An FPV drone that requires a lot of aerial space and precaution
Images, and the devices that capture them, are my focus. I've covered cameras at PCMag for the past 10 years, which has given me a front row seat for the DSLR to mirrorless transition, the smartphone camera revolution, and the mainstream adoption of drones for aerial imaging. You can find me on Instagram @jamespfisher.
DJI's fast, sleek Avata drone is ideal for ground-hugging first-person and Cinewhoop video, though we have some concerns about its safety.
DJI broke into the high-speed, first-person view (FPV) drone space last year with the FPV Combo, an ultrafast quadcopter for adrenaline junkies. The new Avata's ($1,388 as reviewed) smaller and lighter frame means it can more easily navigate tiny spaces. It offers plenty of speed for adventure-seeking pilots, but the absence of forward-facing obstacle sensors resulted in frequent crashes in testing. Fortunately, prop guards and a well-protected camera enclosure mean the drone can keep flying after a collision. That doesn't erase our concerns around safety, however, and while the Avata certainly captures thrilling video, we don't recommend flying it around people or in public spaces.
Like the FPV Combo that came before it, the Avata is more about capturing footage that invokes the speed and thrill of flight than getting Steadicam-quality stabilization from high-flying aerials. As such, we expect more Avata pilots to fly it closer to the ground, through tight spaces, or to take advantage of its size and power for racing—it can push to 31mph in Sport mode and as fast as 60mph in full-on manual mode. That's not as much get-up-and-go as the FPV Combo (60mph in Sport mode, 87mph in manual mode), but it's still plenty fast.
Its power puts the Avata somewhere between do-it-yourself (DIY) Cinewhoop drones and the dedicated racing copters that are popular amongst enthusiastic tinkerers. The cost of building a DIY model can add up quickly, though: Drone-enthusiast site DroneDJ recommends a starter kit(Opens in a new window) for around $500, and its premium DIY parts list approaches $1,300. Those costs don't include the FPV goggles, either, and you still need to put everything together once the parts arrive. The hobby is popular enough for mainstream camera maker GoPro to get in the mix; it sells the Bones, a stripped-down version of the Hero10 Black made for at-home drone builders.
DJI offers the Avata in a few different configurations. We reviewed the top-end kit, the DJI Avata Pro-View Combo. For $1,388, the kit includes the aircraft, the new DJI Goggles 2, and the Motion Controller remote. If you're on a tighter budget, you can swap to the DJI Avata Fly Smart Combo for $1,168, which switches the Goggles 2 for the DJI FPV Goggles V2 (the same version you get with the FPV Combo racing drone). And if you already have a remote and goggles, or simply need to replace a totaled or lost Avata quadcopter, you can get the aircraft by itself for $629.
The price certainly skews higher than the slower-moving drones I'm used to flying, which are better for photography. Basic models like the DJI Mini 2 are available for less than $500, and you can step up to the midrange Mini 3 Pro or Mavic Air 2 for just a few hundred dollars more. These drones have higher-quality cameras than the Avata (more on that in a bit), but don't travel nearly as fast. The Mini and Air drones handle more like flying cinema cameras, whereas the Avata is an action cam at heart.
The Avata weighs 14.3 ounces (405g), which means you need to register it with the FAA before flying it outdoors, as well as affix a sticker or label with your registration number. Furthermore, you need to pass the Trust test, an online knowledge quiz, as well as connect the Avata and Goggles to your smartphone for app-based activation. Without activation, the drone's capabilities are seriously limited—for instance, it won't fly farther than 160 feet away from the takeoff point. For more on the rules around flying drones, see our story on drone regulations.
It's worth noting that FAA regulations aren't really suited for Cinewhoop and racing-style drones; they're more about enforcing rules in shared airspace with manned aircraft and avoiding flights over crowded public spaces. When you fly a cinema drone at altitude, the biggest worry is a crash to the ground that injures a person or animal. Camera-first drones are also very capable of flying low, but they don't do so with the same ferocious velocity as the Avata. It's up to you to use common sense when you operate the drone near the ground, because you can still do some real harm even if you technically follow the FAA regulations to a tee.
Measuring 3.2 by 7.1 by 7.1 inches (HWD), the drone is small enough to rest in the palm of your hand and easy to stow into a bag for an outing. DJI doesn't include a carrying case, so you need to supply your own. The motion controller is small, too. It's essentially a pistol-grip without the pistol, though you need to account for the size of the Goggles 2 before you settle on a satchel. I had no trouble stowing all three components in the top compartment of my Peak Design Everyday Backpack(Opens in a new window) , my go-to pack for carrying photo gear.
