DJI Neo 2 adds omnidirectional obstacle sensing and gesture control

The DJI Neo drone was easily one of the best gadgets to launch last year. It took out my pick of the best product of the year, and made picking up your first drone fun and accessible to people of all skill levels.

So it's not a surprise that DJI has launched a sequel. And naturally, the DJI Neo 2 addresses a lot of the challenges the first-generation drone had.

The biggest upgrade? Omnidirectional obstacle sensing. The original Neo was brilliant, but it could still bump into things if you weren't careful. I crashed into a few trees walking through bushes with the "follow me" setting. on the original.

The Neo 2 solves that with a full monocular vision system, forward-facing LiDAR, and downward infrared sensing that detects obstacles in real time. Combined with the integrated propeller guards, the Neo 2 is perfect for beginners.

At just 151g, it's still DJI's lightest and most compact drone with this level of obstacle avoidance. That's important because it means you can still fly it in most places without needing to register it.

Hands-free flying gets even better

One of the coolest features from the original Neo was the ability to launch it from your palm, and the Neo 2 doubles down on that party trick. There's now a small display on the drone itself that shows you which shooting mode you've selected, and it can return to your palm for landing – no controller needed.

But things have been taken to the next level with gesture control. You can control the drone's direction and proximity using just your hands. One palm controls left/right movement and altitude, while using both palms lets you move the drone closer or further away by bringing your hands together or apart.

If you prefer, there's also voice control via smartphone or Bluetooth headphones, which is perfect for when you're doing sports and can't easily gesture at a drone.

And for those who want more range, the Neo 2 works with DJI's RC-N3 remote controller for up to 10km of video transmission.

Better camera, smarter tracking

The camera has been upgraded to a 12MP, 1/2-inch CMOS sensor with an f/2.2 aperture, now stabilised by a 2-axis gimbal. It shoots 4K video at up to 100fps for slow motion, or 2.7K vertical video for your social feeds.

DJI's ActiveTrack has been enhanced, too. The Neo 2 can now track subjects at speeds of up to 12 m/s in open areas, with eight-direction tracking (forward, backward, left, right, and the four diagonals). In complex environments, it switches to rear tracking mode to keep you in focus.

There's also a new SelfieShot mode that automatically composes shots for you, switching between waist-up, full-body, and long shots without needing a tripod or assistant. This is one of those under-rated features that's probably going to get a lot of work out at family picnics or birthday parties where you actually want everyone to be in the photo.

All the usual intelligent shooting modes are here too: Dolly Zoom, QuickShots (including Dronie, Circle, Rocket, Spotlight, Helix, and Boomerang), and MasterShots that automatically capture and edit diverse shots with music.

Practical improvements

DJI has improved the practicalities with the Neo 2 as well. The Neo 2 has level 5 wind resistance, up to 19 minutes of flight time, and a massive 49GB of internal storage. That's enough for up to 105 minutes of 4K/60fps video, 175 minutes of 4K/30fps, or 241 minutes of 1080p/60fps.

When you're done flying, you can just connect to your phone via Wi-Fi and transfer footage to the DJI Fly app at up to 80 MB/s.

The enhanced hovering and positioning capabilities also make it easier to fly indoors, near buildings, or over water and snow.

It's not as robust as the DJI Mini 5 drone I recently reviewed, but it's still pretty solid for the price.