T3 Awards 2020: it's lift off for Mavic Mini as DJI's midget drone is crowned King of the Skies

T3 Awards 2020: DJI Mavic Mini is our #1 drone

(Image credit: DJI)

published 8 June 2020

Rising above the competition in the T3 Awards 2020 to be declared the best drone of the year, DJI Mavic Mini is the drone for the many not the few.

Sure, you can spend more and get something that is objectively even better than the Mini – the all-conquering Mavic Air 2 for instance. That's also from DJI, needless to say.

However, pound for pound there's nothing to touch this video and photo-shooting flying machine, which can be had for well under £400.

• Read our full DJI Mavic Mini review

The Mavic Mini’s camera shoots full HD video at up to 60 frames per second and crisp 2.7K at up to 30fps – that's more than sharp enough for practically all TVs, phones and laptops, so why pay more? The 12-meg stills are very tasty as well.

The Mini is, as you may have gathered, very small and weighs under 250g, yet it somehow manages to be stable in flight. Switch it to Sport mode and it darts about like a bird of prey, with impeccably nimble handling.

There's no obstacle avoidance – so fly carefully, now – but you get 30 minutes of flight time and a maximum range of 4km. Perhaps its most attractive feature is that the sub-250g weight means you don't need a CAA licence; you just unbox and get airborne. Once you're done it folds down to an even smaller size, so transporting it to and from mission control is extremely easy.

Available in two packages – we'd advise you get the Fly More Combo, with no fewer than four batteries and a very fetching, herringbone carry case – the Mavic Mini is the drone for those who want premium quality, without having to shell out foolish lucre. Which is most people, by our count.

• Read about all the other high fliers in the T3 Awards 2020…

• Find out what won the T3 Award for 2020's top budget drone

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years.

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."