Holy Stone HS720 GPS Drone with Camera for Adults 4K UHD, 52 Minutes Flight Time, Foldable Quadcopter with Brushless Motor, Auto Return Home, Follow Me, Long Control Range

The media could not be loaded. 1-6-2020 Update - after about 8 more hours of flying time with this drone I am giving back the one star I deducted for phone holder placement as it just isn't enough to detract from how solid a flyer this drone is.I purchased the HS720 drone during the pre-Christmas sales on Amazon as it looked like a great deal for a Mavic-esq style foldable GPS drone. It had all the basic features I expect in a GPS drone such as one button Return To Home (RTH), lost signal RTH, and low battery RTH. I have about 30 flights under this drone for about 12 hrs of total flight time day and night and I can tell you this thing does not miss a beat. Low wind, medium wind (8-10 mph gusts) and it holds position pretty rock steady. I am definitely impressed. One thing I can tell you is this drone is definitely the N00B friendliest drone I have ever flown, wish it was available when I first started.Breakdown of my thoughts on this drone:Packaging and ease of assembly - excellent packaging in the included case, and literally NO ASSEMBLY it's basically ready to fly out of the box with the following steps:1) Open the box - It comes with Drone, Case, Dual USB-C charger (note it charges one battery at a time), screw driver, spare propellers, USB-C cable.2) Charge the battery and insert 2 AA batteries into the controller3) Download the Ophelia GPS app4) Obtain your FAA recreational drone license (at this time it is $5.00 for a 3 year license) and mark your drone with your FAA number in permanent ink or by permanent sticker.Once the battery is done charging you are ready to launch!Flight and battery time - From experience READ THE MANUAL and always follow the pre-flight steps below BEFORE EVERY flight!1) Pair the drone and controller2) Perform compass calibration3) Perform gyro calibration (both sticks down and left at the same time, see troubleshooting in the manual)4) Get 10+ satellites locked in before launch (takes about 1 min)Launching is simple after following the above steps, hit the unlock button and either left stick up or use one button take off and your flying. I have had this drone up to the factory ceiling of 116m (380 ft) every flight with zero issues except for the FPV. This is believe is 100% due to the placement of the phone holder being above the antenna which in my estimation is the drones ONLY drawback as it seems to interfere with the FPV or the controller. Note that this is not a huge issue since as recreational flyers you fly Line Of Sight unless you have a spotter BUT this is the reason for the drop from 5 to 4 stars. Holy Stone you need to employ a similar setup as other controllers you have with the phone at the bottom.In the Ophelia app you can employ the orbit point of interest function, fly a preset path, or follow me. All work well for a drone at this price point. One button RTH puts the drone either right on my drone pad or with a foot or two of the edge. A word of caution: when the drone hits the first battery warning (slow red flashing of the rear lights) bring her into a location with no obstructions as when the drone hits the second low battery warning you have NO CONTROL and it will hit any obstacles there may be in the way of it's path home. This one is common sense so don't push it.As for flight time I have gotten 23-26 minutes every flight from the 1st to the 30th with no change in flight time, I would however get a second battery now that they are available, plus with the battery you get a nice bag to utilize with them.Camera - the camera works as expected for a drone at this price point, it has nice video/still resolution and full motion up and down.Bottom line this is a great beginner drone that would be hard to lose short of human error and works better than expected at the price!

I’d been wanting a drone for a while and finally decided to get it one. I didn’t really know what I was looking for but had a price limit in mind which is what lead me to this one. The first thing that impressed me is how easy it was to set up. It was up and flying in about 5 minutes. The second thing that impressed me is how fast it is. I didn’t expect it to be as fast as it is but it’s really easy to control. There’s for sure a learning curve, especially when it’s flying toward you, and I’m still practicing but pretty quickly I stopped worrying I’d crash it because the controls are so simple and responsive. The only issue I had was connecting the phone to it but after a quick chat with customer service it was taken care of and I haven’t had any problems since so in addition to the drone being great customer service is also awesome. Overall I’d say it’s a great starter drone. It has some cool features like Follow Me and is a lot of fun to fly. It’s big enough that you need to register it but that takes like 5 minutes and costs $5 so no big deal. You also need a Trust certificate which is free and took about 15 minutes and is actually kinda cool to have. I recommend getting an app to find if you are in controlled airspace and to get authorization to fly if you are, approval is instant. Odds are a cop or ranger isn’t gonna harass you but why find out there’s a bored one in your area the hard way. If you are looking for something affordable and easy and fun to fly this is the drone for you.

