I have put DJI FPV drone through: FPV racing, freestyle and cinematography to show why current FPV pilots hate this drone so much.

FPV racing: DJI goes at 100kmph and that's like standing still next to the real racing drone.

FPV Freestyle: Pulling tricks with expensive and fragille drone just does not make any sense to me.. and I even couldn't pull a proper dive with the DJI FPV Drone. Even in full manual acro mode DJI does not give you real manual control of the drone to do precise movements. It feels like there is so much software trickery going on just to keep the thing in the air trying to conpesate all propwash and bad tune.

Cinematic FPV: again not precise enough to pull a smooth cinematic shots. Too big and no prop guards to fly close to people and objects to make an exciting video. It needs two cameras, one for FPV at 60fps, auto exposure and one for cinematic settings with 24-30fps, motion blur and locked exposure. I have attached a second camera but...



And yet even the DJI FPV is not good in a popular FPV use.  I have been flying the DJI FPV drone almost everyday for the whole two weeks I had it.. It's just stupid fun to fly even for an experience pilot. Just flying with HD video for long distance worry free with DJI failsafe. Even more fun with the motion controller it feels completely like a video game. And DJI must add goggles and motion controller support to Mavic drones as it's just too good and too much fun to be exclusive for the FPV drone only.   

Haters gonna be haters.

I absolutely love mine.  I have really had great fun with it.  

"It's just stupid fun to fly even for an experience pilot."

Exactly the way I feel.

Love the video!. I agree with all your points.

I was initially frustrated since I couldn't activate my drone for over week after receiving it. Once I was able to fly the drone, I fell in love with it.

Thanks for the excellent video.

I love mine. Don’t care about flips and acro, not impressed. Don’t really want to make epic movies either. I just like to fly. It’s perfect for that.

Buster1 Posted at 4-28 12:04
I love mine. Don’t care about flips and acro, not impressed. Don’t really want to make epic movies either. I just like to fly. It’s perfect for that.

Exactly. I feel like the acro mode is useless on this drone as  doing all "regular FPV drone" stuff..

What DJI FPV drone does the best is just flying in sports mode and enjoying the experience.

And DJI should enable goggles and motion controller compatibility with Mavic drones for the exact reason too.. just to enable flying with goggles in sports mode without any acro manual fpv nonsense. There are cheap and durable freestyle drones to fly acro, if we want.

Jealousy!!

Hello there Originalas. Good day and thank you for sharing your valued insights with regards to this matter. Again, thank you for your support and fly safe always.

... often it is not the drone itself that is hated, but rather the fact that DJI does not make the Virtual Fly app available to Android users at all !!!
Flying in M-mode without being able to practice it beforehand is actually not very pleasant ...
You can also formulate: "I hate M-Mode when I first find out how to use it in the air ..." ...   

I can fly mine just as one of my freestyle rigs. No complaints here at all. Good speed, handling and a lot better battery life than a 6s or 4s lipo. Obviously the long range carbon fibre kwads have a silly long flight time with a big Lithium Ion, but certainly glad I bought this one. A lot of people just don't take the time to learn or compare it to a freestyle kwad - which it is not. Some just hate DJI.

Its the marmite theory in action.

CoreyB10 Posted at 4-28 23:13
I can fly mine just as one of my freestyle rigs. No complaints here at all. Good speed, handling and a lot better battery life than a 6s or 4s lipo. Obviously the long range carbon fibre kwads have a silly long flight time with a big Lithium Ion, but certainly glad I bought this one. A lot of people just don't take the time to learn or compare it to a freestyle kwad - which it is not. Some just hate DJI.

Clearly you did not have a proper freestyle drone yet.

There are so much obvious wobbles and prop wash on the DJI FPV drone and 5-7min acro nothing to write about..   Even my budget 4 inch long range feels way more agile, powerful and locked even it's built for max flight time and not performance at all. Does 10 min with a tiny battery being 250g build. And does +30 min with liion. Take a note, it can not do both at the same time. Same goes for the DJI FPV it can not be a great freestyle or racing drone as it's simply too big and heavy being built as that 20 min cruising drone at the same time.

It’s really not difficult to understand....

It’s design as a hybrid, to be easy and fun to fly and use.
It’s not designed to be the best acro , freestyle or camera drone.  

We have this in all product sectors.
Consider the Porsche Cayenne , it’s not the best suv, 4x4 or sports car - it’s a bit of everything.   

Even drones, many are compromises between out n out race, freestyle and long range.  

If you want something that excels in one area - look for a product that specializes in that area.  
As I said, it’s not hard ....
But easier to complain  I guess  that dji didn’t build YOUR dream drone.  

