Drones have literally taken off in the last few years. But when it comes to buying one, there's a lot to consider. First off, you'll have to decide what your primary needs are for it. Are you just starting out and looking for a beginners' model? Do you just want a cheap model to play around with? Or do you want to use it to take aerial pictures and video? To help you decide which drone might be best for you, read our top eight picks below (and before you use it, be sure to read about the rules and regulations on the FAA website).
DJI’s Mavic Pro can be summed up in three words: portable and powerful. Capable of collapsing down to as small as a bottle of water, DJI Mavic Pro is a fantastic choice for quadcopter fans. A new OcuSync transmission system will offer up to 4.3 miles of range, 40 mph speed and a flight time around 27 minutes, thanks to a powerful battery. The lengthy range away from the base controller is aided by GPS and satellite to help maintain precise location control. Thanks to sensor redundancy, the inclusion of obstacle avoidance will help the Mavic Pro dodge anything that could knock it out of the sky.
Visually, the 3.27 x 7.8 x 3.27-inch Mavic Pro looks and feels different from DJI’s wildly popular existing quadcopter line and has more contour and angular shapes. It almost gives off the appeal of a stealth bomber, rather than the stark white Phantom line. Shorter legs give the Mavic Pro the appearance of landing on its belly, and the rear arms pivot downward to tuck in the underside while the front arms fold inward toward the top of the main body. Recreating the camera and three-axis gimbal system allows DJI’s designers to create such a backpack-friendly design.
Setup is a snap and, after connecting to the remote control, you can add a smartphone to act as a screen. The compact remote is as well designed as the Mavic Pro itself, with two joysticks controlling height, direction and motion. One scroll wheel on the back adjusts the camera gimbal and the other is open to programming. The camera records 4K video at 30fps or 1080p at 96fps, the latter of which can live stream to Facebook, YouTube, and Periscope at 30fps. Additionally, you can capture stills with the 12-megapixel camera.
Runner-Up, Best Overall: Best Camera: DJI Phantom 4
The Phantom 4 continues DJI’s dominance in the drone market and it's the best camera drone out there. And it comes complete with additional features and functionalities to justify its high price tag. At just over three pounds, most of the Phantom 4’s additional weight over the Phantom 3 Professional comes from the 5,350mAh battery. Both novice fliers and experts will find the Phantom 4 easy to navigate partially due to a safety system that detects obstacles ahead and stops the Phantom 4 in its tracks. It’s not foolproof, but it’s one of the many fine points that helps make this drone well worth the price of admission.
Capable of speeds of up to 45 mph, the Phantom 4 can fly four miles above sea level, but FAA regulations will cut that down to about 400 feet in an area with tight restrictions. Multiple flight modes including autonomous flying, sport mode, positioning and more allow for various capabilities, all of which are handled beautifully by the incredible controller. The 28-minute flight time and 75-minute recharge time puts the Phantom 4 among the best at this price range.
With a fixed f/2.8 aperture and 4K video capture, it’s the camera that truly stands out on this drone. Images can be captured in either JPG, RAW DNG or RAW + JPG at 12-megapixel resolution. The 4K video recording maxes out at 30fps and dropping video quality down to 1080p will add 48, 50, 60 and 120fps shooting. The gimbal does an excellent job of leveling out the camera as you’re flying around and helps avoid some of the shaking and twisting of the drone body from appearing or affecting video. If you’re grabbing 4K video, you’ll want to consider that you can fill up a 16GB memory card during the course of a single flight. Slight caveats aside, the Phantom 4 is one of the best drones available.
While we often look to higher price ranges for the very best in quadcopter and drone technology, there’s plenty of budget options we shouldn’t ignore. The wallet-friendly Syma X5SC offers HD video and pictures, headless mode, a sturdy frame, six to eight minutes of flight time and a 150-foot range of flight. Unfortunately, recharging the 500mAh battery takes two hours, but you have to understand that there will be trade-offs at this price point.
However, for a drone that’s just under .24 pounds, we’re not surprised that stability outdoors is a challenge. A slight burst of wind and it can take some time with the controls to bring the unit back to stability. One last disappointment is the camera, a 2mp camera leads to average photos and, while our expectations are tempered for the price, we’d love to see slightly higher quality photos. Fortunately, the X5SC is very durable and online reviews mention people crashing into doors, trees, walls, ceilings and more with nary a scratch on the unit. The good news is that, for the price, replacement parts are cheap should you ever find yourself in need of new blades or blade protectors.
Although flight time can be short, additional batteries can be purchased for under $20. Even with some shortfalls at the entry-level price, the Syma X5SC is an outstanding value and a ton of fun, earning an easy recommendation as your budget option.
If you've never flown a drone before, it’s best to start small, start inexpensive and start with something great. The Syma X5C hits all three of these requirements. Praised by general technology and drone-specific sites alike, the Syma is a great way to introduce yourself to the drone world. There’s nothing here that will knock your socks off and the SYMA is just a great introductory drone.
At just 2.1 pounds, the X5C is capable of a seven-minute flight time supported by a 100-minute recharge time. That’s all fairly standard in the price range of the X5C. However, unlike some its similarly-priced competition, the X5C is capable of being flown both indoors and outdoors, thanks to a wind-resistant build. A six-axis gyro stabilization helps ensure that the X5C has maximum stability during its flight time. Equipped with a 720p HD camera and 2GB memory card, the X5C can take photos and video while in flight but we’d temper any expectations about quality since it’s just average.
