It looks like the time of the DJI Phantom is almost at its conclusion. DJI has officially ended support for the DJI Phantom 4 as of July 15th and the DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian Edition from July 1st.
DJI ended support for the Phantom 2 and Phantom 3 4K drones in September 30th, 2022. With support for the two Phantom 4 models being over, this leaves only the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2 (buy here) on DJI’s official lineup, although most retailers show it as being out of stock.
The Phantom had a good run, but its time is over
The DJI Phantom 4 was released in March 2016 and abruptly ended its run in January 2017. This was followed up by the Phantom 4 Advanced in April 2017. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian Edition in April 2018. DJI unofficially killed the Phantom drone market with its first Mavic drone release in September 2016.
At that time, the Phantom line still offered some significant advantages over the Mavic, but the folding design and portability of the Mavic made it an instant hit. Over the next few years, the Mavic line progressed quickly, and 2018’s DJI Mavic Air pretty much sealed the coffin for the Phantom.
The discontinuation statement is the standard generic text from DJI that covers all of its products.
Because electronic products are affected by technological developments and changes in usage requirements, each generation of products has a fixed life cycle. In order to continuously provide you with premium product and service experiences, DJI regularly optimizes resource allocations to promote the development and application of new products and technologies. We hereby inform you that we will stop providing support services for certain products and their accessories through periodic assessments.
There’s no date set yet on when DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2 support will end, but I don’t expect we’ll have to wait too long. If you want to see the complete list of end of support products and upcoming end of support products, see the DJI website.
The future looks bleak for the Phantom line
The capabilities of DJI’s latest Mavic 3 Pro (buy here) far exceed anything that any DJI Phantom drone could do. With its compact, foldable form factor, it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see the company release another drone in the Phantom lineup.
Currently, the only drone left in DJI’s Phantom product line is the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2. It’s still listed on the DJI website with a “Buy it now!” button, except you can’t buy it now. Clicking the button takes you to their store, where it’s still available to buy for $1,599 with the standard RC. Retailers such as B&H list it as “Temporarily out of stock” with a 4-6 week lead time.
I doubt we’ll ever see a Phantom 5, or even a Version 3 of the Phantom 4 Pro, for that matter. It looks like it’s Mavic all the way.
If you’re still flying a Phantom, it’s probably time to update your drone.
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