After flying the Avata, I have some real questions about its safety—despite DJI's smart decision to make propeller guards part of the airframe itself. My concern is more about the speed and most likely use cases for the drone: Let's face it, you're getting this one to experience the thrill of low-altitude flight or to nab a Sam Raimi-style effects shot for your indie horror film, not for real estate photography or aerial landscape footage.
To fly safely in this manner, you really need a space that's free and clear of other humans. If you fly the Avata into a tree, the worst you have to deal with is a broken drone. In its zippy 31mph Sports flight mode, the drone could do some real damage if you hit a person, however. I also expect shattered glass or a broken windshield if you run into a building or car. Needless to say, you shouldn't bring this drone to a public park.
For testing, I took the drone out for a shakedown flight in my yard but didn't get to do too much with it in my small suburban lot. Thankfully, I also have access to a big private farm and woods, with some walking trails through a canopy of trees and plenty of objects to navigate around. This environment let me open up the throttle and experience the thrill of crashing (a couple of times) without the worry of harming another person. If you live in a small lot, a crowded development, or an urban apartment, the Avata has less appeal. But if you've got some acreage or often find yourself in interesting places that also happen to be far away from other people, you can have some fun with the little radio-controlled flyer.
I had similar safety concerns around the DJI FPV Combo, though it at least includes forward-facing obstacle sensors that allow for safer use around people. The Avata has downward-facing ToF IR sensors to make high-speed, ground-hugging flights possible, but don’t offer protection in other directions. The sensors also improve stability when flying indoors without a GPS assist—the drone is smart enough to slow down when it's flying in tight confines, a plus if you're trying to recreate the Tesla Gigafactory Cinewhoop tour video for fun or profit, or if you simply want to see if you can fly through your house without damaging anything.
On one hand, the lack of forward obstacle sensors means you can squeeze the drone through really tight spaces, but on the other, I can attest to how easy it is to misjudge an angle and bring the drone into quick, violent contact with a tree branch.
FAA regulations call for drone pilots to keep the aircraft within line of sight, another potential issue with the Avata. I had a spotter at my side for test flights, someone who could keep an eye on the drone and let me know if I needed to make an emergency stop or landing. The Avata also includes an ADS-B AirSense transponder; if you're flying above the treetops, the drone warns you when other aircraft are nearby.
Lastly, you must also weigh ethical concerns. DJI has been flagged as a bad actor for its part in surveilling the Uyghur people, a Muslim minority in China, as part of an ongoing genocide(Opens in a new window) . Although the US Treasury(Opens in a new window) has only identified DJI as complicit in digital surveillance, genocide is not a matter you should treat lightly. The company has also been added to the Entity List, which suggests it is a national security concern. DJI isn't the best brand to buy if you strive to be an ethical consumer.
I used the Avata with the DJI Goggles 2, the newer (and pricier) of the two compatible pairs. The Goggles support O3 transmission for a pretty strong control range—I only saw one weak signal message flash across the screen during my test flights, which arrived when a patch of trees separated me from the drone, which was about 700 feet away at the time.
As for comfort, the goggles include an adjustable head strap that makes it easy to ensure a secure fit. If you wear eyeglasses, you need to remove them, though. You also have to deal with an external battery pack and its long coiled wire that connects to the headset to provide power. I kept the battery in my pocket during flights and it doesn't really get in the way, but it's something to think about if you don't like having wires running into your pants.
The eyepieces include diopter adjustment to set focus to match corrective lenses, along with an adjustable pupillary distance. They do an OK job, but if you're like me and have strong visual astigmatism, you won't ever really see a clear image. Text and menus looked a little bit blurry no matter how much I fiddled with the adjustments.
DJI includes frames to hold prescription eyepieces, though, so if you're an FPV pilot with bad eyesight, you have some recourse. Just how you can get the lenses is a question that DJI wasn't able to answer, though. A representative suggested that interested customers could consult with their eye doctor to have custom lenses made for the frames. I didn't have the time to investigate further or visit the optometrist during my review period, however.
Alternatively, you can opt to buy the $1,168 Fly Smart Combo with the older DJI FPV Goggles V2. These goggles don't offer touch controls or diopter adjustment, but are large enough to be used along with prescription eyeglasses. If your vision isn't easily correctable and you're averse to using contact lenses, you might find them a better match.
