I received my DJI Smart Controller today and I was able to take it on its first flight today. Here's a quick review of my experience so far.

Form Factor

• As many before me have stated, this thing is solid! It really does feel like a quality piece of kit. It fits well in my hands and I didn't have any issues with my hands blocking the screen while using the control sticks. I've read several people had this concern and I can say with confidence that this is a non-issue.
• The control sticks have more resistance and travel than the original controller. I immediately noticed I was able to make smaller, more controlled and smoother adjustments to my flight path than before. It's not a subtle change. The extra resistance really helps me understand where my control sticks are in relation to the range limits of the controls. The increased travel range also helps in keeping small direction and throttle changes under control. The changes to the control sticks will yield more precise and smoother movements out of my drone.
• The ergonomics of the Smart Controller is much improved over the OG controller with a CS attached. I have tried many different CS mounting methods and even my favorite CS mount - the DJI Crystalsky Mounting Bracket - is still not perfectly balanced in the hand and still has my hands cramp up after 10+ minutes of flight. I've gotten used to it for sure, but the Smart Controller is just so much better. Whereas with the original controller I often found myself having to hold the controller awkwardly to get the best antenna direction, on the Smart Controller the antennas are positioned perfectly for maximum signal strength and hand-holding comfort.
  

Setup Process

• Setting up the controller was a flawless experience for me. I have heard that installing SD cards before authorization will prevent the controller from finishing the process. I did not try this, but I can confirm that authorizing the controller prior to inserting SD cards yields a setup without issues. Authorization was a breeze.
• Linking up the drone was very quick, and although you do have to relink the controller if you want to swap between drones, the process shouldn't take more than 15 seconds. Click the "Linking" button within the dropdown menu and click the sync button on the drone and you're set. There's no delay or "connecting" timeout. You click the buttons and you're in.
  

Flight Control Characteristics
Having flown with the CrystalSky 7.85 1000nit version I have been very disappointed with the quality of the video stream coming back from the drone. I found myself having to disable video caching as leaving it enabled made response time on the CS abysmal. In fact, a big reason for me wanting to move away from the CS was not just the awkward form factor, but the performance of the device itself. It just can't keep up. Flying with the CS has been, more often than not, a frustrating experience. As of late I've often found myself using my Pixel 3XL as it provides a much smoother video feed and a much more responsive UI. Ultimately the CPU/GPU package on the CS is too slow for DJI Go4 - and this is without the Full HD video feed.

• My maiden flight on the Smart Controller had me flying from my back porch - a place I've flown from at least 100 times. I am very familiar with how my drone behaves in this area and know what range and video feed quality at the edges of my range I can expect.
• Today, I flew a 15-minute flight with a max distance of 15,626 ft and a max altitude of 400 ft. The temperature outside was 25.1°f and wind speed was 2mph.
• Typically, on this particular flight path, I would experience significant signal loss at around 7,500ft of distance from my porch due to a radio tower. Then at around 8,000ft my feed usually comes back to normal until around 13,000ft of distance where the video becomes blocky and control responses laggy. I have been able to fly my Mavic 2 from my porch at 15k+ distances many times, but always with sub-optimal video feed and laggy control response time at the outer edge of that range.
• My experience today with the Smart Controller was nothing short of amazing. I experienced no signal drop while flying over the radio tower. The video stream was flawless and buttery smooth and more importantly; the lag from the controller inputs was not noticeably greater at 15,000 ft than it was within 100 ft. I know this is just one flight, but so far I am super pleased with the range, video quality and control input lag on the Smart Controller - especially when compared to the CS.
• Based on the quality of the connection I experienced at the 15,626ft distance I likely could have flown much farther. I did not get to test the max distance as it was rather cold out and I didn't feel like pushing the drone further than the first RTH warning from the controller.
  

Performance
As I mentioned earlier, I have had some issues with performance on my CrystalSky paired to the original controller. Moving around in the app has been very touch and go  - many times I would have to touch buttons several times before getting a response from the device. The UI is slow to update. An example of that is in the camera settings panel. Changing settings in here has always been tedious as touch and dragging the exposure settings would always be laggy and inaccurate.

