DJI Air 2S brings 1-inch sensor and 5.4K video, will you buy it?

In terms of the Air 2S, DJI’s successor to the popular Mavic Air 2 is here and it adds a lot of camera muscle at the same price.

Note the omission of the Mavic branding in the DJI Air 2S name – just like with the mini 2, it brings a huge increase in sensor size and resolution. It’s now a 20MP 1-inch CMOS with 2.4μm-sized individual pixels – compared to the 1/2-inch 48MP sensor on the Mavic Air 2 and its 0.8μm pixels.

The DJI Air 2S can capture up to 5.4K (5472×3078px) footage at 24/25/30fps from the full width of the sensor, and 4K up to 60fps (compared to Mavic Air’s 4K@30fps) at a slight crop. The DJI Air 2S also captures video at a higher 150Mbps.

You are able to zoom in during video getting – 4x in 5.4K and up to 8x in 1080p. The Air 2S is also serious about video colors with Normal 8-bit, D-Log 10-bit and HLG 10-bit capture.

Design-wise the drone is nearly identical to its predecessor and appears to use the same 3,500mAh battery. But the Air 2S is 25g heavier than its predecessor and as such has a reduced flight time estimate of 31 minutes – down from 33 minutes.

The extra heft comes from the added two sensors on the front of the Air 2S. They enable something that DJI calls “binacular zooming”, which means the drone can see obstacles from farther and at higher speeds.

Just like the Mavic Air 2, the DJI Air 2S has obstacle avoidance from four sides – forward, backward, downward and upward – there are no sensors for left and right avoidance.

The new drone supports the latest OcuSync with a maximum control range of 12km – slightly more than the Air 2.

Currently DJI Air 2S is on sale. The starting price of $999/€999 will net you the drone, a single battery + charger, 3 pairs of propellers and the DJI RC-N1 controller. Moving up to the $1,299/€1,299 Fly More combo adds three batteries, four ND filters and a shoulder bag.