The advertised range of about 50 meters is a limit we wouldn’t recommend pushing until you are truly comfortable with the controls. The 2.4GHz spread spectrum technology is designed to help avoid interference and allow for increased distance, but we’d stick close to home until you move beyond the “new out of the box” phase. Thankfully, Syma packs four spare propellers and four spare blade guards with the X5C to help repair any damage from those almost guaranteed first-timer crashes. While the battery life might be short and its built-in camera less than stellar, its overall value makes the SYMA X5C an easy recommendation for beginners.
Best Flight Time: Yuneec TYPHOON H RTF Drone Bundle
Fly farther with this six rotor hexacopter from Yuneec, a compact and nimble drone that can fly for up to 25 minutes on a single battery charge. The Typhoon H is ready to fly out of the box and is a high-end favorite of professional drone enthusiasts and first-time fliers.
In your nearly 30 minutes of flight time you can capture stunning Ultra HD 4K footage with the three-axis anti-vibration CGO3+gimbal camera, which has a 360-degree range of motion and can capture 12 megapixel still images. The camera has a wide-angle lens and you can see the footage on a seven-inch Android touchscreen in a ST16 controller.
The drone has multiple advanced safety mechanisms to protect your investment, including ultrasonic collision prevention, retractable landing gear, and five rotor fail-safe insurance. Other innovative features include Orbit Me circular path, point-of-interest focus and curve cable cam.
Some good things come in small packages. Miniature drones don’t have the flash, battery life or camera quality like the rest on this list, but they are a ton of fun to fly. If you just don’t have the time, desire or cash to splurge on a more pricey model, the Hubsan H107C+ HD is the drone for you. With just seven minutes of flying time, you’ll want to maximize every second this miniature wonder is afloat (up to 150 feet), but that’s ok because it takes just 40 minutes to recharge and get back in the air.
The addition of a 720p camera means you’ll be able to capture the flight. But what truly grabbed our attention on the Hubsan were some of the additional features that aren’t usually included at this price point. Altitude hold, for example, allows for a smooth and stable flight without any additional operator movement. Partnered with the six axis gyro for increased stability, the Hubsan once again proves that it can punch well above its weight class.
Best for Intermediates: Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon
Assembled right out of the box, the Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon quadcopter is an excellent choice for drone fliers who’ve graduated from introductory drones. Featuring a three-axis anti-vibration CG03 gimbal camera and optimized fixed focus lens, the Q500 captures outstanding videos and images with minimal effort. The stabilized 4K camera can also capture 1080p 120fps (frames-per-second) slow motion video and 12-megapixel still shots courtesy of the Steadygrip camera that lets you enable your smartphone to act as an image viewfinder.
The design is sharp, sleek and modern looking and has a style that’s more like what you’d see in pricier drone models. The Q500 was created to be portable; the legs and camera come off easily without any need for additional tools. The remote control offers a similarly impressive unique design that’s half joystick, half Android-powered display. The ST10+ ground station joystick allows you to do more than just control the drone. It also enables control over the camera, so you can see what the camera is seeing in real-time. Available shutter buttons allow quick video and image capture. There are also levers to control the Q500’s flight speed and camera pitch.
Once unboxed, the first flight with the Q500 is already in what Yuneec calls “smart mode,” which lets you fly the drone manually. Once you're past your first flight, the Q500 also has Angle mode for getting the best image and video possible and a Home mode that recalls the Q500 to its original takeoff point with the single press of a button. You can expect about 15 minutes of flight time.
Best for Professionals: DJI Inspire 2.0
If money is no object and you’re looking for the absolute best drone for professional purposes, the DJI Inspire 2.0 quadcopter is the drone to beat. Ideally suited for news stations, filmmakers, aerial videographers or just a deep-pocketed quadcopter lover, this high-end unit is at the very cusp of today’s drone technology. Weighing 7.2 pounds, with a rotor span of around 1.2 feet between each motor, it’s definite that you’ll need to register the Inspire 2 with the FAA before taking flight outdoors. Once you get that squared away, you’ll enjoy 27 minutes with the dual-battery setup powering all the ancillary systems (cameras, stabilizers, sensors) while you safely cruise to a flight ceiling around 16,400 feet in the air.
The included Zenmuse X5S on-board camera is a small Micro Four Thirds model that supports different lens changes (a 15mm f/1.7 lens is included) up to 5.2K quality in CinemaDNG format while capturing 20-megapixel stills in both DNG and JPG formats. A 16GB microSD card is included, but to get maximum professional use out of this card, you’ll want to spring for cards with far more storage sold separately. Video capture is also done at up to 5.2K capture at 30fps and 4K capturing at 60fps when shooting in CinemaDNG mode.
Beyond the camera, the Inspire 2 can fly around 58 miles per hour under normal conditions, but if you get a good tailwind you’ll hit speeds well over 60mph. Fortunately, DJI includes an obstacle avoidance mode that limits the top speed of the Inspire 2 to a still-respectable 45mph. All that speed requires powerful hardware and, fortunately, the hardware both inside and out is exceptional. The carbon-fiber propeller arms are incredibly durable in the event of a crash and a new prop locking system ensures the rotors don’t come loose during flight.
Source: https://www.lifewire.com/best-drones-4055554