Again, the Smart Controller beats the CrystalSky hands down in this department. You can really tell this is a much more powerful unit as the UI is quick to respond and the touch inputs are as responsive as I've come to expect from using modern phones and tablets (such as my Pixel 3XL). This thing is fast!

Media playbackCrystalSky devices do not support playback of 4k 10bit H.265 footage captured by the Mavic 2. This is an issue I have complained about on this forum for some time now. I really think DJI dropped the ball here as they clearly advertise H.265 4k 60fps playback for their CrystalSky products - something none of them actually support.

Does the Smart Controller playback H.265 4k 10bit video captured on the Mavic 2 Pro via the SD card? YES IT DOES

Though the playback frame rate is sometimes a teeny bit sluggish, it does play back the footage quite well. The footage looks beautiful and I can now sign off on my shots without having to take the footage to my laptop to review.

Screen Quality

• As expected, this screen is bright! Even though it was rather cold out, the sky was clear and the sun was bright as I flew around 2pm. I had no issues viewing the screen. I could easily make out the telemetry values, and terrain in my video feed.
• The screen is on par with the 7.85" 1000nits CrystalSky. Sure, I would love a larger screen, but the form factor with the 5.5" screen was plenty big for me.
  

Other items of note

• The Smart Controller comes with a microphone - it is awful. I don't know if it's the mic itself or the placement of the mic inside the enclosure, but the quality of the audio being capture is bad. There is way too much high frequency content, and even the audio from the drones propellers is capture like a really loud artifacted whistle. Very strange.  You can use it to narate your videos as a point of reference, but never as audio that is usable in your videos (at least not without some really heavy post processing).
• The USB C connector works with USB C headphones. At first, when I played back video from cache on the Smart Controller itself, I thought, damn, this speaker sucks, this audio is terrible. Which had me hunting for a headphone jack to test the audio out on headphones I knew would reproduce the audio well. Well, this sucker doesn't have a headphone jack. Then it dawned on my that my Pixel 3XL came with a set of USB C headphones. I tried them, and they work! So if you're looking to use this device as a movie playback machine for your airplane rides - you can do it so long as you have a USB C to 1/8" headphone adapter or USB C headphones.
  

My Conclusion
I will likely be selling my 7.5" CrystalSky as I sold my Mavic Air some time ago and am only using the Mavic 2 Pro at the moment. I fully expect future Occusync 2.0 drones to work with the Smart Controller.


I, like many others, am not a fan of DJI's preferential treatment of their iOS version of DJI GO 4. I too am disappointed that us android users don't have Waypoints 2.0, but I know it will come soon enough. Ultimately, I am happy to let the iPhone/iPad crowd beta test new features while I wait for Android to get up to speed. I have been very disappointed with how DJI has handled the CrystalSky line of products, and am hopeful that they will treat their Smart Controller customers with more respect and loyalty. Ultimately though, I'm not holding my breath over features not already on this new product. Even in its current state I am very happy with the performance, form factor and convenience of this controller and plan to keep it as long as it works with my drone of choice.

Thank you for reading!

Thanks for your review, I have found all you have said to be similar to my experience, I to own a couple of CS.

Thanks for the review and I'm looking forward to follow-ups as you get to spend some more time with it. I'm still on the fence.

Objective review,, thanks for the time and effort, it helps.

You did a great job...I just got mine today and really like it. I have reception issues near my house and the SC gave me significantly more range and little video skipping...as I calll it. The video was crystal clear...pardon the pun. The only thing I dont like is the way they have the map...I fly a lot with the goggles and you always have H orientated in your heads up...also it was easier with the google maps to see your flight path....I find I have to flip to the map view to orientate myself...not a big deal but maybe a future feature request.

great review and very well formed.  

the issue i have and im sure many have is i dont believe smart remote is worth $650 as it stands.   i do believe it is superior to a crystal sky because Crystalsky is looking to be a monitor smart device and smart remote is looking to be a smart remote.  i think both are overpriced, both should cost less but as a few people pointed out in their reviews on youtube, DJI tax is extra $200.  at $450 i think justified pricing at $650 its questionable and borderline stupid.  $650 it is 60% of the cost of a mavic 2 drone, and basically the amazon price for a Mavic Air/Mavic Pro or a half decent camera kit, or enough money to kick start a youtube career. or as my GF pointed out, enough money to go on a beautiful moderately luxurious vacation for 2 somewhere with your mavic 2 drone and included remote and capture stunning unforgettable moments.

