ok so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks and im driving myself crazy. my budget is around $1000 and im upgrading from a holy stone i got two years ago (yeah i know, i know) so basically anything is going to be a huge step up but i still want to make the right call

the autel appeals to me because of the no geofencing thing and i travel to some areas where that could matter. also the sensor size on the lite+ seems genuinely good for the money. but then everyone i talk to says just get dji and part of me wonders if thats just brand loyalty talking or if its actually true

i mostly shoot landscapes and some real estate stuff on the side, not professional grade yet but heading that direction maybe. dont really care about racing or anything like that, just want clean footage and reliability. anyone actually used both and can give me a real take, not just specs i can read on the website myself

had the evo lite+ for about a year before switching to the air 3 and honestly both are solid but they're not really competing in the same way people think. the autel image quality in good light is genuinely beautiful, the sensor does a lot of work. but the app and the overall ecosystem feels kinda rough compared to dji, little things like the way the cache works or how it handles return to home just felt less polished to me. that might not matter to you at all though

the geofencing thing is real and worth considering if you fly in areas with a lot of unlocking headaches. autel is way more hands off about that. for landscapes and real estate either will serve you well honestly, but id lean air 3 just for the support network and how easy it is to find help when something goes wrong

everyone says just get dji and yeah its partly brand loyalty but its also just... they've been doing this longer and the software really does show that. not saying autel is bad at all. just the air 3 with the dual camera setup is hard to beat at that price for real estate work specifically, being able to switch focal lengths without changing drones is genuinely useful when you're shooting properties