Antigravity A1 Review, the 8K 360 Drone That Is the Most Interesting Rival to DJI

The Antigravity A1 is the first drone in years that doesn’t look like a DJI copy. It films everything around it in 8K 360, you fly it with goggles and a pistol-grip controller, and you choose where the camera was pointing after you land. Antigravity, a company incubated by Insta360, unveiled it on December 4, 2025. The Standard bundle with drone, goggles and controller costs $1,599.

It’s also the obvious answer for anyone who wants a capable drone that isn’t made by DJI. Autel quit consumer drones in July 2025 and Skydio left back in 2023, so the field of serious alternatives got very small.

Video review: PetaPixel

Fly first, frame later

Two lenses on the top and bottom, each with a 1/1.28-inch sensor, stitch a full sphere. The A1 records 8K at 30fps, 5.2K at 60fps and 4K at 100fps, and shoots 55MP 360 stills. The drone itself disappears from the shot, so the footage looks like a camera floating on its own.

That changes how you fly. You don’t have to nail a framing in the air. Fly a clean line past a cliff or along a beach, then in the editing app you pick the direction, add pans and push in on whatever happened. For a solo traveler filming a hike, that’s a big deal. One flight can give you a wide establishing shot, a shot of yourself and a reveal.

In the goggles you see the full sphere and look around by turning your head, while a motion controller steers the drone where you point it. Reviewers found it intuitive within minutes, far easier than classic FPV.

Weight and flight time

At 249 grams with the standard battery, it squeezes under the 250g line. The High-Capacity battery takes it to 291 grams, so you lose the sub-250g benefits, but flight time goes from 24 to 39 minutes on paper, and testers got about 35. Rated range is 8 miles, or 14.3 miles with the bigger battery.

The trade-offs

360 footage gets reframed, so you’re always cropping a small window out of an 8K sphere. Final 16:9 shots look softer than a regular 4K drone like the DJI Air 3S, and noise creeps in late in the day. Engadget scored it 83 and named video quality as the main weakness. Look closely and you’ll find a stitching line along the horizon now and then. Stabilization is digital only.

Setup is fussier than a DJI drone, and the goggles have no top strap, which some reviewers found uncomfortable on long sessions. The $1,899 Explorer and $1,999 Infinity bundles add batteries and accessories, and the price adds up fast.

Who should buy it

Travelers, hikers and solo creators who want cinematic moves without planning every shot, and anyone tired of waiting to see what US drone rules do to DJI. Antigravity said in January 2026 that every A1 model stays compliant after the FCC’s Covered List update. If maximum image quality is the goal, a regular camera drone still wins. For something genuinely new, the A1 is the most fun drone in years.

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