The DJI Air 3S and DJI Air 3 are two exceptional drones in DJI’s lineup, offering impressive features for both hobbyists and professionals. While the Air 3 was already a game-changer with its compact design and versatile features, the Air 3S introduces significant upgrades in camera quality and obstacle sensing. This article compares these two drones to help you decide which one suits your needs best.
The DJI Air 3S boasts a 1-inch CMOS sensor in its primary camera, an upgrade from the DJI Air 3’s 1/1.3-inch sensor. This improvement enhances light sensitivity, making the Air 3S ideal for low-light photography and videography. The Air 3S also supports 50 MP photos and 4K video at 120 fps, providing smoother slow-motion capabilities compared to the Air 3’s 48 MP and 100 fps. These upgrades make the Air 3S a choice for content creators seeking professional-grade visuals.
| DJI Air 3S | DJI Air 3 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Image Sensor |
Wide-Angle Camera: Medium Tele Camera: |
Wide-Angle Camera: Medium Tele Camera: |
|
Lens |
Wide-Angle Camera Medium Tele Camera |
Wide-Angle Camera Medium Tele Camera |
|
ISO Range |
Video: Photo: |
Video: Photo: |
|
Shutter Speed |
Wide-Angle Camera Medium Tele Camera |
Wide-Angle Camera Medium Tele Camera |
|
Max Image Size |
Wide-Angle Camera: Medium Tele Camera: |
Wide-Angle Camera: Medium Tele Camera: |
|
Still Photography Modes |
Wide-Angle Camera |
Wide-Angle Camera |
|
Video Resolution |
Wide-Angle Camera: Medium Tele Camera: * Recording frame rates. The corresponding video plays as a slow-motion video. Slow-motion videos and 4K video recordings only support H.265 encoding. |
Wide-Angle Camera: |
|
Video Format |
MP4 (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265) |
MP4 (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265) |
|
Max Video Bitrate |
H.264/H.265: 130 Mbps |
H.264/H.265: 150 Mbps |
|
Color Mode |
Wide-Angle Camera |
Wide-Angle Camera |
|
Digital Zoom |
Wide-Angle Camera: 1-2.9x |
Wide-Angle Camera: 1-3x |
Both drones feature omnidirectional obstacle sensing, ensuring safety during flight. However, the Air 3S takes it further with a forward-facing LiDAR sensor. This addition improves obstacle detection in low-light conditions and enhances the precision of the Return-to-Home function. For users who often fly in challenging environments or at night, the Air 3S offers added peace of mind.
With forward-facing LiDAR, DJI Air 3S can detect obstacles such as high-rise buildings and navigate upwards around them, even in low-light conditions, ensuring safer returns at night.
The DJI Air 3S and Air 3 share a similar compact and portable design, but the Air 3S is slightly heavier at 724 grams compared to the Air 3’s 720 grams. While this difference is minimal, it reflects the additional hardware of the Air 3S. In terms of flight time, the Air 3S offers a maximum of 45 minutes, just one minute less than the Air 3’s 46 minutes. Despite this slight reduction, both drones provide excellent performance and long-lasting flights.
DJI Air 3S comes with 42GB of built-in storage, enabling longer, uninterrupted flights without the need to frequently offload files and providing redundancy in case of connectivity issues or data transmission failures during flights.
You can now send files from your Air 3S to a smartphone even when the drone is powered off. To transfer files to a computer, simply connect the Air 3S via a compatible USB cable.
The DJI Air 3S introduces several new intelligent features. The Free panorama mode allows users to manually select areas for capture, enabling more creative control over panoramas. Additionally, the Enhanced QuickTransfer feature lets users transfer files even when the drone is powered off, maintaining a low-power standby mode. These features streamline the user experience, making the Air 3S a convenient and innovative choice.
Compared with the previous-generation DJI Air 3, DJI Air 3S employs a more advanced video encoding compression algorithm that reduces video file sizes by over 30% without compromising image quality, saving valuable storage space for creators.
The DJI Air 3S offers significant improvements in camera performance, obstacle sensing, and intelligent features, making it a worthy upgrade for users prioritizing these aspects. However, the DJI Air 3 remains an excellent option, especially given its lower price. Ultimately, your choice should depend on your specific needs and whether the enhanced capabilities of the Air 3S align with your use case.
Stay tuned for more updates as DJI prepares to unveil the next big thing in drone technology!
Fly safe and stay inspired 🚀✨
