Parrot Anafi Review

When the Parrot Anafi was released, it was intended to be a contender at the highest level of the drone market, but in our opinion, it doesn't quite succeed. That was several years ago. Now the drones is dated and despite is oaky ranking, at the price you're better off going with one of the other drones in our review.

Performance Comparison

Video Quality

We would describe the video quality from the Anafi as decent, but certainly not great. The video generally looks okay but has some clear shortcomings when compared to the footage from some competing drones. Thanks to the 4K resolution, the video is fairly crisp, and the gimbal can keep that footage stable. However, it suffers from a few flaws. First, it tends to add a slightly warm hue to everything, making things look a bit redder than they do in reality. This actually improves the looks of some things but looks odd in most situations. Also, the camera often fails to pull out the fine details in an image. For instance, flying over a field in late fall ended up making the grass look a bit grainy rather than a majestic wave of grain.

You might have noticed that most of Parrot's advertising touts the capabilities of the 2.8 times lossless zoom on the Anafi. We'd like to make it clear that this is a digital zoom, and we were able to observe a slight drop in clarity. It can't nearly match the quality of the optical zoom available on competitive models. That being said, it doesn't look too bad and can let you get some creative shots.

Flight Performance

While the Anafi flies reasonably well, it again just can't match the fight capabilities of the DJI models. It offers a maximum flight time of just 25 minutes and the maximum speed of 33mph pales in comparison to other top-tier models.

The Anafi offers most of the autonomous flight modes you would want, things like cable cam, return to home, and a unique geofencing feature that can keep you from flying your drone too far away. We generally found that these flight modes worked well.

One flight mode that we found to be a bit lackluster was the follow-me mode (which you must annoyingly pay for as an in-app purchase). It did a relatively good job of following subjects and keeping them in the frame, but they often drifted towards the edges. It feels like an earlier version of the comparable DJI technology and isn't nearly as sensitive as the follow-me functions of the newer Mavic drones. Notably, the Anafi also lacks any obstacle avoidance sensors, a technology that is present to varying degrees on all of DJI's current drone lineup.

Portbaility

Both the Anafi itself and its controller fold down fairly small, and the drone weighs only 0.71 pounds. It also comes with a convenient, padded carrying case. That said, the body and legs feel a bit flimsy, to the point where we were a bit reluctant to toss this drone in a backpack where a water bottle could squish it. Secondly, the Anafi's controller is thicker than other models, and its joysticks aren't removable, resulting in a less streamlined profile.

Ease of Use

We found the Anafi to be incredibly easy to set up, easy to fly, and easy to fold up. However, we had a few qualms with its user interface. We were generally able to find the settings and options we were looking for without too much fuss, but it all felt a bit clunky, especially when compared to the more intuitive DJI models. We also feel that DJI's controllers are a bit more ergonomic. Particularly if you have small hands, you may find the Anafi's controller a bit uncomfortable to hold.

Value

The combination of performance and price for the Anafi leave us feeling that you can get a much better value by looking to the new models in our review.

Conclusion

Though this was one of the first compelling, non-DJI offerings to pop up in the drone market, we don't think the Parrot Anafi offers good enough performance or value to make it a top recommendation for any use.