Costco is selling a DJI Mini 3 drone bundle and it is a pretty nice deal. The Mini 3 looks extremely similar to the DJI Spark that I bought a few years ago but it has three significant differences that got me thinking about making the upgrade.
If you are wondering if this is a good purchase for your first drone then the answer is a solid YES. The Mini 3 has amazing video quality, long flight times and is easy to use.
Key Upgrades of the DJI Mini 3
The Mini 3 is an upgrade over my Spark for several reasons. These reasons are:
- Weight
- Battery Life
- Video Quality
- Control App
Let’s take a look at each of these upgrades in more detail.
Weight of the Drone
The DJI Mini 3 weighs 249 grams and this number is surprisingly important.
It turns out that any drone that weighs 250 grams or more must be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration. Because the Mini 3 weighs 1 gram less than the limit you will not have to deal with registering the drone.
Battery Life
You can get 38 minutes of flight time with the Mini 3 and that is a huge improvement over the 15 minutes that I get with my Spark. This is the biggest reason that I am thinking about making the upgrade to the Mini 3.
With my Spark I spend about 5 minutes getting the drone into the position I want and only get to film for about five more minutes until I start getting alarms and warnings about low battery life and notifications that the drone needs to return to home.
If I was a better pilot or videographer I could be more efficient and get more than five minutes of filming done but my skill level is not that great yet.
I suspect that I could easily get at least 20 minutes of filming done with the Mini 3 which would be a four fold improvement over my Spark.
Video Quality
My Spark records video in 1920 x 1080p (1.2K) and 30 frames per second and I am pretty happy with the video quality that my drone captures.
The Mini 3 captures video in 4K at 30 frames per second which is a huge upgrade over something that was already pretty nice.
More impressively, the Mini 3 has a 4X zoom feature which lets you get great close up videos without having to be up close to the subject.
True Vertical Video
If you are big into Instagram or TikTok then you will love the fact that the Mini 3 lets you film true vertical videos. You will be able to take amazing videos and post them directly to your social feeds without having to crop them from horizontal to vertical with post production software.
Control
You can control the Mini 3 through the included RC-N1 remote control which is more intuitive, easier to use and is more responsive than the DJI Go 4 app that I use for the Spark.
Being able to use the new app has a big appeal for me.
Other Upgrades
For sake of completeness I should point out that the Mini 3 has a 10 km range and can handle 23 mph wind gusts. I have no intentions of either flying anything that far away or in such gusty conditions.
Costco Value
The DJI Bundle costs $429 at Costco and saves you about $80 over standard retail prices.
The bundle includes:
- The Mini 3 Drone
- Remote Control
- 64 GB Micro SD Card
- Extra Propellers
- Gimbal Protector
- ND Filter Set
If you buy just the Mini 3 directly from DJIÂ then it will cost you $449 which means you are saving $10 at Costco right off the bat.
The extra battery, which you will really want, would cost you another $55.
Throw in another $10 for the micro SD card and another $10 for the ND filter set and we are looking at $85 worth of savings when you buy the bundle at Costco.
The Other DJI Drone to Consider
I am on the fence about making the upgrade from my Spark to the Mini 3 for a couple of reasons.
The first is that I don’t use my Spark enough to make the upgrade a financially defensible decision. If I was putting more work into my Youtube channel then I would feel better about making the upgrade but it has been months since I published a video.
The second reason is that DJI has a less expensive model, the Mini SE, that is very close in features to the Mini 3 and only costs $299.
While there are several minor differences between the Mini SE and the Mini 3, the big difference is that the SE captures video in 2.7K compared to 4K with the Mini 3.
Even though the Mini SE’s video quality is not as good as the Mini 3 it is still twice as good as what I capture with my Spark.
With the purchase of the Mini 2 Bundle at COSCO I understand an extra battery and carrying case are included. Will I still need to purchase replacement blades and a controller?
Thanks
I am pretty sure it comes with the controller but not the extra blades.
I don’t like the fact that I have not been able to use my Galaxy S2 phone for video! What is going on with this ? If I had a IPhone it would work great but I don’t!