Teck-tober 2021: Autel Launching 3 New Drones

No need for a drone rumor today, with the pending launch of 3 new Autel folding quadcopters!

Last year at this time drone giant DJI went on a product release binge that gave the month of October the nick-name ‘tech-tober’ for the ongoing amount of new products released from a range of large tech companies. Although the product launches started in September and lasted until November, industry types applied the ‘tech-tober’ moniker to the entire period.

DJI’s Tech-tober last year saw the release of the DJI Mini 2 drone and the updated DJI Pocket 2 handheld camera. The world was waiting for a Mavic 3 to replace the aging Mavic 2 Pro Series, but nothing materialized.

After some senior management additions and changes earlier this year, DJI’s most notable competitor is getting ready to lay claim to this year’s Teck-tober.

Autel Robotics, maker of the EVO and EVO II Series of drones stole a page from DJI’s pre-release playbook by innocently leaking a new fleet of smaller, consumer quadcopters aimed squarely at DJI’s Mini and Air2 series of products.

Autel really left a mark when it released the EVO II Series of drones especially for the incredibly long battery life (45 minutes) and the 8K video resolution.  And the fact that the EVO II Series was equipped to allow users to swap camera gimbals added significantly to the interest.

Related: EVO II Launch at CES2020 in Las Vegas

Everything We Know About The New Autel Drones

Autel will be releasing 3 drones shortly: a new Autel Nano micro-drone to compete with DJI’s Mini Series, an EVO LITE aimed squarely at DJI’s Air2 Series, and lastly an EVO III will update Autel’s flagship professional quadcopter with enhanced features.

AUTEL NANO sub-250 gram

The success of DJI’s ultra-light Mini series of drones is no surprise. Given the rapid adoption of licensing and flight restrictions globally, it was only a matter of time before a high quality micro-drone was released.  Since then the consumer uptake has been huge.

While the DJI Mini and Mini 2 series of drones have excellent battery life, wind resistance and a decent camera the absence of obstacle sensors is the biggest short coming.  Autel’s Mini 2 competitor, the yet-to-be-released Nano drone will have three direction obstacle sensors; forward, rear and downward.

This difference doesn’t just make the Nano easier and safer to fly than the Mini Series, it will also allow the Autel Nano to actively track a subject in motion…something the Mini and Mini 2 are unable to do.

Since the above leaked image appeared showing the four flavors of Autel Nano, the company has since teased (and verified!) the product on their own social platforms saying “The wait will be over in a #nano second”.

 

The wait will be over in a #Nano second. pic.twitter.com/JnhIDtDdPs

— Autel Robotics (@AutelRobotics) September 17, 2021

Autel Nano specs:

• under 250 grams
• 4 colors: White/Gray/Orange/Red
• Forward/Rear/Downward obstacle avoidance
• subject tracking
• programmed flight modes
• 35 minute battery life

EVO LITE

Over the last year Autel has made significant inroads into DJI’s market share. Keeping that momentum going is critical to Autel’s future success. The release of the pending EVO LITE, designed to compete with the Air 2 Series from DJI should help.  Less is known about the EVO LITE drone, other than it’s appearance as a scaled down copy of the EVO II Series.

We’re extremely interested to see what Autel reveals in the Evo Lite for a host or reasons. Autel garnered huge attraction with the battery life of the EVO II, so seeing the expected flight time of the EVO LITE is going to be high on our list.

Second, the EVO II moved the needle well past DJI with video resolution of 6K and 8K. Will EVO LITE have video resolution beyond 4K? You’ll recall that Air 2S has a 1″ sensor and is capable of 5.4K video and 20 MP still photos.  EVO LITE must have at least the same specs (if not better) to have any hope of stealing customers from DJI.

EVO III

The EVO II drone, a breakthrough challenger to DJI’s dominance, was released to great accolades at CES2020 in Las Vegas. We were there and the buzz at Autel’s booth was huge.

As our Drone Buyers Guide shows, below, that was almost two years ago and Autel knows they are in a race against a possible DJI Mavic 3 on the horizon.

EVO III specs a few so far, but here’s what is known so far:

• omni-directional obstacle avoidance
• 40+ minute flight time
• multiple models a la EVO II
• omni-directional ‘fish-eye’ style obstacle avoidance

One thing is for certain, though, in how Autel is now taking a page from DJI’s marketing style of leaking stats and images well ahead of a product launch to own the narrative.  Our #1 prediction now is that the leaks, possibly even from partner retailers (ahem, BestBuy anyone) are only going to increase in the days ahead.

So far the only leak we’ve seen of the EVO III is an FCC-style testing image that’s making the rounds on fringe social media accounts.

The two spherical top sensors on the EVO III have caught our interest.  Will be interested to know what direction Autel is taking us with an even more advanced obstacle avoidance system.

Looking at the three upcoming Autel drones, are you holding out for one or more of them? Let us know in the comments below.

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