DJI Mavic Air 2 vs DJI Mavic Air Camera Drone Comparison

Spec Comparison of the DJI Mavic Air 2 and the DJI Mavic Air

In this article we compare the first and second generation DJI Mavic Air.

The Mavic Air came out in early 2018, 2 years and 4 months ago.

The price difference is about $300 between the two, with the Mavic Air 2 (MA2) costing $999 brand new for the full fly more package and the Mavic Air (MA) costing $699 depending on where you look online.

Physical Comparison

In terms of their dimension, the Mavic Air 2 is actually quite a jump in terms of size, being 1466cm cubed when folded up in to its smallest form.

The Mavic Air is actually half the size at 683cm cubed in its smallest form, when its arms are folded in.

They are obviously making the gap in size larger because of the release of the Mavic Mini last year which now covers the pocket and travel drone category.

But although it's nearly twice the size, the Mavic Air 2 is only slightly heavier, with a total weight of 570 grams.

The original Mavic Air weighs in at 430 grams ready for take off.

Performance Comparison

Even though they look quite a bit different and are obviously using different chasis and frames to build the camera drone on, they are the exact same in terms of speed.

Both camera drones top out at 68kmh and have an ascent speed of 4m/s.

They can also tolerate the same wind speeds of 38kmh which is not bad for this size and weight camera drone. We expect they can tolerate slightly higher winds than what is advertised.

They both have a transmission distance of 10km which is some of the best on the market.

The flight time is one of the biggest differences and a huge improvement on the Mavic Air 2.

It is capable of 34 minutes flight time, compared to the original DJI Mavic Air flight time of 21 minutes, a major improvement.

They are both quite quiet drones too, at 79 decibels for the Mavic Air and 74 decibels for the Mavic Air 2.

Photo and Video Comparison

Other than the flight time, it is here, with the camera that we see the biggest differences.

The original Mavic Air uses a 1/2.3" sized image sensor, which is common on camera drones, and the Mavic Air 2 uses a slightly larger 1/2" image sensor size, in the Sony IMX586 sensor.

The field of view are very similar, at 85 degrees for the Mavic Air and 84 degrees fov for the Mavic Air 2.

The image sensor on the Mavic Air is capable of 12MP RAW photos where as the Mavic Air 2 can take 12MP raw photos as well as 48mp JPEGs, perfect for large prints.

The Mavic Air 2 sensor is also capable of 240fps at 1080p and 60fps at 4k.

Althought it can take 4k video footage, the Mavic Air can only do so at 30fps.

You can record in M.264in MOV or MP4 with the MA, but with the MA2 you can do d-cinelike flat profile recording, HDR video, H.264 and H.265, amongst other photo and video auto shooting modes, like timelapse.

Both camera drones use a 3-axis gimbal to smooth out their footage.

Summary

If you want a better than a Mavic Mini, to be as portable as possible and have a bit more to spend, the Mavic Air is still an incredible camera drone.

But for $300 more you can get feature improvements in nearly all categories other than size with the Mavic Air 2.

It's obstacle avoidance is very good, tracking is improved on it and you get many more photo and video shooting modes than you do on the original Mavic Air.