This is the first direct comparison I have seen regarding head to head with the two Minis. It does show a real discrepancy between Mini 2 and Mini 3.

So I guess you believe us now?

dji will have their hands full with this one.

TheBoy Posted at 6-13 12:06
So I guess you believe us now?

Never said I didn’t believe anyone. But Im still waiting to see your post. One swallow doesn’t make a summer. So maybe you might add something here instead of just quipping all the time.

The Saint Posted at 6-13 12:11
dji will have their hands full with this one.

I think if somethings up they already know about it. But nothing ever gets expedited with dji. So if it can be improved then it will only come when FW is due to come out.

I watched the original post on this, and commented. It does appear to be a bit of a lottery whether you get a good one or not

Then there is this type of test.

Mobilehomer Posted at 6-13 12:20
Then there is this type of test.
https://youtu.be/xEH0l4XSxLA

Ive seen all his tests and even in his urban test both drones preform almost identically. So I don’t think he has a problem, and I also think those flying most of the time in city’s or urban may think they have a problem but it could also be down to the way they are flying and the area they’re flying in.

Blériot53 Posted at 6-13 12:18
I watched the original post on this, and commented. It does appear to be a bit of a lottery whether you get a good one or not

Its difficult to know , they only thing I know is mine doesn’t fly any better or worse than my Mini2.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-13 12:26
Its difficult to know , they only thing I know is mine doesn’t fly any better or worse than my Mini2.

You're probably one of the lucky ones then.  I'm still holding off for the time being. See what shakes out in a couple of months.  I still have two reliable drones to support

hallmark007 Posted at 6-13 12:11
Never said I didn’t believe anyone. But Im still waiting to see your post. One swallow doesn’t make a summer. So maybe you might add something here instead of just quipping all the time.

I can dig out the posts where you were telling me there was no issue, and that I must be doing something wrong, then admitting you'd not actually flown one...

Every other thread was about range.  Thats a whole flock of swallows.  I was looking for opportunities to do back to back videos with screen recording on, but the weather and work meant I haven't been able to do additional tests back to back with the screen recorders on.

But lets now dwell on that, I'm glad you are coming round to the fact there clearly is an issue for a significant number of owners.


Happy, and safe flying .


BTW, I've been away, so lost track of some threads, do you have yours yet, and if so, are you happy with it?

TheBoy Posted at 6-13 12:34
I can dig out the posts where you were telling me there was no issue, and that I must be doing something wrong, then admitting you'd not actually flown one...

Every other thread was about range.  Thats a whole flock of swallows.  I was looking for opportunities to do back to back videos with screen recording on, but the weather and work meant I haven't been able to do additional tests back to back with the screen recorders on.

post your video showing what we see above, that will help strengthen the cause. I have mine a long time and its fine.

Blériot53 Posted at 6-13 12:29
You're probably one of the lucky ones then.  I'm still holding off for the time being. See what shakes out in a couple of months.  I still have two reliable drones to support

Wouldn’t say lucky, I bought it to do what it does , I’d say there are some who are unlucky.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-13 12:41
Wouldn’t say lucky, I bought it to do what it does , I’d say there are some who are unlucky.

I appreciate the distinction

it really is on an individual basis.  can you imagine the horror of getting a brand new drone, arguable one of dji's finest, and you set out to recreate your favourite video sequences that you performed with your past/previous [inferior] dji drones only to find that your mini 3 pro is unable to complete the rounds no matter what you do?

The Saint Posted at 6-13 13:19
it really is on an individual basis.  can you imagine the horror of getting a brand new drone, arguable one of dji's finest, and you set out to recreate your favourite video sequences that you performed with your past/previous  dji drones only to find that your mini 3 pro is unable to complete the rounds no matter what you do?

Par for the course with dji ;+)

Nice find hallmark.    Seems like it was a very fair comparison and his channel poll was almost evenly split.

interesting information... thank for sharing...

He doesn't thave the indicator showing so there's no way to tell if he was aligning the remote with the drone correctly.

DAFlys Posted at 6-14 00:15
He doesn't thave the indicator showing so there's no way to tell if he was aligning the remote with the drone correctly.

You’re correct and thats true.

Does Mini 3 have disconnection issue with RC-N1 as well?

iamsachin Posted at 6-14 02:01
Does Mini 3 have disconnection issue with RC-N1 as well?

Apparently it doesn’t matter if you’re using either remote. Some not all and probably a lot less than we think say they are having problems. The fact its not the remote means it’s likely the craft.

iamsachin Posted at 6-14 02:01
Does Mini 3 have disconnection issue with RC-N1 as well?

