We have been hearing about Xiaomi’s first drone for the past few months, but, until this month, the company didn’t confirm the existence of this new product. However, earlier in May, Lei Jun, Xiaomi’s CEO revealed that the new drone from the company was real and it would be announced by the end of this month. Just as promised, the company has now officially confirmed the release of the Xiaomi drone next week.

Xiaomi’s official Weibo account released a new poster on its page revealing that that the company’s first drone will debut on May 25 at 19:00. The teaser also gives us a first glimpse of what the new UAV will look like. It seems that the drone will come equipped with a ball shaped camera (could be rotating) at the bottom and four rotors on top. The image does make it look a bit large, but in reality the size could be smaller.

Unlike earlier rumors, recent reports have said that Xiaomi’s first drone is actually going to be an high-end one. The new drone is said to be able to capture 4K videos at 30 fps and come with other top-end features to rival products from companies like DJI. On the other hand, the cost is said to be kept competitive, around $600 which would less than half of what you would usually have to shell out for a powerful camera drone like DJI Phantom.

Since there’s still a few days for the launch, expect Xiaomi to reveal more interesting details about its drone. So, stay tuned!

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We have been hearing some rumors about the possible release of a Xiaomi drone at MWC 2016. Considering drones are becoming quite popular among users in the last few months, this could be true, however, Xiaomi has not yet confirmed or even hinted about such a release till now.

Today, we have come across a new leaked photo of the long rumored Xiaomi drone. The image shows a four rotor powered UAV in black color. Further, the source states that the drone should be around 350mm long, which makes it quite big. At present, it is said that Xiaomi holds a number of patents for the drone like its remote control, flight control, image transmission, camera etc.

Considering Xiaomi’s tradition of entering an industry with low-cost products, it’s likely that this rumored Xiaomi drone is priced aggressively. There are a lot of established and upcoming players in the Chinese UAV market like DJI, Yuneec and pricing could be one area where Xiaomi may have an edge.

At this moment, we don’t have any more information about the device. However, a leaked patent document had revealed that the Xiaomi drone could be controlled via its Mi Band wearable. It could come with features such as ‘follow me’ to take various pictures as well as videos even when the user is in motion. As for the release, rumors say it could be as early as MWC 2016.

If Xiaomi manages to release its first drone at an aggressive price, would you consider buying it? What price do you think is ideal for a drone with the above-said features?

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We have been hearing rumors about a new Xiaomi drone for the past few months. However, up till now, there haven’t been any concrete leak regarding this product. Now, new patent documents reveal a few details about the company’s drone in development. The patent was filed by the company back in August.

According to the recently published patent documents from the Chinese Intellectual Property Office, the Xiaomi drone in development could be controlled via a wearable. For example, in the images revealed by the office, it looks like the user is able to make gestures to control the various functions of the drone.

The Xiaomi drone could be connected to Xiaomi’s own Mi Band wearable. Once connected, the user can perform simple gestures like a flick of a wrist to control the UAV. For instance, in one of the images, we see that a user riding a bike is performing some gestures to send some command to the drone above. Our guess is that the gesture could be a signal for the drone to hover above the user on the bike and start shooting a video.

It looks like such gestures could really come in handy for adventure enthusiasts. Shooting from a drone opens up new angles and opportunity for such users.

Earlier rumors have said that the drone could be priced at around 999 Yuan ($154). If the Xiaomi drone does feature such gestures, would you be willing to shell out $154 for such a UAV?

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