In conjunction with DJI releasing a new budget-friendly FPV goggles yesterday, they also somewhat quietly released a firmware update for their DJI NEO. That firmware update addresses one of the two biggest issues the NEO had: Speed.
Or rather, lack thereof.
Until now, the drone was basically limited to about 21KPH/13MPH for any tracking purposes. Which would cover running and hiking (though, I could even lose it doing sprints while running). But that wasn’t even fast enough for beach-cruiser bikes, let alone road bikes on flat surfaces, or descending faster on any wheeled contraption. This speed was far below every past DJI drone from the last decade, as well as below their main competitor in the space: HoverAir.
However, yesterday’s firmware update aims to resolve that. In the release notes, DJI didn’t specify how fast the new speed was, simply saying it was improved:
Thus, I set out to figure it out. Of course, it’s not just a straightforward answer, as there are many different modes, which I cover in the video above, but are listed below:
1) Basic flying, with the phone as controller (not following)
2) Basic flying, with the RC controller (not following)
3) ‘Sport Mode’ flying, with the RC controller (not following, just what DJI calls faster flying)
4) ‘Active Track’ style following mode, using phone (or no phone, it’s the same)
5) ‘Active Track’ style following mode, using RC controller
6) ‘Active Track’ style following mode, using RC controller in ‘Sport mode’
7) Crashing into the trees mode
Fear not, I cover everything in a rather methodical way, testing the modes before and after the update. Ultimately, this update brings follow-me mode to about 32-33KPH (20MPH) in my testing. It may be possible that it’s closer to 35KPH on perfectly flat ground, but I was on a 2-3% decline, thus the rate of descent may be causing some slight reductions in speed.
Note that interestingly, the new 35KPH tracking mode does *not* apply to regular flight modes, which is beyond bizarre. But then again, the fact that this drone was released with such a low tracking speed to begin with was equally bizarre. But with that sorted, it’s now totally usable for road cycling (not descending), and most MTB/gravel scenarios. Of course, the other main issue – image quality, is still low, but hey…can’t win them all for $199.
With that – thanks for watching!
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