Originalas Posted at 4-29 00:13
Clearly you did not have a proper freestyle drone yet.

There are so much obvious wobbles and prop wash on the DJI FPV drone and 5-7min acro nothing to write about..   Even my budget 4 inch long range feels way more agile, powerful and locked even it's built for max flight time and not performance at all. Does 10 min with a tiny battery being 250g build. And does +30 min with liion. Take a note, it can not do both at the same time. Same goes for the DJI FPV it can not be a great freestyle or racing drone as it's simply too big and heavy being built as that 20 min cruising drone at the same time.

Been flying FPV freestyle for almost 4yrs now. My comments are based on real life and what I have flown so far - Armattan Chameleon, Badger, Reverb, Apex 4", HGLRC Wind5.....I do not need to list any others. It has a unique purpose in my fleet, I bought it to provide something the others can't. Yes there are wobbles and issues but it's bound to do these due to the way it's been built and what it weighs. Everyone will have their own opinion on how and what they think it should fly like. This is exactly my point. For what it is, it does it well. Accept it's bad points and limitations and what you have is a good all rounder. It's not a bando basher, it's not a racer or true freestyler, but it can do it. I like it and I enjoy flying it. It's as simple as that.

I think to address the topic title 'why all the hate?' we also have to address the elephant in the room  - social media and particularly YouTube.

YouTubers have to create content, there the way to get more views/subscribers is not to have balanced / reasonable opinions its to create **strong** reactions - positive or negative.
So... we get this is  BEST drone ever or this is the WORST drone ever  (even the OP's video title tries to provoke with GREAT and HATE)
these youtubers also pander to the audience , if you are an FPV hobby channel - you'll go with the DJI haters, if you're a product reviewer - its the best, the drone that does everything.

then, of course, they want to make more contents... hence why a youtuber can put out a video entitled - '5 reasons the DJI FPV is the perfect drone', and next week '5 reasons why you should never buy the DJI FPV' - be under no illusion, they dont really have an opinion they just want views.

lets face it, most of them have now moved on to the Air2s, many have moved on from that and are now on to rumours of a Mavic 3.
its all just this weeks content - so make it loud and bold, then move on...

as for the fpv community - partly some are miffed its not what they were hoping for, and partly its 'affirmation bias' ... they've invested alot into the hobby , both time and money - so there is bound to be kick back for an easy way into the hobby, for less 'dedicated' flyers - its totally understandable.

but, lets face it,  Le Drib can fly the DJI FPV better than many will ever with a purpose built acro. (same can be said for cinematatic pros vs amateurs)
its down to skills, and practice... not just having the 'right' gear.

anyway, all the fuss is (thankfullly) already starting to diminish, social media is moving on,  and people are just getting on with flying what they want.
Im sure the dji fpv will bring many into the hobby, some will move on to other fpv drones, others will fly casually, just enjoying the view.
... both are absolutely fine and valid reasons

There are a lot of bad custom drones, like the majority..   especially, older models just 1-2 years ago.

Though there are simply amazing builds, especially because of the 250g limit and filtering. Some new models do feel like flying in an arcade game now. Perfect tune, zero prop wash!

And it's simple physics, you just can't make 5" 800 grams drone compete with 4" 250g one.
Same goes for cinematic use DJI FPV is just too fat, all good cinewhoops are 3" and they are going even smaller with naked gopro now.
And all beginner drones are light, cheap and crash proof.. if DJI would have made DJI FPV mini maybe it would have been a perfect beginner drone.

So for me it did not feel like a great beginner drone. Definitely not a performance model but more like a really nice cruiser. Like a cruiser motorcycle just flying on a weekend and enjoying the views.

I don't hate it. In fact, it's got a couple big advantages over traditional FPV drones even besides the full-turnkey-solution advantage. The in-goggle video downlink is state-of-the-art quality. Probably only the military has anything comparable or better, literally. Even the DJI DIY digital system, as good as it is, isn't as good as it is on the FPV drone. The range is much better and more reliable as well. It also has the adjustable camera angle. That's a huge advantage over my Betaflight quads, where the cam angle is still fixed.

So it's got a lot of good stuff in it. But it's got a lot of problems right now too, the dodgy broken firmware which makes it a hassle to activate and setup, and the bad PID tune are the worst ones. Having to depend on DJI to fix things like that is probably another source of the hate and what puts some of them on the shelf.

But there's a good reason for that, it's not just sour grapes. It's been more than 6 weeks now and there's still no acknowledgement from DJI of the problems, and no firmware update. With those kinds of major problems that it has right now, that's unacceptable if you're using it as part of making your living, for example. So I would never recommend it for a commercial operation because of that. For hobby use, it's just annoying, but if it's your bread and butter, that endangers the parts of your business that depend on it. For commercial use, I recommend a traditional Betaflight/F4-F7 quad with GoPro for the footage and not the FPV drone.

