DJI Neo 2

Approximately one year after DJI essentially revolutionised the market with DJI Neo, a small, agile, and, above all, functional drone with the entire DJI ecosystem behind it for around £150, we are ready with a successor. For those who primarily consider drone flying and the resulting footage to be a fun hobby, this hobby suddenly became infinitely more accessible and inexpensive, and the reviews were appropriately positive to really give it a boost.

Now the DJI Neo 2 has arrived, and unfortunately the price has risen slightly. When the price of such a ground-breaking, budget-friendly drone is so crucial, it's a little sad to see a price increase to around £190 just one year later. Nevertheless, the jump to, for example, the Mini 4 Pro is still so significant that even the higher price seems to be something of an anomaly.

It weighs just 151 grams, is equipped with Galileo and BeiDou, gives you approximately 20 minutes of flight time from a 1606mAh battery, and has a single gimbal-stabilised camera - simple enough, right? As before, it's equipped with a number of sensors to detect obstacles or objects from different directions and offers several solid DJI features, such as Return to Palm and ActiveTrack. The latter is found in all DJI drones, but this is actually the first time I've really got Return to Palm to work and trusted it, and there's something magical about letting it take off from your hand and then activating the feature to see it land back in your outstretched hand when the flight is over, even if it's mostly just a gimmick.

The camera is a single CMOS 1/2" 12-megapixel sensor in f/2.2, which can shoot in 4K/60fps and stabilises via EIS, i.e. electronic stabilisation, rather than optical. It still has an ultra-wide lens of just under 120 degrees, which means that the Neo 2 can capture fairly wide images, even though it seems as if the physical design would prevent this. However, it must be said that the recordings themselves are probably the most disappointing aspect - it is the same sensor, so I did not experience any dramatic leap in clarity, depth, and colour accuracy. It's still impressive for the price, and especially for those who want to record themselves cycling, skating, or similar activities, DJI's various technologies come into their own and make up for the reuse of the same sensor or the lack of multiple lenses.

There is also 49GB of internal storage, which is more than enough even for 4K/60fps recordings, meaning that I only had to empty the drone once during the test period. Combine that with the still fantastic design, which has the lovely prop guards (I know it's difficult, but can't we also get them on the Mini 4 Pro?), and you have something that really matters here.
The DJI Neo 2 is a very, very cautious upgrade, it has to be said. There are meaningful upgrades here, such as more sensors and LiDAR, a better stabilised gimbal and a lower noise level, but this is not DJI at its most ambitious. Still, the whole point of the Neo and Neo 2 is that they are cheap, and despite an increase in price, the Neo 2 is still pretty amazing - it just stings a little that we know DJI can do more and better.