DJI Flip Drone – The Perfect First Drone For You!

Okay, the first thing I want to show you – check this out, go ahead and start the timer right now… Tell me that is not one of the coolest things ever! I think every drone going forward should have the ability to launch that fast. What is that, like 30 seconds? Even less than 30 seconds! That is so, so amazing.

This is the brand new DJI Flip, and it is one of the most unique drones – actually, it probably is the most unique drone that I’ve been able to fly over the past eight years. What I want to do with this first video (I’m going to have a few videos on this drone because it is pretty cool and I think it’s going to be pretty popular) is give you my first impressions, and then I’m going to tell you most of the reasons that I think this is going to be the most popular drone of all time. I know that’s a bold statement, but I think people are really going to love this drone.

Perfect First Drone For Beginners And Experienced Pilots

Hi everyone, I hope you’re having a great day! So if you don’t have a drone yet and you’re shopping for your very first one – get this one. And if you already have a drone? So what – get this one too, if not for the portability, then for the absolute ease of use in any situation.

Welcome to the channel everyone, my name is Russ and I’ve been flying and reviewing drones for over 8 years. Over that time, I’ve seen a lot of different drones, but the DJI Flip is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Now there are timestamps in the video description so you can navigate to whichever section of the video that you like with ease.

DJI Flip Weighs Less Than 250 Grams But No Remote ID

So I already showed you reason number one that I think this is going to be a very popular drone – the speed at which you can get it up into the air and recording and having fun. Now secondly, because the DJI Flip has no exposed moving parts and weighs less than 250g, you can fly it directly over people without getting an FAA waiver. This drone takes away the ability for online trolls to call you out for breaking the law. I’m sorry, what’s that? No? What? No Entfernte ID? Okay, thanks. So it turns out because there’s no remote ID on this drone, it does not qualify as a category one. It has everything else, but because it doesn’t have remote ID, you cannot fly it over people without obtaining an FAA waiver. But it’s still pretty safe.

Now next, one of the most important things that many people consider when buying a drone these days is the noise level. This becomes more valued all of the time as people continue to be skeptical about drones, especially as they’ve been in the news a lot lately, and when they hear a drone, they get nervous and anxious. A less conspicuous drone is preferred by many people because it minimizes negative interactions when flying in public.

Okay, so first I want to show you the Neo because I think the Neo is the most irritating sounding drone. Medium follow, 3, 2, 1…

Okay, now let’s show you the Flip. So what do you think? Definitely much better than the Neo!

Is The DJI Flip Resistant To Strong Winds?

Reason number four that this drone is going to fly off the shelves is – although it’s a very light and compact drone under 250g, much like the recently released Neo, it can handle the wind much better. If your drone, as you may know, has difficulty in any sort of wind, the chances of it flying away are greatly increased. Now I’ve flown the Flip in a variety of windy conditions, including a steady 20 mph wind and then also in some pretty gusty conditions.

All right, this is a true test of how the Flip does in the wind. It is pretty windy, about 12-13 knots right now, gusting up to I think 23 knots, which is almost 30 mph. I’m not sure – I’ll put it up on the screen here, but I just… there’s an app that I used to find the wind and it shows it in knots, so I think it’s like 27 to 30 mph. So I’m just going to put it up here… okay, I can’t set it there. One disadvantage, you guys, of this thing is being able to set it down in the snow and launch it because those back propellers sit in the snow. So all right, let’s hit record.

That’s not too bad. Let’s bring it closer to the vehicle window here. You guys can see how it’s fighting pretty good against the wind. Yeah, it’s getting rocked but holding steady. Look at the… yeah, it’s moving around a little bit on the screen but not too bad. So let’s go ahead and just fly it a little bit here. I don’t want to get too daring… All right, let’s move over here. Let’s get the Perkins flag in the frame here so you guys can see how windy it actually is. Flag’s flying half staff today for President Jimmy Carter.

So let’s go ahead and just hover here and let’s see how it holds position… really, really good. It is… it’s not moving at all. Thank goodness it’s not flying away. So yeah, 243, 242 feet of height, holding steady altitude and distance and everything. So much better than the Neo, you guys, so much better. The Neo would be gone right now if I was trying to fly it. So yeah, very impressed with this very, very lightweight drone. Of course, it is having some trouble getting back here, but we’re getting it. Okay, let’s get it lower here so we can get it back to the pickup.

So I wouldn’t… I definitely wouldn’t fly it in these conditions normally just because it is kind of risky, but I just wanted to show you guys that it does have the ability to handle these winds. Let’s get one more shot of how this is getting thrown around… but hey, it’s still holding position, right? So that is impressive.

So yeah, good job Flip! Flying against the wind and sideways into the wind was still a little bit of a struggle – it slowed down quite a bit, but it performed so much better than the Neo. I was really worried about these tiny little motors, but I think the streamlined design is the reason that it does so well in windy conditions.

