DJI’s Flip Combines the Ease of the Neo With the Image Quality of the Mini

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A person holding a compact white drone with four circular propellers. The drone features a camera mounted at the front. The background is blurred, emphasizing the drone's details.

DJI announced the Flip, a consumer-focused drone that combines the ease of use that made the Neo so appealing with the image quality of the Mini 4K, creating a drone that is still under 250 grams but can capture 4K videos and up to 48-megapixel photos.

DJI’s drone offerings can sometimes feel as though they overlap and that could be seen as the case with the new Flip. DJI doesn’t say where the Flip lives in its expansive line of drones, but it does manage to take elements of both the Neo and the Mini and even elevates the image quality above what the latter $299 drone brought last year.

A white drone with a sleek design is flying over a dry, grassy landscape. The sky is clear blue, and the distant mountains are visible on the horizon.

DJI says that the Flip is designed to build on the success the company found in its consumer camera drones and brings the AI tracking and intelligent shooting modes that have been a mainstay in its drones for a while now and combines them with foldable propeller guards and automatic braking (thanks to a 3D infrared sensing system), simplifying the process of capturing aerial footage as much as possible. That was the design goal of the $199 Neo DJI launched in September and while the Flip is much larger — it weighs “less than 249 grams” compared to the Neo’s scant 135 grams.

on the left, it is compact and folded; on the right, it is unfolded, ready for flight with visible propellers. The background is a gradient of light blue and white.

While the Neo was arguably pocketable, the Flip is significantly larger. That said, it is still designed to be easily portable and the folding propeller guards mean it won’t snag as easily on bags or clothes as the Mini might. When compacted, it looks very different than DJI drones of the past, becoming taller in exchange for compacting the width. DJI did not provide exact dimensions prior to announcement, but because of those built-in guards, the Flip does appear to take up more space when compacted than the Mini 4K does.

The best size example is the photo below, which shows the Flip next to DJI’s RC 2 controller:

A white drone with a circular propeller guard and a gray remote control rest on dry, textured ground scattered with pine needles.

While the Flip would at first seem like it would sit between the Neo and the Mini 4K, it’s actually more performant than both and is closer to a reimagined, updated Mini 4 Pro. The Neo’s Type 1/2 image sensor is capable of capturing 12-megapixel photos and up to 4K video at 30p and the Mini 4K’s Type 1/2.3 sensor is capable of capturing the same quality. Neither can shoot 4K HDR.

A drone equipped with a camera hovers mid-air against a backdrop of a cloudy sky and distant mountains. Its design includes protective guards around the propellers.

The Flip brings a major upgrade on that front. Its Type 1/1.3 is larger than the one found on both those other tiny drones, is equipped with DJI’s Dual Native ISO Fusion technology and features 2.4μm 4-in-1 pixel binning to improve performance in low-light at the cost of megapixel count (read: pixel binning). It appears to be the same sensor — or at least an updated version — as the one found in the aforementioned Mini 4 Pro. As a result, it can capture large 48-megapixel still photos and can shoot 4K at 60p in HDR as well as up to 100p in 4K in 10-bit D-Log.

The drone features a 24mm (35mm equivalent) lens with an f/1.7 aperture and, thanks to that aforementioned resolution, offers photographers up to 4x zoom (digital). DJI adds that the 4:3-aspect-ratio sensor provides enough space for vertical crops while maintaining a 2.7K resolution, allowing it to capture content for smartphone viewing and social media without any cropping — a digital workaround since the Flip doesn’t feature a rotating camera like some of DJI’s other drones.

Below are a few sample photos captured on the DJI Flip, courtesy of DJI:

A woman with shoulder-length hair and a checkered coat stands by a calm river. The background features a picturesque town with rustic buildings and hilly terrain under a clear blue sky.

A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and a checkered coat smiles while standing near a scenic lakeside village, surrounded by mountains. The view includes quaint buildings and a serene lake, with an overcast sky in the background.

A picturesque view of a historic town with a prominent blue church tower, surrounded by traditional buildings and nestled along a river. The backdrop features hills with a castle ruin under a clear, warm sky.

Aerial view of a picturesque village with a central church featuring a tall red-roofed tower. Surrounding it are lush vineyards, quaint houses, and rolling hills under a clear blue sky.

“DJI Flip makes flying simple, requiring no special training in most countries and regions. This palm-sized drone is lightweight and compact, making it an ideal travel companion for capturing any adventure,” DJI says.

“Whether hiking through forests or climbing steep peaks, DJI Flip makes flying simple. With one tap of the mode button, photographers can select from six intelligent shooting modes to capture impressive footage. AI Subject Tracking can also be enabled to keep a subject in the frame. Six intelligent shooting modes include Dronie, Circle, Rocket, Spotlight, Helix, and Boomerang.”

A person in a green jacket smiles while balancing a drone on their finger. Snow-capped mountains are visible in the background under a cloudy sky.

The DJI Flip’s Intelligent Flight Battery promises up to 31 minutes of flight time. It uses a different version of the flight battery than both the Neo and the Mini 4K. DJI also offers a set of ND filters that attach to the front of the lens.

A compact, foldable drone with four circular propellers and a white body is displayed on a dark surface. Next to it is its battery pack, also in white, with the DJI logo visible.

The Flip can be flown with or without a dedicated remote. It works with the company’s RC-N3 or RC 2 controllers but can also be used with the DJI Fly app or Voice Control. DJI adds that when it is connected to a phone, the drone’s captured audio goes through an algorithm that reduces noise and filters out the sound of the propellers. It also features a “Local Data Mode” which disconnects the Flip from the internet and ensures all data it captures stays only in the drone.

DJI says that when it is paired with the DJI RC-N3 or RC 2 remote controller, DJI O4 video transmission supports up to 13 km of 1080p/60fps video transmission.

A white drone and its gray remote controller rest on a rocky surface in an outdoor setting with a blurred background of golden grasses and shrubs. The controller has a screen, and the drone features a gimbal camera.

Since it’s technically an upgrade over both the Neo and the Mini 4K from last year, the DJI Flip is more expensive than both. The drone retails starting today for $439, $639 with an RC2 controller, and a “fly more” combo with additional batteries and accessories for $779. Prospectively, though, the Flip takes almost everything that made the Mini 4 Pro attractive and compresses it into a simpler package (although not smaller from a weight perspective) at a significant discount: the Mini 4 Pro debuted at $959 in 2023.

Image credits: DJI

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