Drone company DJI released the compact $799 Mavic Air in January 2018, and The Verge’s Vjeran Pavic thought it was a great drone, though not the best option for serious photo and video work. More than two years on from the Mavic Air’s release, it seems as if DJI is close to releasing a proper sequel in the form of the Mavic Air 2.
The first clue that something could be releasing soon is that DJI has scheduled an event for Monday, April 27th at 9:30PM ET. The company teased the event on Twitter earlier this week:
It seems likely the event is for the DJI Mavic Air 2, as presumed photos for the drone, as well as what appears to be the drone’s quick start manual, have surfaced via Anatel, Brazil’s telecommunications standards supervisor, which is similar to the US’ Federal Communications Commission (via DroneDJ).
You can see what the Mavic Air 2 is expected to look like in this gallery of photos that are reportedly from the Anatel filings, which were originally posted by Brazilian drone site DroneFriendly (spot the Mavic Air 2 name on the arm of the drone!):
Here’s a photo of the original Mavic Air, by comparison — it seems the Mavic Air 2 could look much different.
Photo by Tyler Pina / The Verge
And in this close-up shot of what appears to be the Mavic 2’s power source, you can see that the drone might have a 3500 mAh battery, which would be a nice increase from the 2375 mAh battery in the original Air.
Image: DroneFriendly
Photos of the Mavic Air 2’s manual also appeared on ANATEL, according to DroneDJ, and we’ve compiled images the publication shared from that manual in the gallery below.
A translated version of the manual apparently states that the drone can capture 4K video and 48 megapixel photos and achieve “a maximum flying speed of 68.4 km/h and a maximum flying time of 34 minutes,” according to DroneDJ. That maximum flight time would be a good increase from the original Mavic Air, which offered up to 21 minutes of flight time, according to DJI.
And here are some more photos that appear to be of the Mavic Air 2, posted on Twitter on March 10th — these give a better idea of how the device might fold up, as well as show a look at what the drone’s controller could look like:
The Mavic Air 2 name has also appeared in an FCC filing, though that filing currently doesn’t have much we can glean about the device.
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