The Avata 360 from DJI is a more functional and flexible 360-degree drone

DJI’s Avata 360 finds the company at a strange time. Firstly, she was hit hard – cocky Antigravity A1 It became the first 360-degree drone when it launched last December, and DJI is playing catch-up (and Deposit Lawsuits). But this is also the last DJI drone you might be able to legally buy in the US, following World War II Effective ban imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).Even then it will not be officially released in the country.

This means that if you’re in the US, the Antigravity A1 remains the best (and only) choice for a 360-degree flying camera. But in the rest of the world, the Avata 360 makes a good case for itself: it’s faster than the A1, can be used as both a 360 drone and a traditional FPV model, and offers the option of goggles and motion controller control, a classic dual-stick setup, or a smartphone display. Keep in mind that both main lenses can be (easily) replaced by the user, and I suspect that most flyers will find that they would rather use DJI for coordination than attempt the Antigravity.

Avata 360 is available now in China, but is expected to start shipping elsewhere sometime in April. Pricing starts at £409/€459 (about $540) for the drone alone, which is significantly less than the $1,599 asking price for the cheapest Antigravity package, although that does include goggles and a motion controller. DJI’s Motion Fly More Combo is the closest thing to that, with the Goggles N3, RC Motion 3 controller and extra batteries, but at £829/€939 (about $1,100) it’s still significantly cheaper than the Antigravity. Headphone quality plays a role here, though: There’s no official bundle including DJI’s Goggles 3, which is a closer analogue of the Antigravity headsets, and adding that to your setup would bring the price more in line.

All of this may be a moot point if you live in the US, as DJI has no plans for an official launch through its own website. This is despite receiving Avata 360 FCC statement. in December — the last DJI drone to do so. This means that it will be legal, and likely possible, to buy the Avata 360 from importers and fly it in the US, which will likely not be the case for any of DJI’s future drone releases. But like Latest Neo 2 And other modern drones, DJI itself will not sell them.

In the simplest terms, the Avata 360 is very similar to the A1, the first drone from the Insta360 Antigravity sub-brand. It is a fairly compact and lightweight drone equipped with two lenses that combine to produce 8K and 360-degree photos and videos. They can be viewed as is, or you can use the app to edit the footage into traditional formats, letting you choose which part of the frame to use at any given moment. It’s basically the drone version of fixing it in post, allowing you to fly it without a lot of thought and thought about the shots after the fact.

Furthermore, the two drones differ a fair amount, so I took them flying together for a direct comparison. The Avata 360 is heavier, at 455g, putting it well above the 250g line that affects aviation regulations in many countries. It is also larger with a fixed body compared to the foldable A1. However, this has its advantages: built-in propeller guards for one, which makes this drone tougher if things go wrong. It’s also capable of flying farther (up to 20 km/12 miles in ideal conditions, double the A1’s maximum range) and faster (with a top speed in Sport mode of 18 m/s or 40 mph, an extra 2 m/s or 5 mph, which helps it avoid some of the slightly floaty, unresponsive in-flight feeling of the A1). Battery life is largely equivalent, with 23 minutes of quoted flight time on the 360, and 24 minutes on the A1.

The DJI drone has a slight advantage when it comes to video quality, with larger camera sensors, wider aperture lenses and the ability to use full 8K resolution at 60fps, while Antigravity 8K recording tops out at 30fps, dropping to 5.2K if you want 60fps. But the biggest advantage of Avata 360 is its flexibility. While A1 can only It can be used for 360-degree photography since its two cameras are mounted, and the Avata 360 sits on a swivel, allowing the drone to face one lens forward for a more traditional FPV experience. In single-lens mode, the A1 records at up to 4K 60fps, cropped to deliver footage in standard 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios and avoid any edge-of-frame distortion effects from the ultra-wide lens. I haven’t tried enough of DJI’s more capable single-lens drones to know how the quality of shots compares directly, though I suspect they’ll still be superior, but at first glance the Avata 360’s single-lens option doesn’t seem like a compromised experience.

To make the most of FPV mode, the 360 ​​is also compatible with all kinds of control methods: you can use the DJI app on your phone, an official controller (the RC 2 is included in some packages), or set up goggles and a motion controller. Beginners may greatly enjoy the 360-degree, immersive Antigravity-esque experience with motion controls, where you can mostly roam the sky and look in one direction while the drone flies in another, enabled by simple point-and-click controls, knowing you’ll be filming everything and can pick and choose later. Flying any drone this way feels incredibly easy and intuitive, without having to learn complex controls – you can pretty much get in the air and go (well, after fumbling around a bit with operation and connecting each part of the setup separately, which is still a headache). But the DJI drone also lets you get a dual-stick controller and switch to single-lens mode for more advanced flying and full camera control – the Antigravity drone has long been promised support for a dual-stick pad, but that has yet to materialize.

Avata 360 also offers another important upgrade: user-replaceable lenses. The external element for both of the drone’s main lenses can be taken out and replaced in the event of damage, a process I was able to complete in less than five minutes. It doesn’t require much more than the basic tools included in DJI’s £25/€25 (about $30) kit, and while it may be a bit fiddly, it’s not technical at all. It’s a pretty big boost to the drone’s repairability, and we hope to see it replicated in more DJI drones in the future.

The 360-degree footage can then be edited in the DJI app, which provides a fairly intuitive, beginner-friendly way to get going and create quick clips and highlights, although it will take some practice to produce anything more polished. Years later, the DJI app as a whole is still a weak point, at least on Android: it’s not available in the Play Store, it seems to switch at will between portrait and landscape modes, and it freezes every time I open the screen on the device. Oppo foldable phone I’m testing now. Considering that Antigravity is only one drone, it’s a bit awkward that its implementation seems the more polished of the two.

However, in most other respects, DJI now has the advantage – at least outside the US. Unless you’re in dire need of a smaller, lighter drone that falls under the 250g line, it’ll be hard to justify paying more for the Antigravity’s offering. Its app is a little better, and its headset is more comfortable and full-featured, but for most DJIs, the combination of functionality, flexibility, and repairability will likely more than make up for these advantages. Don’t expect to see one appearing on the shelves of your local Best Buy.

Photography by Dominic Preston/The Verge