Autel EVO

Drones are predominantly a niche market. For a few years now, DJI has come up with great drones that fly well and cater to user needs. However, Autel is rising to become a formidable competitor for DJI, with some great products of its own. The Autel EVO is just a drone they manufactured, which has some neat features. In this article, we will be giving you a detailed review of the Autel EVO.

Our Verdict

The Autel EVO is a great drone designed to attract cinematographers and videographers. With a powerful camera that shoots 4K videos in 60frames per second, it opens up various creative possibilities as a YouTuber, filmmaker, and business owner. Whether you are interested in shooting adventure films or flying the drone out with your friends, this is a great drone to fly.

Design

The Autel EVO is a compact and high-end drone designed for taking flawless photos and videos. It has all the things you need in an expensive durable drone in terms of quality and stability. It has 4 propellers that can fold inside the body of the drone. It has optical sensors to avoid obstacles; it has sensors on the bottom for safe and accurate landings and stable proximity flights. It can be turned on with one click and has a dual GPS and GLONASS systems, which allows a hands-free hover, which means that you can concentrate more on the video and image capturing. It also has built-in failsafe features such as Return to Home. If the drone battery is low, or if the transmission signal is interrupted or cut off, using this feature, the drone will return tracing the same flight path it followed.

It has a 12-megapixel camera sitting on a 3 axis gimbal, which allows it to take flawless photographs and video in 4K regardless of whether you are using the standard flight mode or the ludicrous mode. It has rechargeable batteries which give not only a flight time of about 30 mins but also powers all the sensors, gyroscope, barometers, propellers, etc. it comes with an OLED screen equipped controller and also has the option of mounting your smartphone on the controller and turning it into a screen. It allows storage of 32GB in the form of an SD memory card. It can also automatically take off and land.

It also has year-long manufacturer support and 7 days a week of technical support to solve any doubts or difficulties you may have about the drone.

Flight

The Autel EVO has a flight time of about 30 minutes. However, in the real world, with wind and other weather conditions, we get about 26 minutes of flight time. Even with some light wind at about 10 miles an hour, 26 minutes was the average flight time.

It has obstacle avoidance. This means that the Autel EVO  has sensors that will detect an obstacle and change its flight course, even with user intervention. This protects the Autel EVO drone from damage. These sensors are placed on the front, back and bottom, so that it has maximum protection. It doesn’t have the sensors on the sides, but even its competition, the DJI Mavic, has side obstacle sensors that work only in certain modes. So it cannot be seen as a disadvantage.

It has two flight modes, the standard flight mode and the ludicrous mode, similar to Tesla cars. In standard flight mode, you can use all the features such as altitude hold, headless mode, obstacle detection, etc. Ludicrous mode turns the Autel EVO into a flight machine, giving a speed of up to 45 miles per hour. However, it is necessary to turn off all the features and ensure that the drone is in an open area to avoid damage. Ludicrous mode is not to be used by people who are not experienced in flying drones as it can be difficult to handle such high speeds without damaging the drone.

It can fly in opposition to the wind at a maximum speed of 4.4 miles an hour without affecting the image and video quality.

Controller

The Autel EVO comes with a controller with an LCD screen. The screen can be used to view images and video and make changes in the settings as required. You can also mount your phone on the controller to view the footage and images and the flight data or use them as your live feed viewer, but it is not necessary as the controller screen does all that and more. The joysticks are basic, used for forward and backward, which the other is used for changing directions. They are quite robust. It also has pause mode on any of the automated features which are being used.

You need to use the Autel Explorer app to use the controller. To turn on the controller, long press, and power button. It has a built-in OLED 3.3-inch screen, which can be used to view flight information, view live feed, take photos and videos, and make any setting changes or shift modes. It is a touch screen, which makes it extremely easy to operate. You can change the camera setting such as log mode or vivid, change the resolution, change flight modes, start and stop the various modes such as altitude hold, headless mode, etc. it also clearly displays the flight information. Coupled with the sturdy, efficient, and lightweight controller, the user-friendly app gives a memorable experience.

