As our in-house drones expert, I look after our best drones buying guide and I test the latest drones by pushing them to the limit. That includes analyzing every single feature, scrutinizing image/video quality, build quality, and checking if battery claims are correct. But what good is a drone without a controller? There are a few types of drone controllers:
- ones with smartphone mounts (like the DJI RC-N3 for the DJI Neo)
- motion controllers (like the RC Motion 3 with the DJI Goggles N3)
- ones with screens (like the DJI RC-2 for the DJI Air 3S)
- ones with flip-up screens (like the DJI RC Pro 2 for the DJI Mavic 4 Pro)
The last of these, the DJI RC Pro 2, is brand new, and it accompanied the launch of the DJI Mavic 4 Pro. It's the first drone I've ever given a 5-star rating too, and there are many reasons for it. 100MP Hasselblad stills, 6K/60fps video, next-gen obstacle avoidance, and the RC Pro 2.
The RC Pro 2 is the brand's most powerful consumer controller yet, and it doesn't come cheap. Currently not available in the U.S. (as DJI continues to assess its market strategy in line with the local conditions), it retails for £879 in the U.K. But for those who want to elevate their flying experience, it's well worth the premium — let me show you why.
Flying made easy
Unlike the DJI RC-N3, the DJI RC-2 and so on, the DJI RC Pro 2 features a flip-up screen and pulling it up reveals the collapsible joysticks and buttons. This also wakes up the controller (and puts it to sleep when you push the screen down), so you don't need to press a specific button to power up anymore. It takes a step out of the prep process so you can get to flying almost instantly.
There's no sugarcoating it: the DJI Mavic 4 Pro is an expensive drone, retailing for £1,879 in the U.K. for the drone and the RC-2 controller. If you want the RC Pro 2, you can get the Creator Combo which also adds 512GB of internal storage to the drone, for £3,209. Good news is that the RC Pro 2 is compatible with other drones that support vertical shooting — like the Air 3S, Air 3 and Mini 4 Pro.
What's even better is that the RC Pro 2 syncs with the drone's gimbal, so rotating it vertically puts the drone into vertical shooting mode, negating the need to manually toggle the orientation. I think this is a very underrated feature. I constantly swapped between horizontal and vertical shooting, and the RC Pro 2's screen's rotation feels as smooth as butter.
The RC Pro 2 is also the brightest consumer controller. It has a peak brightness of 2,000 nits and a sustained brightness of 1,600 nits (the maximum brightness that a display can maintain for an extended period of time without overheating). For context, the RC-2 has a max brightness of 700 nits. This is why I could view the screen even on an extremely sunny day.
It also accurately displays 10-bit D-Log/D-Log M colors just as the drone records them — and what you'd see when editing the footage in Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. Overall, the RC Pro 2 makes for a fantastic viewing experience that's unlike any other.
Lean mean content creation machine
There's a solid reason why the DJI RC Pro 2 is part of the DJI Mavic 4 Pro Creator Combo: it's a beast for videography and content creation. First of all, it features Dynamic Home Point Support. For example, if you're controlling your drone from a moving vehicle, the RC Pro 2 will constantly update the home point in real-time so when you need to land it, it'll land close to where your vehicle has stopped.
You also get an HDMI port which you can use to livestream what your drone is seeing (or your recorded footage) on to a larger screen, like one of the best TVs. There's 128GB of internal storage too as well as a slot for a microSD card.
And what I really like is that the RC Pro 2 has a built-in mic so you can record audio while flying. The controller's compatible with the DJI mic series, such as the DJI Mic 2 and DJI Mic Mini, but if you don't have access to these, at least you can record directly to the controller.
To top it all, for the first time, the RC Pro 2 has third-party app support which makes it work like a regular tablet. You can download video editing apps onto the controller and edit footage for quick sharing to social media. This also means that you don't have to wait until going back to your laptop to start the post-production process.
Since the controller uses a custom Android OS, you can install APKs via the built-in browser or a microSD card. I tested this out by downloading Adobe Lightroom Classic for photo editing and it worked like a charm. The screen shows 10-bit colors which means it can show 1.07 billion individual hues, and it's extremely responsive too, which makes editing a cinch. I even downloaded Qobuz so that I could listen to music while editing!
Buy or skip? Buy!
So, should you buy or skip the DJI RC Pro 2? It depends on a few things. If you're in the U.S., you're out of luck (for now) but I hope that changes soon. If you're in the U.K. and want a controller that makes content creation easier and flying more intuitive, then yes, it's worth the money.
The fact that you can use third-party apps to quickly edit content, listen to music while doing so, or even watch some YouTube videos in between editing sprees, makes the RC Pro 2 a force to be reckoned with. I'm already looking forward to using it more over the weekend.
