DJI Neo is a pocket-sized drone that you can fly without a controller

Selfie sticks are quite 2014 now. Why? Because selfie drones are in. Yes, you read that right. DJI has just announced a new ‘selfie drone’ that is tiny enough to fit in your pockets.

DI Neo Drone: What you need to know

The new DJI Neo drone is one that you use primarily for recording yourself. What’s cool is that unlike conventional drones, it flies itself. There’s no training required to fly it.

All you have to do is push a button, and it can fly with you, hover in one place, orbit over you, and even zoom in on you. And once it’s done recording, it can fly right back on to your palm with it’s return-to-home capabilities. And if you’re worried about damaging the Neo drone mid-flight, fret not. The DJI Neo also gets full-coverage propeller guards.

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Should you be looking for a little more control, you can also pair and control it with the DJI fly app, as well as the DJI RC-N3 remote control and DJI goggles.

The benefit of this is that with its dual antennas, it can fly and transmit videos from as far as 10 kilometers away. And that’s not all either. There’s yet another (super cool) way to control the DJI Neo. Simply say “Hey fly” on the DJI Fly app, and you can pilot the drone with spoken directives.

Now, the camera on the DJI Neo drone is a half-inch sensor with an effective image resolution of 12MP, and it can shoot 4K videos at up to 30 FPS. It is also equipped with AI algorithms that can track a subject in a frame, which is especially useful for vloggers or adventure sports enthusiasts. There’s also support for 1080p video at 60fps, and as much as 22GB of internal storage on-board.

Flight time on a single charge stands at around 18 minutes. And remember the return-to-home capabilities we mentioned earlier? Well, with a failsafe mechanism built-in, the DJI Neo returns to you at once, should the battery be running low at point in-flight.

To charge it, you can connect it to a power source directly via a USB Type-C cable. Users can also connect the drone to their smartphones via Wi-Fi to transfer footage and edit it on-the-go, on the DJI Fly app.

DJI Neo Drone: Pricing and availability

The DJI Neo Drone is currently available for sale in the US, where it is priced at $199 (approximately Rs 16,700).

For a bit more, DJI is also selling the Neo Fly More Combo. In this, the drone comes bundled with DJI’s RC-N3 remote controller, three batteries and a charging hub.