Just wondered what’s the different between say a Phantom 3 Pro and say a Mavic I mean I know the Mavic is compact etc so what’s the purpose of the phantom 3 being so big?

Many thanks

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"what’s the purpose of the phantom 3 being so big?"
To ensure the electronic fit inside, things get smaller and smaller month by month, what is possible today wasn't when the P3 was designed.
To ensure you can fly further away and still being within VLOS in order to comply with the rules in many countries.
To ensure a more stable aircraft, being heavy more forces would be required to influence the position/direction stability.
To ensure it won't get lost if you have a mess in your office ...

But all in all, Phantoms are not big, the Mavic's are just smaller.

"what’s the different between say a Mavic Air and say a Tello I mean I know the Tello is compact etc so what’s the purpose of the Mavic Air being so big?" - See the figure?

KedDK Posted at 2018-6-29 02:44
"what’s the purpose of the phantom 3 being so big?"
To ensure the electronic fit inside, things get smaller and smaller month by month, what is possible today wasn't when the P3 was designed.
To ensure you can fly further away and still being within VLOS in order to comply with the rules in many countries.

"To ensure you can fly further away and still being within VLOS in order to comply with the rules in many countries."

Yes, sometimes even the Phantom could do with being a bit bigger so that I can see it at the distances I want to fly!

How far away can you see a Mavic Air / Tello?

Nigel_ Posted at 2018-6-29 03:00
"To ensure you can fly further away and still being within VLOS in order to comply with the rules in many countries."

Yes, sometimes even the Phantom could do with being a bit bigger so that I can see it at the distances I want to fly!

"How far away can you see a Mavic Air / Tello?"
If you ask me, i have no idea, i only have the P4P.
My guess is that the general rule also count on those models, they would seem to be clearly visible very far out until the moment you blink your eyes, then they just vanish from sight just like magic...
It doesn't matter if i am 200m out 60m high, or 600m out 100m high, it just do that trick now and then. I can hear it, i know it is just there, but my, it is hard to locate again when it happen.

My guess is that the Mavic would have a visible range one third less than the Phantom and the Tello can possible disappear within the 100m range if it hold up to the specs of range. But a pure guess it is.

KedDK Posted at 2018-6-29 04:14
"How far away can you see a Mavic Air / Tello?"
If you ask me, i have no idea, i only have the P4P.
My guess is that the general rule also count on those models, they would seem to be clearly visible very far out until the moment you blink your eyes, then they just vanish from sight just like magic...

I thought I might be able to work it out, but I think this is probably quite inaccurate.

Tello: ‎98mm x 41mm = 4018 mm2
Mavic Air:  335 mm x 83mm = 27805 mm2  = Tello x 7
Phantom:  400 mm x 180 mm = 72000 mm2 = Tello x 18 or Mavic Air x 2.6

So I think the Phantom can be seen at approximately 7x the distance of the Tello and 2.6x the distance of the Mavic Air.  Assuming that the Phantom can be seen to 200m before your magic starts to work, that would put the Tello at 200/7 = 28m and the Mavic Air at 200/2.6 = 77m so neither can be easily seen at our 400ft height limit even directly above while the Phantom can easily be seen as long as it is close by at 400ft.

Sometimes the Phantom can be seen at 500m given the right lighting conditions and background, but 200m seems more typical for regaining sight of it.

actually, if you see the world on your phone/tab/etc  BELOW,  it means your drone (phantom/tello/mavic/etc) are still OK so you don`t need to have eye contact...all you need is screen...
but on the other hand, whats the ponit of screen (to see what your dron see) , if the range is only as far as you can actually see your drone!!

smirnoff9969 Posted at 2018-6-29 11:15
actually, if you see the world on your phone/tab/etc  BELOW,  it means your drone (phantom/tello/mavic/etc) are still OK so you don`t need to have eye contact...all you need is screen...
but on the other hand, whats the ponit of screen (to see what your dron see) , if the range is only as far as you can actually see your drone!!

Not sure why you say this to OP as this was not a part of what OP asked?
I don't use any phone or tab but i think that the point of the screen is that you can see and frame your shots, this (well not quite Tello) is after all flying cameras and used for this by most users.
The point for not flying further away than you can actually see the aircraft and it's position would be to comply with applicable laws in most countries.

well in that case, why the range of some drones are more that 100 m??

smirnoff9969 Posted at 2018-6-29 23:50
well in that case, why the range of some drones are more that 100 m??

Because there would be no reason to restrict the customers there has no restrictions more than already done and further to make us that practice civil disobedience happy flyers.

Btw. get used to click the reply as without, your reply goes to OP and not the post you actually respond to.