DJI is up to something again. Not only has a DJI Mavic 4 been announced in recent video leaks, but a new action cam called Osmo Action 5 has also recently been discovered, the latter in two variants. Now, the Chinese drone experts seem to have another market in their sights, namely very small mini drones. The DJI Mini series already dominates this market for ambitious consumers who are prepared to willing to dig deep into their pockets to purchase a pro-level drone weighing less than 250 grams with increasingly fewer compromises, most recently in the form of the DJI Mini 4 Pro.

But for many, even this is still too big, heavy or expensive, which has resulted in extremely small "nano drones" such as the HoverAir X1, which weighs just 130 grams, can be folded and placed in a trouser pocket and is advertised as self-flying. At present, it looks as if DJI also hopes to conquer this potentially lucrative market with its DJI Neo mini drone, whose name has just been confirmed in a US FCC certification.

DJI Neo versus Hoverair X1?

The FCC has not yet confirmed any technical data for the mini drone other than the 1,435 mAh battery, although it may have already been observed during a test flight. At least this is what a video recently uploaded to X (formerly Twitter) by drone leaker OsitaLV suggests.

Spark back to life in a Mavic form? pic.twitter.com/V9B19qb5R2

— OsitaLV (@OsitaLV) July 25, 2024

Potentially only 169 grams light

According to drone expert Weiliang Zhang (via DroneXL), the DJI Neo only weighs 169 grams and offers around 15 minutes of flight time, which would make it significantly more compact than the DJI Mini series, and the battery is substantially smaller than the 2,590 mAh battery of the DJI Mini 4 Pro. He expects the drone that will also be suitable for indoor use thanks to the propeller cage and the single-axis gimbal-stabilized camera, which can potentially also be folded to make it easier to put in your pocket. You can't see the foldability in the video yet, and we also doubt whether it is self-flying, especially since a classic controller can be seen in the video. Whatever DJI is working on, we probably won't have to wait much longer.