Holy Stone HS710 GPS Drone with Camera for Adults 4K, FPV Foldable 5G Quadcopter for Beginners with Optical Flow Positioning, Auto Return Home, Follow Me, Brushless Motor, 50 Mins Long Flight Time
Absolutely fantastic range of beginner drones and the response from customer support is fantastic, video quality is not bad still pictures are clean and clear very easy to use drone pp support and load of flying options from GPS mode for us novice with plenty of stability even in the wind
This is a brilliant Drone it has a lot of the features that you find on more expensive drones it is really user friendly and if it’s your first drone then I’d highly recommend it as it has a feature to turn on if you are new to flying drones which you can turn off again as you gain more experience. Great camera too good photos and vids and also takes a tf card for recording, whilst still streaming to your phone in flight.
This drone is so nice and smooth to fly the cameras quality is brilliant for a 200 drone deffo worth it and is amazing for beginners. Would deffo recommend this brand.
Great drone to fly and get the hang of, recommend flying in an open space to begin with until you get the hang of it. The case is well built, and feels safe and secure
Good value drone – works well and not difficult to fly.
Some good features like return to home etc, makes the flying more relaxing.
It copes in the wind, however video footage is shaky in windy conditions so not great if your planning to publish.
Great beginners drone and a solid in its build.
Comes with a convenient carry case, keeps it safe from knocks in transit.
The weather conditions will affect the drone, if it is windy and cloudy you may lose control of the drone for a short period of time or completely. When first learning to fly the drone find a clear area like a football pitch where there are no power lines or trees. All in all a very good drone with total control in the right condition’s.
Bought a Holy Stone 710, thought there was a problem with the FPV wifi and that is was a weak signal, turns out it was my phone, when I tried it on another phone it worked very well. Have to say for the money you can’t knock these drones. The company saw my original poor review and offered me a full refund.
Great drone, great company, very happy.
Amazing little drone, the features for the price are brilliant. GPS, follow me, orbit, POI feature, etc. It’s a great drone and as long as you have more than 10 satellites it will hover rock steady. Tested this at 40m height in a 15mph wind. The camera quality is ok. With no camera stability the video footage is always a bit jerky, but for the price it’s a great little drone. Easy to master and fly due to optical hover sensor and GPS. Great for days out, mountain walks and following the wife and son on the kayaks and paddle boards. Amazing
Brilliant!!!! my 1st gps drone and I was not disappointed I think once I have mastered this one I will get one with a gimble. My only hang up is I ordered an extra battery but it didn’t arrive 🙁 But drone it great 🙂
Product does how described. Lots of functions for a reasonably priced drone.
You will need operator id 10 and flyer id which is a free online test with the civil aviation authority before flying the drone. I bought extra battery as flying time is about 20 mins
I’ve been considering a drone for a while, but couldn’t justify, or afford more expensive drones but found Holy Stone who have a wide range of drones at budget friendly prices
Easy to set up & my drone paired & connected to the app/phone first time
First flight was successful, I calibrated the gyro & compass & was impressed how responsive it was, held its position & tested out the RTH function, which worked perfectly & gave confidence to a novice drone flye
So I work in a customer facing role and deal with customers day in and day out. The true value of a person or brand is how they react when something goes wrong. I was unfortunate enough to call upon Holy Stone for an issue with a battery, Billy was my contact and asked me relevant questions, my replies went back to him, making me feel valued that I wasn’t passed between loads of different people. He dealt with my query efficiently and without fuss and taken care of everything, sent out a replacement battery and it arrived faster than expected. I almost feel embarrassed now because even I don’t deliver that kind of level of customer service! thank you Holy Stone and thank you Billy for your cooperation.
Brand new to owning/flying a drone HS710 came as described, drone, 2 batteries, controller and case. First flight took a while to get set up but all came good. Drone worked well and as expected! I did hit one issue where the app would fall back to its Home Screen when I tried to take video/photos. I contacted Holystone support and they responded quickly. Problem turned out to be that the app hadn’t been granted permission to storage on the phone (Android). All sorted, great communication from support, thanks Carol! From my personal experience I’d recommend this drone package.
I had a small issue with my drone, I was unhappy with that, but Valentina from costumer service did everything to fix it.
Go buy with them and just relax, everything will be ok.
This will be my drone store from now on.
I did have an issue with the drone but the speed and professionalism of HS was exemplary. The customer service rep Frank was excellent in his dealing with my issue. I would certainly deal with this company again and recommend their products from my experience. Excellent service thank you HS
After resisting buying a drone for a long time I decided I’d like to give one a go and learn to fly. My budget couldn’t stretch to a DJI but I did some research and found loads of review videos on YouTube that helped me choose the Holy Stone HS710. I was a little skeptical of the quality of the brand but seeing reviews from professional flyers reassured me. I received the drone from Amazon really quickly and delivery was perfect as always. The drone is really well packaged and the carry case is excellent. The quality of all the parts is perfect. The package includes the drone, 1 battery, case, usb charging cable, mini screw driver and spare propellors and screws. The instruction manual is well written and easy to understand. I’ve only had the chance to fly the drone briefly and need to take my time to learn so I don’t crash it. I’ve found the drone easy to operate and the GPS keeps it at a nice hover, the drone can sit in the sky on it’s own which is forgiving. I did experience the ‘toilet bowl’ effect on my first flight, this seems to happen when the drone isn’t calibrated properly and it circles in the air out of control (luckily at a stable altitude in my case and I was able to manually get it under control and land). I now learned to look for any minor sign of this happening at a low hover when I first take off, if you see any instability you need to land, recalibrate and then test again before getting up to any height. All part of the learning process and I don’t think it’s any fault with the drone. This version of Holy Stones drone does not have a gimble or video stabilisation but the camera and images are decent. The Ophelia Go app works really well to capture these. I’m going to try using 3rd party stabilisation software if I take any videos that I want stable. I’m happy with pics and videos overall and knew it would be like this for the price it’s still very good. The drone flies amazing! It is forgiving to a point but anyone new to flying drones like me still needs to learn the basics of flying to avoid crashes. The drone is really fast too so the hi and low speed settings will help when learning. One of the best features is the remote control which has lots of information on the screen. I’m also really impressed by the battery lasting 20+ minutes. Holy Stone appears to be a good brand for these drones at affordable prices and I would recommend the HS710.
Seller was great, with amazing communication. The product itself is amazing, Bought it for my stepdad and he cant stop using it! Highly recommend this product.
Great drone for beginners, easy to operate. Instructions very clear and loads of reviews & videos on internet for it so overall very pleased. Great value for money.
Bought as a Christmas present for 15yo beginner. Very impressed with how easy it was to fly, even in blustery conditions.
The electronics adjust for the wind and keep it stable – much better than cheaper helicopters and quadcopters I’ve seen (which have inevitably lasted a few days at best). Battery life is good. Even in winds gusting to 20Mph we got 20 min from one battery.
Unfortunately, the wifi connection wasn’t working so was unable to see how good the camera is and have had to return this one. I hope that was just bad luck and not an indication of frail electronics. Hence 4* review.
I use the drone for general photography and videoing. The small size and ease of carrying is a definite plus.
