DJI Neo Drone Tracking Speed Test

Good day, folks! Shawn here from Air Photography. In today’s video, we’re going to conduct another tracking test with the DJI Neo drone. This time, it’s all about speed. We’ll see how fast it can track us—a question I’ve been asked quite often since I uploaded my original bike tracking video. I’m not entirely sure what the answer is, so we’re going to test that out today. We’ll start slow and gradually increase the speed.

I had planned to bring a phone mount to monitor the drone, as it’s challenging to hear it over the wind and bike noise. Unfortunately, I forgot it, so I’ll have to keep looking back visually to ensure it’s still behind me.

The DJI Neo’s Tracking Capabilities

This drone is pretty incredible for following subjects. It does a really good job, producing nice and smooth footage. You can actually get some really nice shots with it. I’ve been recording myself quite a bit over the past couple of weeks, and that’s one of its great features. It’s so quick and easy to deploy—I can literally pull this out of my pocket and launch it while on my bike. I don’t have to get off, connect a controller, or worry about what to do with a controller. It’s been a lot of fun.

Test Procedure

Let’s go ahead and get the drone up in the air. Throughout this video, I might have to stop if I encounter anyone. It’s fairly early in the morning, so there shouldn’t be many people out here, but if I do encounter anybody, I’ll stop the test, let them pass, and then continue. Safety first!

Speed Test Results

I’ll visually read out the speed in miles per hour, and I’ll also provide the kilometers per hour equivalent in brackets.

Low Speeds (8.7-12.4 mph)

Starting at 8.7 mph (14 km/h), the drone keeps up with no problem. It’s bouncing around in speed between 7.5 and 9.3 mph (12-15 km/h), as it’s hard to maintain an exact speed. At 11.2-11.8 mph (18-19 km/h), it’s still doing okay. Let’s take it up to 12.4-13 mph (20-21 km/h)—I can still hear it behind me, so we’re doing fine.

Medium Speeds (14.3-15.5 mph)

At 14.3 mph (23 km/h), it’s starting to struggle a little bit. I think we’re approaching the limit where it will start to lag behind. At 15.5 mph (25 km/h), I can’t really hear it anymore, and it’s lagging behind. We’ll let it catch up.

High Speeds (16.8+ mph)

Pushing it further, at 16.8 mph (27 km/h), it lost us. However, when I went back to find it, as soon as I came into view, it picked me right back up again. It’s impressive how it can re-identify the subject and continue tracking.

Conclusion

The maximum tracking speed of the DJI Neo drone appears to be about 14.3-14.9 mph (23-24 km/h) before it starts to lag behind. If you go too fast and it disconnects, it will hover in place. Once you’re back in visual range, it reconnects and continues tracking.

This drone is an incredible tool for vloggers, hikers, and bikers looking to capture footage for social media. While you won’t be able to fly down a hill on a mountain bike with it—it just can’t keep up—it’s definitely useful for various types of users.

Thanks a lot for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​