Autel Robotics EVO

amazon Autel Robotics EVO reviews

DJI has created and owns folding drones, but it’s not without competition. The Autel Robotics EVO ($999) does a few things the DJI Mavic Drone doesn’t—including 4K recording at 60fps—but omits some of the more advanced features offered by the competition. If you insist on high frame rate capture, EVO is an attractive aerial video platform. I love it, even though our favorite folding Drone is more expensive but more capable, the DJI Mavic 2 Pro.

The first thing you notice about the EVO is its color – bright orange is a lot more eye-catching than most Drone designs. If you have to make a difficult landing on tall grass or brush, it will make the plane easier to spot, and the black strut helps you visually identify the Drone as it ascends in the bright sky.

The plane has a folding design. With the arms folded into the body, it measures approximately 5.5 x 5.5 x 10.0 inches (HWD). That means you can find space for it in your existing camera bag — it takes up about the same as a typical 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom lens and adds about two pounds of weight to the package.

The arms must be unfolded before a flight, but centrifugal force will help bring the propellers into their proper place – also fold up for storage. Opening the Drone to fly is very simple; remember to swing the arm forward before the arm behind.

The EVO has the expected safety features. Its navigation system uses both GPS and GLONASS satellites, so a location lock is obtained quickly. If the drone connection and the remote control are broken, the EVO will automatically return to the takeoff point. You can also enable the return home feature manually.

Battery life is decent, though not as good as the 30 minutes that Autel advertises. In real flying conditions, I fly an average of about 26 minutes per flight. That’s in line with the competition, though — the DJI Mavic 2 takes about 27 minutes and the Parrot Anafi about 25 minutes. Autel sells additional aircraft batteries for $85.

Obstacle detection sensors are located in the nose and tail. Front sensors reduce top speed to 22mph when turned on — Drones can fly as fast as 44mph when they’re off. They can, however, prevent the Drone from crashing — the EVO stops when it senses an obstacle in its path. The flight speed is similar to the DJI Mavic Air, reaching around 22mph when its obstacle sensor is activated. For a faster Drone with obstacle detection enabled, consider the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom or the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, both of which can fly at 32mph with obstacle detection enabled.

Rear sensors are also included, although they won’t prevent you from backing the Drone into a tree during manual flight. Both sensors are used when the Drone is set up to track a moving subject — you draw a box around your target using the control app. There are no top, bottom, or side sensors like you get with the DJI Mavic 2 series, so automatic tracking is limited to forward and backward movement.

Autel does not have the authority to enforce safety features like DJI. That can be appealing to savvy pilots, but it can also be dangerous for untrained pilots. So while it’s possible to fly an EVO up to 2,600 feet above the ground, you should be aware of limiting yourself to 400 feet — the default and legal limit in the US.

There is also a geo-fence, which can be placed from about 100 feet to 1,640 feet. When activated, Drones will not fly further than the set limit. It can certainly save you trouble, although you should keep in mind that you must keep a Drone in the visual line of sight when flying in the US.

EVO does not recognize or enforce permanent or temporary no-fly zones. There is also a safety concern. You will need to take care to ensure that you are not within five miles of an airport, flying in a national park, or near Washington DC when using EVO. Most importantly, you don’t want to fly EVOs near wildfires — Drones can hinder airborne firefighting efforts.

No internal memory. The EVO has a single microSD slot and comes with a 32GB card. You can transfer the video to your computer via a micro USB cable or remove the card and use a card reader. The memory card door is very tight, at least on the EVO I tested, and I had to resort to an opener or scissors to open it.

Battery charging is done outside of the Drone. It comes with a dedicated charger that can replenish the flight’s battery and includes a USB port connecting a remote control or another device.

Fly without a smartphone

The included remote is quite nice. It’s compact, has a clip to hold your phone at the top, handles that rotate out and down the bottom, and a full-color display. Features wheels for adjusting exposure and camera tilt, buttons for taking photos and starting or stopping video clips, two programmable rear controls, and dedicated controls for takeoff and landing, as well as return home. There is also a Pause button, which stops the EVO and hovers in place.

The remote control’s color screen displays more than just telemetry data, battery life, and other sundry features. A press of the Display button switches to displaying a live feed from the EVO’s camera. Unlike most competing models, you can fly it without attaching a smartphone and still see the view from the camera. The 3.3-inch screen isn’t large and doesn’t support touch input, so you’ll need to navigate through the settings using the physical controls — the right wheel is used to scroll through menus and acts as a button to confirm any changes you make settings.

You can access and adjust basic settings — video resolution, frame rate, image file format, maximum flight altitude, and geofencing settings, and more. Using the remote control. But for more advanced settings, including access to different video profiles, auto-recording, and subject tracking, you’ll still need to attach the phone. However, EVO doesn’t remember which video profile you’ve selected so that you can make those configuration changes once with the phone app, and they’ll still be applied when flying with just the remote.

