Which drone is best for you? - Hover Air X1 Vs DJI Mavic Mini?

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In this video we share demos and our thoughts on the Hover Air X1 and DJI Mavic Mini Drones comparing their pros and cons and which we think works best for what.
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Hover Cam X1 - Amazon (Affiliate link)
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DJI (Affiliate links)
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Mini 4 Pro - click.dji.com/...
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[@RedBugBoy]

Hover Air forever - Good video, now I know what to get. Thanks mate.

[@Tractor-boy1]

Hovver air is a simple tool not much of a drone A lot of money for what it is ! Give that a wide birth to bless you like to walk and make a video of yourself talking

[@ExploreVanUK]

It is but is so much faster to set up fly capture a video and move on than the DJI options. Your right it is more of a flying selfie cam than a drone, but it does what it’s supposed to really well. It’s great for sports, I have used it when biking and skiing. No active track on the cheaper DJI models is a huge loss. Saying that it doesn’t replace my DJI Mini but I use the Hover far more.

[@stevedawson3863]

I STILL FLY MY MINI. THE BATTERYS LAST FOREVER!!

[@koyaanisqatsi78]

The sound of the Hover seems to be quite off putting vs the Mavic.

[@ExploreVanUK]

I would say they are similar volumes but the Hover is higher pitched. However there is no functionality with the Mavic to automatically remove the sound of it in the recording like there is in the Hover.

[@Piratepoilet]

Both, save a bit longer and get them both, or since you're already saving longer now you might as well get the mini 4 pro and Hover Air. That would be a formidable pairing off the two drones. I might have to get a Hover for my DJI Mini 4 pro now. Hmmm I wonder what the missus might say about that ? You know what women can be like when it comes to our hobbies but at least I'm not playing with the pretty wee blondie down the road 🙈🙉🙊

[@peterahough]

Very useful thanks. The setup time on the DJI was very telling - is it any quicker on the newer DJIs or is it the same process?

[@ExploreVanUK]

As far as I’ve seen it’s the same sort of process with the newer ones and noticible quicker.

[@64coldable]

From your video it appears that the Hover Air is not very stable when just hovering. In the very first demo it never seemed to just hover but moved a lot. The Mini also appeared to move, but only just a little. Be interested to see a side by side comparison of video filmed using the hover function.

[@ExploreVanUK]

Hi, you're right, as the Hover is so much lighter than the Mavic Mini it does tend to get impacted by the wind more, causing it to move around when in a hover. During the timed set up test you can see the wind in the trees behind is pretty blustery. When the wind is lower the Hover can be rock steady. If you check out the following points in this video you can get a comparison of the actual shots taken during that test. Mavic 9:42 Hover 13:42 Just to show how stable the Hover can be in still conditions in this video you can see it hovering at height to get an overheadshot. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6PXl6Frpb2oY7csi=KCoPwRt8E1cUKWSI&t=581

[@romanhatashita5616]

Great review! The Hover Air seems to be right for me. Easy, light, small for a newbie. One question: Is it worth to look elsewhere if I want to get more landscape in the footage? If I manually fly higher can you achieve more landscape or can you adjust max height to achieve more landscape?

[@ExploreVanUK]

Hi thanks - glad it was useful. I would say if you are planning to do more Landscape / Artistic shots you would be better with one of the Mavic Mini Range. The height and distance limits on the Hover cannot be increased as it uses the phone as the controller and the transmission distance is limited. It is one of the compromises of not needing a separate controller.

[@sadee.83]

Hi, I noticed you have a label on the hover air, did you need to register it? Do you need insurance for the hover?

[@ExploreVanUK]

Hi, yes as the Hover has a camera - even though it is under 250g, in the UK it needs to be registered. You can find all the details here - register-drones.caa.co.uk/individual The above also includes: "If you fly a drone or model aircraft below 20kg for recreation, sport, or as a hobby, you can choose whether or not to have insurance. If you fly it for any other reason, you must have third party insurance." I get my insurance from FPVUK.org

[@michaelzhang7493]

Thanks for an excellent comparison clip. Curious to know, in a crowded place, how does the hoverair knows who to track?

[@ExploreVanUK]

Hey glad it was helpful! The Hover seems to have some level of facial / clothing recognition. It’s not totally fool proof if the face / clothing it is tracking gets hidden or is similar to another it can get confused. But most of the time it manages to stay locked on to the person it’s pointing at when launched.

[@memify498]

You can use the sd card on the mavic to speed up download process as it is higher quality, the mavic is better value for money as you can fly it far and can control it yourself, allowing you to customise it for yourself!

[@memify498]

As you can see in the video, the mavic is also a lot more stable due to its heavier weight and more stable design

[@ExploreVanUK]

Yes this is correct, if you have a laptop with you, or your phone is capable of using an SD card reader and you have one with you, but also watch out for inserting and removing the SD card regularly as it has been known to damage the SD card slot leading to an expensive repair or a useless Mavic Mini. It very much depends on how you plan to use it, as to which is best, we're still using the Hover far more than the Mavic so for us it's the better choice, but for others I am sure the Mavic Mini would be better. The fact you have to spend over £600 to get a Mavic Mini that can even follow you is a big factor. We won't be getting rid of our Mavic Mini, but it is spending a lot of time in the cupboard.

[@ExploreVanUK]

The stability point is accurate but that comes at the cost of weight and bulk which makes it a pain to carry around all the time. We found the Hovers Image stabilisation does a great job to compensate.

[@memify498]

Yes, it depends on how people want to use it and what they need it to dk

[@oldbiker57]

How is the noise comparison?

[@ExploreVanUK]

Great question and I probably should have measured it. You can hear the difference in the video at 24:00 I would say they are about the same but the Hover is higher pitched than the Mavic. Obviously the Hover has that advantage of being able to filter out the sound of the props when recording that the Mavic doesn’t have.

[@joeylepore]

DJI "MAVIC" Mini. LOL...

[@ExploreVanUK]

???

[@SenatorPerry]

@@ExploreVanUK Just adding an explanation... The Mavic name was dropped from the mini. Those that are new to them never realized the original Mini did have a Mavic branding. That is why these comments are posted all over people doing recent reviews of them. Thanks for the video. I have all but retired my drone flying, but the HoverAir X1 has really driven me back to getting one.

[@ExploreVanUK]

Ah now it makes more sense! Lol - @joeylepor you can see in the following link that the UAV I use in the test is called the "MAVIC Mini" www.dji.com/uk/support/product/mavic-mini Thanks @SenatorPerry