When I get the means to replace mine, I probably will if a firmware update is out by that time that fixes the major problems. I crashed mine and glued it back together, so I have it to fly until it finally breaks completely.

But it's really not bad, but it's definitely a 1.0 product. There are a fair number of things that need to get fixed before it gets more widely adopted, IMO. And for commercial use, it's straight up not recommended at this point.

thetechnobear Posted at 4-29 01:56
It’s really not difficult to understand....

It’s design as a hybrid, to be easy and fun to fly and use.

Well said.

So many of the initial haters ended up making reviews, how to's and good vs bad videos about the DJI FPV, They are just trying to go with what they think will give them more views and subs, and I think some were a little bitter at first because DJI did not consider them for getting a free one or to consult with.

technobear hit the nail on the head, it doesn't need to be the best at one thing or everything for it to be a good product, even within the custom style FPV products they have strong and weak points, for me I don’t plan on thrashing it around and trying to level up my freestyle skills with this, that’s what my freestyle quads are for, this will be more for the semi freestyle, long range cruising, relaxed days tool and I have the option of going into the normal modes and getting some Mavic style shots as well.

More good videos after the hype is gone. Exactly the same points.  

Originalas Posted at 5-4 03:20
More good videos after the hype is gone.  Exactly the same points.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9P1-GesFOQ

Agree, this is a good review. He highlights the good and bad pretty well, IMO.

Oh my god you hit it on the head ! .. It's totally FUN  I only use motion controller , I never even tried the controller that came with it !

haters gonna hate

how can he fly his 'real' fpv pretty well, yet flies the dji fpv aroud like he has never flown a drone before?
no joke, Ive seen beginners fly the dji fpv with more 'confidence' than this guy, who has a ton of videos flying other fpvs.

I reckon, he 'bought' this for trash talk content, knowing full well he was going to return it... so had to fly it really careful to ensure he could return it.


I thought Matt's (video above) was really fair and nicely balanced, recognising who is likely to enjoy the dji fpv and who is not.

thetechnobear Posted at 5-17 12:08
how can he fly his 'real' fpv pretty well, yet flies the dji fpv aroud like he has never flown a drone before?
no joke, Ive seen beginners fly the dji fpv with more 'confidence' than this guy, who has a ton of videos flying other fpvs.

It's actually really weird to fly the DJI FPV drone coming from the real FPV model. Especially in Normal/Sports mode.  It's like constantly combating all the "help features".

Exactly, like riding a self balancing scooter for the first time.. even if you can ride the real one wheel bicycle it's just too weird to trust the device to self balance and ride.. just like it took several batteries to understand the DJI FPV modes and let the drone fly instead of combating auto roll, yaw mixing in every turn.

Main reason is YouTubers having to bring out content and slagging something off, gets them as many views as praising something and then people believe everything YouTuber and they make a video and on and on

I love my DJI FPV and I love my Avato, and as long as you know the limitations and benefits of each, you can use them to the maximum of their abilities and have lots of fun


I’m just tying with buying a proper FPV racing drone, 5 inch but I’m worried about being able to fly far away and not returning to home if I lose signal which are other great selling benefits of the DJI FPV drones

djiuser_QpVALi74DytD Posted at 3-31 02:58
Main reason is YouTubers having to bring out content and slagging something off, gets them as many views as praising something and then people believe everything YouTuber and they make a video and on and on

I love my DJI FPV and I love my Avato, and as long as you know the limitations and benefits of each, you can use them to the maximum of their abilities and have lots of fun

And promote rubbish like their 5" inch outdated FPV drones. That are simply being promoted because of the affiliation with companies making them.

So it's nice to see regulations are cracking down on those 5" flyers. As there is no reason to get 5" over a much smaller 2.5-3.5 inch model. Especially, when we don't need to carry a gopro then DJI O3 shoots as good video for any casual use even some professional videos can be done with the O3. Here I'm flying my tiny FPV drones under 250g and could not be happier.



Does not excuse the bad design of DJI FPV and Avata drones though. As you should not be flying miles away with FPV anyway. If you are flying in a park there are zero issues to come and pick the drone even if it crashes.  There is no reason to fly far.

No hate from me, it’s absolutely exhilarating. But I’m not fling Manual, only Normal and Sport. I’m very happy with the quality of the inbuilt camera, so I’m not upgrading.

Here’s my last flight for me every Saturday morning I go out and fly. It’s my opportunity to see things from a view point I’d never get to see otherwise. And I don’t care to get any other sort of FPV drone, this does what I want out of the box and no mucking around with building etc.