All About SD Cards for DJI Mavic Mini and Mini 2 Drones

One really common question in the world of DJI drones comes from DJI Mavic Mini and Mini 2 drone owners who want to know about the best SD card for their drones. There are many options available in the market today, and DJI lists over 20 compatible SD cards. With so many options available, it can sometimes be quite tricky to pick the right one for your DJI drone. But before we can go further, let’s talk for a minute about why we need an SD card for the DJI Mavic Mini and Mini 2 drones. 

The DJI Mini 2 and the Mavic Mini don’t have any internal storage and don’t come with an SD memory card. Without an SD card in your DJI Mavic Mini or your DJI Mini 2, all footage and photos are stored in your phone in 720p, which is a lower resolution. So to avoid this loss of image quality, you need an SD card for your drone.

In this article, we will discuss all that relates to SD cards for your DJI Mavic Mini and Mini 2 drones and help you choose the best SD card for your device. 

What SD card does the DJI Mini 2 use? #

DJI Mini 2 is the latest and best-selling mini drone from DJI, which was released in late 2020 and has piqued the interest of enthusiasts everywhere. The DJI Mini 2 is the successor of the DJI Mavic Mini, and it is a beginner-friendly, powerful drone with impressive performance, stunning image quality, and creative video features.

Many owners of the DJI Mini 2 are on the lookout for the best SD card, and as most of them can attest, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information and terms as to what SD card the Mini 2 uses. If you are one such person and looking for memory cards for your DJI Mini 2, you are in the right place.

By now, you are probably wondering what the minimum requirements for an ideal SD card for your DJI Mini 2 are and what memory card will work best for your device. Well, we have just the answer for you.

The DJI Mini 2 drone has a single micro SD card slot that supports UHS-I SD cards of up to 256GB in size.

Choosing the best memory card for your drone is important. You will need a micro SD card capable of recording 4K at 30fps and which is as fast as possible. This will ensure that you avoid issues with your recordings, and it will also ensure that the frames aren’t being dropped due to using a cheap SD card which is slower than your footage recording speed.

The DJI Mini 2 supports micro SD cards with capabilities of up to 256GB. The DJI Mini 2 will work well with SD cards from notable brands such as SanDisk, Samsung, and Lexar.

Note that you will require at least UHS-1 U3 (Ultra-High-Speed Bus, Speed Class 3) which will guarantee the performance of at least 30MB/s, which is enough bandwidth to record and playback 4K videos without any interruption.

Perhaps you already know that the Mini 2 doesn’t have any internal storage, and it also doesn’t come with an SD card. You should definitely get a micro SD card for your DJI Mini 2 so that you won’t have to worry about running out of space while your drone is in the air. An SD card allows you to record your flights and take aerial photos, and it also works seamlessly with the DJI Go app.

Mini 2 does support flying without a memory card, but you will store all your recordings and pictures at a considerably lower resolution of 720p on your mobile phone or tablet. And trust me, you don’t want to be limited to 720p content. Don’t allow yourself to get stuck with just 720p videos. 

You should get the best micro SD card to make sure that you get the best possible videos and pictures from all the hours of flight from your drone. If you would like to get high-quality aerial videos and photos using your DJI Mini 2 drone, then you’ll need to get a compatible micro SD card.

What SD card does the Mavic Mini use? #

As you probably have already guessed by now, the DJI Mavic Mini has no internal storage, and neither does it come with a micro SD card. So, after getting your Mavic Mini, you’ll have to use an SD card to store any pictures or videos captured with the drone.

The Mavic Mini shoots 1080p videos at 60fps and 2.7K at up to 30fps. This, therefore, means that you will have to get an SD card that has sufficient memory and is also fast enough.

There are a few considerations for a good memory card for your DJI Mavic Mini, and they include:

• Reliability – This is the most important requirement for any SD card. No card will guarantee you 100% reliability because all cards will let you down at some point in time. However, some people who prefer cards like those we recommend later in this article rarely suffer data loss.
• Cost – SD cards can range from affordable to expensive, and it pays to research the best value that meets your needs. The Mavic Mini, unlike the Mini 2, doesn’t shoot 4K, so SD cards over 64 GB aren’t necessary. The 32/64GB cards offer a good balance of price vs storage capacity.
• Size – As we have already mentioned above, it’s not worth buying an SD card with large memory for your Mavic Mini. The reason behind this is that the drone doesn’t shoot 4K, and a large SD card will give you a list of footage that may be hard to back up regularly. If you don’t back up your footage and something happens to your drone such that you can’t recover it, you lose lots of data. 32GB or 64GB SD cards work best, and some people generally prefer multiple 32GB cards. Drone forums are littered with dozens of tales of people losing lots of footage which you may have avoided if they had used smaller capacity micro SD cards.
• Transfer speeds – DJI Mavic Mini drones require an SD card of UHS-I Speed Class 3 or more. This equates to a write speed of 30MB/S If you’d like to ensure faster read speeds for more efficient backup, then you may consider getting faster cards, but they aren’t that necessary.

