DJI's "fun-sized" drone.. isn't that fun...
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,232 words · ~6 min read
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The Spark. DJI says this is the
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affordable, compact drone for the masses
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without compromises to their signature technologies. And why shouldn't we
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believe them? They've been dominating every other drone segment from
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filmmakers to industrial use to
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enthusiasts with over a grand to burn.
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But for all their noise about the dawn of the age of the UAV or whatever,
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they've never had a product to offer your mom, grandpa, or Lindsay yet. But
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does Lindsay even need a drone? And if
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she does, is this the one she could buy?
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We don't really think so. Let me explain.
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your 7-day free trial at the link in the video
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description. Let's get one thing straight. While the Spark borrows a lot
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from its foldable big brother, the ability to pick color profiles and RAW
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images are both missing. It gets, in practical terms, half the battery life
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of the Mavic Pro, and it substitutes a
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third axis on its gimbal for digital
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stabilization, restricting video capture resolution to a measly
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1,080ps rather than
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4,000Ks. So, it's not a baby Mavic Pro.
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But then, does Lindsay really need any of that stuff to take selfies on the
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beach? Maybe not. So, let's talk about
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things that she does need, like controls. We've tried all the different
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ways that you can interface with the Spark, and all three of them have come
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short of being ideal. Gesture control is
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the flashiest, most party trick-like among them, promising to allow you to
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launch the drone, raise it, lower it,
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move it away and towards you, take a selfie, follow you around, and even come
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back and land gracefully on your outstretched palm without an additional
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controller. The idea here is outstanding. Having a portable flying
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camera that behaves kind of like a well-trained dog is a future that I
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could really get into, but we feel like DJI could have done a better job of
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setting realistic expectations. To enter gesture mode, you
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power up the drone. Then once it's booted up, you double click the power
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button, flash at your biggest smile, and
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it takes off. Reasonably intuitive so
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far. But that's where things break down a little bit. between using the force to
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move the spark to the right position, doing this instead of something more
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like this or like this or I don't know,
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like this to take a selfie, and the fact
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that the Spark communicates back to the user exclusively through blinking lights
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in ways that only the most obsessive weirdos are going to actually memorize
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before attempting to use their new toy.
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and that depend on the context, we end
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up with an experience that was actually stressful or even a little bit scary at
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times. The Spark has a battery of
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sensors, but in gesture mode anyway, it's kind of like your weird uncle who
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knows that you're there, but doesn't seem to really understand your personal
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boundaries. And this is only amplified by how twitchy the Spark's flight is,
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along with how easy it is for it to lose track of where you are. It really makes
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me wonder how they can even be touting this as a flying selfie stick or even a
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tripod substitute, ignoring how obnoxious it would actually be to pull
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out a drone and fly it to take a family
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portrait at your next gathering. As for touchscreen control, well, it's
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obviously a lot more flexible, but the lack of tactile feedback through the app
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is exactly what you'd expect if you've ever tried to play a racing game on your
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phone, and Wi-Fi's limited range comes
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well short of DJI's advertised 2 km
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maximum for the Spark. For that, you
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need the third control scheme, the remote, which comes with some other
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benefits as well. Thumb sticks, which
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are by far the best way to fly the Spark, are the most obvious one, but
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it's also got a programmable button and some gimbal controls. And you get the
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option to unlock sport mode, which basically boosts the maximum speed of
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the Spark by over four times. But if
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you're buying this accessory, I have to
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wonder a little bit why you're buying a Spark in the first place. It's
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$150 standalone or $200 as part of the
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Fly More package. That means we're not
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talking about a $500 cell phone accessory anymore. It's not that we
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think the Spark is terrible. It's just that if you're a drone nerd, then by the
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time you're spending $700, 4K video recording, more manual
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controls, and better flight range are just the beginning of the ways that the
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Mavic Pro crushes this thing for another
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$300. And if the sales pitches to
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Lindsay, then the price to fun ratio
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compared to cheap video drones on Amazon is still kind of out of whack. And if
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you want to ask this kind of premium, then we think the intuitiveness and the
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safety of the gesture controls need some
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work. Not including propeller guards in
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particular is a pretty crap move on something that's small and mainstream
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enough that DJI must know that people are going to be flying it indoors. Which
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isn't to say that the Spark doesn't have a place in the market at all. It's still
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not water resistant. That could be improved, but this thing is
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astonishingly durable. You probably wouldn't even guess that the one in RB
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roll has been crashed three times. And
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the autonomous flight modes, things that you wouldn't find on a toy grade product
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like beacon, active track, and even the
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newer cinematic ones, are as reliable as they were on previous DJI offerings. I
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just think it's a little disingenuous to call it a $500 drone when its
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functionality is so limited in that form. And I wouldn't pay $700 for it
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compared to the Mavic Pro without some more software
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improvements. Speaking of improvements to the Mavic, you can improve yours with
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a skin from Dbrand. DBR is the place to
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go for skins that improve the durability, not to mention the sex
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appeal of your devices. Be they phones, game consoles, portable computers, or
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apparently drones, you can use their configurator
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to see exactly what your device will look like. So whether you're looking to
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make it all sleek and carbon fibery or whether you want your device to look
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like pure cancer, you can check out Dbrand's site and for just a few bucks,
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skin up your device. They've got worldwide shipping and we've got a link
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below that you can follow to get started right
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now. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do.
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But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the
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link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also
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linked down there is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should
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totally join.