Autel Robotics Bringing It’s Drones to Australia? Should DJI Be Worried?

A recent media report stated that 1 in 5 households in Australia possesses a drone – or UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) if you are a drone nerd.

I find this figure a bit hard to believe, but if that is so, with Chinese company DJI owning the lion’s share of that market here, that is a LOT of Minis, Air2S and Avatas buzzing around.

Not surprisingly, there are other drone manufacturers, although their presence here has been all but invisible. Autel Robotics says they want to put an end to that.

I had a brief Zoom discussion with a representative of the company this mornin, and was told they were looking at “being more aggressive” in this market.

So what does Autel offer in counter to DJI’s current strangle hold?

A quick look at the Autel Robotics website shows 3 model levels in the consumer area – the EVO NANO (equivalent roughly to DJI’s Mini), EVO Lite (equivalent to the DJI Air2S) and the EVO II series which amps up the specs of the EVO Lite quite dramatically, especially in the higher end models.

On the surface, the pricing of the Autel products (going by Amazon Australia) seems to be higher than DJI equivalents. For example, checking out the EVO Nano + model compared to the DJI Mini 3 you have AUD$901 versus $829 (JB HiFi). Both models are under the so called “magic 250g”, shoot 4K video and have roughly the same lens aperture (f/1.9 v f/1.7).

A major difference though is that the Autel model offers full 3-way obstacle avoidance which for beginners especially is a major bonus.

At the mid-level range, putting the Autel Evo Lite + against the DJI Air2S (which I own by the way), at AUD$2199 against AUD$1699 the Autel Model quite dramatically more expensive. The problem here is that a bit of further digging shows that this may not necessarily be the full story as on the Autel website (as against Amazon Australia), the EVO Lite + is listed at USD$1149 which at current exchange rates is equivalent to about AUD$1689. So on that basis they are on a par.

Add that the Autel EVO Lite + records 6K video, has a bigger digital zoom, supports variable aperture (f/2.8 to f11) as against fixed (f/2.8) and a wider ISO range (48000 v 12000), and the picture changes even more.

Admittedly, the obstacle avoidance of the Air2S is superior with an Upwards sensor as well as Forward, Backward and Down. The Air2S also has a slightly better image transmission range and larger internal storage.

Another major difference is that DJI drones are all geofenced; if the area cannot be flown in due to regulation or safety, such as an airport, hospital helipad etc, then they simply won’t take off without special codes. The Autel units don’t have this restriction. This may be good or bad depending on your point of view.

Of minor consequence, depending on “your thing”, the EVO Lite + is also available in 3 colours – orange, grey or white whereas the Air2S is any colour you want as long as its grey. But there is a huge 3^rd party cottage industry making “skins” in all colours and patterns so you can change that any time you like.

Conclusion

What I cannot compare, not having any of the Autel models to hand, is how they fly, but hopefully I can rectify that shortly.

I have had my Air2S for a couple of years now and am quite comfortable with it (albeit with my trepidation of flying over water), and the footage I can get from it is fantastic. Of all the drones I have and have had, the Air2S is easily the easiest to fly in my opinion.

However, competition in any market is always a good thing, especially if Autel can match the DJI Care system of model insurance as well as service and spare parts facilities in Australia. It gives consumers a wider choice, can bring down pricing and forces innovation in order to stay ahead.

Let’s see what Autel can bring to the table in Australia (so to speak).