Spark is the new portable mini-drone anyone can afford

The world’s largest consumer drone maker, DJI, has introduced its new portable palm-sized unit named Spark on a big event in New York City this week.

This drone represents a powerful flying camera and is marketed as a story-telling device focused on photo and video taking. It sports a 1080P camera with 12 megapixels and can reach a speed of up to 31 miles per hour. The batteries last about 16 minutes each and are swappable on the fly.

With the option FaceAware, Spark can lift off just by recognizing your face. When the flight is over this smart gadget can return to and land on the palm of your hand.

The Spark drone is capable of taking amazing aerial photos using just hand gestures, without a remote controller or mobile device. The self-portrait function and gesture-based controls are additional characteristics that make this gadget perfect for mainstream consumption.

The onboard vision positioning system helps keep the system stable even indoors, while the two axis gimble helps stabilize videos while shooting.

It has built-in Intelligent Flight Modes and intuitive controls that allow you to make cinematic aerial videos with just a few taps.

The tiny 300-gram drone also has a 3D sensing camera and a GPS system, as well as a compatible app that can be used for more complex maneuvers. The DJI GO 4 app features automatic editing templates and an array of filters for editing videos and option for sharing them to social media channels.

The $499 Spark drone is available for preorder and starts shipping next month in 3 different colors.

This is DJI’s first low-budget mainstream drone.