DJI is easy to rely on when it comes to consumer drones, but for good reason. The company has consistently built well-designed and easy-to-use drones that are very fun to fly. But DJI isn’t the only drone company. In fact, there are other companies that offer seriously compelling options. For example, Autel with Autel Evo Lite +.
Autel Evo Lite + aims to compete with the DJI Air 2S and offers the 6K cameras and premium features needed for drones in this price range. But it’s not cheap. The standard bundle is $ 1,549 and the so-called premium bundle is $ 1,849.
Is it worth the cash? Well, that’s not the case. But there is one thing for sure. This drone is a kind of beast.
Autel Evo Lite +
Rating: 4 stars
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BGR may receive commissions
Strong Points
- Well designed
- user friendly
- Lots of fun
- Excellent battery life
- Excellent wind resistance
Disadvantages
- high
- The app takes a little time to get used to
Autel Evo Lite + design
The first thing to note about Autel Evo Lite + is its design. It, of course, takes design clues from something like DJI, but it’s a nice looking drone. That’s not a bad thing — drones look great and offer a bit more personality with colorful options. That doesn’t mean you can see it better in the air — at any distance it just looks like a dot. But if you look at it up close, it’s a little more interesting.
The dimensions of the Evo Lite + are also very similar to the DJI Air2S. That is, it’s a bit bigger than a super-portable and lightweight drone, but not as big as the most expensive drone. However, one of the big differences is in the weight of this drone. It’s £ 1.8. It’s heavier than the 1.3-pound Air 2S, but it’s very helpful when it comes to withstanding the wind.
The drone is very easy to fold and unfold, and it’s also easy to remove and replace the battery using the two buttons on the back. Removing and replacing the gimbal cover isn’t that easy, but you can get used to doing so.
Controller design is also important. Perhaps more important given the fact that it holds the controller rather than the drone itself. The controller looks like a game console controller — much better than the DJI controller. As an occasional gamer, it helps to make the use of this drone a little more comfortable.
The controller has two thumbsticks with a return home button, a power button, and a pause button that tells the drone to hover in place. On the back of the controller are buttons for taking pictures and recording video, and a scroll wheel for controlling the pitch angle of the camera. There are also customizable buttons. There is a phone mount on the top of the controller that should support most phone sizes.
Unfortunately, unlike the DJI controller, this controller doesn’t have storage for the two thumbsticks. Instead, you have to save them separately, which is a bit annoying.
Fly Autel Evo Lite +
If you have previously flown another drone, flying Autel Evo Lite + is a very familiar experience. I just reviewed the DJI Mini 3 Pro and was really surprised at how similar the apps are, such as the takeoff and landing button layouts and maps. I’m not complaining — once you’re used to it, it’s much easier to fly your device than any other method. I enjoyed the drone flying over the sea, local parks, and generally the area where I live.
By default, the drone is set to “beginner” mode. This limits the height, speed, and distance that the drone can move. This will help you get used to the controls, but it’s a good idea to turn off beginner mode immediately. Then you can choose from three different modes: Smooth, Standard and Ludicrous. They basically just change the speed at which the drone flies, and Ludicrous allows the drone to fly at 42 mph. In this mode, obstacle avoidance techniques do not work perfectly at these speeds, so you need to be more careful.
Evo Lite + is equipped with Autel’s SkyLink technology and can transmit at distances of up to 7.4 miles. Well, all sorts of things can affect the range you actually get, but in general, drones can offer a range similar to the DJI Mini3 Pro with OcuSync 3, which offers a maximum transmission range of 7.6 miles. understood.
Battery life
Battery life is one of the areas where Autel Evo Lite + really shines. Drones can provide a very impressive battery life of up to 40 minutes. This means it’s better than most competing products and you can fly your drone without having to worry too much about battery drain. I have a premium bundle. It comes with two spare batteries and a charger to charge all three batteries at once.
Good battery life really makes a difference. It’s not long before you don’t have to worry about your drone’s battery life at all, but until then it’s very helpful to have such a long battery life.
The controller battery is also pretty good. You don’t need to charge more than once every 3-4 times to fly the drone. The battery was never completely used up and never really approached.
Autel Evo Lite + camera
Autel Evo Lite + is equipped with a rugged camera that can capture great video and still images. Not only that, but it also has controls and features that make smooth video capture relatively easy, which is always helpful.
In terms of camera specifications, the Evo Lite + features a 1-inch CMOS sensor with 6K resolution and a variable aperture of f / 2.8 to f / 11. This allows the camera to capture great footage and images regardless of the amount of light it can capture. In fact, the drone also has a night mode for better low light video. The camera can be zoomed 2x with optical zoom and 4x with digital zoom.
The video is crisp and detailed, with excellent color reproduction and HDR support. Also, if you use it for still shots, you can get a solid still shot. You can capture 4K footage at up to 60 frames / sec, or 6K footage at 30 frames / sec. This is very good.Pros will probably want to tweak the exposure settings — the drone has auto-exposure turned on, but it has an AE hold option.
As mentioned earlier, there are several useful video modes available. For example, a drone has two tracking modes. One keeps the drone stationary, but you can move the gimbal to track the subject and the other to move the drone along the subject. There are also controls for taking quick shots, such as launching a rocket at the drone or sweeping sideways.
Autel SkyLink app
The Autel SkyLink app is relatively well designed and easy to navigate, but it will certainly take some getting used to.
From the main screen of the app, you can access the captured video albums, tutorial sections, and profiles. And of course, you can also dive into actually flying a drone.
The flight screen is a little more confusing, but not overly confusing. The default view shows the stream from the drone’s camera and a small map in the lower left corner. You can create the main view if you want. You will also see a button instructing you to take off / land the drone and return home. It also displays buttons for controlling the camera, such as starting and stopping shooting and shooting still images. You can switch between a view that has all the controls on the screen and a view that has only the video feed on the screen. This may be more suitable for people flying for fun than actually capturing footage.
Conclusion
Autel Evo Lite + is an excellent competitor such as DJI Air2S. It’s fun to use, it provides a great camera and you can get it super fast. It’s also a bit more unique in design than DJI’s products.
Although expensive, there are some things you can’t get from a drone like the Air 2S. Especially the variable aperture.
competition
The biggest competitor is the DJI Air2S, which is significantly cheaper than the Autel Evo Lite +. There are some additional features that DJI drones don’t offer, but if you’re worried about money, we recommend using the DJI Air 2S. However, if you’re willing to spend extra cash, you’ll love Autel Evo Lite +.
Must buy Autel Evo Lite +
yes. However, you need to make sure that DJI Air2S is not the first thing you need.