Philip Bloom Tests Antigravity A1 vs DJI Avata 360 vs Mini 5 Pro: The 360 Drone Verdict

British filmmaker Philip Bloom has tested both 360-degree drones against DJI’s Mini 5 Pro, and his verdict lands hard: the DJI Avata 360 beats the Antigravity A1 on image quality, but neither replaces a proper camera drone for traditional cinematic work. Bloom’s comparison, published to his YouTube channel, arrives four months after the Insta360-backed A1 launched in December 2025 and three weeks after DJI shipped the Avata 360 on March 26, 2026.

Bloom has been reviewing 360 cameras since the original Insta360 in 2016. His central question: does a 360 drone replace a traditional drone, or is it a second camera for a different kind of shot? His answer is the second.

Dual 1-Inch Sensors Give the Avata 360 a Clear Image Quality Lead

The Avata 360 uses two 1/1.1-inch sensors shared with the Osmo 360 and the Osmo Action 6. The A1 carries smaller 1/1.28-inch sensors. Bloom singled out the Avata 360’s 10-bit D-Log M picture profile as the decisive advantage. The A1 records 8-bit with no log profile, producing footage he describes as heavily contrasty with limited grading headroom.

Dynamic range also favors the Avata 360, which records 8K/60p versus 8K/30p on the A1. Each drone stitches two circular 3840 by 3840 images into the final sphere. Because 360 reframing requires heavy cropping, delivered resolution sits well below the headline 8K number. Sensor size and bit depth matter more than the spec sheet suggests.

The A1 Only Ships With Goggles, Which Is a Problem

Bloom’s biggest complaint about the A1: no standard controller option. Flying it requires the Antigravity goggles and motion controller. No screen-based alternative exists. The Avata 360 flies with the DJI RC 2, the twin-stick screen controller DJI uses across its lineup, or with DJI Goggles N3 and the RC Motion 3.

That flexibility matters in practice. With the RC 2, Bloom could set the field of view on the controller screen to match his planned post crop, using 134 degrees as his default. In-air framing then mirrored DJI Studio afterward. The A1 offers no equivalent because there is no screen to reference.

The A1 Wins on Weight, Regulation, and Noise

At 249 grams, the A1 sits under the sub-250g threshold that exempts recreational pilots in many countries from registration. The Avata 360 weighs roughly 455 grams in Bloom’s measurement, putting US pilots in registration and Remote ID territory. Noise is the other A1 win. Bloom calls the Avata 360’s motor sound a “horrible screech” and considerably louder than the A1 in side-by-side flight.

Flight time also favors the A1. Bloom reported around 17 minutes per battery on the Avata 360, below DJI’s 23-minute rating. Integrated propeller guards and smaller props keep the drone safer in tight spaces but drag efficiency down. Both drones include user-replaceable lenses.

Neither 360 Drone Replaces the Mini 5 Pro for Traditional Shots

Bloom ran the same cinematic sequences with all three drones. The DJI Mini 5 Pro, with its 1-inch sensor and dedicated 24mm lens, produces footage neither 360 drone can match for traditional cinematic work. Forced to choose between the Avata 360 and the Mini 5 Pro, he picks the Mini 5 Pro, echoing his earlier verdict on that drone’s imaging.

What the 360 drones offer instead is shot density. One flight captures forward, reverse, top-down, and side angles at once. Reframing happens at the desk. Bloom found the Avata 360’s active tracking genuinely useful through woodland, where obstacle avoidance bypass lets the drone thread through foliage. Single Lens mode switches to 4K forward-facing capture but loses gimbal stabilization outside FPV mode.

DroneXL’s Take

Bloom’s verdict tracks what we flagged in our launch coverage: the Avata 360 wins on imaging flexibility, while the A1 keeps first-mover credibility and the sub-250g advantage. The 10-bit versus 8-bit gap is not a rounding error. It is the line between footage you can color-grade for commercial work and footage that breaks down when pushed.

I’ve flown the Mini 5 Pro in enough conditions to know why Bloom lands where he does. For cinematic work, a gimbal-stabilized 1-inch sensor pointing where you want it beats a 360 sphere every time. The 360 drones are a different tool for a different job, built for one-shot coverage of fast-moving subjects. Not a replacement category.

Expect Antigravity to announce a standard controller by the end of Q2 2026. The A1’s goggles-only design worked when it was the only 360 drone shipping. Now that DJI has a flexible control scheme and a sharper image at a lower price, Insta360 has to respond or cede the category. A price cut below $999 and a controller announcement are the minimum response.

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.