DJI Neo

While DJI has managed to continuously lower their prices on several occasions, making it easier for both happy amateurs and budget-conscious professionals (and all categories in between) to take better and more versatile shots, this is truly what the British would call a "watershed moment" for the manufacturer.

DJI Neo costs £170, and for that you get DJI's extensive ecosystem, app, tonnes of accessories and many, many years of experience. You also get a robust, well-designed drone that's built to take a beating, while giving you 4K footage and a flight time of 18 minutes.

While it's simpler, because of course it's there, DJI, again, has enough experience to not skimp on the essentials that ensure stable footage and entertaining flight. The Neo is equipped with infrared and monocular vision positioning systems, a gimbal (though it only moves on one axis) and a half-inch lens that features both RockSteady and HorizonBalancing, technologies normally found on much more expensive DJI drones.

It should be said that you can buy the typical FlyMore kit, but this only gives you the RC controller where you need your own smartphone with the app installed. However, you can also buy an RC2 with a built-in screen. Either way, it's an extremely stable flying experience, one that has been fine-tuned through a lot of experience over the years, ensuring that despite a low combat weight of 135 grams, it dances through the air.

Setup via the Fly app remains a breeze, and even at something like a maximum range of 5-6 kilometres (the instructions say 7), the signal using both smartphone-based and standalone controllers has been reliable. Much of what the DJI Neo "does" are versions of what we already know from the brand's other products, but at a much, much lower introductory price, and this democratisation of drone use is really easy to love.

Yes, there are some new features. It weighs so little that it can technically take off from your outstretched palm, and it can even land there again if you need it to. The new pre-sets are pretty nice, but what really shines through is just the quality of the aforementioned lens, which produces surprisingly crisp 4K recording - it's the fact that the Neo can deliver the basics so convincingly and at a fraction of the price that constitutes the most crucial leap forward.

Points of criticism? It's hard to complain that it can "only" fly for 15 minutes (or 10) on a single charge, but of course it would have been favourable if you didn't directly need the FlyMore kit, but it's hard to get around this time. But at £170 you get an abnormal amount for your money, so much so that it's easy to imagine many people getting a Neo for Christmas and getting acquainted with drone flying for the first time. It's crazy in itself that DJI has gone from pretty serious professional gear to this, but as is said several times in the masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road; "what a lovely day".