Getting into drones – DJI Neo vs. DJI Mini 4K

Consumer drones have been gaining popularity year by year for the past decade. If you are looking for your first compact, affordable and easy to use drone, there has not been a better time than 2024. Over a month ago, DJI, the world leader in civilian drone technology, launched the latest addition to the consumer line drones – the DJI Neo. The drone starts selling from 199 EUR and seems to be the perfect beginner drone for everyone.

Yet, there might be a better option for starting your drone journey: the DJI Mini 4K. This little drone was launched few months prior to the Neo, in April 2024. In this article, I will go through the different strengths and weakness of both drones and help you decide which one is better to get into the world of drones.

Which drone is best for Your use cases?

Let me start straightaway with the answer, which drones is best for You and after that we will dive deeper why is that.

Are you looking for a drone, which you want to use for cool short videos during your vacation, daily trips or just playing with the family and kids outside in nature? Do you pay more attention on the memories and moments itself, rather than very good and more cinematic video quality and ability to edit RAW photos? If the answer to both questions is Yes, then the DJI Neo might be the right for you.

However, if you pay a lot of attention to video quality, the Mini 4K is just the better drone for you.

4K is not equal 4K

You might now wonder, why is this as both drones shoot video in 4K. There is one major hardware difference between both drones: the DJI Mini 4K has a 3-axis gimbal, while the camera on the Neo is on an 1-axis gimbal. Why is this relevant? The DJI Neo will use the Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) to provide you with a stable video, which however will result in reducing the overall image quality. And yet, the video will still not be as stable as the one of the Mini 4K, especially in a very windy situation.

Photo Quality

Both drones can take pictures at 12MP. The camera sensors of both drones are quite similar: the Neo has a slightly bigger sensor 1/2” and the Mini 4K 1/2.3”. However, the Mini 4K can shoot pictures both in JPEG and RAW, while the Neo can only shoot in JPEG. Therefore, you will have a better ability to edit photos from the Mini 4K.

Intelligent Flight Modes and QuickShots

DJI′s QuickShots are the perfect and absolute user friendly way to shoot cool short videos. Both drones support Dronie, Rocket, Circle, Helix and Boomerang modes. There are however few big differences: if you use the DJI Neo without a Remote Controller or with your smartphone, you will be limited to the maximum distance for these modes.

On the other hand, the Neo features DJI′s latest AI capabilities and can track you (FocusTrack). The drone uses its main camera and built-in AI functions to achieve this, and honestly it works amazingly well for such a small drone. This kind of feature is not available on the Mini 4K.

Flight Time, Wind and Noise

In terms of flight time, the Mini 4K is the clear winner here. It has bigger motors and propellers (= more efficient) and a bigger battery due its size: 17.32Wh vs. 10.5Wh. So it is not a surprise the Mini 4K has a max. flight time of 31 minutes vs. 17 minutes for the Neo. Speaking of bigger motors, propellers, and overall greater weight, the Mini 4K can withstand wind speeds up to 10.7m/s compared to 8m/s for the Neo.

Personally, I find the flight time of the Neo absolute enough for some quick videos of the kids and family while out there. If you are focusing more on cinematic videos, you would need more flight time to capture the right moment and the Mini 4K would be the better option for that.

The Mini 4K is definitely not so loud as the Neo. Again, this is just pure physics – the smaller propellers rotate at a much higher speed to maintain the drone in the air, therefore more noise will be produced.

Safety and Regulation

Both, the Neo and Mini 4K are under 249g and therefore marked as C0 drones in the EU. You don′t need to take any exams such as A1/A3 to fly these (you still need to register the drones with your CAA in EU).

Personally, I still believe the Neo is more safe for first drone users as it is lighter (135g) and has the propeller guard. Not only it is more safe for kids around, but it makes the drone more durable to potential crashes.

Pay attention: neither the Neo nor the Mini 4K has any obstacle avoidance sensors, like on more expensive and high tech drones from DJI.

Versatility

The biggest advantage of the DJI Neo is its versatility. I have been in the the drone world for more than a decade and never imagined a 199 EUR drone could be so versatile. You can use the Neo without any remote controller or phone; just start it from your palm. With a press of a button, you can change through the different QuickShots modes and fly safely.

Pair it with you smartphone and you can fly manually and adjust the gimbal. More over you can use your voice to command the drone, such as to start a Dronie, land or stop. And it works amazingly well. Keep in mind: when flying with a phone as a remote, the connection is over WiFi and not the DJI′s OcuSync protocol. Therefore the maximum distance will highly depend on your environment and be limited to somewhat 50-70m.

Compared with the Mini 4K, the Neo is equipped with DJI′s latest transmission standard OcuSync 4. This makes it possible to use the Neo with a variety of different DJI equipment.

You can for example start your journey into the FPV world by pairing the Neo with the DJI Goggles 3 and the FPV Remote Controller 3. You end up having a “mini” Avata 2 drone and immerse yourself. You could also use the RC Motion 3 controller if you don’t feel ready for real manual FPV flights. It definitely does not have much power like real do-it-yourself FPV drones or the Avata 2, yet it is still enjoyable. The only drawback: the Goggles 3 cost 659 EUR and the Motion Controller another 89 EUR. The total package is not really affordable anymore.

If you are not much into FPV, you still can pair the Neo with a “regular” DJI Remote Controller (DJI RC-N3, DJI RC-N2 or DJI RC2) and enjoy simple and easy way of flying like any other DJI drone. The RC-N3 is the standard remote controller, if you choose to purchase the Neo FlyMore Combo (Neo, RC-N3, 3x Batteries and a Charging Hub).

Anything else to consider?

The Neo has an inbuilt storage of 22 GB, which is enough for daily quick and short videos. The videos can be with the newer H.265 codec to keep the file size small. The Mini 4K on the other side supports only H.264, but paired with a 256 GB SD Card you will have more than enough storage. One great thing on the Neo is also the ability to directly connect to your PC/Mac over USB-C without powering the drone to transfer your photos and videos.

Final thoughts

DJI made it possible and affordable for a lot of people to get into drones with either the Neo or the Mini 4K. If you are more enthusiastic about photography and creating good quality videos, go for the DJI Mini 4K . For everyone else the DJI Neo would be the perfect start.

Source: https://dronehitech.com/getting-into-drones-dji-neo-vs-dji-mini-4k/