Andrew Heinzman
While DJI’s consumer drones feature a portable and foldable design, the company’s enterprise-grade drones are much too cumbersome for a backpack. That changes with the launch of DJI’s Matrice 30 (M30), its first truly portable drone for professionals.
The M30 is DJI’s first enterprise drone with foldable legs. It weighs just 8.3 pounds, and when folded together, the drone measures 14.3 inches long, 8.4 inches wide, and 7.8 inches tall. That’s small enough for a roomy backpack, though it’s still quite bulky when compared to DJI’s Mavic drones.
Notably, the M30 features IP55 weather resistance and can tolerate temperatures from -4 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Teaser videos show the drone trudging through stormy weather and floating near burning buildings—clearly, DJI wants customers to know that this thing is tough.
And toughness is pretty important here, as the M30 is DJI’s first drone to support the new DJI Dock. This rugged docking station fits at a job site or in the back of a pickup truck to enable routine, autonomous flights. It can send the drone on missions up to 7km away, and even features built-in surveillance cameras and a weather station.
Notably, the M30 drone only features a 41-minute battery life. It seems that this low battery life a necessary tradeoff for the drone’s compact size. That said, the DJI Dock can charge the M30 in just 25 minutes—though I imagine that this will be most useful for routine or autonomous flights.
The DJI M30 is now available for $10,000. DJI is also selling an upgraded M30T drone, which features improvements like a thermal imaging camera. Predictably, the M30T costs a whopping $14,000.
Source: DJI
