The DJI Pocket 4 You Can’t Buy and the Clone You Might

DJI announced the Osmo Pocket 4 in April, and by every account it’s a beautiful little machine. Better dynamic range, 4K at 240 frames per second, improved photo quality. The kind of camera that makes your hands itch the moment you see the demo footage.

And you can’t buy it. Not in the United States.

DJI Made Something Great We Can’t Have

The Osmo Pocket 4 isn’t coming to the US, at least not through DJI. The FCC banned the import of foreign-made drones late last year, and the Pocket 4 landed squarely inside that restriction. DJI has sued the FCC, and the commission is now collecting public feedback on the decision. None of that helps you today if you want the camera.

The backstory is messier than that. Back in late 2024, the US government put DJI on a list requiring a security audit before it could continue operating in the country. DJI asked for that audit to begin multiple times throughout 2025. The government never started it. So the Pocket 4 was essentially banned before it was even announced, a piece of hardware held hostage by bureaucratic inertia.

I want to say something about this clearly: DJI makes the best gimbal cameras at any price point. That’s not advertising. That’s just where the technology is right now. The Osmo Pocket line has been the gold standard for compact stabilized video since the original, and the Pocket 4 appears to extend that lead.

It’s genuinely frustrating that American creators can’t walk into a store and buy one. I feel that frustration personally, and I don’t even live in the US. I live in Quito, at altitude, where the air is thin enough that every piece of gear has to earn its place in the bag.

Enter the Xtra Muse 2

Here’s where it gets interesting. A company called Xtra has announced something called the Muse 2, and it looks suspiciously like the Osmo Pocket 4. The Muse 2 Pro, which hasn’t been fully revealed yet, looks an awful lot like the rumored dual-lens DJI Osmo Pocket 4P. Xtra is running a giveaway right now, and that giveaway is specifically for to US residents. The marketing angle practically writes itself.

Now, Xtra isn’t new. A security consultant who analyzed Xtra’s app found DJI’s original code in countless places, with the name “DJI” changed. There were still 7,552 references to DJI’s own LightCut app sitting in there. That’s not inspiration. That’s a coat of paint on someone else’s house.

So the question isn’t really “is the Xtra Muse 2 a good camera.” The question is “would you buy a product that appears to be DJI technology operating under a different brand to sidestep import restrictions.” That’s a call only you can make. Personally, I’d want to see independent testing, confirmed specs, and actual units in reviewers’ hands before I handed over any money. As of right now, the Muse 2 isn’t even available for purchase. There’s no price, no ship date, and no specs sheet.

What American Buyers Should Actually Consider

If you’re in the US and you want a compact stabilized camera in the Pocket 4 class, the honest answer right now is to look at the Insta360 Luna series. Insta360 is free to sell in the United States, and the Luna line has been positioned as a direct Pocket competitor. It’s not DJI hardware, and I won’t pretend it’s identical, but it’s a real product you can buy with real specs you can research and real reviews you can read before spending your money.

Which brings me to the part of this article I actually enjoy writing: the money part.

I know who reads DroneXL. You’re the same people who bought a Mavic Pro, then a Mavic 2 Pro, then a Mini 2, then an Air 3, then a Mini 4 Pro, and now you’re looking at the Mini 5 Pro specs and quietly calculating whether your spouse will notice another box arriving at the door.

Your drone shelf is full. Your SD card drawer is a disaster. You have three charging hubs, two sets of extra props, and three remote controllers, one of them with a cracked screen that you keep meaning to replace.

The DJI Pocket 4 was always going to be the one more thing. The “it’s not a drone, it’s a camera” justification that buys you six months before anyone asks questions. I completely understand that instinct: I’ve been there.

But if the alternative is handing money to a company selling what appears to be DJI’s code under a different label with zero confirmed specs and no units in the wild, that’s the one box I’d leave unordered.

DroneXL’s Take

I want to be honest about something: I think the Xtra situation is worth watching, but not worth rushing toward.

If the Muse 2 turns out to be DJI-quality hardware available in the US, that’s actually a legitimate story. The market needs competition, American creators deserve options, and if Xtra can deliver a product that performs at that level, it deserves a fair review. But right now all we have is a giveaway, some blurry product photos, and a history of code that still has DJI’s fingerprints all over it.

Wait for real reviews. Wait for specs. Wait for units to ship. Then decide.

And in the meantime, maybe step away from the add-to-cart button for a few weeks. I say this as someone who fully understands that the drone bag never feels quite complete.

Photo credit: XTRA