Although I had a problem with my drone the customer service was prompt, very friendly and understanding.
It was accepted from the start that there was a problem but it was resolved in about 3 days. I now am flying again and taking super pictures. A product like this with excellent back up must be worth buying!
Easy to set up and use. The quality of the camera is excellent. Overall very good value.
Really happy with my purchase. I wanted a relatively inexpensive drone to develop my skills and so far I am very happy. I haven’t been able to fly the drone a lot yet but when I have I have found it easy to control and a pleasure to fly. The remote is well built and the drone feels very sturdy. I also like the sturdy carry case to protect the drone and remote. Battery life appears to be more or less as expected. I found some of the manual a little confusing but managed to familiarise myself with the controls and functions fairly quickly
Super cheap drone and has a relatively good camera and flight time considering.
But you also get what you pay for. The software is nowhere near the quality of DJI and I felt like I had a lot less control. It wouldn’t stay still in the slightest breeze and I honestly wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner.
It also doesn’t have a gimbal so the video camera moves a lot with any drone movement and you won’t get stable looking footage.
If you’re on a budget absolutely it is an okay drone. Be warned that you may find it hard to get any quality footage though.
I would personally advise getting the DJI mini 2 for a few hundred extra if you can afford it.
The Drone was a surprise present and although I was not familiar with this manufacturer I am pleasantly surprised at the performance and features available. Initially there were problems with the phone app linking to the Drone but Holy Stone customer support were very help full and when it became obvious there was a problem with the Drone they replaced it without issue.
This was a present for my birthday as I wanted to try a step up in level of drone as a hobby . It’s brilliant , set up is really easy and controlling the device is really smooth and quick to become confident with, flight time off the batteries is just as advertised so you get a decent amount of time in to really practice too!
Special mention for the customer services at Holystone , I had a problem with one of my batteries not charging up at all after only a couple of charges and emailed them to see if I could clear the issue. the speed, politeness and professionalism of the service was spot on and within 24 hours of my query they had replied and I now have a replacement battery on the way .. thank you !
Had issue with batteries charging. Supplier sent out two new batteries very promptly.
Working perfectly now.
Thank you very much Brenda for your excellent customer service!
Well thought out model – everything needed for a lot of flying fun. Good advice given in the user guide which really needs to be read before use… I liked the idea of the protective carrying case!
Holy Stone 710 drone
As a member of a classic car club, I contribute photographs and articles for the club magazine. I thought therefore it would be different, when we have a large gathering of cars, to have an ariel photograph.
So, a drone seemed an ideal solution. However, the cost of a drone, one which takes photos and videos, particularly, one with features like, auto return to the launch area, etc. appeared extremely pricey. Well beyond the funds available for such a venture. After much research, I found that drones were available, for under, 200, a few of which, appeared to fulfil my needs. So, I started to re-search the market. There were several within budget but, which one would be best? Youtube and a few other sites, generally concurred that one good practical, user friendly candidate, is the Holystone 710,
I am mid-seventies, so always wary of “easy to set up” and “user friendly apps^ etc.
When it arrived, and unboxed, I was surprised how small it was. Also, how well packed, into a purpose made reinforced case, with a handle. I downloaded the free App from apple, read the instruction book, and probably understood about 25% of that, initially. Learn the basics before you press go!!!
GPS, short for global positioning system, relies on connection with satellites so, if you are using GPS to fly your drone, remember that the drone needs to have contact with several satellites. To do that, it in effect requires line of sight. So, in a narrow valley, tall trees or, surrounded by say tall buildings, ask yourself when flying, is it able to “see” the satellites? Check the number connected in the screen on the control unit. Don’t make your first flight in a small garden with trees, the. drone is very light, and susceptible to even light winds. Find an open space as far away as possible from any object you could fly into, until you are familiar with the controls and, the effects of wind, even breezes. The first thing to do is learn how-to pick-up satellites for the GPS system. Don’t fly until experienced if less than 7 satellites picked up. This shows on the control unit. Less than 7 means the back to home function may not work. Also initially, ensure you set to slow speed on the control unit at first.
Initially, as an amateur, I found it takes a little time to sort out what all the buttons and levers do and got a bit muddled. So, practice in a safe area is essential. (Look at drone for beginners, on U tube)
The RTH (return to home) function is brilliant and, I would not attempt as a novice, to buy or fly one without this facility. If you mess up, and the drone moves at quite some speed, so you need to get it far enough away from you, so as, to be able see it easily. Hovering immediately overhead and moving about, is a real no no. Press the return to home button, if it has satellite connection, that will bring the drone back to pretty much where it was launched from.
Taking account of the price, the build quality, the features are exceptional. It is extremely easy to use but be aware of windy conditions. The Holystone help centre most helpful, and considerate. They were very obliging and understanding with an issue I had, and, resolved it very quickly and favourably.
So, in my opinion, a worthy contender for affordable and functional user friendly drone.
Great drone ,4k I would say not and a little wobbly with camera but the drone itself is awesome and customer care with Holystone is very good at sorting any problems
Perfect for beginners, very easy to control and more then expected for for price, camera quality is great, I would certainly recommend this drone, and there custom service is fantastic..
Very clear instructions which made the whole process smother. I first opened it and connected to my phone
And put batteries on controller (came without batteries)
Had to try indoors because I was told I had to register it first if I were to use it outdoors .
It makes a buzzing sound but I guess it is how it is supposed to be. Flies well even though I can’t control it well just yet and the image quality is also good.
Great value for money specially for beginners with high chance of crashing it in the first try/
Easy enough little drone for a first time user. Blades can be fragile, but spares are provided. Battery ok but but doesn’t last as long as described. Quality not the Best but I’m comparing it to iPhone 11 quality. Fun to use and can go quite far. Came very well packaged with its own case etc and is a good little size. Overall I would recommend if it’s your first drone
I had a drone previously but couldn’t get on with flying it. This one is different. It’s got a rechargeable battery though you will need a couple of regular batteries for the controller. It’s easy to set up and importantly easy to use. I struggled a bit at first but it was quick to get under control. Battery life is good and overall it’s been good fun.
I’ve been flying one of the cheap aircraft and decided to upgrade. Looking at a lot of reviews, Holy Stone seemed to come out top in the price range I was looking at. I purchased the HS710 and was very impressed by the level and quality of the equipment when I unpackaged it. A read through the manual passed the time while the batteries were charging. Everything was well laid out and clear, and I was up and flying in no time. The camera is excellent and stability seems OK, but I’ve yet to try it when the wind has dropped a little (I can’t find any indication in the manual of wind resistance?. Overall a really good aircraft at a very competitive price.
IMPORTANT: to fly this drone in the UK you will need an Operator ID issued by The CAA (Civil Aviation Authority). To get your Operator ID you will need to pass a theory test.
Holy Stone HS710 is a foldable, brushless GPS drone with a 4K camera. To fly the drone you need to download the app onto your smartphone and sit it onto the drones remote. The app explains how to calibrate your drone before flying.
Upon take off and hovering, the drone was dancing (moving side to side) due to a slight wind – despite the wind it held its hover steady. The video of the drone was wobbly as it swayed in the wind. To improve the video output I tried switching between 2.5k and 4k resolutions but this made no difference. The photo output was much better than the video without any blurring. Flying the drone is very easy and it responds instantly to all controller movements.
