DJI's Phantom 3 Standard aims to be disruptive

If there is one thing about the drone industry that remains unchanged, it is the growing number of applications for which they are being used. Real estate agents wanting to promote a listing, wedding photographers looking for a better angle and traffic cops hunting for a better way to catch speeders are all examples of a burgeoning marketplace. One thing that many of these professions have in common, however, is inexperience in the actual operation of drones.

That’s what DJI’s Phantom series is for, at least according to the company. The Phantom 3 Standard looks essentially identical to the Phantom 3 Professional and Advanced models already on the market, though it comes in at a lower price. The new model can take a 2.7K video at 30fps and capture 12MP photos, both slightly better than the 1080p camera mounted on the Advanced. Flight time is estimated at 25 minutes, about the same as its more expensive cousins. So what’s the real difference? The price.

At $799 (versus $999 or $1,259 for the Advanced and Pro versions, respectively), this is the cheapest drone with the most features on the market at the moment. That alone makes it a potentially highly disruptive instrument. While it does not have the flight assist systems used in indoor settings – it only uses GPS for location tracking – its price alone puts it at a highly competitive place in the market.