You have missed the point- thee is no way the battery would be 1/3 or the price without the smart electronics. That would be like expecting epson to sell printer cartridges cheaper without the chip built in. You are not paying for what the electronics are worth you are laying what DJI can squeeze out if you.
As to your dumb lipo’s being good after years of neglect did you actually test one to see what the run time was compared to new? You wouldn’t be able to tell what the available capacity, state if charge, health, time to empty when in use was that’s for sure. I’m confident the smart batteries can llook after themselves a lot better than you might a bare LiPO pack. My lower tools go for years as do my DJI AC batteries.
How do you think people have been using RC vehicles before DJI made “smart for them” batteries?
Any 150$ charger for normal lipo batteries will do everything you just mentioned and a lot more at 1/4 of the price. I know you don’t wanna hear this but they are designed for a beginner that has no idea how lipos work in an attempt to make it foolproof. However it is not. They advertise as if the battery takes care of itself. It does not.
Your confident their batteries can do a better job that myself? So good that a 2 batteries that I used 18 flights and followed their directions exactly, discharged itself and is useless. Wow amazing technology. I don’t need to hear how I didn’t store them at the right temp and I didn’t check them twice a week blah blah. They sat in the case and were treated the exact way that every other lipo I ever have had was treated. They suck.
DJI replaced one of the batteries, a year after I bought the drone and it was no problem. With the second battery i received 3 different stories ranging from “yes that’s a problem send it in” to “no we only warranty it 6 months”. They have no idea wtf is going on.
The bottom line is that if you need to tell yourself that it’s totally worth paying triple because it’s super cool and has computers in it, no problem. I myself have made 50 or so lipo packs, from scratch, for my power tools, RC boats, planes and cars so I’m gonna rely on my past experience and decide that DJI is robbing everyone.
As the other guy pointed out, they could easily sell a pack that allows you to swap out the cells and keep the same computer but then they couldn’t screw you as hard on the price. Why do you think the sell lightbridge for the same price as a drone? If they did, everyone in the know would buy that for the $200 that it’s worth and make their own drone for half the money. They are business geniuses.
This year you will see them debut 3 new phantoms lol. Literally every 3 months