DJI Mavic 3 Looks Poised To Change the Drone Game

Massive flight time and two (2!) cameras put this folding drone in a league of its own

The new DJI Mavic 3 Cine (left) and standard (right) (Credit: DJI)

I’ve been flying DJI drones for years and readily put them at the top of the prosumer drone hill. The Chinese manufacturer has almost consistently (I never liked the rinky-dink Spark) built smaller, lighter, faster, and better-flying robots (which is basically what drones are) than anyone else.

Its line of Mavic foldable drones has long been a favorite, combining sturdy craftsmanship with admirable speed, intelligence, and flight duration. For a time, DJI tried to fork the Mavic line into the smaller, slightly less-able Air and the more powerful Pro line. Eventually, DJI wisely discontinued the Pros, and since then has been beefing up the core Mavic line with exciting pro-level features.

This brings us to the new DJI Mavic 3, which starts shipping this month.

To be clear, I have not touched or flown this new DJI drone, but I am slightly stunned over some of the new features.

Let’s start with the cameras. There are now two. There’s the 4/3″ CMOS-backed Hasselblad lens that can shoot 20 MP images, 5.1K video (50 fps), and 4K at 120 fps, and there’s what DJI is calling a 28x hybrid zoom, 162mm lens.