Is The Autel EVO 2 Better Than The DJI Mavic 2?
DJI, the Apple of the drone industry, may be facing a new challenger to the drone crown. Autel have announced the EVO 2 (also stylised as the EVO II), the world’s first 8k foldable drone.
The Autel EVO 2
Touted as the ‘Mavic Killer’, Autel’s EVO 2 is offering consumers a lot that is not currently available from other drones.
Having showcased the drone at CES 2020, Autel’s successor to its 4k drone is out for blood.
The video below gives a brief interaction to the EVO 2:
Coming in 3 varieties; the EVO 2, EVO 2 Pro and EVO 2 Dual, the drone bring a lot of new, high end features to drone pilots. Coming with a 1/2 inch sensor, 1 inch sensor and FLIR Boson sensor respectively, Autel is doing a lot to surpass DJI’s Mavic 2 line.
Autel is launching the EVO 2 range with a controller that has a built in screen. Whilst DJI does offer this, it is sold at a considerably higher price.
Additionally, Autel’s drone has a 40 minute flight time with up to 9km flight range. Whilst the flight time is more impressive than the Mavic 2’s (both the Zoom and Pro), which is 31 minutes, the range for the EVO 2 is half that of the Mavic 2, which is 18km.
When it comes to obstacle avoidance, the EVO 2 is no slouch. With 12 computer vision sensors and AI machine learning, the drone benefits from omni-directional protection. Additionally, it can start detecting obstacles up to 30m away.
The drone also comes with a radar feature if you wanted to turn off the obstacle avoidance. The feature gives pilots information on the environment whilst still being firmly in control.
The main point Autel is mentioning is that the drone is the worlds first (and currently only) 8k drone. The resolution gives photographers the flexibility to print photos they take over 100 inches wide.
EVO 2 and Mavic 2 compared.
| EVO 2 | EVO 2 Pro | EVO 2 Dual | Mavic 2 Pro | Mavic 2 Zoom | |
| Take off weight (grams) | 1127 | 1174 | 1192 | 907 | 905 |
| Max speed (m/s) | 15 | 15 | 15 | 20 | 20 |
| Max flight time -no wind (minutes) | 40 | 40 | 40 | 31 | 31 |
| Operating temperature range (C) | -10 to 40 | -10 to 40 | -10 to 40 | -10 to 40 | -10 to 40 |
| Flight range (km) | 9 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 18 |
| Internal storage (gb) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Expandable SD storage? | Yes – up to 256gb | Yes – up to 256gb | Yes – up to 256gb | Micro SD up to 128gb | Micro SD up to 128gb |
| Sensor | 1/2″ CMOS | 1″ CMOS | 1/2″ CMOS and FLIR LWR | 1″ CMOS | 1/2.3″ CMOS |
| ISO Range | 100 – 3200 | 100 – 12800 | 100 – 3200 | 100 – 6400 (video) & 100 – 12800 (manual photo) | 100 – 3200 (video) & 100 – 3200 (manual photo) |
| MAX resolution | 8000 x 6000 | 5472 x 3648 | 8000 x 6000 & 640 x 521 IR | 4k 3840 x 2160 | 4k 3840 x 2160 |
| Bitrate (mbps) | 120 | 120 | 120 | 100 | 100 |
| Adjustable aperture | No | f/2.8 – f/11 | No | f/2.8–f/11 | f/2.8 (24 mm)–f/3.8 (48 mm) |
| Optical zoom | No | No | No | No | 24mm to 48mm |
With specs as high as what are being touted by Autel, you can see why people are calling it the ‘Mavic Kill’.
We want your views!
What do you think of the EVO 2? Will Autel’s new drone offer enough to take on DJI and the Mavic 2 series?
As it is looking to become the highest spec drone on the market, will it live up to the hype and expectation?
Would you buy the Autel EVO 2?
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
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My understanding is that they haven’t delivered on their previous drones. AS a smaller company they may have harder time lining up supply chains to ship in quantity.
That aside, I saw a Youtube review of the 8K model. Pretty chunky compared to the Mavic 2 Pro.
They didn’t get the advertised flight time but the guy was flying in Iceland in the freezing cold and wind.
But he noted that 8k video files choked his computer.
So really in general devices are going to have to start supporting AV1, not just H.265. Not just drones but anything that plays video could benefit from better codecs.