DJI is trying its hand at palm-sized drones again, and this one costs $199

In 2017, DJI introduced the Spark. With a palm-sized form factor, gesture control, and a price tag of under $500, the system was clearly aimed at social media. It was, in essence, a selfie drone.

The little quadcopter has developed a following, though apparently not enough to justify its continued existence. DJI quietly retired the device in 2019, replacing it with the Mavic Mini, the smallest member of its wildly popular line of foldable consumer drones.

This week at IFA in Berlin, DJI is once more going small, unveiling the brand new Neo. As with the Spark, the drone’s ability to land within the palm of the user’s hand is a key selling point. Among other things, that’s short for the Neo’s small size: At 135 grams (0.3 kilos), DJI says it’s the “most compact and lightest” drone it’s ever made.

Indeed, it is significantly lighter than the Spark (300 grams) and the Mavic Mini (249 grams). Of course, the small size has its drawbacks, an important of which is battery life. The system has a claimed flight time of 18 minutes on a single charge, which limits what you may do with the drone.

It’s not designed to completely replace the Mavic Mini. For one thing, the Mini 4 only got here out a number of months ago. The other big selling point, besides the flexibility to land in your hand, is the remote-free control. That puts the system within the social media/influencer camp that DJI was aiming the Spark at. Another in that camp: Snap’s Pixy, which died a natural death earlier this 12 months.

The query is what potential market we’re talking about. Hover offers essentially the most convincing palm drone so far. DJI’s attempt at one other attempt in this category is confirmation in itself. The Shenzhen-based company effectively dominates the drone market at the moment.

Like the Hover drones, DJI has decided to completely enclose the Neo’s blades in a cage. That’s a very good thing for what’s being positioned as a beginner’s drone. When the Spark was released, our video producer managed to chop her finger on the blade. You really must try hard to make that occur here.

Much of the system’s navigation relies on subject tracking and other AI features. DJI presents the next shooting modes:

• Drone: The drone flies backwards and rises, the camera is focused on the thing, and then records a video.
• Wheel: The drone circles the thing.
• Rocket: The drone takes off with the camera pointing down.
• Reflector: The drone rotates to maintain the thing of interest within the frame
• Spiral: The drone takes off and circles the thing.
• Boomerang: The aircraft flies around the thing in an oval path, rising because it departs from the place to begin and falling because it returns. The aircraft’s place to begin forms one end of the long axis of the oval, while the opposite end is on the alternative side of the thing from the place to begin.

It’s value noting that the Neo will launch with limited availability. The drone is available for pre-order within the US starting today, but there’s no word on a shipping date yet. It costs $199 for the bottom configuration and $289 for a bundle with three additional batteries.