As a beginner drone this is fantastic and a great entry point into the drone market. If you want professional video output I would look elsewhere as the lack of video stabilisation and the low 4k resolution degrade the video output.
I was very happy with this drone but after a week or so it developed a strange quirk, it would suddenly decide to ignore the commands given it, my last flight it wouldn’t change direction and flew into a tree, snapping one of the rotor arms off. I was unable to source any rotor protectors prior to this event, so it’s going in the bin. It’s a shame. The customer service was excellent, mine took a very long time to connect to sattelites and I didn’t realise this consequently I had to wait some while before it would lift off, the advice given was first class. Sadly I cannot recommend this drone.
As a first time drone buyer, this product was ideal. I read the manual whilst the batteries were charging, and was up and flying straight away, simple to pair up wi phone app, camera is great, and I’m sure I will have loads of fun with this.
This is my third drone ever, and it goes beyond every expectation. The ones I had so far could fly like 50-100m from my phone which was annoying, but this one can do 600m with amazing quality picture.
It is easy to navigate the drone, but of course you need in some practicing. After a couple days you will be like a pro. Very important feature that there is a “return to home” feature.
Great little drone, easy to fly and takes great footage. It’s very powerful despite the size, I almost took off with it when I turned it on in my hand!
Excellent aftercare, I had a problem with a drone I bought. Valentina was excellent and did not rest until I was completely happy. I would recommend holystone and their products highly.
Holy Stone HS710 Drone: (note slightly lengthy review but please read through to see if this is the drone for you. while ill try to keep everything as brief as possible.)
>micro SD card slot up to 32gb class 10 (recommend)
>foldable 5g , WIFI, FPV , GPS
>4k camera
>optic flow sensor
>brushless motor with dual bladed props a centre hub with status lights and landing pad on the bottom of the arms
>on the bottom of the drone is a optic flow sensor horizontal positioning camera
battery 7.7v 1820 milli amp up to 25min flight time (x2 batteries with this) push button to turn the battery on /off can also check to remaining power status.
control your usual 2.4 GHz remote controller, dual antennas, no antenna wire running up them from what i can see.
the hand grip flip out for under the controller. they feel good in the hand good grip the left and right sticks felt very smooth they moved around freely without the need to apply to much pressure
a pull out phone holder which is spring loaded, which has two position the second position tilts up towards you which was useful in removing some glare, its also a little easy to see the screen as well
Controls:
left shoulder holds the rotary dial which from what i can see has no function. and the camera button (short press for a photo long press for a video)
Right shoulder holds a rotary dial this is to remotely tilt the angle of the camera
and speeds for the drone itself which has two settings (speeds 1, 2)
on the front of the controller you have a nice sized LCD panel, 1 key to take off and land, lock and unlock button (which turn the motors on to take off), power switch for the controller, return to home button, and on the right side holds the GPS button
calibration before use:
both sticks to the bottom and right is to calibrate the compass
rotate the drone horizontally (LED status turn green)
rotate the drone vertically (LED status turn yellow)
place back on a pad then calibrate gyros (LED should be solid)
both sticks to the bottom and left is to calibrate the gyros
wait for the GPS before taking off is my recommendation.
( other connection method is you can use Wi-Fi to connect to the holy stone FPV Wi-Fi network then start app )
2x AA batteries will be need to power the controller itself there a battery housing on the back of the controller.
(note when using the first set of batteries and you swap them out for the second set you must give the drone time to cool down before using again as this could effect the life of the drone this will give the motors time to cool down)
performance:
camera has a nice field of view, (lacks a gimble and stabilization) so may see shakiness in the video.
90 degrees tilt function.
picture quality has some nice depth, the pictures thou they do look abit light in contrast however, performed rather well from my test.
videos are rather nice the camera is a little shaky however not to too bad its still perfectly watchable no distortions. (i would use the speed 1 on the setting for a more smoother video) again in this field it still did a good job.
in take off using the one key button on the controller ,this is a very simple process and the drone hoovers very smoothly while also stable holding position nicely.
the stability was alot better at holding position with GPS enabled (due to the flow sensor)
very responsive with very little input given on the throttle. the drone is very smooth at moving, speed 1 for better and smoother videos. better pitch at speed 2 but the video quality will be slight worse that speed 1 in not being as smooth.
in app feature:
headless mode it doesn’t matter which way the drone is facing if you push up it will go forward and down to go backwards again very responsive on the controller and the input from the drone was quick no matter how far away it was.
follow me:
this will follow the GPS of the phone, i found this feature to work rather well, its a little bumpy at first however once moving it kinda stabilizes out even though there isn’t a stabilization. it followed well for me and kept the subject in point.
use the one key to land. once landed the motor do shut off which i like alot some don’t do this.
when you land or take off for that matter the drone will take this as its new home point. so it should land their or their about if you use the return home feature
Orbits feature:
which will circle you in this mode you can still change the speed in mode while this is circling you. (point of interest was a little bit off when i was using this mode)
App Settings:
in the settings if you are a beginner you can select the beginner function and it will change the parameters so it wont go as high or far away from you. and if your happy with your process can then turn this feature off.
so orbit, max distance, max altitude , and return home attitude. are the parameters that can be changed to suit your needs.
return home feature:
using the return home key the drone returned home, landing did take a few minutes, and it did miss the landing pad i laid out however, by a few centimeters nothing major i was happy with its ability in this mode. (note you may need to take control of the drone when using the return home feature if you have obstacles in your way)
this drone does have a fail safe s if the control dies or you accidentally switch it off the drone should fail safe to the return point.
this took a few mins as this does gradually in steps it seems however, it did land where it should have this time on point so may have been a GPS that dropped slightly when using the return home the first time.
overall an impressive piece of kit for anyone to use, its a good quality drone the let down for me is the image stabilization however for the price point i can except this. i was testing out a few drone from other brand around this price and above and i can say i was impressed Holy Stone have done a rather good job with this drone. the carry case is good it protects the drone when its not in use and the case is like a hard shell.
all test done on 1 battery which lasted around the 20min mark,
(note in windy condition it was OK could have been a little better and the battery lasted around the 17min mark with stability being OK)
a great drone for beginners to the more advanced users
I have never had a drone before, and this was much easier to set up and fly than i thought. Much smaller than it looks, it comes very compact in a hard carry case. Everything you need to go is included in the box, excpet the AA batteries and the MicroSD card.
It is easy to fly, although it did take me about a week to master it without being terrified i was going to crash it into a tree. I live in the countryside so i was able to practice on my friends farm. What i like most of all is that you get to see the earth as you wouldnt normally and to be honest it looks pretty spectacular from the air, it really makes you appreciate where you live.
I really like the return to home feature which is essentially an auto pilot where the drone will come back to the exact place it took off. Very handy feature. You get on average 50 minutes flying time with this, but if you are recording 4k video this drains the battery life, however the drone will not crash to the ground as its set to automatically return when it notices its running low on juice.