as for range testing, need more than 1 run and way more than just a handful...need to eliminate variables by doing many runs and standardized testings somehow. i do not believe the smart controller has much better if any better connection as 15K feet sounds kinda normal.     i pushed my old mavic pro (occusync 1.0 tech) out over 17,000+ feet out and back unmodified without a hiccup quality loss or anything, the weakest link was battery and a bit of wind making me have to turn around.  and i pushed my mavic air (wifi based) out to over 12,000+ feet a few times however quality was all over..and there is a youtuber in Hawaii that did a 6 mile round trip with his Mavic Air at night when wifi isn't as big of an issue (less active users around).  

the other part i hate is what if i dropped it and broke my display..then what?  kinda hosed.  

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-28 18:48
great review and very well formed.  

the issue i have and im sure many have is i dont believe smart remote is worth $650 as it stands.   i do believe it is superior to a crystal sky because Crystalsky is looking to be a monitor smart device and smart remote is looking to be a smart remote.  i think both are overpriced, both should cost less but as a few people pointed out in their reviews on youtube, DJI tax is extra $200.  at $450 i think justified pricing at $650 its questionable and borderline stupid.  $650 it is 60% of the cost of a mavic 2 drone, and basically the amazon price for a Mavic Air/Mavic Pro or a half decent camera kit, or enough money to kick start a youtube career. or as my GF pointed out, enough money to go on a beautiful moderately luxurious vacation for 2 somewhere with your mavic 2 drone and included remote and capture stunning unforgettable moments.

You're absolutely right. A single flight does not make for a conclusive review of range. I too have flown further than 15k several times. My maximum flight distance to date is 17,712ft using the original controller and the CS at a different location. I know others have gone much further by using the boost mode hack and antenna boosters.  

To be honest, I don't expect the Smart Controller to give me a longer range.  However, what I was trying to say is that today's flight yielded a better signal and video strength than what I'm used to on a flight path I have flown many times. I did consider that perhaps the radio tower was turned off this time, which would be odd, but plausible. I will repeat my flight another day and let you know if my findings are consistent or not.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that I tried testing what would happen if the DJI GO4 app crashes. I didn't get the app to crash - which is good - but I did back out of the app all the way by clicking the back button until I got the past the "Click back to exit app" prompt. With DJI GO4 closed down I was still able to control the craft with the sticks, and initiate the pause and RTH commands.  I subsequently restarted the app regaining all UI controls and the video feed. I did not try rebooting the controller mid-flight as that seemed a bit too risky for a first flight.

I too find the controller expensive. However, if my flight today is an indication of the quality of this product going forward I find it well worth the money. Certainly, a much better purchase than the CrystalSky for my use case.

wreyniers Posted at 1-28 20:06
You're absolutely right. A single flight does not make for a conclusive review of range. I too have flown further than 15k several times. My maximum flight distance to date is 17,712ft using the original controller and the CS at a different location. I know others have gone much further by using the boost mode hack and antenna boosters.  

To be honest, I don't expect the Smart Controller to give me a longer range.  However, what I was trying to say is that today's flight yielded a better signal and video strength than what I'm used to on a flight path I have flown many times. I did consider that perhaps the radio tower was turned off this time, which would be odd, but plausible. I will repeat my flight another day and let you know if my findings are consistent or not.

ya RF is a bit of a magic art sometimes, can do back to back tests and end up yielding different results. it is possible a tower was taken offline for work to be completed or a test was going on or maybe the atmosphere changed just enough.. it maybe its in boost mode (1.5 or 2 watts) because maybe compliance testing they just pegged it to the limit then didn't dial it back on final release firmware variant.  

also speaking of app crashing... could you dump the APK the controller uses for us to look at? i am curious about the differences i wonder if we can port that app to normal android...not that very important, would be curious exploration though.

but my biggest fear is what happens if i drop it and it breaks the display...can you not plug in to USB port to another smart device to pilot or are you SOL ?  i know it has HDMI but not many of us carry a HDMI display with us in the field..

