I think this is good for Parrot. Hopefully they are making out great with their US Army contract and this civilian model will be icing on the cake.
Government Customers - This is trade war friendly and if/when the various proposed legislation are passed hurting Chinese made drones this looks to be a solid choice. Its capabilities are really awesome for Public Safety and with its security features this will be grant friendly. Here in NJ the state put out recommendations not to allow any DJI drone access to any secured network. And there are rumors that federal grants may soon not let you buy a DJI or Chinese drone with the funds.
Enterprise Customers - This would make a budget friendly enterprise drone that could provide solutions for inspections, roof thermography, and solar panel thermography. I'm sure that since Parrot is part? owner of Pix4D it will streamline into Pix4d rather nicely.
My opinion on it -
Pros -
Good Flight Time
Freeflight 6 is really easy to use
Zoom will be great for various inspections
Thermal is so much better than the Anafi Thermal Lepton sensor
Data security
Trade War friendly
Cons -
Non-radiometric Thermal (Once I have used a radiometric sensor, I have a very hard time not using one)
Like the original Anafi I do not see a parachute system being able to fit on such a small platform. It's worse now as this drone is $7,000. For me that is too much coin not to have the ability for a safety system.
No swappable cameras. I am too much of a fan of the Autel Evo II's swappable cameras. Parrot should of copied and made it so that you can have a choice of maybe a 1" sensor, 640 Boson thermal or the current offering.
Being its small form factor will make it difficult (But still possible) to add anti-collision lights for night flying missions
No insurance/warranty plan like DJI Care or Enterprise Shield. This drone costs a lot more than anything they have offered before and some type of no questions asked warranty plan would be nice.
If their customer service continues as it is now I do not see them being successful at all. With a drone in this price range, if they continue to not honor warranties and have really bad phone support they will not possibly survive in an enterprise customer market.
At work, our chief is now making the hard decision of what drone to get. Anafi USA, EVO I 640 Boson or maybe see if we can ask for enough money for a Mattrice 300 (Most likely not going to happen). As of right now the Evo II is the lead contender as our Evo I has been a rock solid performer.
For my small drone business I cannot even think of this drone. After my Anafi Thermal had a fall for no reason episode and I still have not had a warranty repair (They take up to 6 weeks to answer an email) I would not consider something this expensive from a company that does not offer $7,000 customer service. My Anafi Thermal sits shattered, while my regular Anafi has not flown since the Thermal crashed as it has problems when using Pix4D capture with forced, no warning landings.
My hope is that between the US Army contract and this, hopefully Parrot will rebound as a company, expand their offerings and bring back into the fold lost customers. I love competition and have no fanboy loyalty to any brand. A strong rebound might even bring them back into the recreation use drone business.
Government Customers - This is trade war friendly and if/when the various proposed legislation are passed hurting Chinese made drones this looks to be a solid choice. Its capabilities are really awesome for Public Safety and with its security features this will be grant friendly. Here in NJ the state put out recommendations not to allow any DJI drone access to any secured network. And there are rumors that federal grants may soon not let you buy a DJI or Chinese drone with the funds.
Enterprise Customers - This would make a budget friendly enterprise drone that could provide solutions for inspections, roof thermography, and solar panel thermography. I'm sure that since Parrot is part? owner of Pix4D it will streamline into Pix4d rather nicely.
My opinion on it -
Pros -
Good Flight Time
Freeflight 6 is really easy to use
Zoom will be great for various inspections
Thermal is so much better than the Anafi Thermal Lepton sensor
Data security
Trade War friendly
Cons -
Non-radiometric Thermal (Once I have used a radiometric sensor, I have a very hard time not using one)
Like the original Anafi I do not see a parachute system being able to fit on such a small platform. It's worse now as this drone is $7,000. For me that is too much coin not to have the ability for a safety system.
No swappable cameras. I am too much of a fan of the Autel Evo II's swappable cameras. Parrot should of copied and made it so that you can have a choice of maybe a 1" sensor, 640 Boson thermal or the current offering.
Being its small form factor will make it difficult (But still possible) to add anti-collision lights for night flying missions
No insurance/warranty plan like DJI Care or Enterprise Shield. This drone costs a lot more than anything they have offered before and some type of no questions asked warranty plan would be nice.
If their customer service continues as it is now I do not see them being successful at all. With a drone in this price range, if they continue to not honor warranties and have really bad phone support they will not possibly survive in an enterprise customer market.
At work, our chief is now making the hard decision of what drone to get. Anafi USA, EVO I 640 Boson or maybe see if we can ask for enough money for a Mattrice 300 (Most likely not going to happen). As of right now the Evo II is the lead contender as our Evo I has been a rock solid performer.
For my small drone business I cannot even think of this drone. After my Anafi Thermal had a fall for no reason episode and I still have not had a warranty repair (They take up to 6 weeks to answer an email) I would not consider something this expensive from a company that does not offer $7,000 customer service. My Anafi Thermal sits shattered, while my regular Anafi has not flown since the Thermal crashed as it has problems when using Pix4D capture with forced, no warning landings.
My hope is that between the US Army contract and this, hopefully Parrot will rebound as a company, expand their offerings and bring back into the fold lost customers. I love competition and have no fanboy loyalty to any brand. A strong rebound might even bring them back into the recreation use drone business.