The through-the-camera view shows a sharp, smooth perspective, with low enough lag to make high-speed flight possible. DJI doesn't specify a latency in milliseconds, but the 1080p/100fps feed feels real-time to me. For the most part, the video feed is clear and sharp, but I did note some garbling and resolution loss when the transmission signal weakened. If you opt for the kit with the older FPV Goggles V2, you're limited to 810p resolution.
You also use the goggles to change settings and access menus. A touch-sensitive panel, located just ahead of your right temple, supports swipe and tap gestures for navigation. In the menus, you can adjust video settings, set a custom geofence, and access the useful post-crash Turtle Mode option, which flips the drone right side up after a crash landing. There's also an option to make the Avata sound a loud, steady beep, which makes it easier to find after a crash. This came in handy in my testing. At one point, I crashed it into a branch and it landed in some tall grass that obscured the drone and prevented it from flipping over. But the beep led me right to the downed quadcopter.
The bundled Motion Controller is a departure from the gamepad-style remotes that most drones use. It sports a one-handed design, with a trigger for the throttle, an under-thumb emergency brake, and discrete buttons for video recording, propeller start-up, and mode swaps. The analog throttle allows for slow- and medium-speed flight, not just the pedal-to-the-metal mode.
As for moving the position of the drone's nose, it's all in the wrist—tilt up and the nose points up, twist left to make a quick turn, you get the idea. The motion control works really well and I had an easier time flying the Avata than I ever did with the Nintendo Wii's similarly minded control wand. A circle on the screen indicates where the drone is moving, while an H icon marks your takeoff spot.
One complaint I have about the Motion Controller is the position of the Record button. It's on the left side, essentially under where your thumb rests, and reacts to glancing presses. It's very easy to bump while flying. The FPV goggles show a tally icon during recordings, but it's easy to miss when you're concentrating on flying fast and avoiding crashes. The Avata has a setting to automatically record while it's flying, but even with that on, an accidental tap of the Record button ends recording. DJI should offer an option to disable the Record button altogether to prevent recording interruptions.
As mentioned, I experienced my share of collisions when test flying the Avata. Some were uneventful—the drone flew right through small branches without a problem and kept going despite catching a lot of leaves in its airframe. But I hit a couple of bigger branches that knocked the Avata down to the ground. Still, the drone came through it all just fine. Take care to clean it after roughshod landings, though—the Avata isn't weather protected, and was completely covered in grass clippings and pollen after three consecutive flights.
If you crash hard enough to damage the drone, you have some DIY repair options. DJI sells a few user-replaceable parts, including the propellers ($9), the upper airframe ($19), and the propeller guard assembly ($29).
DJI says the battery should last about 18 minutes per charge, but we got a couple of minutes less in practice (in the 15 to 16 minute range). The time flies by really quickly in my experience. The drone warns you when the battery is running out and, if it gets really low, starts to fly home. Extra batteries cost $129 each, and DJI sells a Fly More kit with two batteries and a four-battery multi-charger for $279. The only other off-the-shelf racer we’ve tested, DJI's FPV Combo, has a similar battery life (20 minutes). Cinema models can go longer, though; the DJI Mini 3 Pro lasts for up to 47 minutes with an extended-life battery.
Extra batteries and the the multi-charger are useful accessories if you want to fly for extended outings, especially given how long it takes to replenish batteries. It took nearly two hours to bring a half-depleted battery back up to full charge.
The Avata uses a nose-mounted camera for both FPV viewing and video capture. The lens has a wide view, 12mm in full-frame terms. The sensor is a Type 1/1.7 (also called 1/1.7-inch) with an F2.8 lens. It outputs 8MP 16:9 or 12MP 4:3 aspect stills, as well as 4K60 UHD, 2.7K100, or 1080p100 video recordings. DJI's standard color profile is the default for both, but you can swap to a D-Cinelike look for flat 8-bit footage. The latter is the way to go if you prefer a creative color look instead of DJI's default.
I stuck with the standard color look for most of our test footage. The profile delivers generally natural, pleasing colors, though I see more evidence of oversharpening with this camera than I'm used to from a DJI profile. I also recorded some footage in D-Cinelike, but didn't have access to a LUT for the camera. A rep from DJI wasn't able to provide one, and the company has been hit-or-miss in providing LUTs for download. You can find them for the Mavic Air 2, Air 2S, and Mavic 3 from DJI's support pages, but there's not one available for the more recent Mini 3 Pro.
