Amazon Prime Day is a great time to look for expensive tech on sale. While we consider the DJI Neo drone to be the best budget drone, period, it’s still a little pricey at $200. But for Prime Day, you can get it for the best price we’ve seen. It’s on sale for $159 right now for Prime members. Snag it, and you’ll get a drone that’s very friendly for beginners thanks to features like palm takeoff, but also powerful with subject tracking and even support for FPV flying. It’s also available with two extra batteries and a charger for $229, or 21 percent off — a deal I’d recommend if you plan to fly a lot.
The Neo is tiny at just 135 grams so it’s exempt from any drone license requirements and small enough to slide into a jacket pocket. At the same time, it’s safe around people thanks to the protective propeller guards. Beginners can launch it directly from their palm either by pressing a button or giving a voice command, and it will fly one of six preprogrammed smart shots like Follow, Dronie or Rocket.
The Neo can also be controlled using a smartphone via Wi-Fi or DJI controller, including the RC Motion 3 and even the DJI Goggles 3 for acrobatic FPV flying. It has a very respectable 6.2-mile line-of-sight range and can fly at up to 18 mph, or 36 mph with a special controller. Video quality is very good for such a cheap drone, with up to 4K 30 fps video via the 1/2-inch 12-megapixel sensor and software-based Rocksteady stabilization.
The main drawbacks are the lack of obstacle detection, relatively short 17-minute battery life and banshee-like noise. However, this is a great first drone for creators and other users, particularly at the Prime Day sale price of $159. As mentioned, you can also get it with three batteries and a charger for $229. There are plenty of other camera and drone deals to consider for Prime Day, too.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/the-dji-neo-drone-drops-to-only-159-for-prime-day-075559142.html?src=rss
