Holy Stone GPS Drone with 4K Camera

First of all, this is very easily the best drone on the market for $170. This review has been updated a few times. My first review was 3 stars because I didn’t fully understand the drone settings and options. Holy Stone’s incredible customer service compelled me to increase the rating to 5 stars. After that, I realized I had not changed the settings off of beginner mode, so after that change, the drone’s performance improved dramatically. Read below for details… Pros: - Camera - The camera resolution is adjustable and capable of really good images. Being able to adjust the camera angle up and down mid flight is really handy. - Recording Options - The ability to record straight to your phone or to an SD card is convenient. SD card is best because if you get out of range or have a spotty connection, the drone keeps recording. - Automated Functions - The automated functions like “automatic takeoff,” “waypoint,” “return home” and “circle” are really convenient. The fact that it remembers where it took off from and can return to that point with the press of a button is impressive. - Return Home Safeguard - The automatic return home if the battery gets low or it loses connection is a great safeguard so you don’t lose it. - Altitude/Distance - The maximum altitude and distance are really impressive at this price point—100M high and 500M away. - Case - The case this comes in is really nice. It looks good, holds the drone and all its accessories, and has a nice hard shell to protect it. - Durable - I may have crashed this drone a few times, and so far it has managed to get right back up and fly again no problem. I expected that a few of my crashes would break something, so I was pleasantly surprised. - Battery Life - comes with two batteries and two chargers which is convenient. The batteries last about 20 minutes each with heavy use, so it’s a pretty good amount of fly time. I’m considering investing in additional batteries. Cons: - No Image Stabilization - the camera is fixed to the drone body with no image stabilization, so video can be pretty shaky depending on the circumstances. It will be very difficult to accomplish those smooth aerial videos you see in films and advertisements. The less windy it is, the better in this case. Movements in general tend to be shaky when recording video, but with practice you can make it smoother. Unfortunately, adjusting the camera up and down is jerky and not a smooth action. - Automatic Follow Unstable - the “automatic follow” function is okay, but it’s not stable enough to use for a bike ride, snowboarding, or kayaking. The drone struggles to keep up and maintain position behind you, and if it lags too far behind, it stops and hovers until you come back to it. Could be a huge problem if you’re snowboarding down hill or kayaking down a river—you won’t be able to get back to its range. Additionally, if you’re moving quickly while it follows you and then you suddenly stop, it sometimes flys past you and then struggles to find you again. Things you need to know: - Beginner Mode - when I first got this, I could not fly higher than 30 meters, nor could I fly very far away, and I was super disappointed. After I did some tinkering in the settings, I found “beginner mode.” It didn’t look like beginner mode was on, but I turned it on and then back off again, and just like that, I was suddenly able to fly 100 meters up and about 500 meters away! This was a game changing discovery for me and justifies the 5 star rating. - App Dependent - you absolutely must use the app on your smart phone with this. You won’t be able to fly at all without the app. - Use an SD card. You can have the camera record directly to your phone, but an SD card will be much more reliable for video.