I'm sorry to say, but,

[CCDD]

If anyone has experience and credibility on the forum it's you DB. I've been here since November and find many of your posts extremely helpful and most important, unbiased. I'm sure that many are trying to wrap their heads around your battery results, could they really be delivering those kind of poor numbers? I would be interested in seeing some distance tests between your stock P3P and you new P4.

 

[AdvRider]

It really depends upon what your expectations are. If you need speed, an improved camera platform (my comparison is against my P3A), and collision avoidance, and a beautiful higher quality svelte bird, my new P4 is just the ticket indeed. If on the other hand you are looking for increased flight time, increased TX/RX range, no propellers in your video, my initial impression is you won't find that in the P4. For me, the extra 5 minutes of flight time was a major factor in my P4 purchase decision since my flights are over water and terrain which often makes recovery impossible. If it were not such a sweet looking package, I would be retuning it and getting a used P4P for my 4K video. From my initial identical comparative waypoint flights, it looks like my P3A has the same or slightly better endurance and slightly better transmitter range. I guess the extra 100 grams of weight and additional power hungry electronics package added to the P4 eats up the extra MAH of the new P4 battery. I suppose I will go back to flying battery mods on my P3A for those runs endurance.


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[DougS]

It really depends upon what your expectations are. If you need speed, an improved camera platform (my comparison is against my P3A), and collision avoidance, and a beautiful higher quality svelte bird, my new P4 is just the ticket indeed. If on the other hand you are looking for increased flight time, increased TX/RX range, no propellers in your video, my initial impression is you won't find that in the P4. For me, the extra 5 minutes of flight time was a major factor in my P4 purchase decision since my flights are over water and terrain which often makes recovery impossible. If it were not such a sweet looking package, I would be retuning it and getting a used P4P for my 4K video. From my initial identical comparative waypoint flights, it looks like my P3A has the same or slightly better endurance and slightly better transmitter range. I guess the extra 100 grams of weight and additional power hungry electronics package added to the P4 eats up the extra MAH of the new P4 battery. I suppose I will go back to flying battery mods on my P3A for those runs endurance.

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Thank you for that review. It seems to be Flight Time vs Features - which is better to have? I guess the answer to that is a highly individualized and personal choice. The fact that DJI is charging a large premium for essentially the same item (marginal flight time increase and with less transmitter range) but with a couple extra features (tap fly, follow me, collision avoidance) is the rub . Plus they appear to have significantly overstated the flight time at 28 minutes.

I may return my P4 back to the Apple store unopened and wait until someone comes out with a longer flying quad in the next year or so. Battery life and time in the air to me is still the holy grail

 

[Shaiful Rizhuan]

It's all about betraying our trust. Many of us might don't need extra flight time. Me myself don't need to fly miles away. But they should not lie. They lied to us and hiding things from us constantly. They not listed down all changes made on firmware and apps updates before, and I was still okay with that. But not this time. I'm really disappointed.

 

[CCDD]

It appears my decision to wait for next version was the "right" decision.

 

[TheLightSpeedz]

It's all about betraying our trust. Many of us might don't need extra flight time. Me myself don't need to fly miles away. But they should not lie. They lied to us and hiding things from us constantly. They not listed down all changes made on firmware and apps updates before, and I was still okay with that. But not this time. I'm really disappointed.

Really? Did you know that almost every EPA MPG rating on every car built is wrong? Did you know that nearly every Horsepower rating on every vehicle is wrong?

Did you know that the iPhone and/or Android your using right now claims to be "64GB" or whatever you got and once you have you cant actually use that much space?

My point is saying they lied? I think that's a stretch. They give stats from the best case scenario.

Also, DirtyBird and many other users.... Long before I had a P4 I was lurking this forum.... How many of you are modding your P2 and P3's with big batteries hanging off the sides of the birds, big antennas, led lights, etc? So many on this forum is constantly changing what DJI sent you in the first place. Is it possible that you have no idea what a Stock P3 was like? I had a stock P3P and this P4 is better in Every Way I can think of.