For the money you get an awful lot. Whilst quite expensive at 240, this is superb value for money when you think what you get. It takes fantastic video and still images
I’m new to drones — so there are a few things I probably can’t say with much confidence — however I will provide my views based on having no prior drone knowledge.
Firstly — I think the most important thing to point out is — make sure you’re aware of the local laws in relation to flying the drone — as you don’t want to get yourself into trouble.
This drone comes neatly packaged with a carry case, spare rotary blades — for when you inevitably break the original ones, a USB charging cable, 2 batteries, drone unit itself and controller.
The carry case is very handy and makes for very easy transportation and can be easily packed into travel luggage or suitcase.
The drone is very lightweight and the whole thing packaged up is again very light — anyone would have no issues carrying it.
The setup instructions are simple enough — within about 5 minutes — I had the app downloaded and everything synced up and ready to go.
The drone is supported via an APP download for which you then place your mobile phone into the holders on the drone controller.
There are a few nice features with this that I have yet to try as I’ve not been able to find time or space to do so.
The drone uses GPS to return to home — essentially if you get too far out and cannot control it yourself anymore — click return home button — and the drone will come back to where it started. Nice little feature I think, especially if your control of the drone isn’t up to scratch.
It also has a follow me feature — so it’ll essentially lock on to you and as you walk it’ll maintain a steady distance behind you and “follow you”. Again a nice little feature for this drone and at this price point.
I’ve tested this out at low altitude within my garden — keeping within the confines of my garden and obeying various drone laws. It flies steady even in wind — which it was quite blustery when I tested it out and it maintained its height and heading with no issues — albeit a little wobbly.
The camera quality is acceptable — nothing to shout home about — however perfectly acceptable and will get you some decent overhead shots that you’ll be very pleased with.
This small drone unit comes with that many features and what it comes packaged with – 2 batteries which means you can use it for longer, app features, GPS, photo, video, carry case – for the price you can’t really argue with it.
Excellent little drone to get yourself into the world of drones in my opinion.
Confession time – I’ve never flown a drone, and my only experience with remote control devices is changing channels on my TV. I’ve always been afraid that my attempts to fly anything would be as successful as Charlie Brown’s kite-flying failures. However…
This Holy Stone drone seems to have anticipated my lack of practice. The instruction manual is densely packed with information, and there seemed to be a lot of detail to read before I got the drone launched. Thankfully, the supplied batteries took a couple of hours to charge, so I had plenty of time to read.
Would I have liked a Dummy’s Guide to getting the drone up quickly? Yes. Would I have crashed or lost the drone? Probably.
As it was, I was able to use the one-press button take-off to get the wildly buzzing little quad-copter in the air, and the equally simple option to land it. I even managed to have it fly over my house and the adjoining fields without any catastrophes. I haven’t tried the follow me option yet, but I think it’s good to have further capabilities to explore.
Overall, the drone is a joy to use. Pairing with my iPhone was quick and painless, and recording video and stills quite intuitive. This is a great introduction for novices like me, and it has enough flight time and HD recording ability for more experienced flyers. Recommended.
An important point to note right at the start is that to fly this anywhere outside in the UK (even on your own land) you need a Civil Aviation Authority-issued “Flyer ID”. This is free to obtain, but involves passing a 40-question theory test (you currently need to score 30/40 to pass). It would be well worth doing this even if it wasn’t a legal requirement because the information and test are quite informative and instruct you on a large number of topics such as how close you may fly this to other people, residential areas, airports, etc., including maximum heights, over-flying other people, keeping a good distance from animals/wildlife, and so forth. Your Flyer ID is currently good for five years, at which point you need to renew it. Other people can fly your drone, including supervised children, as long as they also have passed the theory test and have their own Flyer ID.
In addition, if you are the owner of this drone you need to register for an Operator ID, also from the CAA, and label your drone with this ID. Registering currently costs 10 for one year. This is a legal requirement because this drone is not classed as a “toy” and has a camera. It does not have a drone “class” marking, and weighs under 250g, but as it has a camera and is not a toy then you need to register it. Registering allows you to fly in the “A1 Open Category”.
Note that if you are only flying indoors then you do not require either an Operator ID or Flyer ID, but you should obtain the permission of the property owner if it is not your property.
OK, so the legalities over with, how is the drone? It is quite compact, somewhat noisy (like a very loud bee), flies well, and takes reasonable photos. It is suitable for a complete beginner as it is self-stabilising and has a number of built-in helper features such as auto-takeoff and auto-landing, as well as Return To Home (RTH), where it will come back to the spot from where it took off if you tell it to, if it loses contact with the controller, or if its batteries are running low. The GPS feature needs to be switched on to enable this.
Before you start, you need 2x AA batteries for the controller, and a micro SD card if you want to record photos and video on the drone itself. You need to charge the two included lithium batteries before use, with the USB-C cable provided (or one of your own) and with your own charger (it does not come with one). One battery took a lot longer to charge than the other — hours longer in fact, which was odd.
It comes with a booklet with many pages in it, but I found that whilst the information in there is correct and there is information on most things you’d want to know, the order isn’t the best, and for your very first flight it would have been helpful if they had a “Getting Started from scratch” set of steps. It’s not clear from the booklet, for example, if you need the app installed to fly it at all. It also talks about connecting the app to the drone’s Wi-Fi hotspot before it’s told you to turn it on, but as soon as you turn it on you are supposed to calibrate the GPS and so forth.
You can fly it with the supplied controller, but if you also install the Android or iOS app (called “Ophelia GO”) then you can also get real-time video from the drone, control some extra functions and get more detailed stats than those shown on the controller’s own LCD display. Note that this app currently has terrible reviews on the Android store, but it worked perfectly for me. You need to connect your phone’s Wi-Fi to the drone’s own hotspot. Doing this also saves photos and videos from the drone onto your phone, although these don’t seem to show up in the image Gallery, only inside the app itself. Please note that if controlling the drone outside using the “first-person” video from the drone then the CAA require you to have someone with you acting as an observer to watch the drone itself (because you are not looking).
You can switch between left-handed controls and the default right-handed ones (left joystick goes up/down and rotate left/right; right joystick goes forwards/backwards and strafes left/right, video-game style). There’s also a “headless” mode where forwards/backwards and left/right remain fixed relative to the direction the drone was pointing when it took off.
And flying it? It’s an awful lot of fun. Drones aren’t cheap — this is at the cheaper end of non-toy drones, complete with GPS, etc. — but it does seem a bit of a luxury at several hundred pounds. But yes, it’s a lot of fun to fly, and with the camera and video you can get some stunning aerial footage of your nearby parks and flying spots.
I did find that descent is slower than ascent speed. I got worried it wasn’t going to come down from the sky the first time I flew it! Also, it won’t take off unless it can see at least seven GPS satellites, but it’s not immediately obvious from the display that this is the reason (at least, it wasn’t to me). Recorded video can be a bit jerky because the small drone bobs around a bit as it flies. And live video (and, in fact, recorded video, it seems) can pixelate if the view is changing very rapidly. I tried RTH once and it didn’t seem to work, but I’ll give it another go next time I fly. And one more oddity: a couple of times the video recording wouldn’t turn off during flight. I landed, stopped and locked the drone, and later on I found that the SD card had ended up with partial/corrupt video files for those recordings.
