Xiaomi’s just launched a 4K camera toting sub-MYR2K Mi Drone

Xiaomi has been on a roll lately with an array of products across the range including their popular smartphones like the Redmi Note 3 that offer quite a bit of value without breaking the bank, but this time they’ve achieved a fait accompli  as they’ve now unveiled their own take on one of the most desirable items in techdom at their usual affordable prices. Enter the Xiaomi Mi camera drone.

While the average professional camera drone for capturing 4K video usually costs on the high end of four figures, the Mi Drone is a surprisingly more reasonable RMB2999. That works out to RM1,866 in Malaysian Ringgit.

The Mi Drone is a quadcopter drone design with an underslung 4K camera on a three-axis gyro stabilised mount. The drone will have an array of bungle proof modes on it to ensure that would-be drone operators don’t prang their ride the moment they take it out for a spin. Figure in automatic take-off, landing and return as well as options to plan your flight path via preset waypoints and the ability to a stationary target like a humongous white buzzing bumblee. The drone will also have integrated GPS and GLONASS for accurate real time positioning for easy recovery in the event it crashes along with the ability to return automatically if it disconnects from the operator The underslung camera camera is able to snag 4K video and can also stills in RAW format. Controlling the whole affair is via a remote control and a paired smartphone for the video feed.

According to Xiaomi, flight time for the Mi Drone is rated at just under half an hour (27 minutes to be exact) before it needs to recharge its 5,100mAh battery and the whole affair has a 2km range with a live video feed. It also folds down into a relatively compact fashion that’s small enough to smoosh into a backpack without undue trouble. The camera and rotors are detachable as well.

Another variant of the Mi Drone exists with much of the same hardware except that it swaps the 4K camera for a 16-MP Sony BSI CMOS sensor with a 104-degree wide angle lens for RMB2,499 (RM1555) and will be crowd funded started on 26 May. You can get in on it here. The higher end 4K Mi Drone will be available in an open beta in late July.