so my son wants a drone for his birthday and i've been trying to figure this out for like two weeks now. he's 16 so not a little kid, he's pretty responsible and good with tech stuff. i've looked at the DJI Mini 3, the Autel Nano, and some other ones but i honestly cannot tell if the differences justify the price gaps. like is the DJI brand thing just hype or is it actually better built. the Autel one seems similar on paper but cheaper sometimes. also someone at work told me i need to register it with the FAA or something, is that true for all drones or just certain ones. i feel like im going in circles here

the FAA registration thing depends on the weight. anything under 250 grams doesnt need to be registered for recreational flying, which is why everyone talks about the DJI Mini line so much, they specifically designed them to come in under that limit. the Autel Nano is also under 250g so that ones fine too. as for which is actually better, DJI's app and overall ecosystem is just more polished in my experience, the Autel hardware is solid but their fly app has had some issues over the years. for a 16 year old learning i'd honestly go Mini 3, the return to home feature alone has saved my bacon more than once when i lost orientation

yeah the sub-250g thing is real and matters if you ever want to fly in more places without jumping through hoops. i will say though that DJI being a Chinese company has caused some people to avoid them for various reasons, theres been some government contractor restrictions and stuff, probably doesnt affect you personally but worth knowing its a thing people discuss. for a teenager just learning though none of that really matters, the Mini 3 flies great and the RC-N1 controller is fine to start with before deciding if he wants to upgrade to the RC controller with the built in screen later on