Interesting theory that the boost mode was left enabled.  I've extracted the APK and you can find it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3d40ol9w195du93/DJI%20GO%204.apk?dl=0

So I did a bit more testing and very few apps that I get through APKPure or Amazon app store work. Here's a list of apps I've tried:

uav forecast - works for the most part although maps don't show - complains about needing google play
airmap - map works, geo info works, everything else requires google play
litchi - app opens but doesn't connect to controller/drone
youtube app - will not work without google play
netflix - not compatible
chrome - works, though youtube videos won't play back unless I turn off gpu accelerated decoding and the video is low res (same for stock browser)

wreyniers Posted at 1-28 23:12
Interesting theory that the boost mode was left enabled.  I've extracted the APK and you can find it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3d40ol9w195du93/DJI%20GO%204.apk?dl=0

So I did a bit more testing and very few apps that I get through APKPure or Amazon app store work. Here's a list of apps I've tried:

attempting to install this in my emulator it got to staging process then failed and said "this APK appears to be corrupted"  so cant even open it to compare the easy way xD

HereForTheBeer Posted at 1-28 20:56
ya RF is a bit of a magic art sometimes, can do back to back tests and end up yielding different results. it is possible a tower was taken offline for work to be completed or a test was going on or maybe the atmosphere changed just enough.. it maybe its in boost mode (1.5 or 2 watts) because maybe compliance testing they just pegged it to the limit then didn't dial it back on final release firmware variant.  

also speaking of app crashing... could you dump the APK the controller uses for us to look at? i am curious about the differences i wonder if we can port that app to normal android...not that very important, would be curious exploration though.

“Your biggest fear is if you drop it and the screen breaks”, just get a lanyard, if I dropped my SRC I would be more worried about the RC breaking.
There should be no more of a problem dropping a SRC as there would be with the old RC, you do have RTH,
I’m sure the biggest fear of anyone buying a new phone is dropping it, but I’m sure you have a phone.

Thanks for sharing!

Hello and good day wreyniers. Thank you for sharing this review information with us today and thank you for your support. Great work.

wreyniers Posted at 1-28 23:12
Interesting theory that the boost mode was left enabled.  I've extracted the APK and you can find it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3d40ol9w195du93/DJI%20GO%204.apk?dl=0

So I did a bit more testing and very few apps that I get through APKPure or Amazon app store work. Here's a list of apps I've tried:

Wonder why there is no Google Play store app.  Could it be a Chinese government limitation?  Be a shame if a world-wide product is restricted due to censorship issues.

Very thorough comparison

@wreyniers:

Thank you very much for your effort and sharing. It's very interesting for me.

You compared the smartcontroller with the crystalsky 7.85. May i ask two questions about?

Is the comparison referred to the use the crystalsky 7.85 together with a mavic 2?

Is the smartcontroller live video-stream on the built in display in Full HD or only in 720p, as is the case with the Crystalskys?

Juergen64 Posted at 1-31 10:06
@wreyniers:

Thank you very much for your effort and sharing. It's very interesting for me.

The CrystalSky only supports a 720p stream for the video feed - HD feed is not an option in the app. Even at the lower resolution, it struggles to keep up the framerate - especially when caching.

So far, I've only flown with the stream set to HD 1080p on the Smart Controller and it works great. The frame rate is solid even while screen recording. The extra detail really helps in identifying smaller objects like birds.

However, if you are screen recording and go into the full map view, things get pretty laggy. Moving around or zooming in/out on the map has a significant performance drop compared to not screen recording. Like I mentioned above, the video feed view seems to be unaffected by this.

wreyniers Posted at 1-31 10:25
The CrystalSky only supports a 720p stream for the video feed - HD feed is not an option in the app. Even at the lower resolution, it struggles to keep up the framerate - especially when caching.

So far, I've only flown with the stream set to HD 1080p on the Smart Controller and it works great. The frame rate is solid even while screen recording. The extra detail really helps in identifying smaller objects like birds.

Nice ,
overall seen, it sounds very good for me. Probably until now there is no better solution.

It's possible to use a satellite map view (as long it's preloaded)? Or is just a simple map possible?

Juergen64 Posted at 1-31 11:42
Nice ,
overall seen, it sounds very good for me. Probably until now there is no better solution.

