so i've had kind of an unusual year where i ended up testing a bunch of different drones for various reasons ? bought one, sold it, borrowed a friends, then bought another. figured i'd share some honest thoughts since most reviews i find online feel like they were written by someone who flew it once in perfect conditions.

started the year with the Avata 2 because i wanted to get into fpv but something more forgiving. it's genuinely fun and the stabilization is impressive but i got bored of the limited range and the footage always had this look to it that i couldn't quite dial out in post. sold it after about 3 months.

then a buddy let me fly his Autel EVO Lite+ for a few weeks while he was traveling. good drone, honestly. the image quality surprised me. but the app kept disconnecting on my android phone and i could never fully trust it. might be a phone thing but it was annoying enough that i wouldn't buy one without testing first.

ended up landing on the mavic 3 classic and yeah it's where i should have started probably. the Hasselblad color science is real, it's not just marketing. files just look good out of the camera in a way where you're not fighting them. only downside is the size ? i take it out less than i should because packing it up is a whole thing compared to the smaller ones.

the Avata 2 boredom thing is real, a lot of people hit that wall around the 2-3 month mark once the novelty of the immersive fpv thing wears off and you realise your shot options are kind of limited. good drone for what it is though. the mavic 3 classic is a great place to end up, that camera really does just work in a way where you stop tweaking and start actually flying

the autel app issues you mentioned ? ive heard this from a few people and i think it genuinely is device dependent which is frustarting because you shouldnt have to research phone compatibility before buying a drone. had a friend with a samsung s22 who had zero issues with his EVO and another guy with a pixel who had constant drops. autel really needs to sort that out because the hardware itself is solid