After a false start with the HS700 model (it did not work) I got this instead. I liked the packaging with included box but came to realize that it is not convenient because it is only large enough for the included accessories and nothing else. I've purchased an extra charger because the included one is so slow and I've also acquired three additional batteries for the same reason.Also, the shape and construction of the charger is awful. There is no way to lay the battery flat on a surface and attach it securely to the charger. The only option is to line the parts up delicately and place it in a location where it won't be disturbed because the slightest disturbance will disconnect the charger from the battery. I am 3D-printing cradles to solve this problem.As a beginner with no experience (with UAVs - I am a Part 61 pilot of "real" aircraft) - I cannot compare this to other drones. I can report that it is easy enough to learn to fly but there are plenty of gotchas that can creep up on the inexperienced operator and the included manual is spartan, only covering basic operation.My biggest concern and warning to users would be to check the propeller screws for tightness after about each hour of flight time. They work themselves loose, something I learned the hard way and was fortunate enough to discover during a takeoff when a propeller separated from the drone. Given my experience with airplanes, I should have thought of this myself, but I didn't. This should be in the instruction/maintenance manual. I would put Loctite on the screws but I plan to replace the blades regularly as they get worn from occasional mishaps.Beyond that, beware the return-to-home feature, how it works, how its parameters can be set and under what circumstances it is initiated and how/when it can be disabled. Think through the implications carefully. Failing that, never fly the drone when the battery indicator is below 3 bars, or if you do, only fly it near the ground within a very short distance with no tree canopy. Google around on this. 'Nuff said.The Ophelia Go app does not run on my main phone. It gives no clue why and there is no good reason for it. I suspect the SW has code to do a rooted check and they don't disclose this but I have not investigated further. This is annoying, but the positive side is I can leave my main phone connected to the Internet while the dedicated flight phone is using the drone as a WAP and is thus offline.I've tried the orbit mode and the snap to path mode and they seem to work but I haven't use them extensively enough to comment further.Also, I purchased a pair of Firehouse Arc 2 strobes to velcro to the front (white) and rear (red). This is extremely helpful in assuring I have visual confirmation of the craft's location and orientation at all times. Prior to installation, I would sometimes momentarily lose sight of the drone or become unsure of its orientation amongst visual background clutter. The strobes eliminate this problem. This also increases visibility for others, airborne and otherwise. I think all drones of this weight should have such strobes integrated. It's annoying to spend $60 for a pair of blinkin' lights but necessary in my opinion.Finally, I attached reflective tape - red on the left side and green on the right for additional safety. It is only slightly helpful at close range, but not really necessary.As to competition, I've found a seemingly comparable drone at a slightly lower price that actually includes a 3-gimbal mounted camera. Nevertheless, I'm happy with this purchase and the photos and video I've gotten are OK with the simple shock absorber/dampening system of this device. This is only a toy and a learning experience for me.And my cats are only slightly wary of the craft. A neighborhood dog lost its mind and I had to land it so he would calm down.UPDATE: The Ophelia Go app does run on my rooted main phone. I apparently missed a warning prompt about not having Internet connectivity in earlier attempts to use it. AOS warns the user about this after connecting to the drone WAP and the user must explicitly accept the condition before completing the connection. I think I missed this because the prompt times out.Also, I took off yesterday by using the throttle only with no pause to a fast ascent. The craft started drifting off position dramatically and my attempts to control it led to amplified oscillations leading to a crash. I suspect that sensor calibration - possibly compass - was somehow knocked off by my method of operation but I really don't know why it happened and it is very concerning. I await a spare part to replace a broken propeller arm.I also ordered a XIMI X8 SE 2020 because I'm hooked and I want to get some stable video. I tried image stabilization in post-processing but the results were unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, the HS720 has produced some interesting and useful videos for me.