The DJI Neo 3 specs and features have leaked in pieces for 23 days, and as of Thursday they add up to most of a spec sheet. A square 1/1.1-inch sensor, 192.7 g, a three-cell 18.9 Wh battery, caged propellers that need a screwdriver, and a DJI RC Mini controller with its own screen are all on the record from photos and videos of boxed units carrying Not For Sale stickers.
The newest video surfaced overnight. Turkish account @DroneFeast posted it at about 4 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, tagging Ellens and Bogdanov, and Xdrones Studio, a Portuguese drone account posting as @D2Help, reposted it four hours later with its own watermark and a caption. It is the first clear look at the top of the drone: a ribbed grille behind the battery bay, a round sensor at the tail, a blue screen on the nose and four battery LEDs beside the power button. The caption adds 4K/30 vertical recording and O4 video transmission to 6.2 miles (10 km), two lines no leaked document carries.
Four things are still not on the record anywhere: a price, a launch date, a flight time and a route to the United States. DJI has not announced the drone, and Jasper Ellens, who writes for DroneXL, guessed six weeks when a reader asked.
The Camera Is the Osmo Action 6 Sensor, Shooting Vertical at 4K/30
The Neo 3 carries a square 1/1.1-inch CMOS sensor, the same size and shape as the DJI Osmo Action 6 chip, per the marketing sheet Igor Bogdanov leaked on October 1. It records vertical or horizontal at full resolution without turning the camera. The Neo 2 has a 1/2-inch sensor.
The sheet lists native vertical shooting and 2x lossless zoom, and DroneXL went through it on October 3. Xdrones Studio’s caption on Thursday puts the vertical mode at 4K/30 fps without loss. The account does not say where that figure comes from, and no leaked document so far prints a resolution or a bitrate.
The Airframe Weighs 192.7 g and Puts Every Propeller Behind a Screwed-On Cage
A production listing Bogdanov surfaced on September 21 puts the Neo 3 at 192.7 g, against 151 g for a bare Neo 2 and 160 g with its clip-on transceiver. The box lists nine items and no transceiver, which points to a built-in radio, as Ellens has said.
The propellers sit inside spoked cages moulded into the arms. Ellens showed on Wednesday that changing one means unscrewing a diamond-shaped part from the bottom of the cage, then the motor. On the original Neo the guard unclips and one screw holds each propeller.
The sensor set is the fullest of any Neo. The spec sheet promises omnidirectional obstacle detection, the unboxing video shows sensor windows on both arms, a slit above the camera and a round lens facing up from the tail, and Xdrones Studio’s caption adds forward LiDAR, which the Neo 2 already carries. The ribbed grille on the top deck is not described in any earlier coverage. The caption calls the design “improved heat dissipation,” and the flight batteries carry rows of slots across their tops, the detail DroneXL wrongly called AI-drawn in September and corrected on October 6.
The Battery Is a Three-Cell 18.9 Wh Pack, and the Controller Already Cleared the FCC
The flight battery label reads 1,800 mAh, 10.5 V nominal and 18.9 Wh: three lithium-ion cells in series, where the Neo 2’s 1,606 mAh pack runs two cells at 11.5 Wh. A reader counted seven contacts against the Neo 2’s five, so no Neo 2 spare fits.
The box holds the aircraft, three batteries, a charging hub, the RC Mini, two RC Mini accessories, spare propellers, a screwdriver and a USB-C cable, per the back panel DroneXL read on September 20. The RC Mini pairs from its own screen with no phone, shows the camera’s live view, and hides a scroll wheel on its back edge. Xdrones Studio’s caption reads “New DJI RC-N3/RC Mini with integrated screen.” No box or sheet names an RC-N3, and that controller has no screen of its own.
A DJI RC Mini has held a US FCC grant since December 19, 2025, three days before the FCC’s Covered List blocked new authorizations for foreign-made drones. The aircraft has none. Without one, DJI cannot sell the Neo 3 in the United States, and the Neo 2 never launched there either.
The Units Filmed So Far Carry Not For Sale Stickers, and None of Them Dates the Launch
The unboxing and first-flight videos Ellens relayed came from an owner in Indonesia, and Wednesday’s propeller and battery photos were taken on a dealer’s counter there. Thursday’s walk-around over hexagonal pavers carries no location, and none of the three names a date.
The retail box in the September photos wears a “Not for sale” sticker, CE and UKCA marks and China’s two mandatory drone standards in force since May 1, 2026, and the battery label adds a Thai TIS safety mark.
Ellens wrote that DJI’s small drones often show up early in Malaysia and Indonesia.
DroneXL’s Take
DJI has built the beginner drone I’d hand a first-time pilot, and American pilots will read about it and not fly it. My read is that DJI launches the Neo 3 everywhere else within weeks, because boxed units with Not For Sale stickers are already being filmed by their owners, and the US launch repeats the Neo 2’s: none. If you are in the US, follow the Covered List proceedings rather than the leaks, because nothing in a leak changes an FCC grant. The DJI ban hurts hobbyists more than it hurts DJI, and a 193 g drone with caged props is the clearest case for that argument the ban has produced.
Sources: Xdrones Studio (@D2Help) on X, Jasper Ellens on X, Igor Bogdanov on X
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
