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Possible purchase

DJI:
+The flight modes of the M2P had the edge for me and seemed a bit more refined as a platform.
+The Hasselblad was nice but it's a Chinese Hasslbd so the optics were about even to me.
+The batteries were cheaper.
+Arguably more after/OEM items available
- geofencing

Autel:
+I live in Seattle, beneath Class D and B yet I wanted in-yard, low hover testing and practice capability
+Autel USA is <30 minute drive from me
- less refined flight modes
- gambling more on Autel to step up on their customer support and response on a new drone model(s)
- cost a scootch more than comparable M2P

All the other nuances and flight idiosyncracies became offsetting penalties between DJI and Autel. so I got the E2P

follow up: I see that DJI Care has flyaway coverage available now
 
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I purchased mine thru Amazon which gave me points and a generous return policy. I have not had issues currently, knock on wood. Always best to wait before buying a new product bugs will always be there. I decided to Autel because of the all the issues with DJI and now DJI letting go many of the their photo personnel and VP of R&D leaving and returning back his home country. Sealed the deal for me not to DJI along people telling me DJI is asking for local china phone number to log into their accounts. Decision made very easy no DJI, they are are in death roll here in USA, specially since they are supported by the Chinese military and govt.
 
Yesterdays email that I received directly from Autel Robotics USA, and I quote,, "At this time we do not have an authorized dealer or repair facility in Australia."

Nor are they willing to ship me the very basic and required parts so that I can repair.

Lets not get caught up in semantics of Autel China, Autel US.?? The short and sweet of it all is that Autel Whoever?, offer ZERO support for any models, they have no official capacity to repair or service here in Australia for even their CURRENT MODELS like the EVO 2.

So why do they still market, advertise and sell them too unsuspecting customers here in Australia?

Every Autel owner should be screaming at the company and demand that they honour their products beyond a paltry 2 years. Autel needs to make a statement about their intention to honour their products so past present and future owners can rest assured that their expensive drones will have a serviceable life span longer than a couple of years.

As ive stated before, we aint buying toasters and kettles for $10, these are not a throw away item and certainly not priced as such.

I'd hope that by me making some noise here and through other channels, that Autel at the very least should step up and make a statement that they will honour their products and show some respect and regard towards their customers because at this point in time, they are on a steep downhill trajectory and ill be here, there and everywhere doing what I can to spread the word to protect consumers from being duped.

Perhaps a class action is on order as im getting a lot of messages though other sites from other unhappy Autel owners.!!
 
Before any big ticket purchases I make I always scope out the manufacturer info with respect to reliability, repairs, parts ... and location. I see unique and affordable drones with advanced features on YT, FB, and the web but it does little good if the support is thousands of miles away. I'm fortunate (knock knock) in that Autel USA is only 20 miles from me. Still, if their response is not there, even that is of no advantage and that is kind of where insurance coverage is considered.
 
Thanks for the question. I,too, am looking at the evo2. I’m a very happy TH480 flyer since July 2016, over 350 flights with no issues. However, when I read the Yuneec forum, I sometimes wonder how I got so lucky, then remind myself of your obvious point - the nature of these forums is to resolve issues. Wonder how many evo’s have been sold? I have great respect for Captain Drone’s reviews and he spoke highly about the Evo2 line.
 
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This is what I posted in another thread....and I will add....no drone company is perfect.

"Here is my 2 cents. I have loads of drones, home builds and almost the full line of DJI drones, Mavic pro, Mavic Platinum, had a Spark - sold it, horrid drone, too noisy, Mavic Mini, P4Adv, P4P 2.0, Parrot Anafi, Evo I, Evo II pro...along with more fpv drones etc. *add new one, DJI Mini 2*

If you come to the Autel side of things wanting as smooth a flyer as a mature DJI drone, it ain't gonna happen...yet. It's all software. Software updates...firmware...anyone who says that DJI doesn't release loads of firmware, hasn't been flying DJI long. They do, and they continue to lock down their drones, AND steal your data. (yes it has been proven...a long time ago and just recently confirmed, yet again)

If My Evo II pro flew as smooth as the DJI drones, yes...it would be perfect.
Learn to fly. Learn that with Autel drones, they are very "twitchy", so practice small stick movements. All drones are different. DJI has a huge software engineer team and have lots more experience in hardware and software than Autel. Know that going in. The EVO II is not a race drone, its a camera drone. Treat it as such, and you will be fine. You need to give any drone some time behind the sticks, especially a new company, new software you are not used to, and new drone controls. Once you start really learning to fly with an Autel drone, when you move back to DJI, you will now say..."why is it so sluggish as compared to my Autel drone?"