Battery is equal to or better a little
Range is the same?
Build quality is amazing
And features? No comparison!

I love it!


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[Ramphex]

Here's reality. I went to Catalina island this weekend with my wife. I left my P4 home and took my P3P. Enough said.

It's a Catalina f***ing wine mixer!! POW POW POW :-D

Seriously though why is everyone getting so upset. I'm sure those numbers are achievable in perfect conditions at the right altitude, speed, with no HD recording, etc.

The item has been out for what? A month? I think we should give them a break and allow for some time until it hits all retail stores and more people purchase the items. That will follow by some firmware updates and possibly bring some better flight times due to optimising the software.

Company has done great things and came a long way. I think it's fair enough to say they deserve a chance and their product is great.

As before mentioned, when you buy a car, how often do you get the city/highway MPG that's advertised?

"Don't tell me what I can't do!!" - John Locke

 

[CCDD]

Really? Did you know that almost every EPA MPG rating on every car built is wrong? Did you know that nearly every Horsepower rating on every vehicle is wrong?

Did you know that the iPhone and/or Android your using right now claims to be "64GB" or whatever you got and once you have you cant actually use that much space?

My point is saying they lied? I think that's a stretch. They give stats from the best case scenario.

Also, DirtyBird and many other users.... Long before I had a P4 I was lurking this forum.... How many of you are modding your P2 and P3's with big batteries hanging off the sides of the birds, big antennas, led lights, etc? So many on this forum is constantly changing what DJI sent you in the first place. Is it possible that you have no idea what a Stock P3 was like? I had a stock P3P and this P4 is better in Every Way I can think of.

Battery is equal to or better a little
Range is the same?
Build quality is amazing
And features? No comparison!

I love it!


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If you're happy then why do you feel the need to express your anger? I listen a bit more closely to "long term" members with real, hands on experience that have been delivering post after post, thread after thread with their experiences flying Phantoms. When someone like DB or others that have had years of ownership with these products providing their unbiased reviews, I listen very carefully. I'll agree, there are some like yourself that love the P4, I think that's great and wish all the best with it however, there's no denying the fact that this forum currently has more folks showing quite a bit of angst with their decision to purchase this first version.

 

[Shaiful Rizhuan]

Really? Did you know that almost every EPA MPG rating on every car built is wrong? Did you know that nearly every Horsepower rating on every vehicle is wrong?

Did you know that the iPhone and/or Android your using right now claims to be "64GB" or whatever you got and once you have you cant actually use that much space?

My point is saying they lied? I think that's a stretch. They give stats from the best case scenario.

Also, DirtyBird and many other users.... Long before I had a P4 I was lurking this forum.... How many of you are modding your P2 and P3's with big batteries hanging off the sides of the birds, big antennas, led lights, etc? So many on this forum is constantly changing what DJI sent you in the first place. Is it possible that you have no idea what a Stock P3 was like? I had a stock P3P and this P4 is better in Every Way I can think of.

Battery is equal to or better a little
Range is the same?
Build quality is amazing
And features? No comparison!

I love it!


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Hey dude, that's why we ask for side by side comparison of both doing same exact things. If it's really P3 is better, than they should not put the spec as better than P3. Off course we are not expecting it to be 28 minutes and 3.5 miles. It should be less than P3 spec at least, no matter what the number is.

 

[dewster]

Maybe a batch of models were shipped with lower transmission output and meant for Europe but labeled for the U.S.

Wild guess... Is there a difference in models for U.S. and Europe??



Anyone buy theirs from the Apple Store that is complaining about range? What about the DJI store?

Can you switch power settings for your country?


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I'm planning on buying a P4.

 

[Davphys]

I think the biggest disappointment is when people expect the real life performance to be better than the P3P and it fails in that.
I'd like to see what Dirty Bird says about the range compared to his P3.

 

[Dfairchild]

5 flights in so far and I'm getting 12-15 mins for 50% of battery. I read it's good to only go down to 50% on first 10 cycles so I'm following that for now. No idea if the back half of the battery would drop my flight time but so far advertised #'s seem in the ballpark for me.


