Drone battle: Parrot ANAFI vs DJI Mavic

Last month (June 2018), Parrot announced the release of its new drone ANAFI. ANAFI is a small and foldable drone in the same concept as the DJI Mavic and is planned to be a direct competitor for the DJI Mavic. ANAFI is already on sale (since July 2018), and some drone enthusiasts are curious about its capabilities and the comparison ANAFI vs Mavic. 5 points were considered.

• Camera
• Portability
• Flight ttime
• Price
• Additional features

Camera

After commenting in several photography forums, we can conclude that ANAFI is better than Mavic for the following reasons:

Although both drones sport a Sony CMOS camera sensor for photo and video, while Anafi employs a superior 1/2.4” sensor that shoots 21MP (5,344 x 4,016) (Mavic Air uses a 1/2.3” sensor capable of 12MP 4,056 x 3,040). 

Comparing lenses, the ANAFI has a superior aperture (F2.4 vs F2.8) and can hit faster shutter speeds (1/10000s vs 1/8000s). This may be an important advantage for surveying applications because it would allow for higher resolution images and higher elevation flights; thus, higher elevation flight means more area covered in less flying time. 

Besides, Parrot implemented a dynamic new lossless digital zoom. This allows you magnify up to 2.8x without a reduction in image or video quality, making it easier to get details without having to get so close.

Yet another camera advantage is that ANAFI's camera is not embedded in the frame. ANAFI's camera sits by itself allowing 180 degrees of vertical movement.

ANAFI also has an advantage in video because it allows filming in 4K Cinema mode (4,096 x 2,160), which would be a great advantage in filming. Nevertheless, there is one video filming capability in favor of Mavic. Mavic films 120 FPS compared to the 24 FPS of ANAFI.

Image. ANAFI 360 degree camera

Portability

In this point I would call it a draw. Although Mavic is shorter, it is a little wider. This led to some confusion arguing that ANAFI is smaller. However, comparing the total size of ANAFI (244mm * 66mm * 63.5mm) with the total size of Mavic (168mm * 83mm *49mm), we see that Mavic is much smaller (Mavic = 683256 mm3; ANAFI = 1022604 mm3). This appears to be point for Mavic. However, ANAFI's 320 g are much lighter than Mavic's 430 g. Therefore, we call this point a 1-1 draw.

Image. Folding ANAFI

Flight time

This may also be considered a draw. ANAFI allows for 25 min flight. Although this is longer time than the Mavi Air, it is quite shorter that the Mavic Pro 27 min (point for Mavic). However, the tests showed that ANAFI has better stability. ANAFI resists winds up to 68 km/h, while Mavic (and any DJI drone) is limited to winds up to 55 km/h (point for ANAFI). Thus, this point is also a draw.

Price

This one is a point for ANAFI. ANAFI costs only 699 $ in Amazon, which is almost half the price of Mavic Pro (1300 $). Moreover, ANAFI is even cheaper than Mavic Air's 800 $.  

Additional features

Several blogs argue that obstacle avoidance would be an advantage of Mavic. However, I do not believe so because of 2 reasons:

• Flight planning. As a drone user, you should always plan your flight (actually I would change the should for MUST plan the flight). Flying without flight plan is like traveling without a destination. Thus, potential obstacles can be avoided prior the flight.
• Flight regulations. Flight regulations forbid to flight drones over crowded areas. Thus, you should not be worried about crashing into a home or a person because you are not supposed to fly over houses or persons.

As we are talking about regulations, I would like to mention that several NATO countries (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) issued concerns (and in some cases bans) over DJI products. This would be a point for ANAFI (French industry). Thus, let's call it a draw.

An additional feature that may result in a point for Mavic, is that third party applications have not included updates to control ANAFI yet. Nevertheless, they already answered that upgrades including ANAFI compatibility will be issued soon.

Final result

As we can see in the following table, ANAFI wins 2-0. We can make an analogy with the current world cup, and we can consider each feature as a game. Thus, after 5 games we have 3 draws and 2 ANAFI victories

ANAFI overcomes Mavic in the features that made Mavic so popular. ANAFI is lighter, has longer flying time, better camera and is cheaper.

Image. Comparisson ANAFI vs Mavic