Don't want to make this post into a huge long rant so here goes. I bought the mavic air about 2 months ago. Everything went great until a faulty board/battery caused the air to land on its own. If you want more info on that, check out my other post here: https://forum.dji.com/thread-177608-1-1.html
In any case, after 3 weeks of arguing back and forth, DJI finally made good on it and mailed me a replacement until including a brand new controller. In the meantime I ended up going out and buying a mavic 2 zoom to use for a trip I went on to Iceland a few weeks ago. The drone is AMAZING. I'm extremely happy with it, but there is one big issue I'm having. The controller battery life is terrible! I will get about 2-3 flights out of it before the controller battery dies. I would estimate that it lasts about 45 minutes to an hour. From my limited research, this looks like it's significantly lower than other people are getting.

I also have a mavic pro for work and I can go through 4 batteries before the controller even gets close to 60%. Could I have a bad remote?! I REALLY don't want to have to send yet another product back to DJI for repair that would result in weeks of emails and arguements. This is supposed to be such a fantastic company and it looks like I'm 0-2 for fully functioning equipment.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I should add that I have tried the remote with an android phone through the USB port that does not charge the phone, an iPhone x, and also the crystalsky screen.

wxmansam Posted at 2-9 12:32
I should add that I have tried the remote with an android phone through the USB port that does not charge the phone, an iPhone x, and also the crystalsky screen.

Mine uses about 18% of RC battery for every battery I run through the Mavic 2 Zoom.
Also your RC will be charging your Android device no matter what USB connection you are using, you can not change this on an Android device (it is an Android thing)

sea1111 Posted at 2-9 16:37
Mine uses about 18% of RC battery for every battery I run through the Mavic 2 Zoom.
Also your RC will be charging your Android device no matter what USB connection you are using, you can not change this on an Android device (it is an Android thing)

Didn't know that it'll charge my phone no matter what. I found it weird that it will drop my battery quickly regardless of what I use though. Tried my work iphone and it dropped from 100% to 87% battery after about 3 minutes of it being on/flying.

I have 68% battery in RC after two Mavic 2 Zoom batteries. I use Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

If I start fully charged I can fly three batteries with about 40%-50% left, when trying with the iphone make sure in the DJI go app that the charge phone option is turned off.

I fly with a Crystalsky and after flying 3 batteries down to about 25% I usually have about 45 to 50% battery left on the RC.

usually only good for 4 flights on android devices

Another potential issue - if you were in Iceland - how cold was it - that could affect the battery life of the controller, I suspect.

Without setting the M2P RC to charge my iPhone Xs during flight I'll get at least five full flights off one RC charge.

ff22 Posted at 2-10 11:37
Another potential issue - if you were in Iceland - how cold was it - that could affect the battery life of the controller, I suspect.

I thought that too...it really wasn't that cold when I went. About 32 degrees (0c). I tried it the other day with temps around 50 degrees and had the same issue.

DJO told me to let the battery go way down then charge up ..It seems to be better now, but I am using an IPad which had to buy because my androids were not working with the Zoom..I'm not an Apple fan but the IPad mini 4 does work great with it..

I can fly 4 batteries and i think if i have another one it could still flying.

I've flown 6 batteries on my M2Z before going below 40% with an iPad mini I bought after the SC came out, which was 2 weeks after I bought a package. No regrets.

Looks like the latest firmware update addresses poor battery life on certain phones. Curious as to whether this will help fix my issue!

With 4 batteries the lowest I got was around 50% battery left on RC for  my M2P. I use iPhone and the charging phone option is always off.

About three hours between full charge cycles not charging my iPhone Xs during flight.

2-3 batteries worth of flights is really low and about half of what I get out of my M2P/Smart Controller.

I can fly 5 batteries (down to 20% each) and the Smart Controller shows 20% left after this.

When I insert battery number 6 the first LED on the Smart Controller starts to flash so I called it a day and charge the Smart Controller.

HTH


-=Glyn=-

I got rid of the Mavic Pro 2 in part due to the controller. The flight vs. recharge time on this controller is horrible.  Secondly, the follow me capability is not nearly as good as a different brand at close to half the price.  The camera on start would have horrible white balance settings.  Had to always reset white balance.  Finally, after compass callibration, the unit still would wander, and turn a bit, sometimes.  Callibrate again, still wander a bit.  That was it, done with DJI.  Switched to a different brand and have had zero automated guidance issues.