So overall, this is a fun little drone. It’s near the top of the range for the Holy Stone range on Amazon and is quite pricey, but is packed with GPS-related features. I hit a few glitches/issues with it, so I’m dropping it one star for the corrupt videos and pixelation, but I’d give it 4.5 stars if that were an option.
A fun drone with GPS features, and the recorded footage is pretty good
I have tried drones in the past (years back) and have had a few goes at trying to fly an RC helicopter. All attempts have been relatively unsuccessful. Getting everything setup had always been a pain and they were too easy to crash. I can’t compare this to similar drones as this is the only modern drone of this type that I have used.
I managed to read the instructions, get everything setup, have a successful flying session in my garden, taking a bunch of video and pics, all in my first attempt. No issues and not even a hint of any bum clenching moments. It was easy. And really fun. And did I say easy? Really easy. There is no trimming of the controller, it just works. The takeoff and landing button takes all that hassle out of flying. Even in my extremely windy garden it was easy to control and held its position well. It has GPS and a bunch of cool settings for returning home and even a follow mode. I’m looking forward to playing with all that. The drone is so accessible that I have the confidence to start trying the more advanced stuff. I’m a convert and can see myself spending a lot of time playing with this.
The drone itself is well built and packs away neatly in the included case. The controller feels nice and can hold my iPhone 13 Max securely. The phone is not essential but it’s nice to see the live video feed and you can record video and photos directly to the phone without the need to use an SD card in the drone. The battery lasts a long time and there is even a spare. They charge via USB C. I can’t fault it. This is a really good first drone. I’m sure one might soon start to want more advanced cameras and image stabilisation etc. For me this is the perfect place to start one’s journey into the world of drones.
Absolutely fantastic range of beginner drones and the response from customer support is fantastic, video quality is not bad still pictures are clean and clear very easy to use drone pp support and load of flying options from GPS mode for us novice with plenty of stability even in the wind
This is a brilliant Drone it has a lot of the features that you find on more expensive drones it is really user friendly and if it’s your first drone then I’d highly recommend it as it has a feature to turn on if you are new to flying drones which you can turn off again as you gain more experience. Great camera too good photos and vids and also takes a tf card for recording, whilst still streaming to your phone in flight.
This drone is so nice and smooth to fly the cameras quality is brilliant for a 200 drone deffo worth it and is amazing for beginners. Would deffo recommend this brand.
Great drone to fly and get the hang of, recommend flying in an open space to begin with until you get the hang of it. The case is well built, and feels safe and secure
Good value drone – works well and not difficult to fly.
Some good features like return to home etc, makes the flying more relaxing.
It copes in the wind, however video footage is shaky in windy conditions so not great if your planning to publish.
Great beginners drone and a solid in its build.
Comes with a convenient carry case, keeps it safe from knocks in transit.
Great drone even for a beginner. Does however take time and practice to get to know how everything works.
The weather conditions will affect the drone, if it is windy and cloudy you may lose control of the drone for a short period of time or completely. When first learning to fly the drone find a clear area like a football pitch where there are no power lines or trees. All in all a very good drone with total control in the right condition’s.
Bought a Holy Stone 710, thought there was a problem with the FPV wifi and that is was a weak signal, turns out it was my phone, when I tried it on another phone it worked very well. Have to say for the money you can’t knock these drones. The company saw my original poor review and offered me a full refund.
Great drone, great company, very happy.
Amazing little drone, the features for the price are brilliant. GPS, follow me, orbit, POI feature, etc. It’s a great drone and as long as you have more than 10 satellites it will hover rock steady. Tested this at 40m height in a 15mph wind. The camera quality is ok. With no camera stability the video footage is always a bit jerky, but for the price it’s a great little drone. Easy to master and fly due to optical hover sensor and GPS. Great for days out, mountain walks and following the wife and son on the kayaks and paddle boards. Amazing
Brilliant!!!! my 1st gps drone and I was not disappointed I think once I have mastered this one I will get one with a gimble. My only hang up is I ordered an extra battery but it didn’t arrive 🙁 But drone it great 🙂
Product does how described. Lots of functions for a reasonably priced drone.
You will need operator id 10 and flyer id which is a free online test with the civil aviation authority before flying the drone. I bought extra battery as flying time is about 20 mins
I’ve been considering a drone for a while, but couldn’t justify, or afford more expensive drones but found Holy Stone who have a wide range of drones at budget friendly prices
Easy to set up & my drone paired & connected to the app/phone first time
First flight was successful, I calibrated the gyro & compass & was impressed how responsive it was, held its position & tested out the RTH function, which worked perfectly & gave confidence to a novice drone flye
So I work in a customer facing role and deal with customers day in and day out. The true value of a person or brand is how they react when something goes wrong. I was unfortunate enough to call upon Holy Stone for an issue with a battery, Billy was my contact and asked me relevant questions, my replies went back to him, making me feel valued that I wasn’t passed between loads of different people. He dealt with my query efficiently and without fuss and taken care of everything, sent out a replacement battery and it arrived faster than expected. I almost feel embarrassed now because even I don’t deliver that kind of level of customer service! thank you Holy Stone and thank you Billy for your cooperation.
Brand new to owning/flying a drone HS710 came as described, drone, 2 batteries, controller and case. First flight took a while to get set up but all came good. Drone worked well and as expected! I did hit one issue where the app would fall back to its Home Screen when I tried to take video/photos. I contacted Holystone support and they responded quickly. Problem turned out to be that the app hadn’t been granted permission to storage on the phone (Android). All sorted, great communication from support, thanks Carol! From my personal experience I’d recommend this drone package.
I had a small issue with my drone, I was unhappy with that, but Valentina from costumer service did everything to fix it.
Go buy with them and just relax, everything will be ok.
This will be my drone store from now on.
Great drone, and easy to use. It’s my first decent drone and I am very impressed with its ease of use.
I did have an issue with the drone but the speed and professionalism of HS was exemplary. The customer service rep Frank was excellent in his dealing with my issue. I would certainly deal with this company again and recommend their products from my experience. Excellent service thank you HS
Seller was great, with amazing communication. The product itself is amazing, Bought it for my stepdad and he cant stop using it! Highly recommend this product.
Great drone for beginners, easy to operate. Instructions very clear and loads of reviews & videos on internet for it so overall very pleased. Great value for money.
The electronics adjust for the wind and keep it stable – much better than cheaper helicopters and quadcopters I’ve seen (which have inevitably lasted a few days at best). Battery life is good. Even in winds gusting to 20Mph we got 20 min from one battery.
Unfortunately, the wifi connection wasn’t working so was unable to see how good the camera is and have had to return this one. I hope that was just bad luck and not an indication of frail electronics. Hence 4* review.
I use the drone for general photography and videoing. The small size and ease of carrying is a definite plus.
Although I had a problem with my drone the customer service was prompt, very friendly and understanding.
It was accepted from the start that there was a problem but it was resolved in about 3 days. I now am flying again and taking super pictures. A product like this with excellent back up must be worth buying!
