The Mavic 4 Pro and the Air 3S are both serious camera drones, but they answer different questions. The Air 3S is the drone for someone who has outgrown a Mini and flies often; the Mavic 4 Pro is DJI's flagship folding drone, a working tool built for people who earn with it. The gap between them is real on the camera — and even more consequential on the paperwork.
On image quality the Mavic 4 Pro is a clear step up. Its 4/3 Hasselblad main sensor and telephoto give more dynamic range and more compositional reach than the Air 3S, whose 1-inch main sensor and telephoto are excellent but a tier below. If your footage pays for itself, that difference matters. If you shoot holiday clips and the occasional project, the Air 3S already delivers more than most owners use.
Both are heavy drones that resist wind well, hold a long flight and settle the "do I need to register?" question the moment you see the camera — operator registration at e.caa.gov.lv is mandatory for both. Neither is a first drone: both demand study and certification before the box is worth opening.
The decision most buyers underweight is the certification path. The Air 3S is C1: the A1/A3 certificate is enough, and you keep flying in subcategory A1, near people with sensible planning. The Mavic 4 Pro is C2 — with A1/A3 alone it may fly only in subcategory A3, far from people and buildings. To fly it 5–30 m from uninvolved people you need the additional A2 certificate, which in Latvia means a separate in-person exam on top of the online A1/A3 one. That is the honest cost of the flagship.
So the real question is not "which camera is better" — it obviously is the Mavic — but "how close to people do I fly, and am I ready to certify for it?" If you want flagship glass and will do the A2 exam, the Mavic 4 Pro is the more capable tool. If you want a capable drone with a shorter licence path, the Air 3S is built for exactly that. Either way, learn the airspace rules first — they apply to a C1 drone as strictly as to a C2 one.