Lightweight drones are having a small renaissance leading into 2025. We’ve seen more designs small enough to take off and land in your outstretched palm, but the new DJI Flip offers one of the cutest-looking drone designs yet. The transforming Flip’s wings fold down for easy transport, making it look like a droid you’d seen zipping around a cantina in Star Wars Skeleton Crew.
The Flip is another lightweight drone that can launch from practically anywhere. Like last year’s $200 DJI Neo, it includes several automatic shooting modes for vloggers who don’t want to fiddle with the app or physical controls. The best upgrade to the Flip is the 48MP, 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor, which can shoot a maximum of 4K, 60 FPS video with HDR. The Flip can also record slow-motion videos up to 100 FPS in 4K.
DJI let us fly the drone around in a short indoor demo outside of CES. While we didn’t have the space to test its speed, I was impressed with its stability in the air. The four cages surrounding the propellers are metallic rather than plastic. This should, in theory, make them more durable, though DJI will sell additional propeller blades. The drone is also not heavy at just 249 grams or a little more than .5 pounds. It may not be as light as the DJI Neo, but you should get better stability with the extra weight.
Folding the Flip up was also easy and seamless, though you must remember to turn in the rear fins before doing the forward ones. I didn’t get to dive too deep into picture quality during my short demo. DJI promises you will get video quality on par with the company’s Mini 4 Pro drone or the Osmo Pocket 3 gimbal camera.
DJI’s last ultra-light drone, the DJI Neo, was almost too good for its low starting price, the Chia-based dronemaker has a design that’s slightly bigger, slightly more expensive, but should offer better FPS at 4K and three times better battery life. The Flip can do 4K at 60 FPS compared to 30 FPS on the NEO, and the new drone promises a flight time of 31 minutes. The battery life is likely less during actual use, especially if you try to use it in Sports Mode, but it is a step up from the Neo’s bare 10 to 15-minute flight time on a single charge. The new drone still has the same Quickshots that let you perform a quick circle strafe or boomerang run if you’re trying to shoot a quick Instagram video.
If you know drones, you probably spot similarities between the DJI Flip and the HOVERAir X1. That $520 MSRP drone also folds thin enough to slip into a purse or an oversized pocket. Like the Neo, that device doesn’t include any GPS or obstacle avoidance tech, though the DJI Flip can detect nearby objects to avoid smacking into a tree. DJI’s obstacle avoidance can be very sensitive, but turning the drone into sports modes will let you crash into as many walls as you want.
The DJI Flip is positioned between the ultra-small, ultra-light DJI Neo and the DJI Mini. While the Neo was zippy and incredibly loud, especially indoors, the Flip is far more stable thanks to the extended wingspan. It sounds more like an oversized buzzing insect than a miniature tornado, especially when flying indoors. The other benefit of the bigger lens is it also accepts ND filters for high-speed shots. DJI said it will sell a pack of 16, 64, or 256 ND filters, though that’s being sold separately.
The DJI Flip retails for $440, though if you want the RC 2 controller, you’ll need to pony up $640. The Fly More Combo with the controller, three batteries, and a charging hub costs $780. The drone should be available for order starting Tuesday. The U.S. government is still hemming and hawing on whether to ban sales of DJI drones over fears the Chinese company could threaten the U.S. If you’ve been itching to get a DJI drone, it may be better to act sooner rather than later. Still, you should always check out reviews, including ours, before you hit any buy buttons.
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