Really happy with my purchase. I wanted a relatively inexpensive drone to develop my skills and so far I am very happy. I haven’t been able to fly the drone a lot yet but when I have I have found it easy to control and a pleasure to fly. The remote is well built and the drone feels very sturdy. I also like the sturdy carry case to protect the drone and remote. Battery life appears to be more or less as expected. I found some of the manual a little confusing but managed to familiarise myself with the controls and functions fairly quickly
I use this drone for hobby and to to have a aerial view of the area battery life is as advertised 25 mins fly time each
Super cheap drone and has a relatively good camera and flight time considering.
But you also get what you pay for. The software is nowhere near the quality of DJI and I felt like I had a lot less control. It wouldn’t stay still in the slightest breeze and I honestly wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner.
It also doesn’t have a gimbal so the video camera moves a lot with any drone movement and you won’t get stable looking footage.
If you’re on a budget absolutely it is an okay drone. Be warned that you may find it hard to get any quality footage though.
I would personally advise getting the DJI mini 2 for a few hundred extra if you can afford it.
For my first drone it’s is perfect, easy to use, extremely good photo and video quality
The Drone was a surprise present and although I was not familiar with this manufacturer I am pleasantly surprised at the performance and features available. Initially there were problems with the phone app linking to the Drone but Holy Stone customer support were very help full and when it became obvious there was a problem with the Drone they replaced it without issue.
This was a present for my birthday as I wanted to try a step up in level of drone as a hobby . It’s brilliant , set up is really easy and controlling the device is really smooth and quick to become confident with, flight time off the batteries is just as advertised so you get a decent amount of time in to really practice too!
Special mention for the customer services at Holystone , I had a problem with one of my batteries not charging up at all after only a couple of charges and emailed them to see if I could clear the issue. the speed, politeness and professionalism of the service was spot on and within 24 hours of my query they had replied and I now have a replacement battery on the way .. thank you !
Had issue with batteries charging. Supplier sent out two new batteries very promptly.
Working perfectly now.
Thank you very much Brenda for your excellent customer service!
Well thought out model – everything needed for a lot of flying fun. Good advice given in the user guide which really needs to be read before use… I liked the idea of the protective carrying case!
A great little drone for beginners – does everything it says it does – very responsive – a great little “boyz toyz” (for men !)
Bought for my 9 yr old. He loves it and so does his dad.
Really good quality.
Holy Stone 710 drone
As a member of a classic car club, I contribute photographs and articles for the club magazine. I thought therefore it would be different, when we have a large gathering of cars, to have an ariel photograph.
So, a drone seemed an ideal solution. However, the cost of a drone, one which takes photos and videos, particularly, one with features like, auto return to the launch area, etc. appeared extremely pricey. Well beyond the funds available for such a venture. After much research, I found that drones were available, for under, 200, a few of which, appeared to fulfil my needs. So, I started to re-search the market. There were several within budget but, which one would be best? Youtube and a few other sites, generally concurred that one good practical, user friendly candidate, is the Holystone 710,
I am mid-seventies, so always wary of “easy to set up” and “user friendly apps^ etc.
When it arrived, and unboxed, I was surprised how small it was. Also, how well packed, into a purpose made reinforced case, with a handle. I downloaded the free App from apple, read the instruction book, and probably understood about 25% of that, initially. Learn the basics before you press go!!!
GPS, short for global positioning system, relies on connection with satellites so, if you are using GPS to fly your drone, remember that the drone needs to have contact with several satellites. To do that, it in effect requires line of sight. So, in a narrow valley, tall trees or, surrounded by say tall buildings, ask yourself when flying, is it able to “see” the satellites? Check the number connected in the screen on the control unit. Don’t make your first flight in a small garden with trees, the. drone is very light, and susceptible to even light winds. Find an open space as far away as possible from any object you could fly into, until you are familiar with the controls and, the effects of wind, even breezes. The first thing to do is learn how-to pick-up satellites for the GPS system. Don’t fly until experienced if less than 7 satellites picked up. This shows on the control unit. Less than 7 means the back to home function may not work. Also initially, ensure you set to slow speed on the control unit at first.
Initially, as an amateur, I found it takes a little time to sort out what all the buttons and levers do and got a bit muddled. So, practice in a safe area is essential. (Look at drone for beginners, on U tube)
The RTH (return to home) function is brilliant and, I would not attempt as a novice, to buy or fly one without this facility. If you mess up, and the drone moves at quite some speed, so you need to get it far enough away from you, so as, to be able see it easily. Hovering immediately overhead and moving about, is a real no no. Press the return to home button, if it has satellite connection, that will bring the drone back to pretty much where it was launched from.
Taking account of the price, the build quality, the features are exceptional. It is extremely easy to use but be aware of windy conditions. The Holystone help centre most helpful, and considerate. They were very obliging and understanding with an issue I had, and, resolved it very quickly and favourably.
So, in my opinion, a worthy contender for affordable and functional user friendly drone.
Love the handling & picture quality, Ideal drone for anyone just starting out.
Great drone ,4k I would say not and a little wobbly with camera but the drone itself is awesome and customer care with Holystone is very good at sorting any problems
Perfect for beginners, very easy to control and more then expected for for price, camera quality is great, I would certainly recommend this drone, and there custom service is fantastic..
Very clear instructions which made the whole process smother. I first opened it and connected to my phone
And put batteries on controller (came without batteries)
Had to try indoors because I was told I had to register it first if I were to use it outdoors .
It makes a buzzing sound but I guess it is how it is supposed to be. Flies well even though I can’t control it well just yet and the image quality is also good.
Great value for money specially for beginners with high chance of crashing it in the first try/
Easy enough little drone for a first time user. Blades can be fragile, but spares are provided. Battery ok but but doesn’t last as long as described. Quality not the Best but I’m comparing it to iPhone 11 quality. Fun to use and can go quite far. Came very well packaged with its own case etc and is a good little size. Overall I would recommend if it’s your first drone
The box looks very presentable and builds excitement. Opening it was fun and setting it up was simple following the instructions.
The controller requires 2 x AA batteries.
The drone is lightweight and easy to control. I haven’t had any issues with it so far.
You need to register the drone to use it in the UK. This is important to know so you don’t get in trouble!
The drone has a decent range and is a very clever little piece of kit. The price is reasonable for the quality.
I had a drone previously but couldn’t get on with flying it. This one is different. It’s got a rechargeable battery though you will need a couple of regular batteries for the controller. It’s easy to set up and importantly easy to use. I struggled a bit at first but it was quick to get under control. Battery life is good and overall it’s been good fun.
I’ve been flying one of the cheap aircraft and decided to upgrade. Looking at a lot of reviews, Holy Stone seemed to come out top in the price range I was looking at. I purchased the HS710 and was very impressed by the level and quality of the equipment when I unpackaged it. A read through the manual passed the time while the batteries were charging. Everything was well laid out and clear, and I was up and flying in no time. The camera is excellent and stability seems OK, but I’ve yet to try it when the wind has dropped a little (I can’t find any indication in the manual of wind resistance?. Overall a really good aircraft at a very competitive price.
IMPORTANT: to fly this drone in the UK you will need an Operator ID issued by The CAA (Civil Aviation Authority). To get your Operator ID you will need to pass a theory test.
