saw the announcement for the new Autel EVO Lite follow-up they teased last week. the specs look decent on paper but i've always been a little skeptical of Autel just because their software ecosystem feels clunky compared to DJI fly. like the hardware has gotten genuinely competitive but then you open the app and it just feels like it's three years behind.

that said i do like that they're not subject to all the same regulatory headaches DJI keeps running into in the US market, which probably matters more now than it did a couple years ago. anyone actually flown the newer Autel stuff recently? curious if the image quality has caught up or if its still noticeably softer than equivalent DJI footage

the app thing is so real, i demoed an Autel at a local shop and the hardware felt solid but navigating the menus was weirdly unintuitive. could just be that i'm too used to DJI's layout but still. the camera on the one i tried was actually pretty nice in good light, low light was a bit mushier than i expected. not bad just not quite there yet imo

honestly the regulatory angle is underrated in this conversation. if the DJI ban stuff ever actually gets enforced more seriously there's going to be a scramble for alternatives and Autel is probably the most ready to absorb that market just by default. skydio is too expensive and focused on the enterprise side so for regular consumers Autel is kind of the only real option. their R&D has clearly been ramping up, the releases have been more frequent lately which is a good sign even if each one isnt a home run right out of the gate.