DJI Flip official: the unique bicycle spoke folding drone starts at $439

At $439, the DJI Flip could be a good starting point for people who don’t typically buy drones at all. You can unfold it, launch it from your hand with a single button, land it on your hand again, or optionally use joysticks, all while capturing higher quality photos and video than the immediate competition.

In August, my colleague Thomas Ricker told you how DJI rival Hover had changed the game by selling a $349 flying camera that doesn’t require people to learn joysticks; with the $199 DJI Neo, DJI looked poised to muscle in on that in a big way. But the $439 Flip not only lets you launch and film basic dronies, orbits, and follow-me shots from the drone itself, it dramatically increases camera quality, flight stability, battery life (a quoted 31 minutes), and lets you launch it faster. You just won’t be able to fly it FPV like some of us were hoping.

Not only is the Flip the first DJI drone to look like a Star Wars AT-AT walker or a penny-farthing bicycle when folded, it’s also the first to automatically power on when you unfold it, saving two button presses. And when you flip out each of its four spoke-filled full-coverage propeller guards — which DJI says are a first for its folding drones — they join an auto-braking, forward-facing 3D infrared sensor to protect the camera from any front impacts as well.

And while that camera isn’t quite as impressive as the 1.0-inch type found on DJI’s Osmo Pocket 3, I was impressed by my first results in good light! It’s smaller 1/1.3-inch 4K60 sensor with 4:3 aspect ratio is capable of taking 2.7K vertical video or 48 megapixel stills behind a fast f/1.7 aperture lens. Here are a couple of my unedited early flights, a drone selfie, and a photo, to give you an idea:

Frankly, the DJI Neo — which costs less than half as much — can’t come close to this level of performance; over the same lake and the same park, the Neo couldn’t even maintain a smooth level shot as the breeze blew its lighter frame around, and its images were muddy and washed out by comparison. The Flip has a three-axis gimbal to help maintain that stability. Also, pros can record in 10-bit D-Log M.

But other, pricier DJI drones could offer better performance still, plus true vertical shooting by rotating the gimbal — and it’d be hard to imagine a drone enthusiast picking the Flip instead of waiting to see what DJI’s unannounced Mini 5 might bring to the table.

“There are currently no plans to retire the Mini Series. The DJI Flip is a new entry-level drone series that will be offered alongside the DJI Neo and DJI Mini. Each of these drones are designed to meet the needs of different types of beginners,” DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong confirms to The Verge.

I am continually surprised by how large the Flip is; while it stays under the 249-gram weight limit that typically triggers government compliance standards like publicly broadcasting your location. Despite its folding arms, it doesn’t fold down smaller than a Mini so there’s no way I’m fitting it into any but the biggest cargo pants pockets I own. It’s also quite loud despite its ducted propellers — absolutely not among the quieter drones that the company sells.

And despite costing more than the $199 DJI Neo, it doesn’t support any FPV headsets to let you virtually soar like a bird.

But the Flip does cost just $439 complete with a basic RC-N3 joystick controller that lets you use your phone as a screen, plus the launch-it-from-your-hand modes; a $779 kit comes with three batteries, a carrying case, and a more capable DJI RC 2 controller with a built-in daylight visible 700-nit screen. The DJI Mini 4 Pro versions of each of same kits cost $959 and $1,099 respectively, a $320 difference.

The DJI Flip should be available to buy and ship today, from DJI’s website.

Photography and video by Sean Hollister / The Verge