DJI Mini 2 Alternatives – Mini 2 “Clones” and Similar Drones

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DJI Mini 2 is an awesome little flyer that can stay in air for a long time, can shoot 4k videos and develop 16m/s speed. However, it is not a good fit for everyone. And those of you who might not like it for no particular reason can check out our list of best Mini 2 alternatives currently on the market.

We will focus on the drones in similar price range to the Mini 2, most of them will be cheaper Mini 2 alternatives and couple of them will be a bit more expensive (and better quality) drones.

You can see the latest price of Mini 2 by clicking here.

Mini 2 alternatives – top 7 drones

DJI Mavic Mini

Of course, the best alernative to Mini 2 is its older sibling and essentially a platform that was used for the development of the new Mini 2.

It is small, feathery light and can fly up to 30 minutes. DJI Mavic Mini is currently the cheapest Mavic drone by DJI. It is a perfect drone for everyone, beginners and advanced users alike and it looks like a meld of all Mavic models together – it is on par with Mavic 2 Pro in terms of flight time, it lighter and more portable than any other Mavic model. The only drawback is lack of 4K videos but it does 2.7k and it is only fractionally worse than 4K Mavic models.

There is hardly another drone more compact and lighter than the new DJI Mavic Mini. Weighing only 249 grams (without propeller protection), the new DJI Mavic Mini does not even require a drone license plate or registration – for example in the USA.

Granted, it is not the most stable drone in windy conditions nor are the plastic legs and propellers as sturdy as with high-end DJI drones (cost of the weight reduction) but Mavic Mini is just incredible piece of engineering with frugal mindset.

DJI Mavic Mini

Lightweight, fast and super fun to fly. Very affordable and great choice for newbie pilots.

Ruko F11

We continue the best Mini 2 alternatives list with another great drone that can fly up to 30 minutes, has a 4k camera and a 1.2km control range.

The drone features a 4K UHD camera that lets you to capture footage at high resolution. The camera can record 2.7K videos and stills at up to 8.3MP. It also has a 120-degree field of view, which enhances the extent of details in your footage.

The long flight time is powered by the 2500mAh intelligent batteries that it uses to give a pilot a whopping 30 minutes of flight time.

Two downsides are lack of obstacle detection sensors and gimbal stabilization.

Contixo F24 Pro  – best cheap alternative to Mini 2

This foldable drone is an absolute steal for its price – it definitely can be considered the best cheap alternative to Mini 2. It features an excellent 4K Ultra HD Camera that is vertical adjustable with a 120° FOV lens.

You can take 4k images and 2.7k recordings with it.

Intelligent 25000 mAh batteries power the drone for a whopping 30 minutes of flight time.

The range is also impressive – 1,700 feet for live video and image transition.

The drone also comes with follow me mode, gesture control and orbit mode – three surprising features for this price range drones. But that is not all since the drone also has tap to fly option with 16 waypoints you can use to direct the drone on its fly path.

DJI Mavic Air 2 – best overall alternative to Mini 2

This is a brand new DJI drone that was released in April 2020. The drone saw huge improvements over its predecessors. This machine is a real beast with impressive flight time of 34 minutes, 48 MP photos and HDR capabilities.

The Mavic Air 2 weighs 570g (1.3 pound) and feautres a 1/2-inch CMOS sensor capable of 12MP and 48MP photos (JPEG and RAW). When it comes to video, the Mavic Air 2 can shoot up to 4K 60fps at 120 Mpbs. Mavic Air 2 is also capable to shoot in the H.265 HVEC video codec to improve efficiency without any loss in quality.

It is a bit more expensive but also much more feature rich than the Mavic Mini as you can see in our comparison of Air 2 and Mini.

DJI also introduced some new smart camera features on the new Air 2, called Scene Recognition and Hyperlight.

  • Scene Recognition is made for detecting sunsets, blue skies, grass, snow, and trees. It then optimizes images with these objects for a stunning final photo.
  • Hyperlight is a feature that is drumming around mobile markets – it aims to increase the quality of night shots by taking multiple photos and merging them to reduce the amount of noise (graininess) that’s common in low-light images.