I tested mine back to back between the two controllers and the N1 was slightly worse than the RM330 for me and the video feed was not as smooth either.  

hallmark007 Posted at 6-14 01:25
You’re correct and thats true.

Ive seen a few range tests recently that have not shown that view,  even Bill the drone reviewers video missed that.  

DAFlys Posted at 6-14 00:15
He doesn't thave the indicator showing so there's no way to tell if he was aligning the remote with the drone correctly.

This is true so really spoils the test a little but, it was the same for both flights, for all we know he had a really good alignment on the Mini 3 Pro and poor on the Mini 2 that would be a kicker lol or could have been the other way round, there's just no way to know, its one reason i take the tests without it showing with a pinch of salt.

Bashy Posted at 6-14 22:29
This is true so really spoils the test a little but, it was the same for both flights, for all we know he had a really good alignment on the Mini 3 Pro and poor on the Mini 2 that would be a kicker lol or could have been the other way round, there's just no way to know, its one reason i take the tests without it showing with a pinch of salt.

Why don’t you do a test and post your results

Bigplumbs Posted at 6-14 22:32
Why don’t you do a test and post your results

You already know why, ya condescending fool.

Bashy Posted at 6-14 22:29
This is true so really spoils the test a little but, it was the same for both flights, for all we know he had a really good alignment on the Mini 3 Pro and poor on the Mini 2 that would be a kicker lol or could have been the other way round, there's just no way to know, its one reason i take the tests without it showing with a pinch of salt.

Indeed thats all you can do.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-13 12:40
post your video showing what we see above, that will help strengthen the cause. I have mine a long time and its fine.

As I said in the quoted bit, Due to wind, rain and work, I have only ever done one back to back range test with them, and wasn't screen recording.

You and I know that flying the same areas regularly, you get a feel what your aircraft can do most of the time, but you also know the vocal fans here won't accept it unless they are done simultaneously.


Most polls, either here, YouTube, or others seem to put range issues at about 50% saying there experience little in the way of range issues, and about 50% saying there is.  That doesn't need screen shots to prove that, and won't be transmitter alignment or any other excuses.


I'm away with a Mini 2 owner friend currently, and he was interested in getting a Mini 3, so we went down to a nearby river, and I flew the Mini 3 at 25m down the river (which was lined with forest, which isn't great for signal), and lost video feed at 300m (though still had telemetry, but obviously couldn't fly it given the proximity of trees), he then took his Mini 2 down the same river at 25m, and made 600m with no issues.  Needless to say, he has decided he doesn't want a Mini 3 now, given its double the price.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-14 02:04
Apparently it doesn’t matter if you’re using either remote. Some not all and probably a lot less than we think say they are having problems. The fact its not the remote means it’s likely the craft.

I said as soon as I got mine that the antenna positioning was sub-optimal, due to the design changes.

This is why I think there won't be a proper fix for it, even though in the past they have down f/w tweaks to improve things.

TheBoy Posted at 6-15 01:30
As I said in the quoted bit, Due to wind, rain and work, I have only ever done one back to back range test with them, and wasn't screen recording.

You and I know that flying the same areas regularly, you get a feel what your aircraft can do most of the time, but you also know the vocal fans here won't accept it unless they are done simultaneously.

I don’t think mini 3 is double the price of the mini 2 at least on release it wasn’t. And take into account the improvements including a new and bigger sensor camera, it cannot be compared just like its twice the price. Its like saying the mini 3 is €299 cheaper than the Mavic 1 was.

Regarding this 50% that also is pie , its much more likely if you have a problem you will report it also there are many many more stories of people having issues flying in urban areas than Rural. We have also seen many tests showing in optimum conditions that djis advertised distances have been achieved.

But I do agree that some are having problems but I don’t think you nor I know the reasons or whether they can or cannot be tweaked. I personally don’t remember any O2/O3 drone being tweaked to improve stronger radio connection. Maybe video downlink but that doesn’t seem too be the problem here at least from what I read.

With regard to video above, some members here have noticed that while it blocked out at 600m there was nothing showing that RC was correctly positioned, I bring this up because some have said that it is different than RC N1 controllers so this could also be a problem.

With my own I haven’t found any problems except it goes quickly to orange sometimes but its minimal and recovers very quickly. I fly mainly Rural although I flew in Dublin City centre the other day with no signal problems but flights are strictly confined to max height 50m .

I think we will simply see optimizations without explanation going forward and that will be all, but hopefully it fixes for those who are having problems.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-15 01:56
I don’t think mini 3 is double the price of the mini 2 at least on release it wasn’t. And take into account the improvements including a new and bigger sensor camera, it cannot be compared just like its twice the price. Its like saying the mini 3 is €299 cheaper than the Mavic 1 was.

