This product is very good for the novice drone user.Flies well and is easy to control. It has good features, like return to home and follow me mode..I certainly recommend i
Clever little machine flew it to far away and lost sight of it ,but threw RTH (return to home switch) and 15 mins later it came back !!!! great drone you will not be disappointed
Nice drone, easy to control and not a lot of messing around to get it flying like some other drones. The new batch of H501s have the new compass module which is self calabrating. So that means put it on a level surface outside, get gps lock, about 10 sats on the drone and afew on the controller and your off! Very happy with mine, rock solid even in a breeze. 1080p camera footage which is good. Brought mine from Amazon warehouse as a return for just under 90 so a bargin.
This is a great little drone. Really, I think it’s awesome. Very reliable, loads of features, I trust it cmpletely in GPS / Return to home / Follow me settings. It reeks of quality and strength. If i lose this one, I would defo buy another. At this price… a world beater in its class 😀
Stop dithering and get one as for the money it just can’t be beaten. If you can afford a DJI, or more importantly a DJI lost if it dives into the sea or flies off, then get one of those, but for us mortals this is great with only nit picking camera quality differences (pictures taken with H501s – as you can see it prefers a lot of light, but then images are terrific).
The reports of these occasionally flying off are, I think, because either the GPS switch isn’t on or were flying too near transmitter masts. I have had both of these scares and and more careful now.
It seems you have to put some thought into the seller – I bought mine from Virhuck Toys who were brilliant and would be a local return if supplied by Amazon. JYZ should also be a good seller as they are the manufacturer’s outlet I think.
Brilliant little drone, the best I have had so far. Great fun and easy to control. I must also give a mention to seller in customer service. Fantastic after sales support. I found the seller to be prompt, friendly and professional in sorting out a problem that I had. I have no hesitation in recommending this product and supplier.
Wow. I love this drone. When I first received it, I experienced a few issues with it, some of which were resolved by reading the instructions again and one other after receiving support from Hubsan directly.
The unit is very easy to put together and includes a 2 x piece charger with a 3 pin UK plug, 2 sets of blades, a blade spanner, 2 x Li-po batteries (one for the drone and one for the controller) and a cover to put around the screen so you can see it better in the sunlight.
It is very stable when flying and the return to home function works brilliantly, with the drone landing within a few feet of where it took off. I’ve not yet tried the follow me function nor whether the return to home function works when it loses connection with the controller so I will update this when I have tried these also.
The main issue I had was with the camera recordings. The photos taken were excellent but the video footage was jumpy and only seemed to take a burst of film every 10 – 15 seconds resulting in a 10 minute video being compressed into a 2 minute time lapse type video. I had read a previous review saying this was a fault and to send it back but I contacted Hubsan support first and after sending them some footage they sent me some instructions which I followed which resolved the issue. Essentially how the SD card is formatted affects the recording.
What I was told was; there are two versions of this drone, an H501S and an H501S-S. It seems the that SD card formatting process is slightly different for each. I thought I had bought the S but it seems I have the S-S. They recommend a 16GB class 10 SD card althought it will take a 32GB card. I am using a 32GB but when formatting you should enter anything into the volume label and you must set the unit allocation to 32kb. You also need to format the card to FAT32 for the S-S model or exFAT for the S model.
When I did this and tried again, the issue was resolved and it recorded good quality footage to play back.
A brief issue with recording but excellent now it is resolved
Hubsan H501s – Geniune item. Fast dispatch from seller. Perfect Drone before you step up to a Mavic or Phantom! Improve your drone flying skills for under 200
Good packaging and well built drone, solid and sturdy. Ideal for those moving up from cheaper toy like drones. Responsive flight controls, and very close to specified flight time of 20min. Reasonable 1080 video footage during playback on PC or laptop, very clear FPV. Stable GPS lock. Excellent Return to home function. (Follow me mode works but more of a gimmick). I received the newer batch so received a lipo battery for the standard TX controller.
Drone has no gimbal so do not buy if you want stablised footage This is purely for learning to fly with good flight time, solid build, reasonable camera, clear FPV and excellent range with the option to range modify the TX controller for longer range. Don’t bother with the cheaper 502e or 502s models, they aren’t brushless and are poorly built with unstable flight. The Hubsan H501s is Great buy!
