ok so my brother got a drone last year and now im obsessed and want one. ive narrowed it down to like three or four options but every time i read a review i end up more confused than before. the ones im looking at are the dji mini 2 se, the mini 3, and also someone in another thread mentioned the autel nano plus which i know nothing about. i dont have a ton of flying experience, flew my brothers a couple times thats basically it. mostly want it for travel and outdoor stuff, not doing any racing or anything like that. is the price jump from the mini 2 se to the mini 3 actually worth it or am i just paying for stuff i wont use for a while anyway

the mini 3 is worth it over the se in my opinion, mainly the vertical shooting mode alone is useful if you ever post anything to instagram or reels, and the sensor is noticeably better in lower light. the se feels a bit like dji trying to hit a price point rather than actually improving anything. autel nano plus is fine but the ecosystem and app support just isnt as polished and you'll probably find less help online when something goes wrong. for travel and general outdoor use the mini 3 is kind of the obvious answer at your budget, assuming you get a decent bundle with an extra battery because one battery is genuinely not enough for a day out anywhere.

had the autel nano for a bit and sold it. build quality felt fine but ran into a few weird app crashes and updating the firmware was annoying. nothing catastrophic just little things that added up. went to dji after and havent looked back, the whole experience is just smoother. that said i know people who love their autels so maybe i just got unlucky