so my brother in law just got a neo and was showing it off at a family thing and i'll be honest my first reaction was kind of dismissive, like it felt like a toy compared to my mavic 3. but then i actually watched the footage on a proper screen later and it was... fine? like genuinely not embarrassing footage.

im trying to figure out if theres a real use case for something like that or if its just dji trying to grab a chunk of the action cam market. the whole no-controller thing is interesting to me conceptually but also feels like it takes away most of what i actually enjoy about flying. curious if anyone here has used one seriously or if you all had the same reaction i did at first

i picked one up mostly out of curiosity a couple months back and my take is it really depends what you're trying to do with it. for solo hiking where you want a shot of yourself doing something and you cant exactly ask a stranger to fly your mavic, the neo is actually pretty clever. the follow modes work better than i expected outdoors with decent light.

that said calling it a drone in the traditional sense feels like a stretch. its more like a flying action camera with some autonomy. the footage is solid for social media, probably wont win any awards. wind resistance is the real limitation ? anything above like 15mph and it gets pretty dicey, had mine drift a fair bit on a ridge and had to grab it manually which, yeah.

i wouldnt replace a real drone with it but as a second thing to throw in a bag its kind of grown on me. also the price is low enough that the risk feels manageable

gimmick is a strong word but i get where youre coming from. i think the honest answer is its not for pilots its for content creators who happen to need some aerial shots and dont want to spend 6 months learning to fly properly. which is a totally valid customer, just not us lol. the footage quality argument is real though, dji's sensors punch above their weight even in that form factor