I eventually purchased this drone for my youngest son after encouraging him to get online and learn some ‘research skills’ and not just jump at the first ‘pretty’ drone he saw … which was a great thing, as he changed his first choice and eventually settled on the excellent ‘Husban H501S X4 1080P HD Camera RC Drone.
I would call this an excellent entry level drone for the money that actually gives one a decent flight time of 20+ minutes (yes there are much cheaper entry level drones out there, but their 6-7 minutes flight time simply becomes frustrating for enthusastic young fliers) and this excellent flight time is paired to the fact that this drone uses a 2700 maH battery.
Take your time and familiarise yourself with the operating instructions (my son actually jumped onto ‘youtube’ and watched a number of excellent tutorials) before his drone arrived… and don’t make the very easy mistake of in your haste to get this ‘into the air’ of simply attaching the props without reading the instructions, there are ‘A’ and ‘B’ props that have to be attached to the correspondingly labelled motors.
There is a ‘specific’ proceedure to follow to get this drone into the air … otherwise you will be left scratching your head wondering why it isn’t working! However, once you have mastered this, it is a piece of cake. You do need to make sure you connect to a minimum of 6 satellites first (simply a little patience is required … otherwise once more you will be scratching your head as to why things aren’t working as they should be?)
Once this thing takes off, it truly is a wonderful piece of kit … though be aware one needs to operate the joysticks with minimal and fluid movements (I think one can alter the joystick sensitivity but can’t quite remember?) … otherwise it will jerk all over the place as it responds very quickly … but once more, very quickly, it is very easy to fly very smoothly once you are aware of this … with immediate and very responsive flight characteristics.
One more word of advice … if like us (you try this for the very first time in your back garden … as I am sure a number of you will do?) … one needs to be very aware of the orientation of the drone … while you are flying this drone forward … i.e. the camera is facing forward, the drone responds according to left/right/up/down etc commands … the moment you ‘rotate’ the drone around to fly back (as opposed to flying it backwards)… i.e. the camera is now facing you … the joystick now needs to be moved in the OPPOSITE direction …(joystick moved left to move left when camera facing forward/away from you … to joystick NOW needs to be moved right to move the drone LEFT as it returns to you with the camera facing forward … and of course this makes perfect sense when one understands the flight controls … but before you get his into your head, don’t be surprised or caught out, if you find yourself using the drones props to try and mulch any nearby vegetation (which other than leaves, isn’t good, as any small branches/stems will damage the props – luckily there is a spare set of props included in the box!) … and naturally, when flying this in confined spaces, we are flying this by actually watching the drone with our eyes, as opposed to using the excellent video camera image on the control unit (which I am sure a seasoned/expert flyer would do?). Another hint, actually use the included sun shield, as without it, you get alot of reflection on the control panel screen.
Ideally, the best place to fly this is out in an open field (with permission of course if the field isn’t yours) away from all people/animals/obstacles … to truly have some serious fun … and it really is fun to fly. The operating range is quoted at 300 metres I think?, and to be honest, thats more than you will need for an entry level drone … or have the appropriate space to fly it… very quickly if you send this thing straight up, it could easily get out of sight!
Purchase yourself a spare battery too (as its approximately 3.5 hours charge time per battery) … and make a note of your start time on your watch, as the control unit doesn’t give a true and accurate reading of the battery level (we regularly fly for quite some time with the battery showing totally in the red) … but 20 + minutes flying time, it truly delivers!
HAVE FUN and I hope this review was of some use, for those considering purchasing their first drone … kids and adults alike !
Pleasantly surprised to get a LIPO in the Transmitter & a shade for the screen in the box (Neither was advertised) only done one flight so far, as a complete novice but I managed to get it back & landed without any problem, so I am well pleased! Thus far, I have not managed to get my computer to playback the video but who knows I may have failed in my effort to record, maybe when I am more competent!!!
This product is very good for the novice drone user.Flies well and is easy to control. It has good features, like return to home and follow me mode..I certainly recommend i
Clever little machine flew it to far away and lost sight of it ,but threw RTH (return to home switch) and 15 mins later it came back !!!! great drone you will not be disappointed
Nice drone, easy to control and not a lot of messing around to get it flying like some other drones. The new batch of H501s have the new compass module which is self calabrating. So that means put it on a level surface outside, get gps lock, about 10 sats on the drone and afew on the controller and your off! Very happy with mine, rock solid even in a breeze. 1080p camera footage which is good. Brought mine from Amazon warehouse as a return for just under 90 so a bargin.
