ok so ive been going back and forth on this for like two weeks now and i cant decide. my budget is around $700-800 and i keep landing on either the EVO Nano+ or the DJI Mini 3. i know DJI has the ecosystem and the app is more polished but something about the Autel just feels more... honest? like they dont geofence everything to death and i can actually fly it without the drone calling home to DJI servers every five minutes.

the colors are a thing too, my buddy says the orange makes it easier to spot during retrieval which honestly is a legit point ive come around to. anyway has anyone actually used both or switched from one to the other? i shoot mostly landscape stuff, some hiking trips, nothing crazy professional. just want something reliable that wont get me in trouble every time i fly near anything remotely urban.

had the Nano+ for about 8 months now and genuinely like it. the no geofencing thing is real and it matters more than people give it credit for. flew it near a small regional airport after getting proper clearance through LAANC and DJI would have still thrown a fit about it, Autel just... let me fly. image quality is solid for the size, the dynamic range surprised me on some golden hour shots.

that said the app is def behind DJI in terms of smoothness, it gets the job done but youll notice little quirks. firmware updates are less frequent too which can be a pro or con depending on how you look at it. for landscape hiking stuff though i think you'd be really happy with it. the orange really does help, found mine in some tall grass once purely because of the color.

i went Mini 3 and dont regret it but the geofencing thing genuinely annoys me more than i expected. had a situation at a local park that wasnt even restricted airspace and it still gave me warnings that made me nervous. if i was buying again id probably at least demo the Autel first tbh.