ok so ive been trying to decide between the Autel EVO Nano+ and the DJI Mini 3 for like a month now and i keep flip flopping. i mostly fly around parks and do some light travel photography, nothing crazy. the Nano+ looks really good on paper and the 50mp sensor is honestly what drew me to it in the first place but then everyone i talk to in person seems to just default to DJI because of the ecosystem and support.

thing is i had a bad experience with DJI customer service a while back (lost a phantom in the ocean, partially my fault, partially a compass issue) and ive been kind of reluctant to go back. Autel just feels more... i dont know, underdog-ish? and i liked what i read about them not having the same geo-fencing restrictions.

has anyone here actually flown both? not looking for a spec sheet comparison, i can google that. more interested in how they actually feel to fly and whether the Autel app is anywhere near as polished as the DJI fly app these days.

had the Nano+ for about 8 months before i picked up a Mini 3 Pro just to compare and honestly both are solid but they really do feel different in the air. the Nano+ tracks really stable in mild wind but i noticed it gets a little squirrelly above maybe 20mph, nothing scary just more drift than id expect. the Mini 3 feels tighter somehow, hard to explain.

the Autel app has gotten way better than it was at launch, early versions were rough from what i remember reading but now its pretty usable. still not as snappy as DJI Fly but its not painful either. the geo-fencing thing is real by the way, ive flown spots with the Nano+ that would have been a whole unlock process with DJI and it just... flew. that alone keeps me coming back to Autel for certain trips.

image quality on the Nano+ is genuinely great, the colors out of camera are a bit warm but in a nice way. if you shoot raw you have tons of latitude. i think for travel and parks honestly either would serve you well, just depends if the ecosystem lock-in bothers you.

i just got the Nano+ like six weeks ago as my first drone so i cant compare to the Mini 3 but i will say the Autel support has been really responsive when i had a question about activating it. way faster reply than i expected from a smaller company. the app does feel a little basic compared to videos ive seen of DJI Fly but it works fine and i havent had any issues with it crashing or anything like that.