DJI’s New $1,299 Drone Is a First-Person Blast

The DJI FPV Combo lets you fly the drone and be the drone

DJI’s new FPV Drone. Photos courtesy of the author

What’s it like to be a drone? It’s not something I thought much about until I virtually climbed inside one and flew from its point of view.

Now I can tell you, thanks to DJI’s first FPV (first-person view) drone, it’s exhilarating.

News that DJI now has its own FPV drone is exciting but not surprising. It started making drone goggles for first-person view and control of drones back in 2017. Its first attempt was huge and ridiculous. A few years later, it followed up with the DJI FPV Goggles, a much more lightweight and compact headset that could work with a wide variety of FPV drones. In January, DJI introduced the slightly redesigned FPV Goggles V2.

DJI enters the FPV market, though, in a decidedly consumer way. No DIY, build-your-own, spec-your-own camera for them. DJI’s FPV Drone is a self-contained flyer, complete with next-gen motors and a new 4K camera (with a one-axis — up and down — gimbal).

The standard FPV remote and DJI FPV Goggles V2.

Despite the ready-to-fly nature of the drone, it’s not a souped-up Mavic. With a humpback design to…