Will YOU be buying the Autel EVO?

[rbreece]

Zero complaints on the XSP. OLD FIRMWARE. You guys went down a nasty road with new geofencing nags and altitude warnings etc. Just fix the Yaw and battery issues... don't embed crap please, I need to fly and and get shots. I am sold on the Autel quality and support. This is a tool for me. I fly for folks who just want the BEST shots available. Autel IS the best. The XSP serves me well ... as always... but now its gone and the lifespan dictated. I bought a NEW XSP from Bestbuy in January just to keep the edge I have with this product over the DJI boys out there. Once the EVO was announced, I returned it and I am putting my hopes and wants into the EVO. Id rather NOT drone than own anything DJI. No one in the price range can touch the Autel image quality and platform stability. I pre-ordered the EVO from Carolina Dronz as soon as they announced they were with Autel. They too will have my loyalty. Autel didn't harm any of us. Their XSP was/is a wonderful platform. They've moved on to a new idea with EVO. Let's support them or quit the complaining. Accept it for what it is and lend our support or be honorable enough to just leave without continuing with all the negative "droning" on about that which we can not change. (; Thank you Autel... knock this one out of the park for us! Happy flying... B

 

[arto.inetco]

I fly for play and work, but even my play is work related. My department is involved with environmental assessment, and we have 500 field staff. We are rolling out our UAS program and looking to certify 20-30 staff this year, with a goal of around 250 in 5 years...We want everyone who wants to capture aerial footage as part of an inspection to have that opportunity at hand and to do it legally...so something like an EVO or Mavic is a good sized UAS for them....I could see us having 200+ EVO's, Mavic's, or Byrds, in the near future...We have demoed everything from DJI 600 down to the Spark, and started with a single p4p as our first drone....I flew my personal pumpkin as much as the p4p due to dji firmware issues when on site...lugging the cases everytime was a pain.

I do see a market in law enforcement/consulting/field assessment, for an evo/mavic sized UAS that you can tuck in a bag.....we are going to get a big boy like an inspire 2 or 520 for specialized needs like thermal imaging or lidar...

 

[Tufargon]

Zero complaints on the XSP. OLD FIRMWARE. You guys went down a nasty road with new geofencing nags and altitude warnings etc. Just fix the Yaw and battery issues... don't embed crap please, I need to fly and and get shots. I am sold on the Autel quality and support. This is a tool for me. I fly for folks who just want the BEST shots available. Autel IS the best. The XSP serves me well ... as always... but now its gone and the lifespan dictated. I bought a NEW XSP from Bestbuy in January just to keep the edge I have with this product over the DJI boys out there. Once the EVO was announced, I returned it and I am putting my hopes and wants into the EVO. Id rather NOT drone than own anything DJI. No one in the price range can touch the Autel image quality and platform stability. I pre-ordered the EVO from Carolina Dronz as soon as they announced they were with Autel. They too will have my loyalty. Autel didn't harm any of us. Their XSP was/is a wonderful platform. They've moved on to a new idea with EVO. Let's support them or quit the complaining. Accept it for what it is and lend our support or be honorable enough to just leave without continuing with all the negative "droning" on about that which we can not change. (; Thank you Autel... knock this one out of the park for us! Happy flying... B

We have been around and owned the company's product long enough to voice our opinion. Telling people to basically shut up unless they have positive things to say is just wrong especially if those people are more informed than most. We have informed views and that's what makes a company. I seriously hope they do well but they screwed up and I hope they realize that and fix it in the future. I love my XSP and have always given them 2 thumbs up.

 

[arto.inetco]

Zero complaints on the XSP. OLD FIRMWARE. You guys went down a nasty road with new geofencing nags and altitude warnings etc. Just fix the Yaw and battery issues... don't embed crap please, I need to fly and and get shots. I am sold on the Autel quality and support. This is a tool for me. I fly for folks who just want the BEST shots available. Autel IS the best. The XSP serves me well ... as always... but now its gone and the lifespan dictated. I bought a NEW XSP from Bestbuy in January just to keep the edge I have with this product over the DJI boys out there. Once the EVO was announced, I returned it and I am putting my hopes and wants into the EVO. Id rather NOT drone than own anything DJI. No one in the price range can touch the Autel image quality and platform stability. I pre-ordered the EVO from Carolina Dronz as soon as they announced they were with Autel. They too will have my loyalty. Autel didn't harm any of us. Their XSP was/is a wonderful platform. They've moved on to a new idea with EVO. Let's support them or quit the complaining. Accept it for what it is and lend our support or be honorable enough to just leave without continuing with all the negative "droning" on about that which we can not change. (; Thank you Autel... knock this one out of the park for us! Happy flying... B

You might sing a different tune when Autels promises at CES 2018 dont keep w the EVO either. It was only a year ago they were lauding the XSP and everything coming for it (FLIR, 1", SDK) and look how that turned out. ...Glad you have faith in them. I think if they would have announced the turnaround on their web page, faced up to it, explained it, I may feel differently. But we heard of the XSP demise through CES 2018 interview questions, never a company announcement or even email to all the registered XSP owners they have on file. A letter would have been nice, but to hear it through the grapevine like that, its nothing short of abandonment to your most loyal followers who bought your product less than a year ago. They will likely do the same to all the EVO owners as well in the future...thats the way Autel seems to operate...
Long live the Pumpkin...I will try very hard to not bash Autel anymore on this forum for dumping the XSP, but suffice to say I think Autel did it in the absolute worst way possible.