Every single one of my DJI drones is unlocked completely, except for the Mini. Yes, it can be done. Do I fly like a crazy man because my drones are unlocked? Of course not. But I am in control, not DJI. This is a huge reason I like Autel.

The 6K camera on the Evo II Pro is better than my P4P2.0. Its close, but to my eyes, its better. I do not fly for business. If I did, I would use the right drone for the job, and being that jobs are different, it makes sense to have more than one platform to work with. DJI NFZ enforcement is a huge deal for drones used for business, and even film making. I happen to work for a company that unlocks drones, and YES we have been contacted by some of the biggest film studios asking for unlocks, not to mention all the drone pilots that can't complete their jobs due to DJI NFZ. I feel sorry for them, since they lose money for jobs not being able to be completed.

The Evo drones are far from perfect, but they let YOU as a pilot control your flight and not rely on half-baked and over stringent NFZ that doesn't match in most cases, where you can fly and where you can't. So far I am pleased with the Evo II, but agree completely that they need to smooth out the flying controls, or at least give us the option to tweak them to our own flying style like the DJI drones do. Thats all."

I will add to this that I had a problem with two batteries, and the stock charger. Contacted Autel. After some back and forth for data gathering, I sent them videos of the batteries, they in turn sent me a new battery charger to test out on a 3rd battery. All good. They then sent me two brand new replacement batteries. My experience with Autel customer service has been top notch. They didn't even want the batteries returned, even though I wanted to send them. (so they could check the internal smart board) Since I posted the above, Autel has had a couple more firmware upgrades, and this has smoothed out the controls quite a bit. I currently have zero issues with both my Autel Evo's...the I and 6k Pro. I reach for my Evo II over the other drones...except when I want to take a quick flight, then I grab the DJI Mini 2. That is a killer drone IMO.
 
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NDtrader and CraigD, I too was a Yuneec Typhoon H flyer for 4 years. I loved the 360-deg camera gimbal and the integrated screen controller. I did not like the bulk, especially when hiking around.

Sold it and bought the E2P from Kuker-Ranken (KRInc) here in western Washington State. I have had ZERO problems with mine. The flight controls out-of-the-box are a bit jerky but can be settled down with some adjustments. The camera is awesome! You can get 10-bit colors, exceptionally wide dynamic range, 100+ Mbps data rate, corner-to-corner sharpness, fantastic low-light performance and, of course, variable aperture.

The only down-side I see with the camera is the front lens cover has no shading from the sun. That means you can get sun glare anytime the sun hits the front of the camera. I built a simple sun shield attached to an ND16 filter but have not had much opportunity to test it yet. The gimbal does not seem to notice the small extra weight. I have suggested to Autel that they consider selling a sun shield option.

Good luck with your decision. Buy from a reputable dealer so you have recourse if yours is not as good as mine.
 
People tend to write letters or post videos when they have problems, but if all is going well they don't seem to take the time to post that. My EVO 2 Pro is my second Autel drone and though I did upgrade it once (and I upgraded the controller only firmware twice), because of the issues raised I am afraid to upgrade again until I start hearing awesome stories about the latest upgrade, but everything is workin fine without the upgrade. I have 15 drones that I fly commercially for various purposes ranging from 5 inches (for attic inspections) to 8 feet and one heavy lift, including 5 DJIs and 4 custom builts and 2 Autels. My EVO 2 Pro is the best all around drone so far. I have had NONE of the problems I keep reading about with my E2P after flying more than 160 jobs over the last 7 months since I got it. I guess I'm one of the rest of the buyers that doesn't have any issues :). I'd be leery of buying a used Evo since it has only been available for about 7 or 8 months...is there an underlying problem they are not telling you about causing them to sell it? Basic kit is about $1700 and extra batteries are about $220 each (add them 1 at a time to make it more affordable?). Not that far off your budget, but with a chance of being a good one right from the start.
 

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