DJI Debuts Ridiculously Affordable $199 Neo Selfie Drone

The popular drone maker, DJI has unveiled its most affordable drone at IFA Berlin – the DJI Neo. Coming at just a $199 price tag, the DJI Neo can do almost everything the $350 HoverAir X1 can and so much more. DJI packed some of its advanced drone capabilities in the Neo, making it just a perfect drone for the price point. 

The DJI Neo is geared toward the vlogger, content creator, or anyone who wants an easy-to-use drone. This is the DJI’s most compact and lightest drone to date, weighing a mere 135 grams. The Neo seamlessly works via voice commands or you can simply connect it to your smartphone via the DJI Fly app and use the virtual joysticks up to a distance of 50 meters. Alternatively, you can also connect the DJI’s other drone accessories such as DJI Goggles 3, RC Motion 3, FPV Remote Controller 3, and DJI RC-N3 which increases the recording distance of the Neo to 10 km. 

One of the interesting things is that the Neo comes with a return to home feature (RTH) feature, a similar feature found on the DJI’s high-end drones. DJI claims that the Neo will automatically return to the user’s palm once the shooting is completed. 

The DJI Neo is equipped with a 12MP ½ image sensor, capable of capturing ultra-stabilised videos in up to 4k resolution at 30 frames per second. It has 22GB of internal storage and will easily store 40 minutes of high-resolution footage. You can easily transfer all the recorded videos to your phone via WiFi without the need for any cables. Unlike other DJI drones with a 6-axis gimbal, the Neo ships with a single-axis gimbal for stabilizing up/down motion only. However, this will surely affect the overall shot quality. 

DJI’s Neo uses an AI object tracking feature to track the subject and keep them in focus, even during activities such as hiking, or cycling. Unfortunately, the drone doesn’t support obstacle avoidance, which is slightly disappointing. 

On the positive side, you get a QuickShots feature which allows you to capture the shot with six different fly patterns: Circle, Dronie, Helix, Rocket, Spotlight, and Boomerang. The Neo has a very short flight time of up to 18 minutes. However, you can extend the flight time with two extra batteries that come with a combo model.