Satellite map works while online like any other DJI Go4 capable device. You can download street maps for offline use, but not satellite or hybrid maps.

wreyniers Posted at 1-31 13:05
Satellite map works while online like any other DJI Go4 capable device. You can download street maps for offline use, but not satellite or hybrid maps.

Aha, this sounds like a small disadvantage. As i remember in djigo before version 4 it was at least posible to caching an area by moving around in desired area a few hours before the flight. I used this way like a download for just onetime usage.

But however, with the information of your critical comparison, the decision between crystalsky and the smartcontroller is now easy. Even i would prefer a 9" display too - a smaller viewing distance can make the screen bigger.

One thing to note is, that unlike CrystalSky, that works universally with pretty much all DJI drones, Smart Cotroller is Ocusync only.
Not sure if this mean DJI finally gave up that WiFi thing seen in Spark/MavAir/P3 standard etc...

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2-1 06:11
One thing to note is, that unlike CrystalSky, that works universally with pretty much all DJI drones, Smart Cotroller is Ocusync only.
Not sure if this mean DJI finally gave up that WiFi thing seen in Spark/MavAir/P3 standard etc...

We have to wait for the couple of next DJI drones to check this

nixuspix Posted at 2-1 07:12
We have to wait for the couple of next DJI drones to check this

Well, if Spark 2 comes up next and with Ocusync, I guess that's it. But yeah, only time will tell.
Also, we will see how much DJI is caring about future proofing.

wreyniers Posted at 1-31 10:25
The CrystalSky only supports a 720p stream for the video feed - HD feed is not an option in the app. Even at the lower resolution, it struggles to keep up the framerate - especially when caching.

So far, I've only flown with the stream set to HD 1080p on the Smart Controller and it works great. The frame rate is solid even while screen recording. The extra detail really helps in identifying smaller objects like birds.

I too want to thank you for this review. I was stuck on the fence between CS 7.85 vs SRC but now am aware of CS being wholly too under-powered...

I also appreciate your load testing of your SRC. If you dont mind, could you test out how well it handles Screen Recording & HDMI output Simultanouesly?

That would be extremely helpful!!!

Thx again

Oh and have you seen any specs on its RAM? (from lierature or from within the SRCs 'about device' menu)

djiuser_Tuuz94kwu5xM Posted at 2-13 21:10
Oh and have you seen any specs on its RAM? (from lierature or from within the SRCs 'about device' menu)

4gigs

rockchip rk3399

ff22 is right, the SRC has the Rockchip RK3399 > http://rockchip.wikidot.com/rk3399

The CS has the Rockchip RK3288 > http://rockchip.wikidot.com/rk3288

Essentially, both SoC's have 4gb of RAM, however the amount of ram is not the differentiator.  The RAM on the RK3399 is faster, but the real upgrade is on the CPU and GPU chips.

Is it possible to get 4k H265 video from Drone to SmartController to iPhone? If not I'll give it a miss?
Currently I use DJI Sync app to download 4k footage to iPhone as natively doesn't work in DJI Go4 app.

wreyniers Posted at 2-14 08:38
ff22 is right, the SRC has the Rockchip RK3399 > http://rockchip.wikidot.com/rk3399

The CS has the Rockchip RK3288 > http://rockchip.wikidot.com/rk3288

GPU Mali-T860.

Sound Card rockchip, tas2555-codec

Brilliant review.

Brilliant review.

DrMagical Posted at 2-14 08:57
Is it possible to get 4k H265 video from Drone to SmartController to iPhone? If not I'll give it a miss?
Currently I use DJI Sync app to download 4k footage to iPhone as natively doesn't work in DJI Go4 app.

Yeah, whats up with that DJI?

Shoots 4K but can only transfer 1080p files wirelessly...

Probably should think that one through, especially for your "Premium" products which we all know how much preferencial treatment you give those, (cough, cough NONE)

wreyniers Posted at 2-14 08:38
ff22 is right, the SRC has the Rockchip RK3399 > http://rockchip.wikidot.com/rk3399

The CS has the Rockchip RK3288 > http://rockchip.wikidot.com/rk3288

Thanks to both you and ff22! Good info

How many times have you dropped your controller? And there's a physical return to home button on the controller.