The Matrice 5T is DJI's successor to the Matrice 4T. The biggest jumps are in the thermal camera, weather protection and flight time, but there's hardly a spec that hasn't moved.

The 5T's thermal sensor is 1280 × 1024 natively, four times the pixel count of the 4T's 640 × 512, so you get more detail at the same distance. That matters most in search work and on large sites. The wide camera gives full-colour night vision down to 0.01 lux, and the telephoto switches to black and white night vision when light is very low.

The laser rangefinder now reaches 3,000 m, up from 1,800 m. Spot a target, press L3 on the controller to mark it, and the location is shared straight away. You can also draw lines and polygons to measure things like the length and area of a fire front.

Both aircraft have ADS-B receivers to pick up crewed aircraft. The 5T adds a Remote ID receiver, so it can also see other drones broadcasting Remote ID nearby.

For obstacles, the 5T adds a 360° rotating LiDAR and mmWave radar facing forwards, up and down, on top of its vision sensors. DJI says the LiDAR picks up a 21.6 mm power line at 32 m, or a thinner 11 mm insulated wire at 19 m, and the forward radar can detect a 10 mm wire at 40 m.

The 5T recognises more than 20 types of object. In visible light that covers people and the colour of their clothing, vehicle and vessel types, animals, smoke and fire, where the 4T picks out people, vehicles and vessels. It can analyse visible and thermal feeds side by side, and the onboard computing is open to third-party AI models.

The battery has more than twice the energy at 215.2 Wh. The new 515 W hub charges three batteries in turn, and DJI says three batteries are enough for continuous flying in typical conditions. Standard mode charges to 100% and standby mode holds them at 95%. The battery also gets a two-stage latch.

One thing to plan for: at over 160 Wh, the 5T's batteries can't go on a passenger flight, and they ship as fully regulated dangerous goods. The 4T's 99.5 Wh batteries were under both limits.

The AS2 speaker replaces the AS1. It's 35 W instead of 15 W, reaches up to 120 dB at 1 m instead of 114 dB, broadcasts up to 400 m instead of 300 m, and has built-in strobe lights in red, blue, green, white and yellow.

The AL2 spotlight replaces the AL1. It's 60 W instead of 32 W, with separate flood and spot modes. At 100 m the flood covers 1,500 m² and the spot 500 m². It tilts from -90° to +90°, where the AL1 stopped at +35°, so you can light the underside of a bridge or structure from below.

The 5T can take off from and land on boats, moving or stationary. DJI recommends keeping the vessel below 10 knots and the wind below 5 m/s, with a clear 3 m × 3 m area on deck. It uses the same landing marker as the Matrice 400.

It can also build a quick map on the remote controller while you fly. DJI says 200 photos become a map in about 8 minutes, and it works with Flight Route, Area Route and 2.5D missions. Keep each reconstruction under 400 photos.

It can map. The wide camera is time-synced with the positioning data, so photo positions and orientations are accurate, and DJI Terra corrects for its electronic shutter. Mapping routes use 12 MP photos and there's no mechanical shutter, though, so if mapping is the main job, the Matrice 4E with its 20 MP 4/3-inch mechanical shutter camera is still the better choice.