The Autel Evo Nano is one of several new drones recently released by Autel, which also includes the Evo Nano+, Evo Lite and Evo Lite+. Here we mainly talk about the Autel Evo Nano drone series.
This seems to be a great little drone. It weighs less than 250 grams and is exempt from many large drone regulations around the world. It flies well and offers some impressive wind resistance. Once the firmware does everything it promises, this firmware will really make the Autel Evo Nano drone worth the money.
The Autel Evo Nano is technically a competitor to the DJI Mini 2 and Hubsan Zino Mini SE. While they're in the same weight category, it's aimed more at serious photographers and filmmakers who want a small drone and need more advanced features.
I recommend the Autel Evo Nano/Nano+ when photographers, filmmakers and YouTubers are looking for the right drone for their needs in the <250g class. They're not drone enthusiasts, but they know they want to use one occasionally, don't want to carry a larger drone with them, and don't want to deal with unrestricted licenses and restrictions for drones smaller than 250 grams. At the same time, features like obstacle avoidance - none of the other drones mentioned have!
This is probably the biggest selling point of the Autel Evo Nano. It has front, rear and bottom crash sensors. They also act as active sensors while in flight, notifying you on your smartphone display when you approach an object in front, behind or below. And it works really well too, actively preventing you from flying forward or backward if it detects something is in your way.
This is by far the smallest economical drone I've ever flown - usually with fairly large hexacopters like the DJI F550, and if you've never used a <250g drone before, they're a positioning tool A great addition to the bag for photographers. Being able to take out a drone for behind-the-scenes shots on social media, vlogging, etc. is invaluable.
Everyone knows we'll see a shift in drone design when DJI releases the Mavic Pro. Granted, we probably didn't expect it to be around this long before a viable competitor emerged, but it's here now.
With a 30-minute flight time, the EVO Nano Series includes all the features we'd expect to find in today's competitive drones. Detour to avoid obstacles, not just a dead end. 4K 60fps camera with stable 3-axis gimbal, and Smart Flight Mode with object tracking. And it's less than $1,000.
The footage from the drone is pretty good, although YouTube compression doesn't do it any favors. It would be great if there were higher bitrate options than 100mbps, even with h.265 encoding. Having said that, 100mbps is perfectly fine for many subjects that you might have your camera pointed at.
For now, though, the Autel Evo Nano is just that. Keep up the official website for some feature upgrades in the firmware and we have a good chance of using them, it's a very impressive little drone and small, I can see it in the coming days , it will play a role in many people's location shooting workflow.
While the Autel Evo Nano Premium comes with its own shoulder bag, both the drone and the controller are fairly small. The drone itself is smaller than most lenses you put in your bag, and the controller feels more like a game console controller than the bulky, large RC controller some of us might be used to.
So you can easily put the rest of your camera gear in your backpack and use it anytime. And since both the controller and drone batteries can be charged via Type-C USB, you can let them charge from the power bank in the bag between uses to ensure they stay fully charged and ready when needed. That being said, battery life seems pretty good. Officially, you'll get 28 minutes of flight time in ideal conditions without wind. In winds of about 20 mph, each drone's battery lasted nearly 24 minutes. The controller's battery lasted all three drone batteries before the app started yelling at me that the controller was going low and I should land soon.
