I have had my Phantom 4 PRO+ V2 now for 2-3 weeks and honestly, I regret my decision that I bought this thing. I have a Love-Hate relationship with DJI and while I enjoy using the products in general (apart from stupid stuff like having to connect-reconnect phones and when flying with googles), when they work they are usually great - but I am also not shy to criticize DJI when I feel it’s deserved.

I was relatively happy with my P4 . It was overall ok - apart from one issue I had with the transmitter antenna and it had to be sent back. My Mavic Air was lost due to the fact that I took off without GPS lock and it lost connectivity at a distance of 30m in line of sight. I take the blame, as i knew that the Mavic Air’s transmission system has poor reliability in our part of the world. Frankly, as a flying camera (note: not as drone. It’s nicely engineered) I found the Mavic Air rather disappointing. Overblown whites, poor contrast in harsh light conditions and poor and/or lack of controls.  The WIFI was sometimes ok, but laggy more than often - and therefore not reliable as flying camera. When you hit the record button and the camera starts or stops shooting 10 seconds later, then things become frustrating. WIFI interference...

Now my experience with my new P4 Pro+ V2:

Controller gave me the Beeps of Death on a few occasions during the startup. Finally I had a warning associated with the beeps that sticks were not in neutral. I recalibrated the controller and that seemed to have solve the problem. On a side note: a friend of mine had the Beeps of Death on day 3 of his new P4 Pro V2 as well. His Phantom was replaced after a bit of shouting and “positive” pressure at the DJI Shop here in Hong Kong. He wasn’t in his best of moods anyway, when he found out that his Googles would not connect to his new drone -nor his Clearsky device.

It’s is mind boggling that DJI has the arrogance to release a product, when it can’t connect to its own products, which will have to wait for future firmware updates. DJI needs competition. And that sooner that later.

I wanted to go wireless and decided to buy the PLUS version of the Phantom . What a mistake. First of all, my existing Googles will not connect wirelessly to my device and I have to wait for a firmware update. At least there is a HDMI port built into the transmitter, so not too much a problem. But the main issue: I am used to smoothness of an iOS device - and I was shocked how much worse the experience with the DJI Go app is on the built in Android Device. It’s laggy, very often not recognize touches and it even CRASHES.

A few days ago i decided to do a range test to compare the new P4 V2 with OccuSnyc to my old one P4 with Lightbridge. On my old Phantom I got 3.7 km. Before someone gets a heart attack that I flew beyond line of sight, let me assure you, that this was from a small hill over water, and there were absolutely no low flying airplanes, helicopters, air balloons or alien spaceships. So on my new P4 with Occusync I got out to slightly under 3 km - not really an improvement  :rolleyes:

Then the mayhem started. When I wanted to fly back, I noticed the the distance of my drone indicated on the DJI Go app wasn’t changing, however on the screen (glitchy as it was due to the range) i could see that the drone was flying. So I decided to change the camera settings. To no avail. Shortly after that I received a message that the App wasn’t responding and I could either wait or restart it (or something like that). I left it on and clicked on the going home button on the transmitter. Unfortunately the drone seemed to be flying extremely slowly -if at all- and somehow not towards the right direction. I mamanged to stop the “go home” and tried to fly back manually. But when I input a bit of yaw, the drone was all of a sudden spinning like crazy. 2 more warning of the unresponsive Go App popped up and finally I just shut the transmitter off to try to reboot. After its restart i was able to connect back to my Phantomwhich now initiated a correct Go Home towards the home point.

Drift is an issue, too. I noticed there is an ever so slightly and small drift in yaw of my Phantom. It is hard to do long exposure shots. For the record: I managed to do long term exposures on my old P4 of up to 8s. Sensational if you ask me, how well my old P4 worked. The new one can’t compare to that performance for whatever reason (3 compass calibrations done already). It will drift and make long exposures almost impossible.

Later that morning, the final straw. While shooting video and taking pics, my screen in my Googles went bananas. Then I looked at the screen of my transmitter and saw, it was glitching like mad. See the attached video. The drone was still responding and I managed to fly it back with the video recording starting and stopping randomly

I tried it again later (I thought it might me an overheating issue) but it is not. Even a factory reset didn’t solve the problem. The Phantom will go back.

So, now on the reliability of DJI Products among the devices of our group of friends:

Inspire Gimbal and Transmitter send back and repaired multiple times

2 P4 were sent back for repairs

A P3 bought new last year has a failed gimbal as of last week.

Mavic Air disconnected at 30 m and it’s sitting unrecoverable somewhere

My friends new P4 Pro V2 replaced after a few days

My almost P4 Pro V2 will have to go back as well.

Lacking Firmware updates to make existing products compatible.

Even if some of the hardware related issues are attributed to bad luck, I would for instance call the performance of the DJI Go App on Androids own built-in Device of the Pro Plus model absolutely appalling. How on earth can a laggy, buggy software released like this? Like others have pointed out, this has been apparently an issue for a long time. Anecdotal side note: this morning my friend told me over breakfast that he rather uses his iPad Mini and considering selling off his CrystalSky because it just can’t be compared to the smoothness and stability of the iOS counterpart.

