Is it possible to get a decent quadcopter drone for under $100 with GPS and all the goodies that comes with the GPS? Short answer is YES! Read on for what is it and what it can do. You’ll be amazed!
Oh, and it has a built in HD camera (720p) as well.
We talk about the Hubsan X4 H502E with HD Camera and GPS Altitude Mode RC Quadcopter Drone which is usually on sale for only $79 (and free shipping). That is crazy cheap for a GPS flying machine.
If you think about why should you choose a GPS quadcopter drone over a “regular one”, read more about the differences here.
The X4 H502E from Hubsan performs incredibly well for it’s price. It does not came close to a DJI Phantom but for sure it tops low end GPS quadcopter drones that usually costs over $200!
You mus take it out when it’s not so windy but it can take a bit of a wind. It is also more than capable to lock it’s GPS position (altitude lock mode) better than quadcopter drones costing over 3 times it’s price. The 7.4V (2S) 610mAh Li-Po (included) battery gives enough juice for 10-12 minutes of flying time (while recording) which is again crazy considering it’s price point. And, the charging time it’s only 30 to 40 minutes.
The flying range is about 200 meters. It can also safely land to it’s original position (return home mode) and, if by chance it’s goes out of range (or the transmitter does not send signals anymore) the quadcopter drone comes back to safe land on it’s original position as well.
The 720p HD camera it’s not the best in the world, but it does it’s job quite well. It does not have FPV (First-Person View) for this price but hey, really. It’s about 80 bucks.
It’s bigger and little more expensive brother, the H502S have also a “Follow Me” function (you can set the quadcopter drone to automatically follow you around) but it looks like the H502E have the same firmware and unofficially it was tested that if you have the H502S transmitter you can easily activate the Follow Me function for H502E with only a push of a button. How about that?
The conclusion:
This little gadget is really stable and really fun to play with. It has features comparable with high end quadcopters and I really do not want to mention the price point again. To pilot this drone it’s really easy and you can really add some great footage to your home collection videos. The 200 meters range is more than enough for playing around for the 10-12 minutes the battery last at a full charge. Off course you can always have some spare batteries with you considering that you can order them for under $10.
It is definitely not for professional video shooting but many are really fascinated for what it can do.