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+DJI’s Phantom series of drones didn't define the consumer drone category, but they all but rule it now. Chat with a drone pilot at your local park and chances are they’re flying a Phantom. And with DJI's latest offering, the Phantom 4, they might even be able to talk to you while the drone flies itself around.
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+The DJI Phantom 4 continues to refine the features of its predecessor, with a particular emphasis on automated flight and collision avoidance. It's not yet a fully autonomous drone to do you bidding with nothing more than the flick of a finger, but it might stop you from flying head-on into a tree. Even better, the new TapFly feature might help you get through tight spots you're not comfortable flying though by yourself.
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+The Phantom 4 looks similar to the Phantom 3 though the props have changed. The entire motor now sits outside the arm, which makes the Phantom 4 look a bit sleeker. It also means that there's nowhere to attach prop guards, which I occasionally missed (especially flying indoors around people, but you should not do that anyway).
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+The biggest news in the Phantom 4 is the new collision detection feature. The pitch is that the Phantom 4 will stop you from flying into trees and somehow miraculously make it possible for anyone to fly. The truth is more prosaic. The collision detection features only work when you're flying forward. They will never warn you about obstacles when you're flying in any other direction. Want to hit a tree? Just back up. Or go left. Or right. Or slightly off center.
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+That's not to say the collision detection isn't useful. It is, but it isn't enough for you stop worrying about flying into things. It works best on large dark objects, I flew it right at a volunteer subject and it stopped about four feet in front of him and refused to get closer. It was however happy to fly straight into his raised arms, which where not sufficiently big enough to detect. It was also happy to fly into bushes (again, the bushes were likely not dense enough to detect). The Phantom 4 will also not detect what might be a drone's greatest enemy -- power lines.
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+Still this is the first release of the collision detection system and it's not hard to imagine future releases adding more cameras around the body of the Phantom to make collision detection possible on all sides. It will also be interesting to see what sort of software upgrades DJI might offer to the collision detection system.
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+The collision detection is at its best when combined with what might be the best new feature in the Phantom 4 -- TapFly. TapFly allows you to use your touch screen device to simply tap anywhere on the screen and have the Phantom fly toward it. There's a horizon line you can use to control the altitude of your automated flight and the collision detection will avoid most solid objects.
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+I used TapFly to fly gaps between trees that I would never have attempted on my own and that alone makes the Phantom 4 worth the upgrade. Again, it's also not hard to see how this might be improved with future releases -- for example, adding a way to slow down and speed up the drone at specific points in the flight path.
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+The other new automated flight control system is an object tracker, which works well for tracking people in relatively open settings. The software sometimes gets confused if someone of similar appearance crosses paths with your subject, but barring big city crowds, this should work well. Well enough to be moderately creepy. Especially if the Phantom is at max range straight up, which I did not test because that would be against FAA regulations.
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+Luckily for the paranoid, while the Phantom's camera has been improved, it still isn't going to pick out individuals for tracking from a half mile up. Don't worry, the police have military drone for that. The Phantom 4's camera improvements are subtle, but when looking at footage from a Phantom 3 next to the 4 you'll notice the latter has considerably less chromatic aberration, less noise and slightly less distortion. 
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+The new sport mode is one of the highlights of the Phantom 4. The Phantom line was already the nimblest of the half dozen drones I've tested, but the sport mode puts it in a class all its own. With a top speed of 45 miles an hour, an ascent rate of 20 feet per second, and the ability to turn so fast the craft nearly flips over, sport mode is not necessarily the best way to shoot incredible video (at top speed the props will be in your shot and there will be some vibration in the video you shoot) but it sure is fun to fly. Shooting forward while flying backward looks good well above normal mode speeds (though again, not at 45 MPH), which will enable professional film makers to better track high speed sequences like chase scenes or races.
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+Sport mode does come with a price though, battery life is significantly less than normal mode.The downside to sport mode is that you can't use any of the automated flight controls or collision detection features. Sport mode is very clearly aimed at experienced pilots and if you happen to be one it's a lot of fun.
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+DJI claims the Phantom 4 is five times more stable than previous models and while I have not empirical way to test this, it sounds about right. When watching footage where the Phantom 4 was just hovering I frequently found myself thinking I had accidentally paused playback because the video shot did not change or shake at all. Even in moderate wind the Phantom 4 managed to hold its position with hardly a waver.
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+Much of that stability comes from the Phantom 4 expanded array of downward cameras and sonar sensors. The Phantom 4 has double the number of downward facing cameras compared to the Phantom 3. This comes in handy indoors, which is one place the Phantom 4 is nothing short of incredible. Flying a drone indoors is a nerve wracking experience, even with the relatively stable Phantom 3. The Phantom 4 however maintained its same stability even inside when I tested it over an unused ice hockey rink. It was actually enjoyable to fly inside, though the lack of prop guards made me reluctant to get it too close to the walls.
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+The Phantom 4 is DJI's best Phantom offering yet and while the automated flight features might not entirely live up to the hype, they do make possible things that would have previously been very difficult or even impossible. They also pave the way for even more automation in future releases.
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+Wired: Insanely fast sport mode is a ton of fun, camera improvements make for better video and automated flight features make it possible to do things previous models cannot.
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+Tired: The batteries have changed shape again, which means if you're upgrading you'll need buy new batteries again too. Collision detection could be better.
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+Rating: 8/10