 

[Tufargon]

You might sing a different tune when Autels promises at CES 2018 dont keep w the EVO either. It was only a year ago they were lauding the XSP and everything coming for it (FLIR, 1", SDK) and look how that turned out. ...Glad you have faith in them. I think if they would have announced the turnaround on their web page, faced up to it, explained it, I may feel differently. But we heard of the XSP demise through CES 2018 interview questions, never a company announcement or even email to all the registered XSP owners they have on file. A letter would have been nice, but to hear it through the grapevine like that, its nothing short of abandonment to your most loyal followers who bought your product less than a year ago. They will likely do the same to all the EVO owners as well in the future...thats the way Autel seems to operate...
Long live the Pumpkin...I will try very hard to not bash Autel anymore on this forum for dumping the XSP, but suffice to say I think Autel did it in the absolute worst way possible.

1: He's owned it long enough to return it.
2: Has no idea of the last year or so what long time XSP owners have gone through with the promises.
3: How long before they knew that they weren't going to follow through with the promises did they hold back that info? 6 months? Probably more.
4: Wanna make it good? Give a discount to the loyal registered users for the Evo. We were the ones that insanely expressed our appreciation of Autels support.
I'll stop too. It's upsetting. I'll fly it till it dies then see what happens next.

 

[Colorado_scott]

Ok, a new guy here. I’ve owned 2 drones for a total of 5 days. Returned both for various reasons. My only background is RC helicopter and plane flight for the last 30+ years (and still fly almost daily). I compete on a regular basis and I normally place in the top 3. I mention this as I’m trying to learn as much about drones as I can. I may actually buy, and keep, one sometime. For me, I sincerely appreciate hearing both sides of Autel. Let’s not stop presenting both sides as it helps all guys like me thinking about drones.

Yep, some are polarized on Autel, others on DJI. I can only hope we all have two good choices in the future. If Autel delivers on the EVO and newly announced product from DJI next week proves as good, or better, we all win.

I hear a few above are actually making a living with drone photography- terrific. I think you are the upper 10%, the of us are hobby flyers that just want reliable drones we can play with.

The reviews on the EVO will be good I’m sure. You know, I watch lots of YouTube videos of “the 5-10 Best drones in 2017” - everyone has an opinion. There seems to be one constant; DJI makes good products. I don’t recall seeing Autel in many top 5 or top 10 reviews. I’m not here to put down Autel as I like what I see in the EVO. DJI will announce new models next week. Then perhaps I can make some decision. But I’m in no hurry and want to make an informed decision. This forum helps me sort out facts / opinions. Keep up the good work.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

This is one of the best responses to the upcoming release date on the EVO that I found on another Forum. None of this is mine, just copy and pasting it here for people to ponder

"
Folks this should go without saying, and this is in no way a Autel only thing. Please spend your money wisely. This Drone is still in final testing/design stages. It is in no way ready for production. Once they decide what to do, then they will set the Production run. There is no shortage of people with more cents than sense. So don't be so quick on the trigger.

How they ramp that production will be in response to threads like this. IF they run to fast, then you can expect some issues, some may be major. That will do little to help this company move forward. This thing is all but still on paper. If they move to fast into production "hoping" it is a major seller then in all likelihood the first batch isn't going to do well.

While it is all good to give replies to a thread on how much you would like one, let's be realistic that this thing if done properly, best case scenario, is going to be late 2nd quarter (June'ish) release more probably late summer. If they do decide to retool to match competitor products that may be looming, this thing isn't going to hit till next Christmas. Start saving those pennies now.. and as ever, buy based on the features it ships with, don't depend on promises of what it may be able to do at some future point. Far too many people buy something, hoping it will become far greater than it was when they obtained it, only to be disappointed and/or angry to learn the upgrades they hoped would be provided at no cost only became available in a following product release that had to be bought again to obtain."

 

[rkyleh]

This is one of the best responses to the upcoming release date on the EVO that I found on another Forum. None of this is mine, just copy and pasting it here for people to ponder

"
Folks this should go without saying, and this is in no way a Autel only thing. Please spend your money wisely. This Drone is still in final testing/design stages. It is in no way ready for production. Once they decide what to do, then they will set the Production run. There is no shortage of people with more cents than sense. So don't be so quick on the trigger.

