figured id write up some actual thoughts on this thing since most reviews i found when i was buying were either super polished youtube stuff or really old. bought the evo lite+ back in the spring mostly because i was tired of the whole dji ecosystem and wanted to try something different, also the variable aperture at that price point seemed too good to pass up.

so the camera is genuinely great. the aperture control is real and useful, not just a gimmick, and ive gotten some shots at dusk that i would have really struggled to get on my old mavic air 2. colors out of the camera are also different from dji, a bit warmer, some people hate it i actually like it once i got used to it.

the annoying stuff though ? the app. oh man the skylink app has crashed on me mid flight twice and i had to rely on the return to home which thankfully worked fine both times. also the obstacle avoidance is only front and rear, not side, which caught me off guard once near some trees. it doesnt advertise this badly it's just easy to forget when youre used to something more omnidirectional.

battery life has been solid, better than advertised in calm conditions. controller feels cheaper than dji's but it works. would i buy it again, probably yeah but i wouldnt tell someone to get it over a comparable dji unless they have a specific reason to go autel. its a real option though not just a knockoff

the app stability thing is the main reason i haven't pulled the trigger on autel honestly. two crashes mid flight is not something i want to deal with over water especially. did those happen on a specific phone or have you tried different devices? wondering if its a compatibility thing or just the app being rough generally

yeah the variable aperture was what got me looking at it too. its kind of wild that feature doesnt exist on most dji stuff at that price range still. your point about the side obstacle avoidance is worth stressing more though, i feel like a lot of people coming from the mini 3 or air 3 just assume everything has it now and autel doesnt really make it obvious in their marketing. glad your rth worked when the app went down thats at least reassuring