The Autel Explorer app, a free download for Android and iOS devices, is required to take full advantage of all EVO features. The app gives you access to video profiles, auto shots, including perfect circular orbits and object tracking. EVO easily recognizes subjects — draw a box around it with your phone’s screen — and uses its obstacle detection system to keep up with fast-moving targets up to 22mph.

I have a bit of a quibble with the controls. The remote control has a button for automatic takeoff and landing.

It worked well for landings but not so much for takeoffs. Tapping it will display an Invalid Command message on the remote’s screen. You need to manually trigger the engine the old-fashioned way by moving both controls diagonally down and inward, then press the button to take off. But I find it easier to push the left stick up to take off after the propeller spins up.

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Autel Robotics EVO Drone Camera, Portable Folding Aircraft with Remote Controller, Captures Incredibly Smooth 4K 60fps Ultra HD Video and 12MP Photos: Buy it now

4K video: Too sharp

The EVO has a 4K video camera, aided by a smartphone-sized 12MP image sensor. I’m very pleased with the overall video quality — there’s plenty of resolution to show sharp details, and colors look great. But I have one big complaint – the default profile applies too much sharpening to the footage, making it look unnatural. Thankfully, you can get back to sharpness with the app by manually tweaking the default color profile or switching to Movie mode, which is no different from the default, but with a completely reduced sharpness. That’s the first thing I recommend EVO buyers do when setting up a Drone.

There are a few other things to watch out for as well. I had to manually dial in a bit of gimbal roll adjustment to straighten my horizon during a test flight. The propellers could enter the frame when flying forward, even at max speeds are adjusted to 22mph by the obstacle sensor.

There are several frame rates available. I shot my test footage at 24fps, as I prefer the cinematic style, but you can also choose 30fps for the video look, 48fps for slow-motion cinematic, and 60fps for traditional half-speed playback. You can also shoot at 2.7K resolution at any frame rate, at 1080p (2K) up to 120 fps and 720p as fast as 240 fps.

In addition to the standard configuration, you can choose from the Movie mentioned above skins and Vivid, Black and White, and several filtered skins — Art, Beach, Dream, Classic and Nostalgic. They are useful settings for casual users who want a different look without learning how to color the footage.

But if you’re a pro and you prefer to grade your videos, be glad to know that Flat Diary color profiles are also available. It reduces contrast, limits highlights, and adjusts shadows, so you have more room to adjust. But the Diary movie scene doesn’t look good without color correction, so it’s just something you should use if you’re used to advanced video editing software.

For stills, you can shoot in Raw or JPG at 12MP resolution. Image quality is on par with modern smartphones, so it’s more point-and-shoot than an SLR. But that is the case with most Drones. Suppose you’re primarily concerned with daylight images. In that case, you’ll likely be satisfied with the images, even if you’re the one who chooses to shoot in Raw and is responsible for your image processing. To get better photos than a smartphone, you’ll need to consider a model with a larger image sensor. If you like printing, consider it, but for Facebook and Instagram, EVO will work just fine.

A few drones have 1-inch type image sensors, which are four times the size of EVO’s smartphone-sized sensors, and they offer a huge upgrade in image quality, but you have to sacrifice a compact device design or some dollars to get one. The DJI Phantom 4 Advanced puts the 1-inch sensor camera in a larger Drone for around $1,000, while the DJI Mavic 2 Pro is the only folding 1-inch sensor model we’ve seen, but it costs around $1,500.

An attractive second option

Let’s face it — DJI essentially owns the compact drone market. Its Mavic line created this space, and it is now in its second generation of development. After all, Mavic Air does more than the EVO for less money. But not everyone needs or wants more of it. Autel Robotics EVO is attractive for different reasons.

One big problem is the lack of built-in restrictions. DJI critics have spoken out, advocating enforcement of no-fly zones and the need to set up an account and tie their Drone to it and your smartphone. For some, what is seen as Big Brother’s attitude is enough to stop them from buying a DJI Drone.

I do not share that view. In my eyes, DJI’s built-in safety features were necessary, and its self-control stopped someone somewhere from doing something very stupid. But I realize that not everyone shares my opinion, and potential Drone owners who don’t like the way DJI do things can buy an EVO and happily create aerial photos and videos.

The other area where the EVO is better than the Mavic series is in its remote control. Even though Autel doesn’t include a touchscreen with the EVO remote, it’s very practical to use without a smartphone, and if you need to use a feature that requires the Autel Explorer app, you’re still welcome. You can connect your phone to the remote to unlock the full suite of Drone features.

Video quality is very good, and while I would have liked to see the default profile look better, it’s easy to reduce sharpness or switch to the Log profile if you know what you’re doing. The EVO supports 4K DCI recording and 60fps at 4K UHD, options unavailable in the Mavic series.

EVO is the Right Drone for some pilots. Its battery life is in line with the competition, and it is capable of flying at greater speeds than other similarly priced small Drones. I think the DJI Mavic Air is the better choice for more people — it’s $200 cheaper, has more safety features, and shoots 4K UHD video. But if the Mavic Air doesn’t excite you, the EVO is a very viable alternative.