Xiaomi Fimi X8 SE 2020 vs Skydio 2 Camera Drone Comparison

Spec Comparison of the Xiaomi Fimi X8 SE 2020 and the Skydio 2

This is a comparison between the Xiaomi Fimi X8 SE 2020 which costs around $449 brand new and the Skydio 2 which retails at just over double that at $999.

They are both brand new for 2020 camera drones with them being released this summer.

They are also both very different types of camera drone, the Xiaomi Fimi X8 SE 2020 is a full manual camera drone for aerial photography and film making.

Whilst the Skydio 2 is set up more as an active tracking personal camera drone for your own adventures.

Physical Comparison

The Xiaomi Fimi X8 SE 2020 is a folding arm camera drone, whilst the Skydio 2 has fixed arms which means their physical volume is much different in their smallest forms.

The Xiaomi Fimi X8 SE 2020 can be folded to 21cm in length and 10cm wide and have a total volume of just 1.5L.

The Skydio 2, because of it's fixed arms has a dimension of 22 by 27cm when looked at from below or above and this gives it a much larger volume of 4.5L. This is still possible to put in a backpack though because you can use your own smart phone to control the drone which saves a tonne of space when you figure this in.

The two drones are actually identical in their weight and both come in between 765 and 775 grams, just 10 grams between the two, ready to fly.

Performance Comparison

Here we look at the performance comparisons of the two camera drones.

The first is the max speed, which is slightly different between the two, but both are relatively fast aerial photography drones.

The Xiaomi Fimi X8 SE 2020 just edges it with a top speed of 65kmh in sport mode.

The Skydio 2 is capable of speeds of up to 58kmh, which means it is only 7 kmh slower at the top end.

In high winds, they should both be ok, with the Xiaomi Fimi being capable of tolerating max winds and gusts of 50kmh and the Skydio 2 just 10kmh lower at winds of 40kmh.

In terms of transmission distance, the Fimi does far better than the Skydio 2. It is capable of up to 8km transmission in perfect conditions and no signal issues.

The Skydio 2 is claimed to have a 3km transmission distance.

It also has a much shorter flight time, of 23 minutes. This makes it one of the lowest in terms of flight time of camera drones released in the last 2 years.

The Fimi X8 SE 2020 has a magnificent flight time of 35 minutes.

They are near identical in terms of noise level, being 68 and 70 decibels, so virtually nothing in it when they are both taking off at head height.

You get an amazing number of obstacle avoidance features with the Skydio 2 that you just don't get with the Fimi. It is touted as one of the worlds best camera drones for obstacle avoidance and that is its main feature set so that users can use it to film themselves.

The Fimi X8 SE 2020 does have active tracking though, along with other smart shooting modes.

Photo and Video Comparison

From the off, both camera drones record video at a bitrate of 100 mbps, which means high bitrate video files and larger sizes.

The Skydio uses a larger and more commonly used image sensor size of 1/2.3", in the Sony IMX577, compared to the image sensor size of 1/2.6" used by the Fimi.

Both camera drones take 12MP photos and can save in both JPEG and RAW DNG files. If you are looking to get in to aerial photography, these are both solid options for sky photography.

For videography you get 1080p with slow motion frame rates and 4K video. The Skydio 2 is capable of 4K at 60fps whilst the Fimi can only do 30fps at this resolution.

You get H.264 and H.265 with both cameras and can record HDR video with the Fimi but not the Skydio 2.

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

Summary

If you're looking for a personal, vlogging or outdoor camera drone to follow you, you have to choose the Skydio 2, it is the best on the market for obstacle avoidance.

It is let down by it's size and lack of folding arms, but makes up for it with your phone being the controller.

If you don't need obstacle avoidance and one of the best tracking camera drones on the market, you can save over $500 and get yourself a feature packed camera gimbal still, which has a 35 minute flight time and some of the best high wind speed tolerances of any film making drone.