China’s DJI announced its first 360-degree drone on Thursday, directly challenging domestic rival Insta360 in a nascent market segment that is now at the centre of an escalating patent war.

The new product, the DJI Avata 360, marks a significant expansion for the company beyond traditional aerial photography. The drone features a front-mounted omnidirectional camera capable of capturing high dynamic range (HDR) images at 8K resolution and 60 frames per second, according to official information.

The drone, with prices starting 4,388 yuan (US$626), featured four propellers, giving it a similar look to DJI’s Avata 2, a first-person view drone launched in 2024, according to official photos.

The launch comes just days after it was publicly revealed that DJI had filed a lawsuit against crosstown rival Insta360 with a court in Shenzhen, in southern Guangdong province, where both companies are based. The legal complaint involved six patents covering critical technologies including drone flight control, structural design and image processing.

In response, Insta360 founder and CEO Liu Jingkang said that, after an internal review of the patents in question, “the available evidence indicates that these are all ideas and innovations generated within Insta360”.