DJI Matrice 4: The Mavic Enterprise gets a new name

DJI is here with its first new release of 2025, the Matrice 4. This drone will serve as the successor to the Mavic 3 Enterprise drone, now with a formal new name that fits the enterprise line of DJI offerings.

I think we all know that the Matrice series of drones is not for wedding photographers or travel vloggers. You’ll most likely find this drone in the back of police squad cars, fire departments, pipe or power line inspectors, and other locations where precision is key and mission success is above all else.

The Matrice 4 continues the new naming convention started with the Matrice 3D, using “Matrice” instead of “Mavic Enterprise.” This further clarifies that Mavic is the consumer product and Matrice is for enterprise users.

While the name is different, the body of the Matrice 4 is strikingly similar to the Mavic 3 body. The differences come with the RTK module on the top and the much larger payload on the front.

The Matrice 4 comes in two flavors, the 4E, designed for surveying and inspections, and the 4T, which is meant for public safety and energy use cases. Both models come with a 168mm telephoto camera, 70mm medium-telephoto camera, 24mm wide-angle camera (although there are some spec differences between the two), and a laser range finder.

The Matrice 4E’s wide camera features a micro 4/3 sensor with a mechanical shutter that can take a photo every 0.5 seconds in orthophoto and oblique photography modes. This is perfect for rapid mapping jobs and creating 3D models of buildings and other structures.

For the Matrice 4T, the “T” stands for thermal; by the way, its wide camera is a smaller 1/1.3 CMOS sensor. However, DJI adds a 280×1024 pixels thermal camera and NIR auxiliary light that can illuminate objects as far as 100 meters away.

Alongside the new drones, DJI is coming out with two new accessories: the AL1 SpotLight and AS1 Speaker, both useful for search and rescue or crowd control instances.

“With the Matrice 4 Series, DJI is ushering in a new era of intelligent aerial operations. In equipping our industry-leading enterprise drones with AI, search and rescue teams can save lives faster,” Christina Zhang, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at DJI, said in a statement. “Moreover, the intelligent features in the Matrice 4 Series will be raised to a new level, enabling enterprise drones to better address the escalating operational demands in different complex scenarios.” 

DJI also stressed the drones’ security and privacy, noting it has passed several third-party security audits and restating that US users no longer have the option to sync flight logs with DJI servers. DJI also offers Local Data Mode that severs any connection to the internet on the controller and Pilot 2 app.

As more litigation moves forward to block the government, and soon consumers, from using Chinese-made drones, the future of DJI in the US is bleak. As the ban is not retroactive, meaning any drones currently approved won’t be banned, we’ll have to see how many more drones DJI attempts to release before a ban is passed by Congress.