If you’ve read my review of the Potensic atom then you might as well just skip this review cos it’s my opinion that the Mini 3 SE is just a reskinned Potensic Atom or the Atom is just a reskinned Fimi Mini 3 SE, chicken or egg, whichever came first.
Maybe some tiny differences here and there and I talk about them in this review. Overall and as I said at the time for my Potensic atom, this is a very sturdy mini drone that does all the basics just about right.
What’s in the box
There’s the drone, the drone controller, a couple cables mainly for connecting the your phone to the controller, a manual, a quick start guide and the drone battery itself.
Design and build quality
The FIMI Mini 3 SE is a well finished and sturdy looking drone all round. It’s very small (actual weight is about 243.5grams) but for what it lacks in terms of sheer hey I’m big factor you get with a nice streamlined and minimalist design.
I like the color, very different from most of what is out there, certainly better than the paint schemes of most cheap mini drones I’ve reviewed (looking at you V198) but then again this costs almost $400 so in a way, while it classifies as a mini drone, it’s priced significantly higher than many of the cheap Chinese mini drone out there.
The premium feel extends to the drone controller as well. Its textured plastic so feels very nice and comfy to hold. The shape is alright, very well contoured to fit nicely in your palm and very importantly, it’s as lightweight as can get.
Quick setup
To get started with the Mini 3 SE you’ll need to charge both the drone battery and the controller. Both come with a USB C port and a good touch with the Mini 3 SE is you don’t need to take out the battery to charge it. It takes about 2 hours to get the drone battery to 100% and up to four hours for the controller.
Once both are charged up, you’ll need to download the FIMI Navi mini app. There’s a QR code that comes in the manual and you can scan to download the app.
Next, mount your phone on the drone controller and connect it to the app on your phone using the supplied cables. FIMI packs practically all types of USB cables so pretty much all phones are covered. Once you’ve done that power up the drone by pressing the power button twice and holding at the second press.
The drone then immediately syncs to the controller and to your phone. Click enter device on the FIMI Navi app to get a live video feed from the drone and at this point, it’s essentially ready to fly. But before flying you need to do the customary horizontal and compass calibration.
Navigate to the settings tab and then select calibrate and follow the onscreen prompts to complete the calibration – place on a flat surface and wait; pick the drone up and rotate clockwise; and finally turn it with the nose facing upwards and again rotate clockwise.
Initial flight
To get the drone started simply pull the two joysticks downwards, that will activate the rotors, use the left joystick to get it in the air by pushing it upwards. If this is your first time flying a drone, not to worry this is very easy to fly in my experience although I’d recommend an open outdoor space with few to no obstacles for your first flights.
The controller has two joysticks, an on\off switch, a return to home button, a video button and a photo button up front as well as a dial for controlling the camera’s vertical tilt.
The left joystick works as follows; up to propel the drone upwards, down for downwards, right to rotate the drone right on its axis and left for a left axis rotation.
Up on the right analog stick flies the drone forwards, down takes it backwards, right moves the drone to the right and left takes it to the left.
Clicking on the video button switches to video mode or begins recording video if you’re already in video mode. Similarly clicking on the photo button switches to photo mode or takes a snapshot if you’re already in photo mode.
And as I said earlier the left mounted dial helps you tilt the camera vertically up and down to adjust the view from the drone’s camera.
Flight performance
Like the Potensic Atom, the Mini 3 SE is surprisingly good in air for its size and weight. In my tests it comfortably flew through light to moderate winds and that’s saying a lot because many bigger and similarly priced drones struggle in same conditions.
On paper the Mini 3 SE is rated 5 for wind resistance and i’d say it performed exactly on par with that rating; meaning it can take on windy weather with winds below 38km/h without so much as breaking a sweat.
FIMI says this can fly a distance of up to 6KM but as is the case for most drones in this price range advertised range very rarely matches to what is obtainable on the field. At best the farthest distance I got was 1KM and that’s with some signal stutter and interruptions in between. Vertical range was up to 1km as well. Fair to note that range performance on the Mini 3 SE was significantly better than the Potensic Atom even though they both feel like the same drone underneath. My guess is Potensic has some custom throttling implemented for stabler flying experience.
