DJI unveils Spark, its smallest and lightest drone yet

DJI's foldable Mavic Pro from last year was already rather easy to pack along on your trips, but the Chinese company has unveiled an even smaller and lighter drone today. It's called Spark and is a "mini drone", DJI says. It's not calling it a "selfie drone", although that's probably what most people will end up using it for.

The Spark takes off from your palm and can be controlled with hand gestures alone, in a first for any drone. You can send it up and away from you, tell it to capture an image, and call it back - all with such gestures and nothing else.

The new drone weighs just 300g, and its dimensions are 143×143×55 mm. Small indeed. It comes with a 12 MP camera with a 1/2.3" sensor with 81.9-degree field of view, f/2.6 aperture, and a maximum image size of 3,968×2,976. It shoots video in 1080p at 30fps, with a 24Mbps bitrate. The gimbal uses two-axis mechanical stabilization.

Its maximum speed is 50 km/h, achieved when there's no wind. Its 1,480 mAh battery is good for a maximum of 16 minutes of flying at a consistent 20 km/h sans wind. Maximum hovering time is 15 minutes.

The DJI Spark will be available in Alpine White, Sky Blue, Meadow Green, Lava Red, and Sunrise Yellow. You'll pay $499 for the base package which includes the drone itself, a battery, a USB charger, and three pairs of propellers. There's going to be a $699 bundle too, which will give you an additional battery, an extra pair of propellers, a remote controller, propeller guards, a charging hub, a shoulder bag, and all the necessary cables.

You can already pre-order the Spark from DJI, and the expected shipping date is June 15. If you pre-order, you get a free 16GB microSD card.

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