If you’ve been following tech news in the last couple of weeks, chances are you’ve seen plenty of Xiaomi-related coverage. This company has introduced the Mi Max phablet quite recently, and during the event, they’ve also announced the MIUI 8, a new version of their Android-based operating system. That being said, the Mi Band 2 fitness tracker, and the company’s very own drone have been leaking intensively as well. The Mi Band 2 fitness tracker will be announced in early June, and the company has recently introduced their first ever drone called the Mi Drone, let’s see what it has to offer, shall we.
The Mi Drone is actually a nice looking drone which was a built-in camera, as you can see in the images down below. The camera is placed below the base of the device, and there are four separate legs on the drone which serve as a stand basically. Xiaomi has announced two versions of this device, the 1080p and 4K variants. The 1080p variant is more affordable, of course, and it will be crowdfunded on the Mi Home app starting today, while the 4K model will be available for testing via an open beta program in late July. The more affordable Mi Drone variant is priced at 2,499 Yuan ($381), while the 4K variant costs 2,999 Yuan ($457) in China. The device comes with a controller which has a stand for your smartphone which will serve as the display for the content the drone is taking when it’s on. The Mi Drone has a built-in automatic take-off, landing and return modes, which should make it fairly easy to operate, even if you have no experience using a drone. Xiaomi has also included the flight path planning and circling around an object, and these options are supposed to make the whole experience even smoother.
The Mi Drone uses both GPS and GLONASS for accurate positioning, and in case there’s no signal, the drone will rely on vision positioning, and it can even continue hovering at low altitudes below 2.5 meters. The Mi Drone comes with the real-time location tracking which will help you find it if it crashes, and it can also return to you automatically if it’s low on battery. This drone can be operated using a PCB antenna array via the remove, which should help in case the drone loses signal or something of the sort. Xiaomi says that they’ve reduced the weight of this device by 16%, and that the build is more than solid. The 15.2V battery is built into this device, and it has a capacity of 5,100mAh, and Xiaomi says that the Mi Drone can fly up to 27 minutes on a single battery charge. The 1080p model comes with a 16-megapixel snapper (Sony’s CMOS sensor), and has a 104-degree wide-angle view. The 4K variant ships with a 12-megapixel shooter and supports recording still images in RAW format. Camera sensors on both variants of the Mi Drone are attached to a highly sensitive three-axis gimbal which should help with stabilization (stabilizes up to 2,000 vibrations per second, says Xiaomi).
