The DJI Air 3S is the best drone for anyone who isn’t a professional videographer, offering excellent flight features and a high-end camera.
It’s a big year for DJI. Earlier this year, the company unveiled its cheapest drone yet with the DJI Neo, a drone that I generally quite liked considering its low price point. Now the company is back with an update to the Air series, which has long been the go-to for those who don’t want to spend DJI Mavic-level money but want something a little more advanced than what’s on offer by the DJI Mini series. The DJI Air 3S builds on the original DJI Air 3 while offering more internal storage, some camera upgrades, and some extra features.
While the Air series is excellent for those who have some cash to spend, the DJI Mini has been getting better and better over the years, and at this point, it is a professional-level drone in a compact and portable body. Does the Air 3S offer enough in terms of upgrades to buy over the DJI Mini 4 Pro?DJI Air 3S specsIterating on the same sleek design
The DJI Air 3S doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel when it comes to DJI drone design. In fact, if you’ve seen a DJI drone before, you might not even be able to tell the difference between the one you saw and the Air 3S.
That’s not a bad thing though. DJI has made minor improvements to its design every generation, and the Air 3S is sleek and stylish. It’s built from the same grey plastic as other drones, with black highlights in the camera gimbal and propellers. The battery can be removed from the rear of the device, and slightly under the battery compartment can be found a USB-C port and a microSD card slot. The drone has cameras and sensors dotted around its body for different obstacle-avoidance technologies.
The drone folds up nicely into a relatively compact package, and it comes with a nice carry bag that it slots right into. We’re reviewing the DJI Air 3S Fly More Combo, which also comes with extra batteries, the DJI RC2 controller, and six additional propellers on top of the four that you’ll need to install before flying (propellers are not pre-installed). The case is high quality and relatively protective, though it’s not a hard case, so you’ll still want to be careful with it. Installing the propellers is very easy — simply push down and twist, and the propellers should be set in place. Make sure you install the right propellers on the correct arms, though.
The DJI Air 3S weighs 724 grams with its battery and propellers, which means that it’s large enough that you’ll need to register it with the FAA in order to use it. The weight limit for FAA registration is 250 grams, which is why most mini-sized drones tend to be 249 grams. That’s not the case here, though, so make sure you register your drone before you fly it.Well-designed and comfortable controller
The base package of the DJI Air 3S comes with the DJI RC-N3 controller, which will require that you use your phone in order to see a live feed from the cameras. While I didn’t test that controller for this drone, I have used similar controllers from DJI in the past, and they work relatively well — plus, they leverage the fact that your phone likely has a high-end screen anyway. The Fly More combo, however, comes with the DJI RC2 controller, which is an all-in-one controller that has a screen built into it, so you won’t need to rely on any external devices.
