DJI AIR 3S FLIGHT TIME IS DISAPPOINTING?!?! | Testing the battery on DJI's latest drone...

[@jeffreyrh]

I recently received my 3S. I've only made 3 flights so far. All were 100% down to 10% battery, About 70 degrees. Climbed to 400ft, cruise set at about 30 mph. I got 30, 30, 32 minutes. I'm used to about 20-24 minutes with my Mini 4 Pro so it was longer than I'm used to, but still a little short for what DJI is claiming.

[@TheDroneGeek]

Sounds like we had similar experiences.

[@ChuckD05]

That’s what my air 3 gets as well.

[@ChuckD05]

Never got over 35 , think that was my best but I do usually move around a lot. Would expect a little less from 3S

[@alexalex5257]

There are videos online of the Air 3S getting more than 40 minutes of flight time.

[@TheDroneGeek]

Lucky them. Not here though.

[@peacefulthrillseeker]

All the DJI drones suffer from this because as the batteries degrade over time so do your flight times unfortunately. It’s always good to have at least 3 batteries like bare minimum especially if your going from shoot to shoot. In my case, I have six batteries as well as my portable power station from Ecoflow( which I highly recommend for any commercial drone pilot). The weather is definitely a challenge both hot and cold climates. My issue here is the heat and how that can affect not only my batteries, but also my RC. I have both the RC pro and the regular RC and I’ve noticed that the RC taps out a lot sooner than the RC Pro due to heat. I wish the RC Pro wouldve had hot swappable battery feature but hopefully with the new mavic 4 line which will have the RC Pro 2 🙏👍🏽

[@alexalex5257]

It's measured from 100% to 0%! Flying forward at medium speed All the time and not taking any photos or videos. Read the manual man😂

[@TheDroneGeek]

I'm aware of how DJI does it. Fact is, nobody flies that way and nobody flies their drone batteries from 100-0. Absolute lunacy.

[@alexalex5257]

​​​@@TheDroneGeekI do fly to 0% many times, depends on the situation. I have the auto landing at 10% switched off😉

[@SamKarpFPV]

​@@alexalex5257 that's horrible for the battery

[@milvusotis]

Nice test, thanks. However the difference between 20% and 10% are 3-4 minutes. Are this 3-4 minutes worth to go to 10%?

[@Mavic3803]

E' dal Mavic3 poi Air3 e ora Air3s che DJI dichiara i suoi 45 minuti di volo... 5 batterie Mavic, 7 batterie Air3 e 4 batterie Air3s...ma mai superato i 30/33 minuti atterrando al15%...cara DJI...bel test grazie!

[@stevedawson3863]

I always take 25 percent off on the flight time advertised that is close to what you will get!!

[@DavidWilliams2125]

I was asking the same question. My flight time has been around 30 minutes on average. DJI should not feel well saying 45 minutes you could expect.

[@TheDroneGeek]

I get WHY they do it. The battery is capable of 45 minute flight times, so they're allowed to say it...but something a little less misleading to the consumer would be helpful! Kind of like their range specs...you know how they determine those? They take their test/prototype drone out to a dock in Shenzhen and they fly it out in a straight line from the dock until the drone loses signal. That's it. That's how they determine their range. xD

[@renegade37918]

the biggest bummer for me is the loss of our flight data

[@TheDroneGeek]

They want those of us that could utilize the flight data for projects to purchase the bigger-ticket stuff...it's shitty for us, but smart business on DJI's part.

[@renegade37918]

@@TheDroneGeek do they have black friday sales? I am wanting the wide angle lens

[@dronecamgeorgia]

What loss of flight data? Are you referring to the "DJIFlightRecord_...txt” files that can be uploaded to AirData?

[@TheDroneGeek]

I’d imagine they will offer sales on BF. Whether the 3S gets discounted for that is still a question.

[@TheDroneGeek]

I assumed they meant the SDKs, but you bring up a good point. We still have access to that.

[@TheMamonti1]

I had fun when the mavic air only flew for 13 to 17 minutes.... but..... even at the worse.... 30 minutes of flying time with a drone is plenty of time to get the shots you want... especially when you have 2 more batteries! Sure... you will never get the 45 mins unless you have perfect conditions and 150 buck for a new battery!!!

[@TheDroneGeek]

Here, here! I still feel a bit disappointed it wasn't CLOSER. I knew there was no shot of actually achieving 45 minutes as the conditions are never perfect. But it would have been nice to see it squeeze out just a little more time and hit that 39-40 minute mark. Still, I'll take ~32 minutes all day, every day. Like you said, it's plenty of time to get just about any kind of shot one would want!

[@TheMamonti1]

@@TheDroneGeek I get it...... but I am use to it too..... at least spending 1500.00 and getting 75% of it advertised flight time.... is way better then spending 120k for a tesla and only getting 60% of their quoted range!!! Most of the videos I see are in the 30 to 35min... and when you figure all the different conditions, regions and whatever it is still pretty good...... to be honest.... I don't know how they get it to stay in the air that long on a battery that is about the size of the first mavic and I never saw them getting in the 30's.... you could do what they are dong in Ukraine and strapping another battery to it to double the flight time... well not double due to the extra weight but they may get the 45 min...

[@paullawrence8572]

Yes very dissapointed like you!

[@TheDroneGeek]

I was a bit surprised to see how short it fell in overall flight time. I was hoping to be pushing closer to 40 minutes per battery, but I suppose we take what we can get on this one and just hope that the next drone has closer-to-spec flight time.