So to answer the question, DJI Mavic Mini drones use an SD card of UHS-I Speed Class 3 or above, equating to a 30MB/S write speed. The SD card should also be 32GB or 64GB in size, depending on your budget and preference.

Where does the SD card go in a DJI Mini 2? #

The DJI Mini 2 is a great little drone designed to tempt first-time fliers and seasoned pilots alike. One of the most notable and most exciting features of the DJI Mini 2 is it is packed downsize. It is quite portable, and you can take it wherever you go. Achieving this portable design requires that some space be saved. The drone’s arms and propellers have to be folded against its body shell.

The effect of all this is that it may at times be extremely hard to locate some components and some ports and slots. One such slot that is hard to find is the micro SD card slot. Most new owners of this drone report having problems locating this slot, and this is quite understandable.

The DJI Mini 2 drone has a single SD card slot that supports UHS-I micro SD cards of up to 256GB. So if you have landed on a choice SD card for your drone, you are probably wondering where the SD card slot is so you can install it.

To answer the question, the micro SD card slot is located in the rear of your drone, under the battery bay door, alongside the USB port. There should be a little picture of an SD card imprinted on the drone, labeling the appropriate slot. In addition to notifying you where the slot is, the picture shows you in which way the card should go in, whether facing up or down.

Once you find the SD card slot, inserting the card shouldn’t be that hard. The card will push in with a slight click which tells you it’s securely in place. To remove the SD card after a flight, you have to push again until you hear a click and release.

What is the best micro SD card for the DJI Mavic Mini? #

SanDisk Extreme UHS-I micro SD Card (V30, U3, A2) #

The SanDisk Extreme UHS-I micro SD Card (V30, U3, A2) is one of the most popular micro SD cards today, and it is most people’s top recommended SD card for storing large amounts of data. It has a speed of up to 170MB/s, and it is therefore perfect for capturing full HD, 3D, and 4K video and great photographs. Also, the SanDisk Extreme UHS-I micro SD Card features a speed class rating of V30 and U3 standard, which is guaranteed to give you minimum write-up speeds of 30MB/s. You can get 90MB/s of write-up speeds from this SD card which makes it ideal for fast shooting.

It is available in multiple sizes of 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 400GB, 512GB, and 1TB sizes. This micro SD card is ideal for professionals who record fast-action activities.

This SD card is also built for and tested in harsh conditions. It is temperature proof, waterproof, shockproof, and X-ray proof. It is quite sturdy and holds up well. So in case your drone gets lost, and you retrieve it later on, you can still quite likely access the files stored in the SD card.

Truly, this SD card can be a game-changer for your DJI Mavic Mini, and it can transform the way you store photos and videos taken by your drone. What’s even better is that it isn’t that costly. You can get it on Amazon. So why not get it for your drone and try it out. You are sure to love it.

What is the best Micro SD card for the DJI Mini 2? #

Samsung Evo Select SD Card #

This SD card is the best choice for the DJI Mini 2 because it offers bang for your buck in terms of price, size, and reliability. It is ideal for recording 4K UHD videos. It is perfect for capturing high-resolution photos and videos using your DJI Mini 2 drone. It has fast read speeds of up to 100MB/s and writes speeds of up to 90MB/s, which works well to enhance its usability in the Mini 2 drone. It comes with a memory size of 256GB which is sufficient for recording using your drone.

This SD card is built for reliability as it is shockproof, waterproof, temperature proof, X-ray proof, and magnetic proof. So if by any chance you ever damage your DJI Mini 2 drone, you can nearly always retrieve any footage you had stored on the SD card.

The good news about this SD card is that it isn’t expensive on Amazon.

Conclusion #

To sum up, as we have undoubtedly mentioned multiple times in this article, the DJI Mini 2 and the DJI Mavic Mini don’t have internal memory, and they don’t come with SD cards. Flying them without an SD card will give you footage that is significantly lower quality which is not any pilot’s dream. 

So before you get out to shoot photos and videos with your DJI Mavic Mini or Mini 2, it would be best if you considered getting a good SD card for your drone and installing it to get the most out of your drone footage. The ones we have recommended in this article will work magnificently.