DJI has a new drone, the Air 2S, and it's one of the best drones I've ever flown.
It's pricey at $999, but the Air 2S is fast, agile, packs in a new high-resolution 1-inch sensor with up to 5K video, and brings some artificial-intelligence-powered flying smarts to help you capture that perfect shot with the press of a button.
The Air 2S is externally nearly identical to last year's Mavic Air 2. It even uses the same batteries, which makes upgrading a little cheaper.
But they're nearly identical. There are some very welcome changes in this update. The Air 2S adds an object detection camera to the top of the drone, which improves the collision avoidance system. It really helps when you're flying toward something at high speed, since the drone pitches forward, rendering the front sensor slightly less effective. Despite many attempts, I could not get the Air 2S to fly into things in Normal or Cine modes going forward, backward, up, and down.
It's also heavier than its predecessor (595 grams vs. 570 grams). That might not sound like an improvement, but I found the Air 2S performs better in windy conditions—more weight likely helps.
But the big difference is the new 1-inch CMOS camera sensor. That's double the size of the one in the Mavic Air 2. It also jumps from 12 megapixels to 20 megapixels for stills. Putting RAW images side by side in a photo editor, it's very easy to see the greater detail, sharpness, and improved definition.
The new sensor also means you can capture 5.4K video at 30 frames per second. That's a good choice if you want to crop into the video because you'll still get high-quality clips, though filming at 4K at 60 fps still results in smoother footage in most cases.
On paper, the 1-inch sensor matches what you get in the more expensive Mavic 2 Pro, but the Pro has a variable aperture that can stop down to f/11, which is a huge help when shooting in bright daylight. Still, for the size and price, the Air 2S's sensor is hard to beat.