Hello.

This topic is for those who are more on the fence on what to choose between the 'DJI RC' and the 'DJI RC-N1' controllers.

When I bought the 'DJI Mavic 3 Pro' I had no other choices than just getting the 'DJI RC' controller with it. However, I found several issues with that controller to the point that I got irritated over it. So, I ended up by buying the 'DJI RC-N1' controller recently to use that with my 'Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5' foldable smartphone (with a nice tablet holder) which is a very good and powerful smartphone. Yes, it's important that you use the 'DJI RC-N1' controller with a smartphone that is more up to date and isn't so much affected by heat or overheating if you are going to use them outside on hot sunny days in the most effective way.

Here are the advantages with the 'DJI RC-N1' controller in combination with a high-end smartphone for me.

1. In my case, my Z Fold5 have a 1750 nits 'Dynamic AMOLED 2X' screen which is 1050 nits more than what the screen on the 'DJI RC' controller have (it has 700 nits). This will have a HUGE impact on how good you see the screen outside in bright sunlight.

2. My Z Fold5 have an AMOLED screen which will be much better in sunlight (to begin with) over the LCD screen that is on the 'DJI RC' controller.

3. I have 7.6 inch screen now with my Z Fold5 instead of only 5.5 inch with the 'DJI RC' controller. You will see things much easier and much clearer with a bigger screen.

4. The operation of the 'DJI Fly' app is running super smooth and very fast (no lag) in combination with the powerful CPU the Z Fold5 uses. The use of the 'DJI Fly' app on the 'DJI RC' controller is slow and a laggy mess because of a poor CPU.

5. You have the ability to use the 'DJI RC-N1' controller with bigger tablets (with a tablet holder) if you want. With the 'DJI RC' controller, you are stuck to only the 5.5 inch LCD screen.

6. You can use whatever drone app on your smartphone that is compatible with the drone you are using. The 'DJI RC' controller doesn't allow you to install 3rd party apps at all.

7. You use the internal storage to the smartphone instead of the RC controllers internal storage (8GB total where like 2.3 GB are available at most) or the MicroSDXC card on the controller. So you save some money as you don't need to buy a MicroSDXC card.

8. You get a slightly better signal strenght with the 'DJI RC-N1' controller over the 'DJI RC' controller because of the antenna that slides out when you have to put a smartphone / tablet holder into the holder there.

9. You get the 'DJI Fly' app updated right away when there is a new version out over having to wait on a firmware update to the 'DJI RC' controller (that can take some time) to have the new 'DJI Fly' app version on the 'DJI RC' controller.

10. You have the ability to do live streaming (1080p@5Mbit video bitrate) with the 'DJI RC-N1' controller in combination with a smartphone. The 'DJI RC' controller isn't powerful enough to let you do that.

11. You have a longer battery life with the 'DJI RC-N1' controller (6 hours) over the 'DJI RC' controller (4 hours).

12. It's way cheaper.

Here are the advantages with the 'DJI RC' controller over the 'DJI RC-N1' controller.

1. You already have a screen to use right away. It saves you "some" hassle.

2. No extra cables are needed.

3. No need for a smartphone to be able to fly your drone.

4. It's way lighter to hold over the 'DJI RC-N1' with a smartphone on it.

5. It has a hairy bit better feeling on the joysticks.

6. It has 2 more extra buttons. It also has more buttons that you can customize over the 'DJI RC-N1' controller.

That's all of the advantages I have found with both the 'DJI RC-N1' and the 'DJI RC' controllers.

So in short, if you have a relatively new and good smartphone today, you will have a much better experience with the 'DJI RC-N1' controller with the smartphone. If you have a bad smartphone, then it's just better to use the 'DJI RC' controller.

Greetings from 'Dronekongen Fra Ålesund'.

Jeez, the profile had my name wrong when I created this topic. So it should now be corrected (I hope).

1) DJI RC power is the same or slightly higher (requires accurate direction). Tested with instruments.
2) The bright screen of a smartphone in the sun causes a lot of heat.
3) Your smartphone becomes discharged, which sometimes causes inconvenience. And on a walk you need to recharge it.
4) DJI RC works for a long time on a single charge.
5) DJI RC has no problems with its usability.
6) DJI RC - improved control sticks.
7) Not everyone needs third-party programs, but this is a nice bonus.

Drone.Hunter Posted at 8-30 06:24

1) DJI RC power is the same or slightly higher (requires accurate direction). Tested with instruments. 2) The bright screen of a smartphone in the sun causes a lot of heat. 3) Your smartphone becomes discharged, which sometimes causes inconvenience. And on a walk you need to recharge it. 4) DJI RC works for a long time on a single charge. 5) DJI RC has no problems with its usability. 6) DJI RC - improved control sticks. 7) Not everyone needs third-party programs, but this is a nice bonus.