Holy Stone HS710 is a foldable, brushless GPS drone with a 4K camera. To fly the drone you need to download the app onto your smartphone and sit it onto the drones remote. The app explains how to calibrate your drone before flying.
Upon take off and hovering, the drone was dancing (moving side to side) due to a slight wind – despite the wind it held its hover steady. The video of the drone was wobbly as it swayed in the wind. To improve the video output I tried switching between 2.5k and 4k resolutions but this made no difference. The photo output was much better than the video without any blurring. Flying the drone is very easy and it responds instantly to all controller movements.
As a beginner drone this is fantastic and a great entry point into the drone market. If you want professional video output I would look elsewhere as the lack of video stabilisation and the low 4k resolution degrade the video output.
As a first time drone buyer, this product was ideal. I read the manual whilst the batteries were charging, and was up and flying straight away, simple to pair up wi phone app, camera is great, and I’m sure I will have loads of fun with this.
This is my third drone ever, and it goes beyond every expectation. The ones I had so far could fly like 50-100m from my phone which was annoying, but this one can do 600m with amazing quality picture.
It is easy to navigate the drone, but of course you need in some practicing. After a couple days you will be like a pro. Very important feature that there is a “return to home” feature.
Recommended!!!
Great little drone, easy to fly and takes great footage. It’s very powerful despite the size, I almost took off with it when I turned it on in my hand!
Excellent aftercare, I had a problem with a drone I bought. Valentina was excellent and did not rest until I was completely happy. I would recommend holystone and their products highly.
>micro SD card slot up to 32gb class 10 (recommend)
>foldable 5g , WIFI, FPV , GPS
>4k camera
>optic flow sensor
>brushless motor with dual bladed props a centre hub with status lights and landing pad on the bottom of the arms
>on the bottom of the drone is a optic flow sensor horizontal positioning camera
battery 7.7v 1820 milli amp up to 25min flight time (x2 batteries with this) push button to turn the battery on /off can also check to remaining power status.
control your usual 2.4 GHz remote controller, dual antennas, no antenna wire running up them from what i can see.
the hand grip flip out for under the controller. they feel good in the hand good grip the left and right sticks felt very smooth they moved around freely without the need to apply to much pressure
a pull out phone holder which is spring loaded, which has two position the second position tilts up towards you which was useful in removing some glare, its also a little easy to see the screen as well
Controls:
left shoulder holds the rotary dial which from what i can see has no function. and the camera button (short press for a photo long press for a video)
Right shoulder holds a rotary dial this is to remotely tilt the angle of the camera
and speeds for the drone itself which has two settings (speeds 1, 2)
on the front of the controller you have a nice sized LCD panel, 1 key to take off and land, lock and unlock button (which turn the motors on to take off), power switch for the controller, return to home button, and on the right side holds the GPS button
calibration before use:
both sticks to the bottom and right is to calibrate the compass
rotate the drone horizontally (LED status turn green)
rotate the drone vertically (LED status turn yellow)
place back on a pad then calibrate gyros (LED should be solid)
both sticks to the bottom and left is to calibrate the gyros
wait for the GPS before taking off is my recommendation.
( other connection method is you can use Wi-Fi to connect to the holy stone FPV Wi-Fi network then start app )
2x AA batteries will be need to power the controller itself there a battery housing on the back of the controller.
(note when using the first set of batteries and you swap them out for the second set you must give the drone time to cool down before using again as this could effect the life of the drone this will give the motors time to cool down)
performance:
camera has a nice field of view, (lacks a gimble and stabilization) so may see shakiness in the video.
90 degrees tilt function.
picture quality has some nice depth, the pictures thou they do look abit light in contrast however, performed rather well from my test.
videos are rather nice the camera is a little shaky however not to too bad its still perfectly watchable no distortions. (i would use the speed 1 on the setting for a more smoother video) again in this field it still did a good job.
in take off using the one key button on the controller ,this is a very simple process and the drone hoovers very smoothly while also stable holding position nicely.
the stability was alot better at holding position with GPS enabled (due to the flow sensor)
very responsive with very little input given on the throttle. the drone is very smooth at moving, speed 1 for better and smoother videos. better pitch at speed 2 but the video quality will be slight worse that speed 1 in not being as smooth.
in app feature:
headless mode it doesn’t matter which way the drone is facing if you push up it will go forward and down to go backwards again very responsive on the controller and the input from the drone was quick no matter how far away it was.
follow me:
this will follow the GPS of the phone, i found this feature to work rather well, its a little bumpy at first however once moving it kinda stabilizes out even though there isn’t a stabilization. it followed well for me and kept the subject in point.
use the one key to land. once landed the motor do shut off which i like alot some don’t do this.
when you land or take off for that matter the drone will take this as its new home point. so it should land their or their about if you use the return home feature
Orbits feature:
which will circle you in this mode you can still change the speed in mode while this is circling you. (point of interest was a little bit off when i was using this mode)
App Settings:
in the settings if you are a beginner you can select the beginner function and it will change the parameters so it wont go as high or far away from you. and if your happy with your process can then turn this feature off.
so orbit, max distance, max altitude , and return home attitude. are the parameters that can be changed to suit your needs.
return home feature:
using the return home key the drone returned home, landing did take a few minutes, and it did miss the landing pad i laid out however, by a few centimeters nothing major i was happy with its ability in this mode. (note you may need to take control of the drone when using the return home feature if you have obstacles in your way)
this drone does have a fail safe s if the control dies or you accidentally switch it off the drone should fail safe to the return point.
this took a few mins as this does gradually in steps it seems however, it did land where it should have this time on point so may have been a GPS that dropped slightly when using the return home the first time.
overall an impressive piece of kit for anyone to use, its a good quality drone the let down for me is the image stabilization however for the price point i can except this. i was testing out a few drone from other brand around this price and above and i can say i was impressed Holy Stone have done a rather good job with this drone. the carry case is good it protects the drone when its not in use and the case is like a hard shell.
all test done on 1 battery which lasted around the 20min mark,
(note in windy condition it was OK could have been a little better and the battery lasted around the 17min mark with stability being OK)
It is easy to fly, although it did take me about a week to master it without being terrified i was going to crash it into a tree. I live in the countryside so i was able to practice on my friends farm. What i like most of all is that you get to see the earth as you wouldnt normally and to be honest it looks pretty spectacular from the air, it really makes you appreciate where you live.
I really like the return to home feature which is essentially an auto pilot where the drone will come back to the exact place it took off. Very handy feature. You get on average 50 minutes flying time with this, but if you are recording 4k video this drains the battery life, however the drone will not crash to the ground as its set to automatically return when it notices its running low on juice.
For the money you get an awful lot. Whilst quite expensive at 240, this is superb value for money when you think what you get. It takes fantastic video and still images
Firstly — I think the most important thing to point out is — make sure you’re aware of the local laws in relation to flying the drone — as you don’t want to get yourself into trouble.
This drone comes neatly packaged with a carry case, spare rotary blades — for when you inevitably break the original ones, a USB charging cable, 2 batteries, drone unit itself and controller.
The carry case is very handy and makes for very easy transportation and can be easily packed into travel luggage or suitcase.