Overall range (both vertical and horizontal) are still very much in line with what you’d expect at this price range and although I did say there was some stutter up to the 1KM mark, it wasn’t that bad as to affect flight performance or footage quality.
One last thing, this doesn’t come with any obstacle avoidance tech which might feel like a big especially considering the fact that the $200 cheaper V198 comes with one. What I would say is I don’t really miss it on this drone. My experience is that many of the implications of obstacle avoidance, more so in cheap drones do very little to improve the overall flight experience.
Intelligent flight modes
This drone comes equipped with five intelligent flight modes
- Tap fly
- Waypoint
- Follow 3.0
- Orbit
- Spiral
Both spiral and orbit allow you to record cinematic videos with a preprogrammed flight path. It’s a really nice touch and you can use it to create short very social media friendly type videos if that’s your thing. Activate it by tapping either of the orbit or spiral buttons.
With follow 3.0 the drone can lock on a person in its view, track and then follow the persons movement automatically. Again nice touch and in many instances the Mini can automatically identify the subject and all you have to do is click the track button so it follows movement.
Waypoint allows you to set a predefined flight path using the map on the controller and then preprogram the drone to fly through that path automatically. This is a fairly common feature on drones at this price point, you’ll get it on the Potensic Atom, but unlike most other implementations I’ve tested Fimi adds a nice touch by allowing you to program an additional action once the drone gets to its final waypoint path.
Camera quality
The Mini captures fairly good photos and video footage with its F2.2 4K capable drone camera. Unlike the Potensic Atom the footage doesn’t have too much of that post processing so colors don’t pop as much and contrast feels very natural. The video footage is sharp enough and thanks to a really capable 3-axis stabilization system it’s very smooth even in slightly adverse weather conditions.
You can shoot in 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps. The handy video and photo button left and right of the drone controller makes capturing moments on the fly very easy. One click if you’re already in video mode begins recording, otherwise it takes you to video mode and vice versa for the photo button, one click and you get a snapshot or a redirect to photo mode if you’re not already there.
Flight safety features
This comes equipped with pretty much the same flight safety tech you’d get on the Potensic Atom so no obstacle avoidance module.
You get intelligent return, one click return to home, and beginners mode.
Intelligent return is activated whenever the drone;
- Gets to a critical battery level (less than 10% for the Atom)
- Loses connection to the controller module for whatever reason
Once activated the drone basically return to the last set home point. Home point is set on startup after the drone launches. There’s an icon to identify this on the map which for me is a nice intuitive feature.
One click return to home again navigates the drone to the last set homepoint once activated, there’s a dedicated button on the controller for this. The very few times I got a signal interference and was scared I’d lost the drone I just panic pressed this button and the reassuring beep of return to home in progress was just what I needed to hear at the time.
Beginners mode limits flight height and flight distance making it effectively impossible to lose the drone in flight. I didn’t need it cos I was not a beginner and honestly the return to home functionality at a click of button paired to intelligent return was all the safety assurance I needed when flying the drone.
Battery life
Battery life on the Mini 3 SE was fairly good. In my flights it was noticeably 3 -5 minutes worse off than the Potensic Atom which was weird because you can tell they use the same exact battery. It’s a 2200mah power pack and in practice it keeps the mini in air for up to 20 mins at full tilt.
The drone’s controller lasts way longer. On a full charge it can stay on for almost two hours which means you can run the drone through up to four cycles of battery life before needing to charge.\
Should you buy the Mini 3 SE?
As I said for the Potensic Atom, in terms of overall usability, battery life, camera quality and flight performance very few drones match this drone build. It shoots very decent videos, photos are good as well, flight performance is top notch and battery life matches the industry standard at this price point.
Now, as at the time of this review the Mini was about $50 cheaper than the Potensic Atom and even though the atom is a more well packaged deal, there’s no hiding the fact that at the bare bones they’re pretty much the same drone. If you don’t mind a few rough edges and want to spare the extra $50 then this is the capable, budget friendly mini drone to get.
