25% of 130 verified DJI Air 3Sowners don't recommend it, and 5 describe specific problems — based on real owner comments from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
For balance: 63% recommend it. This page collects the complaints so you know what you're signing up for — read the full owner report for both sides. How we score
“Just bought an Air 3s from Adorama 2 weeks ago now Flew for maybe 3-hours total flight time or let’s just say 2 battery charge cycles before I noticed all 3 batteries would stop charging for a second and then start again and then stop, repeat.”— Affectionate-Buy9412 on Reddit
“Upgraded from the Air 3 to the Air 3S and honestly, I find the main camera to be actually worse.”— curio77 on Reddit
“Been waiting a new firmware with new features for the Air 3s since release, had mine almost 6 months and nothing at all”— YYesZir on Reddit
“Yeah same for Air3s. It couldn't track surfers, specially when their movement is eratic.”— sotopic on Reddit
“Few days ago I bought this new amazing drone and went straight to park to test it, the images and videos looks so fake and sharpened by the program inside”— Embarrassed_Fee_1430 on Reddit
“LOL, well it seems not too effective right now, maybe firmware updates will improve it.”— fusillade762 on Reddit
“I'm really disappointed in the 24mm lens. There's a complete lack of quality control, which sadly was to be expected from such a cheap tiny fixed aperture lens.”— J_B84 on Reddit
“They constantly pull BS like this with the OA5 and Air 3S.”— cryptic_cream on Reddit
“Bitrate should never go down. If DJI's data pipeline could handle 150 Mbps in the last iteration, it should at least handle it now”— Goldman_OSI on Reddit
“It’s stupid to increase the sensor size, but then lower the bitrate. You’re essentially dropping the video quality down to Air 3 level…lol.”— Stayofexecution on Reddit
“they put a bigger sensor on the Air 3S (vs. the 3), but then decimated the bitrate so the video quality sucks. I mean.... WTF? Why upgrade the camera sensor and then chop the video quality to less than half?”— KenRation on Reddit
“Had the same issue on the first flight and had done all the pre flight checks before making it hover. Also never had such a scary issue with the minis I had been using before for over 4 years!!”— neo_95 on Reddit
Not complaints — practical notes from owners that didn't affect the score.
“For hiking/walking its not so much the weight, the Air3S is a much bigger form factor so takes up more baggage space. I fly with both several times a month.”— CoarseRainbow on Reddit
“I wouldn't worry about these issues specifically, as you can experience them on nearly every drone you buy.”— johnhd on Reddit
“I have the Air3S...and still use the Air2s half the Time”— Kodachrome30 on Reddit
“I’ve had one incident with my Air 3s that was scary! A bird swooped up and hit my drone, knocking it off balance for a few seconds, but fortunately for me the strike didn’t cause any fatal damage!”— Frankfly2 on Reddit
“these camera drones (vs FPV drones) are usually used higher altitude and you just won't see issues even at lower bitrates with this new chip”— canyonblue737 on Reddit