okay so this has been driving me nuts for a few weeks now. im looking at spending around $900-1000 on an upgrade from my Air 2S and the two i keep coming back to are the Autel Evo Lite+ and the Air 3. i know theyre not exactly the same price bracket but ive seen some deals on the Autel lately

most of the comparisons i find online are either from and feel outdated or theyre clearly just rephrased spec sheets. i want to hear from people who have actually taken these out and shot with them in non-perfect conditions. like real stuff, wind, clouds, maybe some travel

the thing pulling me toward Autel is honestly just wanting to try something different after years of DJI, and a few people have said the color science out of the Evo is really nice. but then the Air 3 dual camera setup is really tempting and im not sure the Autel ecosystem is as developed for third party apps and stuff

anyway if anyone has hands on time with either id love to hear it, not looking for specs i can read those myself

I had an Evo Lite+ for about six months before I sold it. The image quality is genuinely good and color out of camera is warm and pleasing, way less clinical than DJI's default profile. But the app crashed on me more times than I can count and customer support when I had a gimbal issue was kind of a nightmare compared to DJI Care. I dont regret trying it but I went back to DJI in the end just because everything works more reliably together.

The Air 3 dual cam thing is really useful if you do any travel or real estate work, switching between the wide and the 3x medium tele is something I use constantly now. If youre coming from an Air 2S the sensor upgrade isnt massive but the two lenses change how you think about shooting.

im probably not the most experienced person to answer this but i switched from DJI to Autel last year mostly for the no geo-fencing thing and honestly the Skylink app has gotten a lot better than it used to be from what people were saying. still not as polished as DJI fly but its not a disaster either

havent flown an Air 3 so cant really compare directly but just wanted to say the Autel hate online feels a bit overblown sometimes, at least for casual use its been totally fine for me