DJI is having a rough year. The drone manufacturer has a firm grip on the consumer drone market, and its brand recognition is off the charts. It’s also Chinese, which has painted a massive target on its back from a suspicious US Congress.
In December 2024, it received a one-year reprieve from a US government ban, and DJI has largely spent that year awaiting some kind of attention from the government as the one-year ban rapidly counts down without much happening.
Now added to this potentially existential threat is news that another heavyweight, this time in the field of action cams and webcams, has launched a brand targeting the same core market: consumer drones.
A History of Expansion
Insta360, in a July 28 press release, referred to Antigravity as a “new and independent drone brand incubated by Insta360 in collaboration with third parties.” Ok, incubated is an interesting way of putting things. They don’t say who these third parties are.
The drones’ cameras appear to be 360-degree cameras, as the release goes on to say, “Antigravity enables users to capture their surroundings from any angle, all without requiring advanced piloting skills.”
Insta360 launched the Link 2 in September 2024 as a follow-up to the original Insta360 Link, which featured the best-looking video I’ve ever seen in a webcam, and I’ve been reviewing them professionally for over five years. Logitech and Razer may be heavyweights in the computer peripherals space, but Insta360 moved in ruthlessly.
Then in April 2025, they succeeded the X4 8K-resolution, 360-degree action video camera with the X5, which should worry GoPro. Insta360 is almost as well-known in that arena as GoPro.
Now they’re going after DJI. Could they carve out a sizable niche in the consumer drone market? I think so. Whatever has worked in Insta360’s favor when entering the two previous industries seems to suggest that the brand is adept at sizing up the market and competition, and then making a splash with its introductory products, as it did with the One X (the X5’s great-grandfather) and the Link.
Antigravity says its brand’s first product will be available in August, which is just a few days away.
The post Insta360 Just Launched a Drone Brand to Take Down DJI appeared first on VICE.
