FIMI X8 Mini Camera Drone is a Competitor to DJI

The Xiaomi again bursts into our news feed, but this time not with smartphones with mind-blowing cameras, but flies in on the FIMI X8 Mini drone, merrily buzzing with all the propellers. The FIMI brand is little known to the general public, although it is part of the Xiaomi ecosystem, only the lazy one has not heard about DJI, although for this you have to be very lazy. And just the new FIMI X8 Mini drone will be a direct competitor to DJI’s Mini drones, which weigh less than 250 grams, thanks to which they do not need to be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States.

Many companies threatened to release their drones capable of moving DJI flying robots from Olympus, but a cart, or rather a drone, is still there – buzzing somewhere under the clouds. Will Xiaomi succeed? To do this, there is everything you need on-board: a camera drone has a 1/2.6-inch matrix with a resolution of 12-megapixel CMOS sensor from Sony, a lens with an 80º angle of view and an equivalent focal length of 26 mm, and all this, as expected, on a 3-axis stabilizer. The mini drone Xiaomi shoots 4K / 30p HDR video at 100Mbps with the H.265 codec, and the F-log is also available. Photos can be shot in either JPG or RAW.

The company is especially proud of the night mode, built on the basis of HiSilicon artificial intelligence, which can reduce noise in photos and videos when shooting at night, that is, at a time when you want to shoot the lights of a big city from a bird’s eye view, flying around birds along the way. Birds, by the way, really attack, and a couple of times we had to maneuver. The camera has a 3x zoom, most likely, this is a digital zoom, not an optical one.

From automatic programs, just like those of a competitor, panoramas, time-lapses are offered, and you can publish streaming videos on social networks. The declared range is up to 8 km, the remote control operates at 5.8 GHz. According to the manufacturer, the FIMI Mini X8 is capable of withstanding gusts of wind up to 22 miles per hour, which when translated into kilometers is 35 km/h, which is approximately 10 m/s. Of course, the company says that the engines are silent, but what is interesting is the presence of a flight mode in which the user can draw a route on the map in advance.

The X8 Mini drone measures 165x89x47mm when folded and 200x145x56mm when unfolded, and this is almost the same size as the DJI Mini 2. It is not surprising that the name of the model contains the word “Mini”, and not some “Heaven Sword”, which would be more beautiful, but probably would not have led to an increase in sales. Although, who knows.

The X8 Mini weighs 258g with the standard battery and only 245g with the “professional” battery. The standard battery provides up to 30 minutes of flight, while the professional battery will allow you to enjoy the flight for 1 minute longer, namely 31 minutes. The X8 Mini has a maximum speed of 16 m/s. There is a return home, real-time GPS tracking, no-fly zone protection, high wind, and low battery warnings. The bottom camera will help with a precise fit. Nothing is said about accurate flying around obstacles and dodging birds.

FIMI X8 Mini price and availability

The X8 Mini camera drone is expected to available on April 18, 2021, with a starting price of $399 on Bhphotovideo.com and Amazon.com websites. The price is good, but the tests will show whether the flight is normal.