Meet DJI Avata 360 — Above It All, See It All

DJI’s first 360-degree FPV drone has landed, and it could change aerial filmmaking forever.

There is a moment every drone pilot knows well — that split-second panic in the air when you realise the shot you wanted was just slightly to the left, or behind you, or directly overhead, and it is already gone. DJI’s answer to that problem has arrived in the form of the Avata 360, a drone that simply captures everything and lets you decide the shot later. Officially launched on 26 March 2026, the Avata 360 is DJI’s first drone to combine a native 360° camera system with full FPV flight capability. It is a bold move — and based on early reviews, it largely delivers.

What Makes It Different

The premise of the Avata 360 is elegantly simple. The drone can shoot 8K/60fps HDR 360° video and 120MP stills, meaning pilots no longer need to carefully frame every shot mid-flight. Instead, they can capture the entire environment and reframe in post — choosing angles, movements, and perspectives after the fact.

This “shoot first, frame later” approach is not new to ground-based 360 cameras, but bringing it into an FPV drone without sacrificing quality is what makes the Avata 360 stand out.

Like the Antigravity A1 — the only other 360° drone on the market — the Avata 360 uses a dual-lens setup to capture full spherical footage. But what if you don’t want that 360 style? DJI has added a twist: a Single Lens mode that switches the drone into classic Avata-style forward-facing 4K/60fps filming, something the A1 cannot do natively.

One drone. Two completely different workflows.

The Camera System

The Avata 360’s camera system uses two 1-inch-equivalent sensors — each with 2.4μm pixels — that together capture full spherical 8K/60fps HDR video and 120-megapixel stills. Those pixel dimensions matter more than the resolution headline. Larger pixels translate directly to better low-light performance — a real-world advantage for anyone shooting at dusk, dawn, or in shaded environments.

Early hands-on reviews also note the Avata 360 shoots 10-bit footage while the Antigravity A1 is limited to 8-bit — a gap that matters significantly for anyone doing serious colour grading work.

The front lens element is also replaceable without sending the drone in for service — a practical and welcome detail for creators who fly regularly in demanding conditions.

Intelligent Flight & Post-Production Tools

DJI has paired the hardware with a suite of software tools designed to make complex shots accessible. ActiveTrack 360° keeps subjects locked in frame even in busy environments, Spotlight Free replicates pro-level camera movement without manual control, and Intelligent Tracking works across people, vehicles, and more — even in 360 footage.

Post-production is handled through DJI Fly and DJI Studio, with features including a Virtual Gimbal that enables infinite rotation and tilt from a single shot. One-tap editing via GyroFrame lets you adjust 360° footage to an ideal angle and export directly from the DJI Fly app. Storage is 42GB internal, with Wi-Fi 6 high-speed transfer that can move 1GB of footage to the DJI Fly app in around 10 seconds.

The FPV Experience

The Avata 360 still behaves like a proper FPV drone. You fly it with goggles and motion controllers for that immersive, almost VR-like experience, where every tilt of your head and movement of your hand translates into motion in the air. For newcomers, that alone can feel transformative — less like piloting a device and more like being inside it.

At the same time, beginners are well catered for. The drone includes nightscape omnidirectional obstacle sensing and integrated propeller guards — both important for less experienced FPV pilots. The transmission system is DJI’s O4+, with a rated range of up to 20km and a 1080p/60fps live feed. Flight time is up to 23 minutes, with a max flight distance of 13.5km.

Pricing: DJI’s Most Aggressive Move Yet

This is where the Avata 360 story gets particularly interesting. The drone on its own costs approximately $549/£409 — perfect for those who already own a DJI controller. If you want the DJI RC-2 controller, it comes to around $859/£639, while both the RC-2 Fly More Combo and the Motion Combo — including the DJI Goggles N3 and the DJI RC Motion 3 controller — retail for approximately $1,199/£829 each.

The Avata 360 slots directly into DJI’s existing RC 2, Goggles N3, and Motion 3 ecosystem — anyone who already owns that hardware gets a shorter upgrade path and a lower effective cost. The Antigravity A1 doesn’t have that ecosystem depth. It’s a standalone product at a standalone price, which is a hard position to defend against a company that’s been building the surrounding hardware for years.

The competitive impact is stark. The Avata 360’s most expensive bundle undercuts the Antigravity A1’s standalone price. That pricing gap will not be sustainable for Insta360.

US Availability

The US launch followed a slightly different timeline to the rest of the world. While the Avata 360 launched globally on 26 March 2026, US buyers were pointed to 30 March at 8am EST as the go-live date through third-party retailers — a pattern increasingly common for DJI launches in the US because of regulatory scrutiny and import hurdles.

The Avata 360 is now available to buy in the United States at $719, coming in dramatically cheaper than its closest rival, the Antigravity A1. DJI notes the drone is not officially available through its own US website, but third-party retailers including Amazon and B&H Photo carry it.

A New Direction for Aerial Filmmaking

Until very recently, the idea of a true 360-degree drone was more concept than category. That changed with the arrival of the Antigravity A1. Now, with the Avata 360, DJI isn’t just entering that space — it’s accelerating it.

The Avata 360 stakes its claim as the best 360° drone you can buy. Its twin lenses let you capture every angle possible, footage is captured at 8K/60fps, and the 120MP stills are packed with detail.

It lowers the barrier for beginners while still giving professionals new tools to experiment with. And maybe most importantly, it suggests that 360 capture isn’t just a novelty — it’s a direction the industry might seriously move toward.

For aerial creators, the sky just got a lot bigger.