And for instance the latest issue with the Goggles. It is absolutely beyond ridiculous, that DJI advertises the P4 PRO V2 to be used in conjunction with the Goggles, with the small footnote on their website, that presently only on the Racing Goggles are supported and a future firmware update is needed for the standard Goggles. The same apparently applies to the CrystalSky Screen.

And how can someone with the right mindset and attitude release a product in that stage? When a product is launched, it should be truly ready and all company build accessories should connect to right away. Meaning a proper Firmware should be ready at launch day. End of story.

I can follow your points so much, i don't have any idea how many items DJI sell but when follow here it sounds like way to much have to go for repair or replacement for all kind of strange issues, many of them appearing after firmware upgrades. I think there's a lot more than we see here because things are being handled directly through the stores or DJI without our knowledge.
Taking account that many might not even realize that their purchases are flying around with issues simply because they don't know better and all appear impressive as long it is the minor issues they are hit by.

Not that long ago one of the threads showing a brand new Phantom that in the end of the gimbal initialization had a screaming sound that just made the hair rise, one of the replies was "that is normal, they do that" ... The one replied clearly have one (or more) with same issue and took it for nothing, had the not been other replies the customer with this new item also might had ended believing that is alright!
I bought my P4P+ a year ago, amazing machine, then after a few weeks i upgraded after i had a annoying "upgrade required" all the time but at the same time stating "If you are not satisfied with this update, you can revert to older firmware using DJI Assistant 2". It got a lot of minor but annoying issues, unstable hover and very reduced range but despite the revert possibility mentioned in the upgrade notice, no fallback was possible (not any that solved it all). Have i not had a few weeks brilliant flying i possibly just have thought that is how they was and just bothered having spend that much money on something that wasn't better.
In the end of October i lost patience waiting for a new FW that would make it great again and send it away for rep, i got it back mid December (1½ month), the store delayed things a few days in both ends but still a long time, what i got back was not repaired but replaced and it would at very first use show that not only had it the very same annoying issues (and same FW that spoiled the first) but it also had some serious issues added, it was flyable but every flight i was excited if it would end up fatal but i had a lot i wanted to shot over the last of the winter and spring and finally the 7th i got it shipped again for rep with an expectation it would not take more than max 2 weeks. Today it still has status as being "under repair" even i several times has informed them that i need to be flying on the 4th of July, i hardly believe it is going to happen!

But well it only will give some more bad reputation if i am without on the 4th. as a big "come together" meeting will have those that know i have a P4P would wonder why it is not brought along and in use and all i can to is tell the story and make the bad reputation spread.
I really hope that when i get it/something back that it will be working just fantastic again, but really i have my doubts and fear it is not over yet. I hardly can sleep at night for worrying over this and the way the things are done at this company, never had i experienced anything like this.

Sorry to posting the life story of a Phantom, really all i would say is to this part of your posting: "Pro Plus model absolutely appalling. How on earth can a laggy, buggy software released like this? Like others have pointed out, this has been apparently an issue for a long time", the truth is that it actually has been running very good until latest release of April the 12th. (+V1) but in the latest release of both CrystalSky and the+RC it has had this lagging response and crashing app, but hopefully there is a fix around the corner, also for the +V2.0.
I actually don't know if it already has been fixed on the CrystalSky, they had an update just a few days ago.

All the best luck to all P4P & + owners out there with issues, may it all be fixed very soon.

KedDK Posted at 2018-6-30 13:33
I can follow your points so much, i don't have any idea how many items DJI sell but when follow here it sounds like way to much have to go for repair or replacement for all kind of strange issues, many of them appearing after firmware upgrades. I think there's a lot more than we see here because things are being handled directly through the stores or DJI without our knowledge.
Taking account that many might not even realize that their purchases are flying around with issues simply because they don't know better and all appear impressive as long it is the minor issues they are hit by.

Wow, thank you for your story. That was a very informative and eye opening read.

I believe that when DJI is selling their own screens or tablet, then there should not be many compromises. They should be running as smooth and most importantly as RELIABLE as any third party device - at least at the time the product is released. It should be the benchmark, the paramount of user experience. Not a compromised one. It’s their own device, their product.

Luckily for me, my experience I had with DJI customer support at the DJI Flagship shop in Hong Kong yesterday was much better. In fact, it was OUTSTANDING!

I walked in and headed straight to the support team, 3 days ahead of my scheduled appointment. I was entertained immediately. It was 11:55 in the morning. 2 minutes after looking at the transmitter, i was informed by the friendly staff that i would get a replacement and should come back at 2 pm to pick up the transmitter after the engineer set it up.

I left the shop and went for lunch. At 12:20 I received a sms that my device is ready. 25 min after I walked into the shop. It simply can’t be much better than that. Also in the past, repairs were handled very professionally and done in a timely manner. It probably helps to live in a city which is 30 km away from Shenzhen, where the drones are being built.

I hope that new FWs will improve the crafts and make the whole flying experience more enjoyable.

Good luck with your drone and have a nice Sunday and 4th of July.