Regarding this 50% that also is pie , its much more likely if you have a problem you will report it also there are many many more stories of people having issues flying in urban areas than Rural. We have also seen many tests showing in optimum conditions that djis advertised distances have been achieved.

In the UK, the Mini 2 was £419 at launch, for the drone, and £549 for fly more.

The Mini 3 is £849 I think, or just over £1,000 for fly more.

So about double the cost.

Is it worth it? Horses for courses.  On the pro side, it has a lot more gimmicks (tracking, OA, vertical shooting) on that might appeal to some, and has a pretty decent camera.  Also, it's very impressive in the wind for such a small, light aircraft.  The Mini 2 has the advantages that its almost as good, lacks the signal integrity/range that clearly affects many of the Mini 3's (and boy admission, yours, but to a lesser extent) and is half the cost.  So when I'm recommending drones, more often than not, its hard to ignore the Mini 2 if the potential new owner doesn't need the extra gimmicks.

One of the recent-ish Mavic got a f/w update to improve signal integrity.  I get a feeling it might have been the Mini 2, very early on, so there is some hope.  But the Mini 2 has better antenna positioning than the Mini 3, so its always going to have an advantage, even if they can improve the receiver sensitivity and selectivity.

Yeah, Hendrik also posted it himself.
Quite a difference.

Perhaps this is something we are going to see much more of in consumer drones going forward.

Ensuring VLOS is adhered to is impossible for the powers that be to police.

Could putting pressure on manufacturers to nerf drone range be a way for them to enforce a VLOS environment?

Here in the UK I keep hearing Politicians referring to an "International Rules Based System" which to me sounds a lot like Global Geopolitics. So I imagine they see these rules as the future everywhere so expect it's coming to a town near you.

TheBoy Posted at 6-15 03:16
In the UK, the Mini 2 was £419 at launch, for the drone, and £549 for fly more.

The Mini 3 is £849 I think, or just over £1,000 for fly more.

Don’t be so ignorant, £849 is with dji RC, £709 with RC N1 and thats old tech smaller camera etc.

Its very hard to make any argument when someone is constantly spouting stuff that is just not true.
Ill leave it at that.

Geevo Posted at 6-15 03:59
Perhaps this is something we are going to see much more of in consumer drones going forward.

Ensuring VLOS is adhered to is impossible for the powers that be to police.

Conspiracies like that will continue to poke, but if you look at this rationally its not in anyones interest for drones to have poor signal including the powers that be. So that really is a non runner. I do hope those who are having problems get sorted soon.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-15 04:28
Conspiracies like that will continue to poke, but if you look at this rationally its not in anyones interest for drones to have poor signal including the powers that be. So that really is a non runner. I do hope those who are having problems get sorted soon.

They want you to fly VLOS and by forcing Manufacturers to nerf the signal strength they can somewhat enforce it. What is irrational about that?

Geevo Posted at 6-15 04:43
They want you to fly VLOS and by forcing Manufacturers to nerf the signal strength they can somewhat enforce it. What is irrational about that?

“What is irrational about that?“

So the authorities want dji to to nerf their signal but lie to customers about it. Im sure dji would object strenuously. There are standards in Europe “CE” UK “CA” US “FCC” of the reach of radio frequencies and dji are governed to follow those guidelines. But the flying VLOS rules are governed by the authorities in each region and are expected to be followed by users not dji its just not there job and if users believed that the authorities in every region could secretly tell companies to stifle products because they cannot do their jobs , well frankly that would be laughable. What’s next Cars motor bikes etc. Nah thats pure conspiracy fantasy.

hallmark007 Posted at 6-15 06:12
What’s next Cars motor bikes etc. Nah thats pure conspiracy fantasy.

Lol, well you can bet your last Euro that cars and bikes would surely have their speed governed if there was not such an ongoing money making opportunity from penalties using speed cameras.

You certainly have more faith in a global business player being open and honest about their products and any under the table restraints being put on them than I do but I hope you are right. I guess time will tell.

Geevo Posted at 6-15 10:04
Lol, well you can bet your last Euro that cars and bikes would surely have their speed governed if there was not such an ongoing money making opportunity from penalties using speed cameras.

You certainly have more faith in a global business player being open and honest about their products and any under the table restraints being put on them than I do but I hope you are right. I guess time will tell.

Its will have nothing to do with time, nothing underhanded has or will be done, you don’t happen to live in Russia …;+)