new Mavic 3 drone handles stormy conditions
see how djis new mavic 3 drone handles stormy conditions

Just days after DJI took the wraps off the Mavic 3, tech YouTuber DC Rainmaker tested the new bird in gusty winds so you don’t have to.

Amazingly, the new quadcopter handles the abysmal conditions with stunning success, the captured footage silky smooth and a joy to watch.

Read more
Autel’s EVO Lite and Nano drones are primed to compete with DJI’s best
Autel Evo Nano.

Autel has launched its new EVO Nano and EVO Light drones, which are aimed at competing with DJI’s line of compact, lightweight drones. Autel is perhaps the most direct rival DJI has in the consumer drone space, and that rivalry just got a bit more intense.

First up is the EVO Nano, with its notable 249-gram weight, which falls below the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) 250-gram threshold. Drones above that weight must be registered with the FAA in the U.S. This is the same lightweight category currently dominated by the DJI Mavic Mini 2, against which the EVO Nano possesses a few notable advantages. For one, it features three-way obstacle avoidance, which is a unique innovation in a drone weighing less than 250 grams.

Read more