The first leaked image of what is said to be DJI’s next Mini drone has been shared on DroneXL, a site run by prominent DJI leaker Jasper Ellens – and it could be the upcoming DJI Mini 5 Pro.
With the Mini 4 Pro currently holding top spot in our best drones buying guide, naturally we’re excited that its successor could potentially land soon – possibly in August or September.
The Mini 4 Pro is already the best sub-250g drone available, and the best premium option for beginners – so what upgrades could DJI possibly have up its sleeve?
I can think of a few improvements I’d like to see, and the leaked image, which shows the drone being tested in public in China, appears to tease some upgrades that have got DJI fans talking – let’s look at what those could be, and what’s hopefully coming in the rumored Mini 5 Pro.
1. LiDAR to debut in the Mini series In the grainy leaked image, Ellens has spotted front-facing LiDAR sensors above the drone’s camera.
LiDAR would give the rumored Mini 5 Pro a more effective collision-avoidance system than the Mini 4 Pro, especially in low light – making it a safer drone to fly during twilight and at night.
DJI debuted LiDAR in the Air 3S last year, and the all-rounder drone proved better able to navigate obstacles and terrain at night than its predecessors, which are equipped with standard night-vision and object-sensing tech.
A potential Mini 5 Pro would be the world’s first sub-250g drone with LiDAR, assuming that it stays within the same weight class as previous versions – more on this below.
As someone who loves flying at first and last light, and in areas with plenty of points of interest, I’d love to see LiDAR tech, but it’s of limited use to users who only fly their drones in open spaces on clear days.
The Air 3S was DJI’s first drone with LiDAR sensors – could the Mini 5 Pro follow suit? (Image credit: DJI) 2. Longer and more stable flight Larger motors have also been gleaned from that leaked image, suggesting a beefier design and and potentially more efficient performance. This could translate to better wind resistance for more stable flight, plus enhanced flight times.
Improving stability and flight times could represent a significant upgrade in an area where the Mini 4 Pro didn’t improve on its predecessor, the Mini 3 Pro. Some leakers are suggesting flight times of up to 50 minutes, which would smash the Mini 4 Pro’s 34-minute flight time on a fully charged battery.
This improvement would be huge for a Mini-series drone – 50 minutes is the sort of flight time I’d expect from a pricier and weightier drone.
3. A larger sensor Some leakers are also claiming that the Mini 5 will pack a 1-inch sensor, which is a much larger sensor than the 1/1.3-inch sensor utilized by the Mini 4 Pro.
A drone’s camera specs are of keen interest to me as a photographer and filmmaker, and a larger sensor could be the most significant upgrade in the next model – it should deliver a cleaner image in low light, with better dynamic range, helpful in bright conditions.
I’d take better image quality in challenging light over higher resolution, but we could also see a bump to 5.3K video, which would mark an upgrade over the Mini 4 Pro’s 4K video, which is available up to 100fps. The larger sensor could be the springboard for some of the biggest video upgrades the Mini series has seen yet.
The DJI Flip features propellor guards for safer flight in tight spaces around people, and the Mini 5 Pro could adopt this design (Image credit: James Abbott) 4. A new direction for design? Back to the leaked image again, which clearly shows that the drone has propellor guards, much like those on the DJI Flip. This would be a first for one of DJI’s Mini drones, but just because the drone in this image has propellor guards that it doesn’t mean the final version will have them – they could just be a safety measure for the drone’s pre-production testing phase.
Should a Mini 5 Pro have such a design, it could feel more like a Flip 2. This would mark a new direction for DJI’s Mini series, and the reaction to this possibility has been mixed. On the plus side, propellor guards make for safer flight in tight spaces; but adding guards will affect the weight and flight performance, and many fans will be hoping for a continuation of the existing guard-free design.
5. Not so mini anymore? Key to the appeal of DJI’s Mini series of drones is that every model falls under 250g, which keeps them in the largely restriction-free weight category, and is a must for beginners and casual users.
However, if the above speculation is true, and the Mini 5 does indeed arrive with LiDAR sensors, heftier motors, and a larger image sensor, it would surely make it a weightier drone than the Mini 4 Pro, which squeezes in under 250g.
Could this upcoming model be the first DJI Mini drone to tip the scales above 250g? And if so, would its rumored upgrades be worth the price of placing the drone in the next weight category up?
Surely not – if there’s one feature I’d love to see in DJI’s next Mini drone, it’s one that has been there from the beginning: a sub-250g weight.
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