Shifts in white balance are more problematic. If you leave the camera set to automatic mode, it's a little slow to react to changes in color temperature, something you're likely to encounter when you fly from an area with bright sunlight into the shade or vice versa. The camera's exposure quickly shifts to changes in light, but the color temperature lags. For the best results, I recommend manually setting the white balance. We'd love to see DJI add a white balance mode that automatically sets the color temperature at the beginning of a clip and then locks it in for the duration—that would be very useful for outdoor flights that take the drone under sunny skies and into the shade.
In bright light, the 4K60 video is clear and colorful, but we saw some noisy grain when we flew under tree canopies and indoors. DJI sells a set of ND8/16/32 filters ($79) for cinema users who want to cut incoming light to maintain slower shutter speeds, but I don't see them as a useful accessory for most Avata users. You'll want to use a 1/120-second shutter for 60fps footage, so more light is better here.
The wide-angle lens is free of distortion and generally shows an unobstructed view of the world. However, the airframe can pop into view when you tilt downward at a steep angle or brake. The POV footage itself is quite smooth—a gimbal stabilizes the camera pitch, while digital stabilization provides a real assist. If you're flying high and searching for wide landscapes, you can get a steady look when hovering or flying straight ahead, but the Avata's camera doesn't keep things level and smooth when you start to turn it. For that look, you need to opt for a cinema drone with a three-axis gimbal. The Avata is better for conveying a sense of motion and for FPV effects shots.
The Avata has a useful amount of internal storage, about 20GB, which is enough to hold around 20 minutes of 4K60 footage. The device's single microSD slot supports cards up to 256GB. Both the card slot and USB-C port (for offloading from internal storage) sit within a propeller guard, though, so you need dextrous fingers to get at them.
Although off-the-shelf cinema drones have been a reality in the consumer market for a half-dozen years, high-speed racing drones of the Cinewhoop style that can navigate through really tight spaces have largely been the domain of hobbyists, DIYers, and dedicated enthusiasts. With the Avata, DJI is doing what it does best—bringing an edge-case product into the mainstream.
The firm's engineering teams deserve an incredible amount of credit for making a small, high-speed drone that's very easy to unbox and fly. The Avata hovers in place when your hand is off the throttle, moves through the air effortlessly, and is extremely responsive to controls (enough so that 30mph flights through complex environments are possible). Racing pros can swap to a manual controller for 60mph flight too, though I wasn't brave enough to try this mode—I don't have the skills for flying quadcopters without autopilot assists.
The nose-mounted camera outputs strong images and videos, but it isn't the best camera DJI has ever made—inconsistent white balance, some aggressive sharpening, and a downgrade in quality when you fly under a shady canopy or indoors are all issues. If you're looking for better video out of an FPV flyer, the GoPro Bones and a homebrew kit still seem like the best choice, even if that combination isn't as easy to fly or as slickly engineered as the Avata.
As a reviewer whose mandate is to provide expert buying advice, I have some real reservations about recommending the Avata, but not because of its quality as a flying camera. The drone performs fantastically and delivers the same adrenaline rush you get from a video game, but out in the real world. With the Goggles 2 strapped to your face, you're really sitting in the pilot's seat. But you aren't in any danger of harming another person when you play Microsoft Flight Simulator from the comfort of your couch, whereas the Avata can potentially cause serious injury or damage if you're unlucky enough to crash into a person or property.
So, should you buy the Avata? If you've read this far and understand that you need to take as much care with flight as you would when you get behind the wheel of an automobile, then sure. But this isn't a product I'd recommend to anyone but responsible adults, and only for those who have plenty of space to really enjoy FPV flight. The Avata is a noble attempt to bring high-speed drones to the mass market and I had loads of fun flying it. However, in light of the potential for danger and harm to your person or others—as well as ethical concerns about DJI—I'm hesitant to recommend it to the masses.
Sign up for Lab Report to get the latest reviews and top product advice delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Images, and the devices that capture them, are my focus. I've covered cameras at PCMag for the past 10 years, which has given me a front row seat for the DSLR to mirrorless transition, the smartphone camera revolution, and the mainstream adoption of drones for aerial imaging. You can find me on Instagram @jamespfisher.
PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.
© 1996-2022 Ziff Davis. PCMag Digital Group
PCMag, PCMag.com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant.