Last week I might have said if you wanted a starter drone but needed more than the base DJI NEO gave then the FLIP was the way to go. This is the one I tend to carry everywhere as to get it out, fire it up and get some video or photos is literally a 20 second operation.
This is no longer quite true as of today. Y’see, the once humble little NEO which I reviewed back in December last year, has had a bit of session in the gym, and has come back a little more muscular and athletic, albeit with a price increase.
There are a few major capability changes too, which is why it is now more than a contender as a convenient and serious photographic video platform.
In this first review I’ll mainly concentrate on what’s new or improved rather than go through in depth every single feature as much from the original NEO is carried over and in the initial review.
What’s Changed
The most obvious is the addition of sensor detection. The original NEO only had the removable propeller guards to protect against any bangs and bumps, but the NEO has a full omni-directional obstacle sensing system, complete with the implication of LiDAR for even more accuracy.
I inadvertently tested this in the palm launch shot you see here. I didn’t expect the NEO 2 to back off so far after launch, and behind the camera shooting the scene (a DJI Pocket 2 incidentally) was a bloody big tree. The object detection dutifully kicked in, and the drone stopped about ½ metre away before moving forward slightly.
Note that at the time of shooting, the wind was gusting at about 25 kph hence the drone correcting a fair bit.
As per the original NEO, the NEO 2 doesn’t have ability to use an SD card, but the o
nboard memory has been ramped up from 22GB to 49GB which will give you around 105 minutes of 4K/60fps or 175 minutes of 4K/30fps. If you shoot in HD, then make that over 4 hours storage! Image transfer can be performed by connecting the NEO 2 to a smartphone with the DJI Fly app and it can be transferred at 80MB/ second. Of course a USB-C cable direct to a computer will also work, but unlike the forer option, for this the NEO must be turned on.
It is slightly heavier than the NEO too at 151g compared to 135g, which places it well below the magic 250g number where registration might be needed under some circumstances. Despite the increase in weight, you’ll still get around 19 minutes flight time per battery charge.
A major addition for me, is changing the slight ambiguous icon-based mode system to using a small front screen to the right of the camera. Additionally, it also displays the shooting parameters being used. On the opposite side is a select button where these parameters are selected. These are altered using multiple presses to choose the one you want and then selecting further parameters to adjust.
After switching a mode, voice prompts announce the currently selected mode.
Control Options
At its basic, the NEO 2 can be controlled simply palm and hand gestures, and can like the original NEO, be launched from an open hand by first getting the drone to confirm the person holding it by using the camera and then pressing the take-off button.
Once in the air, palm movements up, down, left and right control the drone’s direction, and holding your palms apart or closer together dictates forward and backwards flight.
As an aside, I did my first flight in a typical WA summer blustery wind of, according to BOM, up 27Km/hr. The NEO 2 is officially rated at 19 km/hr, but although it did a bit of rock and roll, the on-screen image was noticeably stable with just the occasional jump to the left or eight.
DJI NEO 2 Palm Release and Retrieve Using the Selfie Selection
Impressive.
As well as hand gestures, you can control the NEO by voice using a Bluetooth supported headset or your smartphone. This means you can also record any audio via a corresponding audio device – the smartphone itself or Bluetooth mic for example.
Additionally, as my unit has, you can use an RC-N3 controller in conjunction with your smartphone, and you can either buy this separately and pair it later, or if you get the Fly More Combo as I have, it is factory pre-paired so after downloading the latest version of the DJI Fly and the relevant firmware updates, you are ready to go.
You can also control the NEO 2 with just the app on the smartphone in the same way as the original NEO, using the smartphone with DJI Fly as a virtual controller.
But as they say, there is more.
If you have drooled over the DJI Avata and hanker after the POV experience of flying with goggles and a motion controller but find the AUD$1500 a bit on the high side for your pocket, then you can pair the DJI N3 Goggles and M3 Motion Controller with the NEO to give that experience. That means a base NEO 2 (that you can still fly via hand or voice control) packages with the goggles and controller is below a grand.
Bear in mind though that POV flying technically is only allowed in designated areas such as radio-controlled airfields or in inside. You can see all the rules governed in Australia by CAS (the Civil Aviation Flying Authority) here.
Image Capture
There are quite a few options when it comes to imaging – photo and video – with the DJI NEO 2. And there are a number of built in features in the drone to take advantage of these options.
The heart of the imaging is a 12MP, ½ CMOS sensor that has a fixed aperture pf f/2.2. Thia is coupled with a high performance image processor that DJI says gives cleaner low noise footage that has been stabilised with e brand new 2-axis gimbal.
A new Selfie Shot mode is available when choosing the palm takeoff and landing option and of course, ActiveTrack is still alive and well with the tracking speed improved to 12 m/s, up from 8 m/s and DJI maintains it will keep tracking even if the subject takes a sharp turn. At this stage, ActiveTrack only detects vehicles and people so trying to keep track of DougietheDoggy at the local park was fruitless.
Focus Track is also still there and has a number of different modes such as Spotlight, Point of Interest, but there is a proviso that when FocusTrack is active, the inbuilt detection system will not see any moving objects.
Quickshots is also still available and there is a Cruise Control option which as the name suggest, locks flight speed and gimbal rotation speed.
Conclusion
All in all, the upgrade to the NEO 2 from the original NEO is a decent step in increasing capability. It also makes a fantastic first drone that you can start with the basics and add extra functionality as you get more experience eg from smartphone control to controller to POV. This means for many, you’ll never need to upgrade to a bigger drone such as the Mini or Air series.
The addition of the obstacle detection is a major leap forward for a drone of this type and price, and I confess, I am mystified – and in awe of – the DJI engineers that manage to pack so much into such a small unit. My hat is off to them.
The DJI NEO 2 and its accessories is available from today at the D1 Store.
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