Flying The DJI Flip Is Fun!

Reason number five: the fun factor. The DJI Flip is very responsive and it’s very fast. I was able to get it up to 34 mph consistently in sport mode, and overall it’s just a very fun drone, especially when you’re flying near and around obstacles because there’s really no anxiety, there’s no stress. Plus, you can fly around really fast and even if you crash this drone, more than likely it’s going to be okay. Now it’s not quite as fun as the moves that you can make with a typical FPV drone when it comes to like maneuverability, but it comes really close.

Flight time is yet another highly valued feature on drones today, and with its 3110 mAh battery, you wouldn’t expect the DJI Flip to be able to fly very long. However, in my testing, I did several flight tests to see how long you could keep this thing in the air, and here’s my final results from 100% to 5%. That’s an amazing number, especially for a little drone with a little battery like this. That percentage of advertised flight time is on average with the past couple of years of DJI drones – they have really improved the battery efficiency in their drones.

So all of those first five features that I mentioned are about flight performance. For a mini drone, the flight performance is something that I think so many people are really going to appreciate. Next, this absolutely unique airframe design – the compact folding prop guards is something that I really didn’t appreciate at first. When I first saw this when the leaks came out, I’m like, “What are they thinking?” But after experiencing how easy it is to pack away in the bag, my opinion quickly shifted.

It is super compact, it’s quick to fold, easy to store and transport, and then these thin wire-like spokes – they’re not wire, they’re like plastic but they feel like they’re wire – they provide a much more streamlined approach to propeller protection than, say, that of the Neo or any other drone for that matter that has built-in prop guards. They are strong but they’re very light, and I think they are what saved my Flip from a brutal attack of some angry pigeons.

Okay, let’s pan down here, let’s just take a look at some rooftops and fly over those with the camera tilted down… Son of a… stupid pigeon just tried to attack my Flip! These damn pigeons have been flying around the drone for a while, but they’ve never really attacked it… but still flying, thank God!

Weighing less than 250 grams makes the DJI Flip very regulation-friendly in many Countries. For instance, in the Vereinigte Staaten, you do not have to register it with the FAA when flown recreationally, which I think so many people are going to appreciate. Now the lightweight also encourages users to take it anywhere they go, providing more opportunities to capture aerial footage. Lightweight mini drones are the future for consumer drones.

The most vulnerable hardware on any drone is the camera gimbal, and the Flip is designed in a way to minimize any kind of gimbal damage should a collision occur or a ground impact occur. There’s almost no way for this gimbal to hit the ground directly if it were to crash because of these large propeller guards.

Unfold And Fly Away!

The best design feature of the Flip in my opinion is that when you unfold the props – and I think this should be the standard moving forward on all drones – it immediately activates the drone and gets it ready to go. As I demonstrated at the beginning of the video, from bag to recording takes less than 30 seconds, so when an opportunity presents itself, you have the ability to capture it at a moment’s notice. Fold the Flip back together and it turns off automatically in 5 seconds.

“Aircraft will power off in 5 seconds, press any button on aircraft to cancel.”

DJI Flip Design Of The Drone

Now just to show you the rest of this airframe design: on the port side or the left side of the frame, you’ll find the quick shot modes button and the micro SD card port and the USB-C port.

On the starboard side or the right-hand side of the drone is the power button and the battery level indicator LEDs.

On the front of the drone, you’ll see the LiDAR obstacle avoidance sensor that also has indicators letting you know what quick shots mode is enabled at that time.

Now I’ll go over the DJI Flip QuickShot modes in another video coming here real soon. The bottom of the drone has vision positioning sensors to help with safe landings.

Now these motors, like I said, very very small, very tiny, which made me a little bit concerned about the flight performance at first, but once again, the Flip outperformed my expectations and I think it’s incredible how they’re able to make these tiny little motors so powerful. This is definitely a unique overall airframe design and I think people are really going to appreciate it.

The Camera Is Surprisingly Good

The camera system is by far the most valued feature of any GPS drone. People buy drones like this to capture and create impactful photos and videos – they love image quality and they want the best image quality that they can get paying the least amount of money that they have to.

The DJI Flip comes with a 24mm wide-angle lens with a 1/1.3-inch sensor and a fixed 1.7 aperture, so nothing new there. Also, it’s a quad-bayer sensor and it shoots 48 megapixel photos and it records up to 4K 100 frames per second slow motion. It also has dual native ISO which enhances performance in low-light conditions – also nothing new. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

Now my second flight with the Flip was in the morning before the sun came up, and it handled the less than ideal lighting conditions very well. Both the photos and the videos from this drone are quite impressive. I think DJI just has done so well with that sensor, they’re just going to continue to use it for as long as they can.