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[Dirty Bird]

All my Phantoms are stock.

Really? Did you know that almost every EPA MPG rating on every car built is wrong? Did you know that nearly every Horsepower rating on every vehicle is wrong?

Did you know that the iPhone and/or Android your using right now claims to be "64GB" or whatever you got and once you have you cant actually use that much space?

My point is saying they lied? I think that's a stretch. They give stats from the best case scenario.

Also, DirtyBird and many other users.... Long before I had a P4 I was lurking this forum.... How many of you are modding your P2 and P3's with big batteries hanging off the sides of the birds, big antennas, led lights, etc? So many on this forum is constantly changing what DJI sent you in the first place. Is it possible that you have no idea what a Stock P3 was like? I had a stock P3P and this P4 is better in Every Way I can think of.

Battery is equal to or better a little
Range is the same?
Build quality is amazing
And features? No comparison!

I love it!


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[Stlred05]

In reading these posts I'm disappointed in both DJI and those We rely on to give us honest feedback as reps and distributors on YouTube etc. Not one of them gave a report of the things mentioned above. I sold both my P3Ps to replace them with the P4 My P3Ps where in perfect working order after back and forth issues with DJI in which I experienced the worst customer service ever and then again with my brand new never used Ronin-M that didn't work when opened and DJI had me send it back to them and sent me a 219.00 invoice. I paid it and B&H photo refunded it to me. This was after a bad dealing in which I updated FW in Dec 15 my P2+ took it out for a flight and it flew away. Fortunately it was found about 3 miles away and turned in to the Police who watched the video and contacted me to pick it up. I contacted DJI and sent them the video and they reviewed it telling me it was ok to fly it. I took it out. It went through the normal steps took it up and allow it to hover about 8 ft and off it went as if someone else was controlling it and at a speed I've never seen. Unfortunately I've never seen that Quad again. DJI promised me a discount on a new one and sent me purchase codes that didn't work. I just felt they ripped me off. First by putting out flyaway firmware to boost sales as we will buy another one. Second by giving me the runaround about replacement or partial discount. I still after all that purchased the P3s. Now I'm concerned and even more so looking at the Typhoon H. I have two Typhoons 4K and the G any they aren't fast or long range but they work and customer service is on point. I just wish they had lightbridge and the speed of DJI. I'm so disappointed


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[WetDog]

Here's reality. I went to Catalina island this weekend with my wife. I left my P4 home and took my P3P. Enough said.

At least you didn't go to Catalina with both drones and leave your wife at home....

 

[Davphys]

The wife probably has better range than the P4.

 

[snowghost]

That's all hype. I'm here to tell you that's not true. The P4 is equal too or a little better on the battery, and the distance is situational.

It's not apples to apples.... The P3 is slow and sluggish, and the P4 has sport mode. In sport mode the battery demands are much greater.

I can't believe anyone would hold a P3 and a P4 in each hand and think the P3 is of better build quality? Same with performance. The P4 is so rock solid and in GPS mode can hold a steady 1" off the ground and not move. It holds in space way way better than the P3.

All of you are the same people that dogged the P3 when it came out. The P2+ is so much better! lol. Hippies!

The P4 seriously feels, looks and performs like Apple themselves built it! Seriously. Super super super high quality for the money!

DROPPED THE MIC!


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You lost credibility when you said the P3 is sluggish. Hardly that.

 

[Davphys]

Very true! I love the 22mph P rocket mode on the P4.

You lost credibility when you said the P3 is sluggish. Hardly that.

 

[John Locke]

Given the fact the P4 has a 13 mph top vertical speed, versus 11 mph for P3P, and to horizontal speed increased to over 40 mph, it's clear the motors consume more watts to achieve this when it's 100 grams heavier.

What I'd like is a P4 with the old motors, old Lightbridge, no CA. A top speed of 33 would be acceptable if it flies longer using old motors. Everything else about P4 is nice. Awesome integration and styling

 

[BriRi]

Flew my P4 for first time... 21 minutes on first battery w/ 30% left, 26 minutes on different battery w 2% left... More testing this evening


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