DJI launches new entry level Phantom 3 : The Phantom 3 Standard

DJI are the global leaders in consumer drones, and while there are a huge bunch of lower priced drones coming onto the market, the Phantom is the best for great video and photos for a beginner and amateur pilot.  But the price!  Today DJI announced the “Standard” edition of the Phantom 3 to ease a bit of that pain.

The top of the line Phantom 3 Professional will set you back $1950, and shoots 4K video.  The Phantom 3 Advanced is $1550 shooting HD video – that being the only difference between the two.

Both feature an all new remote controller with a hard-wired link to your smart device for app controls, and their flight range is amazing – I’ve flown over 1.5km away.

The Phantom 3 Standard seems a bit more complex to explain.  Shooting “Ultra HD 2.7k” video its camera is seemingly in between the quality of the other two models.

Priced at $1299 it’s still not cheap!  But it seems aimed at those looking for  close proximity flight with a flight distance of “half a mile”

This may be due to the absence of the DJI Lightbridge technology, with the Phantom 3 Standard relying on WiFi for connectivity to your smart device, as the Phantom 2 and 2 Vision did.  We’ll confirm this when we get one hands-on.

Overall, given the video quality, it’s likely a hot option for those looking to upgrade from a Phantom 2, or get their first high-quality drone.

DJI also announced new features “coming soon” which are listed in the Phantom 3 Standard promotional video and website, however one can only assume they will be added to the Advanced and Professional models via firmware and app upgrades also.

These features are “Follow Me”, “Waypoints” and “Point of Interest”

Follow me gained great publicity with the Lily Drone promo video, and is noted on the Hexo Drone too – this would likely use the Smartphone’s GPS position to direct the drone to follow you.

Waypoints allows you to plot a flight path on the app map, putting the drone into autopilot essentially, allowing you to direct the camera controls primarily.

Finally the Point of Interest allows you to set a spot on the map and have the drone fly around that spot keeping the camera fixed on the item.

A key physical difference with the Standard against the Advanced and The Pro is the Remote controller, it looks like DJI is rolling out excess stock of the Phantom 2 controllers with the Standard model.  These controllers have the flick on switch instead of the press-button, and don’t have the additional buttons and controls that exist on the Advanced and Pro versions.

The Phantom 3 Standard ships from August 10, and we’d expect Sphere, Rise Above and Camzilla to jump quickly on stocking this one as always.