Camera Quality

The Autel EVO has a fantastic camera that delivers high-quality images and a smooth video without compromising the quality. It is turning into a sought after camera drone by cinematographers and videographers and even won awards for its camera quality. It has a 12-megapixel camera and captures live feed in 4K at a frame rate of 60 fps or frames per second. For those who do not know, frames per second is a unit of measurement for how many consecutive images are captured or displayed on a screen per second. The higher the frames per second rating, the smoother the video is. Most drones have a 30 FPS setting. The Autel EVO has double the frame rate, ensuring you do not have to compromise on your images and videos while flying the drone. In terms of camera quality, they are the biggest competition for the DJI Mavic drone.

The Autel EVO is quite stable in terms of camera quality. It does not have a one-inch sensor; however, Autel has managed to better image quality than one over two-thirds of sensors concerning dynamic range and sharpness. For those of you who aren’t aware, dynamic range is a measurement unit for camera quality. It describes the ratio between the highest and lowest measurable light intensities that are being captured. This ratio is useful for relative comparisons between the actual scene, the screen image, and the camera. The dynamic range of the Autel EVO, when used in Log Mode, is fantastic. It is great for people who prefer great image and video quality over the drone’s flight ease.

Different modes can be used, such as log mode, vivid, black and white, art, white balance, etc. It has a digital zoom, which can go up to 8 times. You can also control the gimbal pitch using the controller.

The Autel EVO’s camera is built on a 3 axis stabilized gimbal, which takes care of image stabilization. Coupled with real glass optics and the Ambarella H2 image processor, the drone ensures recording of a more dynamic range with each shot.

Build Quality

Because of the competitive environment, drone companies cannot afford to manufacture large-size drones. It would be easier for them, but not something we as users would like to carry around. What we liked most about the Autel EVO is that it is foldable. There are many other drones out there that have the same feature, but it doesn’t reduce the compactness factor. All the four propellers fit inside the drone’s body, making it easy to carry or even put in a bag, like a water bottle. It comes in a sling and carries all the necessary things in it, such as the controller, batteries, ND filters along with the drone itself.

The bright colors make it visible in most weather conditions, which is nice. It also gives some variety over the usual black muted colors that are usually seen on drones. It has a rugged bundle that provides a military-grade hard case providing water, dust, and wear and tear damage.

It also has a gimbal cover that protects the gimbal, ensuring no decrease in images and video quality. It has dimensions of 7.75 x 3.75 x 4 inches and weighs about 5 pounds.

The Autel EVO is durable; it is built to last. The manufacturer ensures that each part of the Autel EVO goes through multiple quality-control tests before assembly, and each EVO drone must pass a rigorous flight test before leaving the factory premises. So we know that Autel takes durability, ease of operation, and safety quite seriously.

Battery

The Autel EVO comes with its own rechargeable detachable Lithium polymer batteries. It gives about 30 minutes of flight time. It operates the propellersando all the sensors, the camera, gimbal, barometers, etc., ensuring a smooth and problem-free drone flying experience.

Memory

The Autel EVO supports a 32 GB SD memory card. It can be used to store up to one hour of videos in 4K HD. This means that the memory card will be sufficient for 2 rounds of the Autel EVO, as the flight time is about 30 mins per battery charge. The SD memory card is detachable and can transfer the images and video to a more permanent place, such as a computer or hard drive. Alternatively, you can also mount the phone on the controller to view and capture images and video—this way, the files can directly be saved on your smartphone.

Pros And Cons

No product is perfect. There is always room for improvement. The Autel EVO is no different. In this section, we will be discussing the pros and cons of using Autel EVO.

Final Thoughts

The Autel EVO is a great drone with some excellent features. The best among them is the camera quality. It is designed to attract videographers, YouTubers, and cinematographers, providing the best image and video quality than any other drone in its range. It has various neat flight features, an LCD embedded controller, and a great app to capture high-quality videos and images. It is not a starter drone and needs some experience in drone flying to operate. It is a great competitive product for DJI.

We strongly advise readers to use the Autel EVO only for its intended use. We do not recommend the drone for any illicit surveillance, illegal photography or videography, or any other related activities. The drone may be required to be registered on the FAA or Federal Aviation Administration if you use it in the USA.