1. The power on my RC is not that great. With active use of the drone and the controller, the RC's battery has been down to like 75% after around 40 mins of usage.

2. Yes, that is correct, but there are smartphones out there that will handle heat pretty well. Samsung's smartphones are usually good at that.

3. A smartphone that has a good battery life will usually not be a problem when it comes to using it with the DJI RC-N1 controller.

4. With the battery life I have on my DJI RC controller, I will get max 3 hours at most before the battery is empty.

5. DJI RC is slow and laggy compared to how smooth it is with a high-end smartphone on the DJI RC-N1. The difference is HUGE.

6. Yes, the joysticks on the DJI RC are a little better than the joysticks on the DJI RC-N1.

7.  Yes, it's a nice bonus. But using a smartphone don't limit you in getting new updates to the DJI Fly app right away which will be a nice bonus for someone as well.

2) People usually use existing phones rather than buying an expensive and flashy phone for the remote
3) The screen at maximum brightness is the main and strong consumer of energy.
4) That's 6 drone batteries for 3 hours of flight and your phone is still full of charge.
5) Yes, but not critical.
7) This is also not critical, and also, it is not always necessary to quickly make updates, as there may be unpleasant nuances.

A huge plus of the DJI RC-N1 is its low cost and the ability to install large tablets.
Everything else is a matter of taste for everyone and does not play a decisive role.

Drone.Hunter Posted at 8-30 07:31
2) People usually use existing phones rather than buying an expensive and flashy phone for the remote
3) The screen at maximum brightness is the main and strong consumer of energy.
4) That's 6 drone batteries for 3 hours of flight and your phone is still full of charge.
5) Yes, but not critical.
7) This is also not critical, and also, it is not always necessary to quickly make updates, as there may be unpleasant nuances.

A huge plus of the DJI RC-N1 is its low cost and the ability to install large tablets.
Everything else is a matter of taste for everyone and does not play a decisive role.

2. That's true. But here in Norway, a lot of peoples use all from mid range to high-end phones as it's very easy here to just get the best phones that are out on the market and take that on a downpayment.

Any mid range or high-end smartphones for the last 3-4 years should be very good for this. It's mostly iPhones that has the issue with dimming screens when it gets hot. If you know you have a bad smartphone with a bad screen and so on, then I do agree it can be better to just go for the 'DJI RC' controller.

3. That can be true for some smartphones. Now, I was just outside and was flying my Mavic 3 Pro for 2 batteries, or around 50 minutes. In that period, my battery on my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 only lost 10% battery with 100% screen brightness. I have the phone to run a 'routine' that sets my brightness to 100%, sets the phone to 'Do not disturb' mode and sets the screen to 'Landscape' rotation when the 'DJI Fly' app opens.

4. The lesser I have to charge things, the better it always will be. So a longer battery life here is always a bonus, but not a dealbreaker.

5. Not to the point that it's horrible. I have seen smartphones lagging worser. But still. When the experience is so good because of the smoothness and lag free usage with a high-end phone, it's gonna be very hard to go back to the 'DJI RC' controller.

7. That's true. However, sometimes, there is new updates that contains fixes and new compability with things that can be of the important side. In my case, if there would be a BAD update to the 'DJI Fly' app (if that would ever happen in that scale) that I use on my smartphone, I can just go back to the older version of the 'DJI Fly' app until those issues would be fixed. Or in worst case scenario, go back to the 'DJI RC' controller temporary.

And for the last part. That's also true. I'm just listing the advantages we get if you use the 'DJI RC-N1' controller with a rather new and high-end smartphone. If you have those things, your experience overall is going to be much better with the 'DJI RC-N1' controller with such a smartphone.

The 'DJI RC-N1' controller also have a lot more advantages than the 'DJI RC' controller has.

EDIT: I have edited the title of this post to reflect that those advantages I list is in combination with a high-end smartphone.

Yes, totally agree with you.  Whoever is on the fence of the RC-N1 and RC should consider what features even make the DJI RC better.  Apart from the integrated screen, there isn't much more this controller has to offer.

The main selling point of the DJI RC is just that integrated screen, right?  But for that upgrade, the RC is much more expensive, so it should be kind of a no brainer to go with the N1 counterpart and use a good quality phone.

And people should know that the "super hyped" display found in the DJI RC is nothing special, really.  Just a middling 700 nit, 5.5" display, adopting older, less energy-effecient (because of backlight) LCD technology, which is literally the exact same display specs and size as the archaic iPhone 7 or 8 Plus panels, it's just 75 nits brighter than those phones at max brightness.  But no one has phones that old anymore anyway, so why would getting an RC with that redimentary screen setup be special at all? After paying the extra?

So if you want a RC-N1 setup that's equivalent to that of the RC, buy a used 7 or 8 Plus for $40 or $50 on OfferUp and just keep it integrated with the N1.  There are lots of iPhones on these sites and you can get a very good deal on those nowadays. I'm getting a used iPhone 13 myself(no cracks or activation locks) for $130! (OfferUp) And using it as my integrated phone for the N1.  The phone itself is most likely more powerful than the Android-powered DJI RC, it has more storage, and you can install things on it, take photos, and a lot more. And you won't be spending as much on the RC. That's my thought process.

I have an RC controller for my Mavic 3 and an RN-N2 for my mini 4 pro. I fly the Mavic with the RC daily with the RC controller and boy is it terrible. It's honestly horrible enough that it creates a safety concern. Basically any time you try to do anything other than just fly and take pictures / video it's incredibly laggy and will even crash the fly app with the drone in the air. Yes the controller restarts and I have control again after a minute or so but if anything were to happen during that time The app crashing in flight is basically a daily occurrence as I do many waypoint missions.  From my experience the RC controller is unsafe to use in a commercial setting unless your literally just tooling around and snapping pictures.

calswan7145 Posted at 3-21 12:59
I have an RC controller for my Mavic 3 and an RN-N2 for my mini 4 pro. I fly the Mavic with the RC daily with the RC controller and boy is it terrible. It's honestly horrible enough that it creates a safety concern. Basically any time you try to do anything other than just fly and take pictures / video it's incredibly laggy and will even crash the fly app with the drone in the air. Yes the controller restarts and I have control again after a minute or so but if anything were to happen during that time  The app crashing in flight is basically a daily occurrence as I do many waypoint missions.  From my experience the RC controller is unsafe to use in a commercial setting unless your literally just tooling around and snapping pictures.

Oh..that sucks.  DJI should figure out how to better optimize the controller's processors to meet the demands of the application it runs. Because if the DJI RC crashes, it's worse than if your phone crashed while using the RC-N1 because the you can manually control the drone back to safety independent of the phone. In other words, video feed is non-crucial, but radio control is. And having no radio control over the drone could be dangerous, so DJI should try fixing those bugs in the RC because both could go out if the controller ever crashes.

calswan7145 Posted at 3-21 12:59
I have an RC controller for my Mavic 3 and an RN-N2 for my mini 4 pro. I fly the Mavic with the RC daily with the RC controller and boy is it terrible. It's honestly horrible enough that it creates a safety concern. Basically any time you try to do anything other than just fly and take pictures / video it's incredibly laggy and will even crash the fly app with the drone in the air. Yes the controller restarts and I have control again after a minute or so but if anything were to happen during that time  The app crashing in flight is basically a daily occurrence as I do many waypoint missions.  From my experience the RC controller is unsafe to use in a commercial setting unless your literally just tooling around and snapping pictures.

Hello there. Sorry about the trouble. If this issue persists, please make sure the DJI RC firmware version and the DJI Fly App are the latest. If the version is the latest, please refresh the firmware via DJI Assistant 2(Consumer Drones Series). You can also backup the files of the DJI RC, and then do the factory reset or remove the SD card and check if the issue remains. Have a nice day.

DJI Tony Posted at 3-27 00:59
Hello there. Sorry about the trouble. If this issue persists, please make sure the DJI RC firmware version and the DJI Fly App are the latest. If the version is the latest, please refresh the firmware via DJI Assistant 2(Consumer Drones Series). You can also backup the files of the DJI RC, and then do the factory reset or remove the SD card and check if the issue remains. Have a nice day.

Yes firmware is up to date, I've restored to factory settings multiple times. No amount of resetting the thing is going to fix a hardware limitation. It's not worth putting any more effort in.

Bottom line is the controller just doesn't have adequate enough hardware to function at the expected performance level of a device from this decade.
*Edit* I should also add this opioion is from experience with multiple DJI RC Controllers.

My advise just buy the RC-N1 or N2 and use your phone. Setup is slightly more of a pain but at least you don't have to deal with the RC controller's shortcomings.

fans8e422104 Posted at 3-27 05:37
Yes firmware is up to date, I've restored to factory settings multiple times. No amount of resetting the thing is going to fix a hardware limitation. It's not worth putting any more effort in.

Bottom line is the controller just doesn't have adequate enough hardware to function at the expected performance level of a device from this decade.

I understand the inconvenience. This will be submitted to the relevant team to provide them feedback. Please, feel free to reach us if you need further assistance. We appreciate your patience and valued support.