DJI, the Chinese drone manufacturer is going to be quite nervous after hearing about Xiaomi and the company’s Mi Drone. The modular nature of the Xiaomi Mi Drone will help prevent that as the rotors, battery, prop shields and other parts are all replaceable. What’s more, it has a 5,100mAh replaceable battery which should see it last up to 27 minutes per charge and a range of up to 3km. The drone comes in two variants, with full HD and 4K recording capabilities respectively. The cost of the 1080p model will be $380, while the 4K configuration will be priced at $450. No word on availability outside of China. The device also comes with Global Positioning System and Glonass.
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According to Bloomberg and other sources, Xiaomi plans to introduce its first drone at a price that is more than 20% below the somewhat equivalent product by the global drone market leader, DJI.
The remote control of the Xiaomi Mi Drone is equipped with dual-band PCB antenna. Xiaomi has partnered with Flymi to make these drones, and will be selling them under the Mi branding.
Xiaomi will open a beta program in July to start testing the Mi Drone, but no details are known about when it is expected to go on sale or if it will be sold outside China. The device is power-packed by a 5100mAh battery at 17.4V.
Now the company has opted for a similar approach in the drone market.
As speculated, the Mi Drone’s prices are reasonable at RMB 2499 ($381) and RMB 2999 ($458) for the 4K UHD version. It also includes a remote controller with a phone holder, allowing users to connect their smartphones and use it as a view finder. The cheaper model will be crowd-funded through the company’s Mi Home app, with pre-orders opening up on May 26 (tomorrow).
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Those specs are near-as-dammit identical to the DJI Phantom 3, DJI’s insanely popular prosumer drone that was only recently replaced by the Phantom 4.
