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Our Rating
DJI Phantom 4

Product Name: DJI Phantom 4 Review

Product Description: The Phantom 4 comes equipped with GPS, obstacle avoidance, stabilization software, fly-by-touch, return to home and automatic lift-off, and is very easy to fly - even for beginners.

  • Exceptional
Overall
5

Summary

One of the best quadcopters in the market, although somewhat expensive. Suitable for beginners and pros, it comes with many features for most drone pilots.

Pros

  • Very easy to fly
  • Excellent obstacle avoidance system
  • Looks great
  • High quality camera
  • Sports mode is amazing
  • Good flying time at approx. 30 minutes
  • Suitable for the novice and alike

Cons

  • Takes quite a long time to set up and the user guide could be better
  • Although the flying time is good, we still wanted more!
  • Smaller, more portable drones are now available
  • Expensive

The DJI Phantom 4 is currently available in two versions; the Phantom 4 Advanced, which DJI brought out to replace the original Phantom 4, and the Phantom 4 Pro.

When DJI released the original Phantom 4, it was seen as something of a game changer. With features like GPS, obstacle avoidance, stabilization software, fly-by-touch, return to home and automatic lift-off, the Phantom 4 is so easy to fly that even beginners can concentrate more on taking great videos and photographs and spend less time worrying about keeping their drone airborne.

As is so often the case, the Phantom 4 left the competition lagging behind again, and at the rate that DJI bring out new models and new variants of existing models, the competition are still going be trying to keep up for the foreseeable future.

Many people have called the Phantom 4 the best quadcopter around; others have called it the Rolls Royce of drones. Here’s our review of the amazing DJI Phantom 4.

 

Features

Phantom 4 Standard, Pro and Pro Plus

The Phantom 4 had already been a feature rich drone, and the Phantom 4 Pro just adds to that. Slimmer and sleeker looking than earlier models, the Phantom 4 Quadcopter has a flight time of just under thirty minutes, Fly With Tap touchscreen control, a camera that can record at 1080p 120fps, as well as 4K at 30fps, and the awesome Sport Mode that can make the Phantom 4 as much a racing drone as it is a camera drone. The Phantom 4 Pro has kept many of the original features of the Phantom 4, upgraded a few of them, and added on some more new features.

One of the major additions to the Phantom Pro is the replacement of the original forward only obstacle avoidance system with a 5-direction obstacle avoidance system. The sensors are now mounted on the front, back, left, right, and the underside of the drone, which means that the drone will now autonomously avoid pretty much anything when it’s in flight.

The other big improvement that the Pro version brings is a more advanced camera. The new camera has a 1-inch image sensor and it will take 4K video at up to 60 frames per second and take still images at up 20 megapixels. In other words, the Pro’s camera is bigger and better than the standard Phantom 4 camera.

The Pro also has some big improvements in terms of the autopilot features. The Phantom 4’s autonomous flight features are impressive enough with Point of Interest Mode, Waypoints, and Follow Me mode, but the Pro also has Terrain Follow and Tripod Mode, and some new Active Track abilities too.

If you want to upgrade even further, there is also now the DJI Phantom Pro Plus, which includes a controller that has a built in touchscreen, which means that you don’t need to connect the controller to your phone. Other than that, the Phantom 4 Pro Plus is exactly the same as the Phantom 4 Pro.

The Phantom Pro and the original Phantom 4 are virtually identical in appearance and both are very well made quadcopters. The main noticeable difference between the two models is the new anti-collision sensors.

To sum up the features the DJI Phantom 4; it is one glorious piece of technology! It’s well built, well balanced, very easy to fly and all that’s backed up with a top of the range camera, so DJI’s competition still has some catching up to do.

 

Flying Time and Recharge Time

The Phantom 4 and the Phantom 4 Pro will both give you just under thirty minutes flying time. The official specs for the Phantom 4 Pro on the DJI website say 30 minutes, but that’s based on perfect conditions, so 28 minutes is probably a more realistic estimate.

Battery recharge, if you land the drone before you reach a critical battery level, will take about one hour and fifteen minutes. If you do drain the battery down to critical levels, you could expect a battery recharge to take nearer an hour and a half. Compared to some other drones that offer 25-30 minutes of flight-time, but take two hours to recharge, the Phantom 4 recharge time is very good indeed.

 

Performance and Range

The Phantom 4 is one of the most nimble quadcopters on the market. While the range will vary with the conditions, the maximum range of the Phantom 4 Pro is 4.3 miles, which is a big improvement on the original Phantom 4 range of 3.1 miles, and that’s thanks to DJI’s new OcuSync video transmission technology.

Both the Pro and the original Phantom have a top speed of 45 miles per hour, which isn’t the fastest speed that you can achieve with a drone, but it’s more than enough for most users. You can also fly the Phantom 4 up to 31 mph with the multi-directional obstacle avoidance in operation, which is great, because that’s just when you need dodge any obstacles in your way.

DJI OcuSync

 

Camera

The camera on the Phantom 4 Standard has the same specs as the Zenmuse X3 camera. It’s a 4K UHD camera with a 1/2.3” sensor, and the camera is attached to a three-axis gimbal. The Phantom 4 camera produces excellent video footage with clear images and well defined colors. The photo resolution on the camera mounted on the Phantom 4 Standard is 12 Mega-Pixels and files can be saved in DNG or JPEG formats.

The camera on the Standard will produce professional quality images, but the camera on the Phantom Pro is the reason that you would the extra money. The Pro camera has a 1-inch CMOS sensor, which is four times the size that you would find on most drones. It also has a mechanical shutter and aperture control. For video, the Pro camera gives you whole range options, including cinematic 4K DCI at 24, 25, or 30 frames per second.

Phatom 4 Standard and Pro Cameras

 

Accessories and Upgrades

The usual accessories for the Phantom 4 are available on the market, including carrying cases, battery charger hubs and there is a Phantom 4 FireBridge System Upgrade too.

Phantom 4 Accessories

You can also upgrade the Phantom 4 Pro, to the Phantom 4 Pro Plus, if you want to spend an extra few hundred dollars. If you do upgrade, you will get a controller with a built in touch screen. It would mean that you don’t have to connect your phone to the controller, but we do question whether that extra bit of convenience is worth the extra cost.

 

Pros and Cons

The Phantom 4 is one of the best quadcopters in the market right now, possibly even the best, and the Phantom 4 Pro has elevated this DJI drone even higher. Are there any negatives to this superb quadcopter? Here’s our rundown of both the pros and the cons of the DJI Phantom 4.

Pros

  • Very easy to fly
  • Excellent obstacle avoidance system
  • Looks great
  • High quality camera
  • Sports mode is amazing
  • Good flying time at approx. 30 minutes
  • Suitable for the novice and alike

Cons

  • Takes quite a long time to set up and the user guide could be better
  • Although the flying time is good, we still wanted more!
  • Smaller, more portable drones are now available
  • Expensive

 

Our Opinion

There is little doubt that the Phantom 4 Pro is the best drone on the market today. The camera outclasses the cameras on other drones and the obstacle avoidance technology is unique to the Pro. If there is one thing that is likely to let the Pro down in the future, it’s portability. In that respect, it is already outclassed by the DJI Mavic Pro and, no doubt, there will be more equally portable drones on the market very soon.

Having said that, if the price tag doesn’t put you off, the Phantom 4 Pro is the best in its class and it’s likely to stay that way for some time to come. There are already upgrades and accessories in the pipeline form DJI that will keep the Phantom 4 Pro at the top of the pile for some time to come yet.

About the author

Diane Fujiwara

Don’t give up on your dreams. Keep sleeping.

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