Hi ya'll,
I wanted to share the device I am using as a dedicated Spark viewfinder with my remote. I was looking at cheaper android phones with large bright screens and as big of battery as I could find and think BLU hit the nail on the head for our use case.
I found the BLU Life One X3 which checked all of my boxes for a dedicated device for DJI Go 4:
My setup includes turning screen timeout to 10 minutes when not in the DJI Go app, airplane mode with Wi-Fi enabled, screen brightness 100% and all bloatware uninstalled or disabled. I'm currently using the modified app that enables Mavic Pro features on the spark and it hasn't crashed once on me.
I have yet to try the OTG connection with it's micro usb port due to not owning a proper cable, but will grab one soon and update this thread with its results.
All in all, I believe having a dedicated, long lasting device helps me fly my drone faster when on location as opposed to having to put my Pixel 2 XL into airplane mode, connect to wifi, etc. I was also experiencing app crashes quite frequently in Android 8.1, so an older version of android might actually be the better case in this regard. I understand Apple products have better reliability with DJI but I didn't want to buy a mini just for my first DJI drone. I believe this device works exceptionally well for our use case and wanted to share my findings.
I wanted to share the device I am using as a dedicated Spark viewfinder with my remote. I was looking at cheaper android phones with large bright screens and as big of battery as I could find and think BLU hit the nail on the head for our use case.
I found the BLU Life One X3 which checked all of my boxes for a dedicated device for DJI Go 4:
- 5.5" screen with decent outdoor brightness
- 5,000 mAh battery that holds up for a full day of flying
- Metal construction that feels sturdy in the hand / controller
- Android 7.0 Nougat, while not the bleeding edge, it's recent enough that DJI Go 4 should support it for another year or so
- 5GHz Wi-Fi
- $149 shipped (Amazon Prime)
My setup includes turning screen timeout to 10 minutes when not in the DJI Go app, airplane mode with Wi-Fi enabled, screen brightness 100% and all bloatware uninstalled or disabled. I'm currently using the modified app that enables Mavic Pro features on the spark and it hasn't crashed once on me.
I have yet to try the OTG connection with it's micro usb port due to not owning a proper cable, but will grab one soon and update this thread with its results.
All in all, I believe having a dedicated, long lasting device helps me fly my drone faster when on location as opposed to having to put my Pixel 2 XL into airplane mode, connect to wifi, etc. I was also experiencing app crashes quite frequently in Android 8.1, so an older version of android might actually be the better case in this regard. I understand Apple products have better reliability with DJI but I didn't want to buy a mini just for my first DJI drone. I believe this device works exceptionally well for our use case and wanted to share my findings.