How they ramp that production will be in response to threads like this. IF they run to fast, then you can expect some issues, some may be major. That will do little to help this company move forward. This thing is all but still on paper. If they move to fast into production "hoping" it is a major seller then in all likelihood the first batch isn't going to do well.

While it is all good to give replies to a thread on how much you would like one, let's be realistic that this thing if done properly, best case scenario, is going to be late 2nd quarter (June'ish) release more probably late summer. If they do decide to retool to match competitor products that may be looming, this thing isn't going to hit till next Christmas. Start saving those pennies now.. and as ever, buy based on the features it ships with, don't depend on promises of what it may be able to do at some future point. Far too many people buy something, hoping it will become far greater than it was when they obtained it, only to be disappointed and/or angry to learn the upgrades they hoped would be provided at no cost only became available in a following product release that had to be bought again to obtain."

I swear there are a lot of people out there that can see the future so crystal clear. I am surprised they don't have a crystal ball and a tent to set up a thriving business.

 

[rkyleh]

This is what I am placing my hopes on from the Autel web page.

We’ve been both humbled and honored by the overwhelmingly positive response to our announcement of the EVO. The EVO’s expected price point at launch is $999.00 USD. The launch date for the EVO will be announced as we close in further on our release timeline.

While we are close to launching, we want to ensure that we deliver products that provide the utmost quality and reliability for our customers.

Last year at CES we set some expectations that we did not achieve. We were not able to deliver a high quality, reliable offering with the Thermal and 1” Sensor for our X‑Star series. There are many reasons that these units did not come to fruition.

We realize that a big part of meeting our delivery goals for our customers is refining our messaging to ensure that we can always do what we say we will do.

Moving forward with EVO we will focus on that goal of communicating clearly and never overpromising. As such, all we can say for now as to EVO’s release date is “very soon”. We’ll publish details on our website and social media as soon as they are available.

Thank you for all of your support and feedback!

The Autel Robotics Team

 

[Jagerbomb52]

 

[rkyleh]

Where does the line start I wants one.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Most likely someplace around here LOL
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

 

[xspwhite]

I must say, I bet the EVO will be a nice quad, but I am a bit disappointed because I was hoping to see an upgraded version of the XSP.

 

[Delta Blue]

The Pumpkin does everything I need it to, so right now, the Evo is just the new cute girl on the block, a little younger with a more fun personality, but I don't want to ask her out yet.

 

[Irisheyes5619]

I was encouraged by the "peak into the future" as was on display at CES 2017. Need I say more?

Did you notice that the women that did all those interviews is gone !!

I don’t think they went far enough to develop this
They had a full year!!!!

Controller is too small
I am not a game boy or X box person!

Won’t hold a tablet and was told 1 inch sensor won’t come out until December 2018 or later

AND YOU CAN NOT CHANGE CAMERAs
What you buy is what you are stuck with
Looking forward to see what DJI releases

 

[jvinyard]

Instead of a new drone I wish they would make a multi battery charger. It takes me hours to charge all my batteries when I get home. That’s what I need. Not a new drone that can avoid stuff. I can drive around it manually. Not sure what else this new one has but how great could it be?

 

[MaduroMan]

I'm excited to purchase the new EVO or the Mavic Pro because with my next drone I want something that packs small that I can take and fly anywhere but, being a "Tech" guy I dont purchase first gen anything. Been there - Done that..

Anyone see a real ship date and price on the EVO yet? The PR announcement said $999.00 but I dont see a release date.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

No dates as of yet. Could be the end of Q2 but it could be longer if they have problems.

 

[WingBot]

Wanted to poll the forum to gauge how many are interested in (and possibly not interested in) Autel's new drone, the EVO. Feel free to explain your reasoning below!

I own the X Star Premium and if Autel decides to drop the support for it I seriously doubt I'll buy the EVO. Can't trust Autel to not do the same with it. I can't afford to buy something that will lose support in just a year or less. I need know that Autel will support their product with parts, sells and tech support long after I buy it. Just afraid If I invest in the EVO I'll be left with that uncertainty I now have with my beloved X Star Premium. If they were to assure me continued support I would most likely buy the EVO.
Without their commitment to provide manageable support makes me hold very little value towards any purchase from them. I love what they claim about the EVO and Would love to own one... but at this point it's way too risky.

 

[Quadrotor]

A variety of points of view that most of us probably share to varying degrees already have been expressed. I will only add that regardless of whether someone flies as a hobby, business, or some mix of both; and regardless of the relative importance of that compared to other aspects of their life and available resources; given the technical complexities of modern drones and rapidly improving designs it seems way premature to decide now on the future purchase of a particular model that may become available at some unknown date.