DJI Mavic Mini vs DJI Mavic Air Drone Comparison

Spec Comparison of the DJI Mavic Mini and the DJI Mavic Air Camera Drones

There is a huge difference in when these two drones were released, the Mavic Mini (MM) being released just 6 months ago and the Mavic Air in early 2018, so over 2 years ago.

You will find some similarities, more than most other camera drone comparisons and some differences in this comparison article.

The first similarity, other than both being DJI drones, is that of diagonal size, they are 213mm in length from one corner to the other when folded and in their smallest form. Many say the DJI Mavic Mini is the smallest pocket size camera drone on the market, but that is only true in terms of it's weight, the original Mavic Air is just as small when arms are folded in.

It does this by having 2 of it's dimensions being similar length and one of them being smaller, the height of the Mavic Air is only 49mm, compared to the 57mm of the Mavic Mini.

When comparing the volume size, even though they fold differently, they have just 30 square centimetres in difference, with the Mavic Mini just edging it by 30cm³. With the Mavic Mini having a volume size of 654cm³ and the Mavic Air having a volume of 683cm³, as you can see, very close in size.

In terms of weight though, the Mavic Air is actually much heavier, at nearly twice the weight, being 430 grams compared to the world famous 249 grams of the Mavic Mini camera drone.

With the extra weight, comes a faster drone in the Mavic Air which is capable of speeds of up to 68kmh, whilst the Mavic Mini is capable of much slower speeds of 46kmh.

They both have the very same ascent and descent speeds, with 4m/s ascent and 3m/s descent speed.

Reportedly the Mavic Air can take on much higher winds of up to 38kmh, compared to that of the 28kmh for the Mavic Mini. We've seen that the MM can be weird in winds, sometimes taking on much stronger winds and then other times struggling in small breezes.

Transmission distance is different too, with 4KM for the MM and up to 10KM for the original Mavic Air which is a much bigger distance the camera drone can cover.

The downside is that the Mavic Air can only fly for up to 21 minutes which means it's harder to put that distance to good use, with the Mavic Mini smashing that time and being able to fly for 30 minute in total.

Both cameras utilize a 3-axis gimbal which means super smooth footage for both dji camera drones.

Photo and Video Comparison of the DJI Mavic Mini and the DJI Mavic Air

When it comes to photography and video for film making with these drones, they are very similar, with only a few firmware updates between them being identical.

They are both 1/2.3" image sensors which have a horizontal distance of 7.6mm and have 12MP photo resolutions available to them.

In terms of slow mo you can do 60fps on the MM and 120fps on the Mavic Air, if slow mo is important to you, as well as higher video resolutions the Mavic Air is the best choice for you as it also shoots in 4K, unlike the Mavic Mini which tops out at 2.7k.

You get DNG photos which means RAW photography capabilities with the Mavic Air. 

They do share very similar shooting modes and both shoot in H.264 and MP4 video formats.