DJI Mini 3 Pro Drone And Its Sweet New Controller Break Cover And Look Fabulous

The last time we had a drone in-house was with the DJI Mavic 3, which we described as a “top-flight drone for photography or videography work,” but also noted that “these drones are not meant for the hobby pilot who just wants a camera drone to capture the occasional landscape.” To fill the gap in price and performance between prosumer and regular consumer models of drones, DJI may be prepping the DJI Mini 3 Pro, an impressive looking and beefy follow-up to the DJI Mini 2.

With rumors flying about the DJI Mini 3 Pro’s liftoff at the end of this month and shipments in May, leaks are starting to follow. Over on Twitter, self-described “Independent DJI Investigator” Jasper Ellens has dropped several leaked images of what seems to be a new DJI drone. Of these, one of the more interesting sets of photos shows both the drone and a new DJI remote control with an inbuilt screen, but one thing at a time.

The DJI Mini 3 Pro looks to be rather thick, but is expected to come in a 249g package which is important due to international regulations on drones. We can also see that DJI has ditched the legs in favor of mounting the arms of the drone more evenly, and using the body of the drone itself as landing legs. Interestingly, it appears that this drone also has protruding eyes of sorts, but we will revisit that later. Looking toward the controller, though, we see what could be a 7” or 8” display wearing a standard-looking controller for a hat. While this controller upgrade would have been nice for the Mavic 3, which we looked at here, this will certainly be an upgrade no matter what. Now, here’s hoping that DJI will let this controller work with other drones in its lineup too.

Mini 3 leaks? pic.twitter.com/rav6CWke0B

— 航拍世家 打手 (@DealsDrone) April 16, 2022

Beyond these images, some stellar DJI Mini 3 Pro images were also posted by DealsDrone on Twitter, as shown above. These give us a little more insight into the design of the new drone, which as we previously alluded to, includes some oddly protruding sensors at the front. With these new images in hand, it looks like DJI has integrated its forward and rear sensors into one package at the front. It is also possible that the upward-facing sensors are in the same package, but that is unclear without some closer imagery of the top of the device. DealsDrone also posted some closer images of the new controller, but these do not tell us much more than we already knew from prior controller images.


In any event, it seems that the new DJI Mini 3 Pro will be quite the little drone with some improvements and design changes making it stand out from the prior generation. As such, we cannot wait to get our hands on one of these, hopefully, later in the month, to test out and show you how it performs. Thus, stay tuned to HotHardware for updates on the DJI Mini 3 Pro, and let us know what you want to see out of this drone in the comments below.

(Top image courtesy of DealsDrone)