So I've watched a couple of YouTube vids on the Smart Controller vs the standard remote using a cell phone interface. Seems that some suggest that they are getting better range from the standard controller vs the Smart Controller.
Was comtemplating the Smart Controller but with the recent upgrade issues, I am second guessing this. If there is a range difference between the two, then the decision is hard no.


Anyone have any experiece they can share between the two.

FWIW - I'm flying an Air 2S


Thanks!

I FCC mode the Pro controller has 2W of power while the standard controller has "only" 0.4W.

The Mavic 3 in FCC transmit at 2W (O3+) so with the standard controller you have 2W on the drone and 0.4W in the controller but with the pro controller you have 2W on both sides, so communication will be better.

Apart from that, antennas on the pro controller are bigger, so will receive the signal a bit better.

On the other hand in CE mode both the drone and the controller are limited to 0.1W in 2.4Ghz and only 0.025W (yep, a joke) in 5.8Ghz, so unless you use the FCC mod, which is 100% recommendable, the performance will be the same on both controllers (except for the bigger antenna, which at that power will give an insignificant boost).

PS: Sorry, thought was about the M3; the Air2S uses O3, it works at 1W in FCC so when paired with the standard controller (0.4W) isn't delivering it's full potential. It will also benefit from the increased transmission power of the pro controller and the bigger antennas for reception.

I'm also interested in the pro controller just to get the 2W transmission, but at this point is too expensive for me so I'm flying with the standard controller and the FCC mod wich is already a blast with the M3.

Signal strength and range are much better when I use the DJI RC Pro with the Air 2S.  I'm also seeing better range when using the DJI RC Pro with the Mini 3 as opposed to the RC controller that came with the Mini 3.  RC Pro has 1000 Nits vice 700 on RC.  RC Pro has HDMI out whereas RC doesn't. You can install 3rd party Apps on RC Pro but not on the RC.  Sure it cost more but in my opinion it is well worth having the extra functions as well as better signal strength.  

If you mean the Smart controller and not the RC Pro, then there were some people complaining that the Smart controller had poor range,  personally I never found it to be worse than the standard controllers.

Smart controller has the same output than the standard RC, so range will be about the same depending on how big are the internal antennas, which IDK.

Thanks for the replies. Seems if you want to extend/improve range then the RC Pro is a better option over the RC and the RC and the standard controller are about the same.