DJI Mini 4K vs DJI Mini 2: which one should you buy?

These are close to being the same drone

Most comparisons open by setting out what separates two products. This one is more useful the other way round.

Both use a 1/2.3-inch, 12-megapixel sensor behind an f/2.8 lens with an 83 degree field of view. Both have three-axis gimbals. Both shoot 4K at 30 frames a second and nothing faster.

Both are rated at 31 minutes, both reach 4000 metres, both use OcuSync 2.0 with a 720p live view, both carry a 2250 milliamp hour battery, and both work only down to zero degrees.

Neither has internal storage. Neither has a class mark. Neither can sense an obstacle in any direction.

So the honest question is not which is better, but whether the difference justifies any price gap at all. Both appear in my best drone under £300 guide.

Six things that are genuinely identical

This is the longest identical list on the site, and it is the point of the article.

• Same camera

  1/2.3-inch, 12 MP, f/2.8 on both.

• Same video modes

  4K at 30fps, and nothing faster.

• Same flight time

  31 minutes quoted on both.

• Same three-axis gimbal

  Tilt, roll and pan on both.

• Same lack of storage

  A microSD card is compulsory on both.

• Same paperwork, no class mark

  Flyer ID and Operator ID, legacy on both.

• So ignore all 6

  Which leaves remarkably little. The three things below are all there is.

Both also use the same 2250 milliamp hour battery and the same OcuSync 2.0 transmission with a 720p live view, and neither is rated to work below zero degrees.

The three differences, and they are small

1. The Mini 4K is rated to slightly more wind

The clearest difference between them, and it is worth about seven tenths of a metre per second.

The Mini 4K is rated to 10.7 metres per second, which DJI calls Scale 5. The Mini 2 is rated to 10.

Mini 4K

24mph

10.7 m/s, Scale 5

Mini 2

22mph

10 m/s, Scale 5

In the units a British forecast actually uses, that is roughly 24 miles an hour against 22.

It is not nothing. Two miles an hour of margin does occasionally decide whether an afternoon is flyable.

But it is the largest single advantage either drone has over the other, which tells you how close this is.

2. The Mini 2 is four grams lighter, and both are near the limit

UK rules are built around a 250 gram line, and both of these sit just under it.

The Mini 2 is 242 grams and the Mini 4K is 246, and DJI states in both cases that the figure already includes the battery, propellers and a microSD card.

Mini 4K

246g

just 4 g under the limit

Mini 2

242g

8 g under the limit

Eight grams is not a comfortable margin either, but it is double the Mini 4K’s four.

At these weights a sticker, a lanyard loop or a heavier third-party propeller genuinely matters. Both manuals warn against adding payload or fitting unapproved parts.

Neither drone carries a class mark, so both are legacy in the eyes of the rules. Under 250 grams that changes nothing practical today.

3. The Mini 4K is four years newer, and that is worth more than the specifications suggest

The Mini 2 launched in November 2020. The Mini 4K arrived in April 2024.

Nothing in the specifications reflects those four years, which is unusual and slightly odd. But support life does.

A newer product means firmware attention for longer, spare batteries and propellers on shelves for longer, and a better chance of a repair being possible in a few years.

There is a practical buying consequence too. The Mini 2 is old enough that a lot of what is available is used or clearance stock.

Used is not a problem in itself, but a drone that has been crashed and repaired is harder to assess than a phone or a camera.

If you are buying new and the prices are close, the newer product is the straightforward choice. If the Mini 2 is genuinely much cheaper, the specifications say you lose very little.

Four questions that will tell you which one to buy

Work down them and stop at the first one you can answer firmly. That is your drone.

The honest summary is that price should decide this one, because very little else does. If neither appeals once you have read how limited both are, the Neo 2 against the Mini 4K and the Flip against the Mini 4K both show what spending a little more actually buys.

Two catches worth knowing before you order either one

Neither is a reason to avoid either drone. Both are things I would want to have been told before paying.

Neither of these can sense an obstacle in any direction

This applies equally to both, which is why it is not a difference, but it is the most important thing on the page.

The Mini 4K manual states it outright on page 13: the drone cannot sense obstacles on its route automatically, and the pilot should stay alert and steer around them.

The Mini 2 is the same. Both have downward sensors for hovering and landing, and nothing facing forwards or sideways.

Both also fly on bare propellers, so a clip is usually a repair rather than a bump. If that worries you, neither of these is the right drone.

Both stop working properly at zero degrees

Both are rated for an operating temperature of zero to forty degrees, which is unusually restrictive.

Most of DJI’s current small drones go down to minus ten.

Frosty mornings are some of the best flying light of the year, and both of these are outside their rated range before you have left the car.

What both of them need before they fly

Identical on both counts, and worth budgeting for.

Neither drone has any internal storage, so a microSD card is compulsory rather than optional. Treat it as part of the purchase price.

Both ship with a controller that has no screen of its own. Your phone clamps in and becomes the display, so a flat phone is a cancelled flight.

Both pipe a 720p live view to that phone over OcuSync 2.0. You still record in 4K; it is the picture you frame the shot on that is soft.

Both fold to 138 by 81 by 58 millimetres and open to 245 by 289 with propellers out. They are, once again, the same drone.

Mini 4K vs Mini 2: every specification side by side

Figures from the official DJI specification pages and both user manuals. Amazon affiliate links — disclosure.

Both drones need a Flyer ID and an Operator ID. Neither is exempt

You will read all over the internet that drones under 250 grams need no licence. For a camera drone in the UK that is simply wrong, and both of these are camera drones.

Why I pick the DJI Mini 4K over the DJI Mini 2

There is no interesting answer here, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.

The Mini 4K is rated to slightly more wind and has four more years of support behind it. The Mini 2 is four grams lighter.

Everything else — camera, gimbal, video, flight time, transmission, missing sensing, missing storage, missing class mark — is the same. Buy whichever is cheaper on the day.

My recommendation — DJI Mini 4K

DJI Mini 4K

2024 — 246 g, no class mark

I recommend the DJI Mini 4K over the DJI Mini 2 because it is the same drone with a slightly better wind rating and four more years of support behind it. There is genuinely almost nothing else between them. If you find a Mini 2 substantially cheaper, buying it costs you very little. But at similar money the Mini 4K is the sensible pick simply for being current.

• Rated to 10.7 m/s of wind
• The current model, better supported
• Three-axis gimbal, 4K at 30fps
• 31 minutes and a 4000 m ceiling
• No obstacle sensing whatsoever
• No class mark, and no internal storage

Check the Mini 4K on Amazon →

Amazon affiliate link — no extra cost to you.

The older twin

DJI Mini 2

Buy this instead only if it is meaningfully cheaper than the Mini 4K, because on specification the two are near enough the same drone.

Check the Mini 2 →

Amazon affiliate links — disclosure.