DJI Mavic Air 2

XIAOMI FIMI X8 SE

Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi Tech’s new camera drone X8 SE Drone has made its debut in 2019.

The X8 SE drone is marketed under the subsidiary brand FIMI. The Xiaomi FIMI X8 SE has a 4K camera and a three-axis gimbal and, thanks to its foldable design, resembles the DJI Mavic Pro or DJI Mavic 2 (Pro/Zoom).

The consumer drone has very small dimensions of only 204 x 106 x 72.6 millimetres with the arms folded in. This makes the drone about the size of a conventional smartphone. By comparison, the DJI Mavic 2 measures 214 x 91 x 84 millimetres when folded. The take-off weight of the FIMI X8 SE is 790 grams.  The integrated positioning system consists of a modern GPS and Glonass module. In addition, the XIAOMI FIMI X8 SE has a Vision Positioning System (VPS) on the underside of the housing.
It is quieter than its competitors and can develop decent speed of 65 km/h.

The maximum photo resolution of 4,000 x 3,000 pixels.

When in video mode, the camera can record 4K images at up to 30 fps or 1080p images at up to 60 fps.

The data is stored at a bit rate of 100 Mbps on a local microSD card with up to 64 Gigabyte storage capacity in the drone. The drone is easy to fly and is suitable for beginners and professionals alike.

The Xiaomi FIMI Xiaomi drone has 33 minutes flight time.

Hubsan Zino 2 – best 4k drone under 500 USD

  • Maximum take-off altitude: 5000m
  • The longest flight time: 33mins (windless)
  • The longest hover time: 32mins (windless)
  • Max. endurance mileage: 20km (50km/h windless cruising)
  • Wind resistance: 5-level
  • Max. Tiltable angle: 25 degrees (normal mode); 35 degrees (sports mode)
  • Max. rotational speed: 150 degrees/s
  • Working temperature: -10 Deg.C – 40 Deg.C
  • Working frequency: 5.725 – 5.850 GHz
  • Positioning: GPS + GLONASS
  • Check its price on Amazon

The Zino 2 had a lot of teething issues. Some of them are solved in the meanwhile but Hubsan is known for a sloppy service (e.g. they published last month two totally different firmware versions for the Zino Pro with the same version number). Another issue is the heavy weight of the Zino 2. This could be a problem regarding upcoming law changes in Europe. On the other hand the Zino 2 comes with a higher 4K frame rate and better – means lower – compression with lesser compressing artefacts that most of its competitors from this price range.

Feature packed drone for below $500 – this is a real grab! Hubsan is further improving on its reputation of producing great, mid class, low-cost drones. When you see the specs, you would expect at least 2x the price of the one you can get this machine for. So, don’t hesitate too much and go snatch one from Amazon.

Hubsan Zino 2

Holy Stone HS720 

Another solid drone for this price range is Holy Stone HS720. It has a decent 2K FHD camera with image stabilization and 90 degrees vertical adjustability.

The drone features couple of intelligent mode flights like return to home, follow me, orbit mode and flying along the map set path.

The flight time is also representable with praiseworthy 26 minutes of flying fun.

Optical Flow Positioning makes great effect when GPS signal is lost or weak. Functions, like one key start/stop, emergency stop, altitude hold and electric fence, keep it simple to control for even beginners.

The control range of 2.4GHz transmitter reaches to 3000 feet high range, another stellar feature for this price range.

Holy Stone HS720

Mini 2 alternatives – conclusion

So there you have it – a list of top Mini 2 clones and drones that act as a surrogate to the sturdy little bird. As we said in the beginning of the article, most of the list are cheaper drones that are a bit on the weaker side of Mini 2 (click to check latest price) – shorter flight times and lower camera quality. However, price is accordingly lower and they are much more affordable.

While you are here, have a look at our other lists of good alternatives to popular drones:

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