DJI, maker of the world's best consumer and professional camera drones, recently announced the brand new Avata 2 FPV drone. They were able to send me one to test out, and in this video, I ask the question: "is the Avada 2 worth upgrading from the original Avata drone?"
When it comes to narrowing down the perfect drone for your photography and video needs, picking out the right model can be tricky. Just a few years ago, DJI only had about four different product lines, but today, they make over a dozen different drones that cater to a wide variety of users.
The Avata series was first released back in 2022 and was marketed as DJI's best entry level FPV drone for beginners. It wasn't just useful for beginner drone pilots, though, as it had enough professional features to make it appealing even to experienced FPV drone enthusiasts. What exactly is an FPV drone? I had the same question back in 2022, and the original Avata was my first experience with the "first person view" drone sub category. Unlike the other heavier, more traditional cinematic drones, FPV drones are designed to be smaller, more nimble, and more capable of doing wild acrobatic style maneuvers. This doesn't mean that they can't be used in a more traditional way, but their main appeal is flying through tight spaces, flying safely indoors, and doing all sorts of wild flips, turns, drifts, and other "racing" style movements.
To be perfectly transparent, up until this point in my career, I have never taken drone photography and videography very seriously. It's not because I don't see the potential in a flyable camera, but rather, I just have never taken the time to master a single drone model. I've done an occasional flight here and there, but I wouldn't ever say I felt qualified to fly a drone in a professional or even semi-professional way. So, when the Avata 2 was announced with the huge Goggles 3 upgraded display, I thought this would be the perfect time to finally sit down and learn how to fly one of these.
So, in the near future, I plan to release a few more videos showing my progress and give my opinions on this new FPV drone from DJI. In the meantime, I made the above video to showcase some of the update features of the Avata 2 against the original Avata 1. There are a lot of other features packed into this new drone that I didn't touch on, but for me, these were some of the most interesting, stand out upgrades I noticed right out of the box.
The Drone
Weight
Avata 2: 405 g
Avata 1: 377 g
Sensor Size
Avata 2: larger 1/1.30" CMOS sensor
Avata 1: 24% smaller 1/1.70" CMOS Sensor
Sensor Resolution
Avata 2: 48 mp, stills limited to 12 mp
Avata 1: 48 mp, stills limited to 12 mp
Lens Field of View
Avata 2: 155 degrees
Avata 1: 155 degrees
Video Bitrate
Avata 2: 130 mbps
Avata 1: 150 mbps
ISO Sensitivity
Avata 2: 100-25,600 in manual mode
Avata 1: 100-25,600 in manual mode
Video Color Spaces
Avata 2: normal, D-LogM
Avata 1: normal, D-Cinelike
Video Resolution and Frame Rates
Avata 2: 4k: 30/50/60 fps, 2.7K: 30/50/60/120 fps
Avata 1:4k: 50/60 fps, 2.7K: 50/60/100/120 fps
Internal Memory
Avata 2: 46GB
Avata 1: 20GB
Total Flight Time
Avata 2: 23 minutes
Avata 1: 19 minutes
Flight Speeds
Avata 2: Normal: 8 m/s, Sports Mode: 16 m/s, Manual Mode: 27 m/s
Avata 1: Normal: 8 m/s, Sports Mode: 14 m/s, Manual Mode: 27 m/s
Max Flight Distance
Avata 2: 13 km
Avata 1: 11.6 km
Price
Avata 2: $489 Drone Only, $999 Fly More Combo with 1 Battery, $1199 Fly More Combo with 3 Batteries
Avata 1: $629 Drone Only, $1079 Explorer Combo
The Goggles
Weight
Goggles 3: 410 g
Goggles 2: 290 g
Viewer
Goggles 3: Dual 1080 Micro-OLED Displays
Goggles 2: One 1080 Micro-OLED Display
Battery Life
Goggles 3: 3 hours
Goggles 2: 2 hours
Picture in Picture
Goggles 3: Included
Goggles 2: Does not have PIP
Wi-Fi Tethered Viewing
Goggles 3: Yes
Goggles 2: No
Transmission Distance
Goggles 3: 13km with DJI O4 Transmission
Goggles 2: 10km with DJI O3+ Transmission
Transmission Bitrate
Goggles 3: 60 mbps
Goggles 2: 50 mbps
Live View Frame Rate
Goggles 3: up to 100 fps
Goggles 2: up to 60 fps
Price
Goggles 3: $499 Goggles 3
Goggles 2: $449 Goggles 2
Why Would Anyone Buy The Older Drone?
As you can see from the specs above, the Avata 2 drone is a nice upgrade from the original Avata drone, but in my opinion, the new Goggles 3 perhaps offer the biggest upgrade to the entire system. What makes the Avata 2 drone an even better buy is at the moment the older Avata drone isn't being discounted as heavily as I would have thought. In fact, with the Avata 1 still retailing at $629 and the new Avata 2 selling for $489, I don't see any reason to buy the older drone at all unless you pick one up on the used market (and no one likes buying used drones)! The Combo Kits are even more skewed with the Avata 2 Fly More Combo, with one battery being cheaper than the older Avata Kit. Perhaps retailers aren't discounting the older Avata 1 yet because the Avata 2 isn't heavily in stock at the moment, but that really only makes Pre Ordering the Avata 2 that much more of a deal at the moment.
Stay tuned because soon I will release a second video where I explore more of the Avata features such as pairing, RC remote versus Controller 3 usability, and my overall experience going from never flying a drone to mastering the Avata 2.
I'll save you some time. At about a minute in he starts explaining why he thinks he'll like one controller over the other even though he doesn't know what the controls do and then starts explaining that he has never even flown a drone before. Just go read the specs yourself.