The drone is very lightweight and the whole thing packaged up is again very light — anyone would have no issues carrying it.
The setup instructions are simple enough — within about 5 minutes — I had the app downloaded and everything synced up and ready to go.
The drone is supported via an APP download for which you then place your mobile phone into the holders on the drone controller.
There are a few nice features with this that I have yet to try as I’ve not been able to find time or space to do so.
The drone uses GPS to return to home — essentially if you get too far out and cannot control it yourself anymore — click return home button — and the drone will come back to where it started. Nice little feature I think, especially if your control of the drone isn’t up to scratch.
It also has a follow me feature — so it’ll essentially lock on to you and as you walk it’ll maintain a steady distance behind you and “follow you”. Again a nice little feature for this drone and at this price point.
I’ve tested this out at low altitude within my garden — keeping within the confines of my garden and obeying various drone laws. It flies steady even in wind — which it was quite blustery when I tested it out and it maintained its height and heading with no issues — albeit a little wobbly.
The camera quality is acceptable — nothing to shout home about — however perfectly acceptable and will get you some decent overhead shots that you’ll be very pleased with.
This small drone unit comes with that many features and what it comes packaged with – 2 batteries which means you can use it for longer, app features, GPS, photo, video, carry case – for the price you can’t really argue with it.
Excellent little drone to get yourself into the world of drones in my opinion.
This Holy Stone drone seems to have anticipated my lack of practice. The instruction manual is densely packed with information, and there seemed to be a lot of detail to read before I got the drone launched. Thankfully, the supplied batteries took a couple of hours to charge, so I had plenty of time to read.
Would I have liked a Dummy’s Guide to getting the drone up quickly? Yes. Would I have crashed or lost the drone? Probably.
As it was, I was able to use the one-press button take-off to get the wildly buzzing little quad-copter in the air, and the equally simple option to land it. I even managed to have it fly over my house and the adjoining fields without any catastrophes. I haven’t tried the follow me option yet, but I think it’s good to have further capabilities to explore.
Overall, the drone is a joy to use. Pairing with my iPhone was quick and painless, and recording video and stills quite intuitive. This is a great introduction for novices like me, and it has enough flight time and HD recording ability for more experienced flyers. Recommended.
In addition, if you are the owner of this drone you need to register for an Operator ID, also from the CAA, and label your drone with this ID. Registering currently costs 10 for one year. This is a legal requirement because this drone is not classed as a “toy” and has a camera. It does not have a drone “class” marking, and weighs under 250g, but as it has a camera and is not a toy then you need to register it. Registering allows you to fly in the “A1 Open Category”.
Note that if you are only flying indoors then you do not require either an Operator ID or Flyer ID, but you should obtain the permission of the property owner if it is not your property.
OK, so the legalities over with, how is the drone? It is quite compact, somewhat noisy (like a very loud bee), flies well, and takes reasonable photos. It is suitable for a complete beginner as it is self-stabilising and has a number of built-in helper features such as auto-takeoff and auto-landing, as well as Return To Home (RTH), where it will come back to the spot from where it took off if you tell it to, if it loses contact with the controller, or if its batteries are running low. The GPS feature needs to be switched on to enable this.
Before you start, you need 2x AA batteries for the controller, and a micro SD card if you want to record photos and video on the drone itself. You need to charge the two included lithium batteries before use, with the USB-C cable provided (or one of your own) and with your own charger (it does not come with one). One battery took a lot longer to charge than the other — hours longer in fact, which was odd.
It comes with a booklet with many pages in it, but I found that whilst the information in there is correct and there is information on most things you’d want to know, the order isn’t the best, and for your very first flight it would have been helpful if they had a “Getting Started from scratch” set of steps. It’s not clear from the booklet, for example, if you need the app installed to fly it at all. It also talks about connecting the app to the drone’s Wi-Fi hotspot before it’s told you to turn it on, but as soon as you turn it on you are supposed to calibrate the GPS and so forth.
You can fly it with the supplied controller, but if you also install the Android or iOS app (called “Ophelia GO”) then you can also get real-time video from the drone, control some extra functions and get more detailed stats than those shown on the controller’s own LCD display. Note that this app currently has terrible reviews on the Android store, but it worked perfectly for me. You need to connect your phone’s Wi-Fi to the drone’s own hotspot. Doing this also saves photos and videos from the drone onto your phone, although these don’t seem to show up in the image Gallery, only inside the app itself. Please note that if controlling the drone outside using the “first-person” video from the drone then the CAA require you to have someone with you acting as an observer to watch the drone itself (because you are not looking).
You can switch between left-handed controls and the default right-handed ones (left joystick goes up/down and rotate left/right; right joystick goes forwards/backwards and strafes left/right, video-game style). There’s also a “headless” mode where forwards/backwards and left/right remain fixed relative to the direction the drone was pointing when it took off.
And flying it? It’s an awful lot of fun. Drones aren’t cheap — this is at the cheaper end of non-toy drones, complete with GPS, etc. — but it does seem a bit of a luxury at several hundred pounds. But yes, it’s a lot of fun to fly, and with the camera and video you can get some stunning aerial footage of your nearby parks and flying spots.
I did find that descent is slower than ascent speed. I got worried it wasn’t going to come down from the sky the first time I flew it! Also, it won’t take off unless it can see at least seven GPS satellites, but it’s not immediately obvious from the display that this is the reason (at least, it wasn’t to me). Recorded video can be a bit jerky because the small drone bobs around a bit as it flies. And live video (and, in fact, recorded video, it seems) can pixelate if the view is changing very rapidly. I tried RTH once and it didn’t seem to work, but I’ll give it another go next time I fly. And one more oddity: a couple of times the video recording wouldn’t turn off during flight. I landed, stopped and locked the drone, and later on I found that the SD card had ended up with partial/corrupt video files for those recordings.
So overall, this is a fun little drone. It’s near the top of the range for the Holy Stone range on Amazon and is quite pricey, but is packed with GPS-related features. I hit a few glitches/issues with it, so I’m dropping it one star for the corrupt videos and pixelation, but I’d give it 4.5 stars if that were an option.
I managed to read the instructions, get everything setup, have a successful flying session in my garden, taking a bunch of video and pics, all in my first attempt. No issues and not even a hint of any bum clenching moments. It was easy. And really fun. And did I say easy? Really easy. There is no trimming of the controller, it just works. The takeoff and landing button takes all that hassle out of flying. Even in my extremely windy garden it was easy to control and held its position well. It has GPS and a bunch of cool settings for returning home and even a follow mode. I’m looking forward to playing with all that. The drone is so accessible that I have the confidence to start trying the more advanced stuff. I’m a convert and can see myself spending a lot of time playing with this.
The drone itself is well built and packs away neatly in the included case. The controller feels nice and can hold my iPhone 13 Max securely. The phone is not essential but it’s nice to see the live video feed and you can record video and photos directly to the phone without the need to use an SD card in the drone. The battery lasts a long time and there is even a spare. They charge via USB C. I can’t fault it. This is a really good first drone. I’m sure one might soon start to want more advanced cameras and image stabilisation etc. For me this is the perfect place to start one’s journey into the world of drones.