The Flip also has 10-bit D-Log M profiles so you have the ability to fine-tune your videos to look more professional. Of course, it would not be a DJI drone without some intelligent flight modes. The Flip does have the normal quick shot modes including follow, dronie, circle, rocket. It also has Spotlight and Direction track. Now one improvement over previous drones is that the Flip has an updated algorithm that allows you to capture only the waist up when following a human. It can also follow closer and lower than previous drones, which gives you the ability to capture some pretty interesting shots.

The Flip also has Mastershots, which has been around for a very long time and it’s a great feature for beginners that just want the drone to record and compose and do everything and create a little highlight video to share with their family and friends. Now the Flip does also have hyperlapse mode, which is one of my favorite things to do with a drone and it’s one of the most fun things to do to show off to people. The disadvantage of that on this drone is that you can only record a 1080p hyperlapse.

Remote Controller Or No Remote Controller

So let’s talk about all of the ways that you can fly the Flip. First of all, as I’ve already demonstrated, you can fly it just by itself – no controller, no phone. You just choose one of the quick shots modes, you hold down that button and it will launch and do whatever you have chosen.

This is the perfect option for following you like on a hike or a bike ride or something like that when you’re going through beautiful scenery – you just pull it out, pop it up, hit that button and capture your footage.

Next, you can fly it with the RC2 or RC-N3 controller. Now this is how I think most people are going to want to fly this drone because it gives you so much more control over the flight, the recording, visual feedback – you have an attitude indicator, like… it’s just the best way to fly, right?

Then finally, you can fly the Flip with just your phone. It connects by Wi-Fi and you can control the drone with one hand. It’s a minimalistic way to fly quickly and efficiently, but you still have some control. Now also, you can record audio through the phone like you could do with a Neo, and it automatically removes the sound of the drone if you want it to.

Cold Weather And The DJI Flip

So there’s one thing that I noticed about this drone – it does not like extremely cold temperatures. So it’s 9° out right now, Fahrenheit, and anytime you fly it in these kinds of conditions, it’ll say “preparing to take off” and what that is, if you tap on it, it will say the IMU needs to warm up before it can take off. So extremely cold temperatures are going to affect your IMU of this drone. Now I haven’t had any issues like flying it when I’ve been flying in these kind of conditions, but just know that really cold temperatures are going to affect that IMU.

So the Flip does have LIDAR-enabled obstacle avoidance when flying forwards to help minimize collisions, even in low light situations. However, as we know, most drone collisions happen when moving sideways and backwards, so it’s very nice to have forwards obstacle avoidance, but keep in mind you’re still going to have to be very careful when you’re flying this drone sideways or backwards.

With O4 transmission, the DJI Flip has an advertised video feed distance of up to 13 km or about 8 miles. TRUST me, you will never be able to fly the Flip that far away, not only for battery life but also for connectivity, but I can ASSURE you that you can fly the Flip further away than your eye can see and maintain a solid signal.

The battery charging bank for the Flip can hold four batteries and it can charge two of them simultaneously, which is very nice for getting you back into the air very quickly.

So let’s talk about a couple of things that I wish were a little bit better on this drone, because we all know that nothing is perfect, right? So first of all, the onboard storage on the Flip is only 2 GB, which is going to give you just a few minutes of video storage. Now I’m guessing the reason that’s so low is to help keep the weight down, but how heavy can onboard storage be? I mean, they make 2 TB micro SD cards now, so like this is so incredibly light, like there’s no weight to this at all. I just don’t understand why they can’t put more onboard storage on drones and why they refuse to do it. I don’t get it, I really don’t. Maybe it has to do with processing power or something like that.

But secondly, the lack of rear landing gear – even just a couple of little feet on the back here makes this drone nearly impossible to launch from the ground if you’re in any kind of like dirt-like conditions or grass or snow or anything like that. You have to have like a landing pad or a flat clean surface to launch this drone from. I get it, this drone is designed to be launched from your hand, but there are many times, like especially when you land, you don’t want to land it in your hand – you want to land it on the ground or somewhere else, and if you’re in any kind of situation like I said that has any kind of dirt or anything, it’s going to get right on the ground there.

All right, one thing I do want to show you guys – don’t set this down in the snow, you’re setting those motors right on the snow. So if you’re going to be flying in conditions like this, you probably want to hand launch it or maybe launch it from your vehicle.

So I believe that the DJI Flip is going to be our replacement for the mini lineup. I think this is the new standard for compact drones – regulation friendly, they’re safe to fly, easy to use for anyone and everyone, and also has high-end camera features. This is the perfect package for consumers, especially beginners.

Now there are a lot of things that I did not cover in detail in this video, so I’m going to be running some videos over the next couple of weeks about this drone. So if you don’t want to miss those, be sure to subscribe because there’s so many things that this drone can do.

I do want to thank you for watching the entire video today. Hit that thumbs up button on your way out, have a wonderful day, and as always, fly safe and fly smart.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​