This is a great little drone. Really, I think it’s awesome. Very reliable, loads of features, I trust it cmpletely in GPS / Return to home / Follow me settings. It reeks of quality and strength. If i lose this one, I would defo buy another. At this price… a world beater in its class 😀
Stop dithering and get one as for the money it just can’t be beaten. If you can afford a DJI, or more importantly a DJI lost if it dives into the sea or flies off, then get one of those, but for us mortals this is great with only nit picking camera quality differences (pictures taken with H501s – as you can see it prefers a lot of light, but then images are terrific).
The reports of these occasionally flying off are, I think, because either the GPS switch isn’t on or were flying too near transmitter masts. I have had both of these scares and and more careful now.
It seems you have to put some thought into the seller – I bought mine from Virhuck Toys who were brilliant and would be a local return if supplied by Amazon. JYZ should also be a good seller as they are the manufacturer’s outlet I think.
Brilliant little drone, the best I have had so far. Great fun and easy to control. I must also give a mention to seller in customer service. Fantastic after sales support. I found the seller to be prompt, friendly and professional in sorting out a problem that I had. I have no hesitation in recommending this product and supplier.
Great product, all the functions work well and easy to use with great photo and video opportunities. Good value compared to others in the marke
The unit is very easy to put together and includes a 2 x piece charger with a 3 pin UK plug, 2 sets of blades, a blade spanner, 2 x Li-po batteries (one for the drone and one for the controller) and a cover to put around the screen so you can see it better in the sunlight.
It is very stable when flying and the return to home function works brilliantly, with the drone landing within a few feet of where it took off. I’ve not yet tried the follow me function nor whether the return to home function works when it loses connection with the controller so I will update this when I have tried these also.
The main issue I had was with the camera recordings. The photos taken were excellent but the video footage was jumpy and only seemed to take a burst of film every 10 – 15 seconds resulting in a 10 minute video being compressed into a 2 minute time lapse type video. I had read a previous review saying this was a fault and to send it back but I contacted Hubsan support first and after sending them some footage they sent me some instructions which I followed which resolved the issue. Essentially how the SD card is formatted affects the recording.
What I was told was; there are two versions of this drone, an H501S and an H501S-S. It seems the that SD card formatting process is slightly different for each. I thought I had bought the S but it seems I have the S-S. They recommend a 16GB class 10 SD card althought it will take a 32GB card. I am using a 32GB but when formatting you should enter anything into the volume label and you must set the unit allocation to 32kb. You also need to format the card to FAT32 for the S-S model or exFAT for the S model.
When I did this and tried again, the issue was resolved and it recorded good quality footage to play back.
Good packaging and well built drone, solid and sturdy. Ideal for those moving up from cheaper toy like drones. Responsive flight controls, and very close to specified flight time of 20min. Reasonable 1080 video footage during playback on PC or laptop, very clear FPV. Stable GPS lock. Excellent Return to home function. (Follow me mode works but more of a gimmick). I received the newer batch so received a lipo battery for the standard TX controller.
Drone has no gimbal so do not buy if you want stablised footage This is purely for learning to fly with good flight time, solid build, reasonable camera, clear FPV and excellent range with the option to range modify the TX controller for longer range. Don’t bother with the cheaper 502e or 502s models, they aren’t brushless and are poorly built with unstable flight. The Hubsan H501s is Great buy!
I would call this an excellent entry level drone for the money that actually gives one a decent flight time of 20+ minutes (yes there are much cheaper entry level drones out there, but their 6-7 minutes flight time simply becomes frustrating for enthusastic young fliers) and this excellent flight time is paired to the fact that this drone uses a 2700 maH battery.
Take your time and familiarise yourself with the operating instructions (my son actually jumped onto ‘youtube’ and watched a number of excellent tutorials) before his drone arrived… and don’t make the very easy mistake of in your haste to get this ‘into the air’ of simply attaching the props without reading the instructions, there are ‘A’ and ‘B’ props that have to be attached to the correspondingly labelled motors.
There is a ‘specific’ proceedure to follow to get this drone into the air … otherwise you will be left scratching your head wondering why it isn’t working! However, once you have mastered this, it is a piece of cake. You do need to make sure you connect to a minimum of 6 satellites first (simply a little patience is required … otherwise once more you will be scratching your head as to why things aren’t working as they should be?)
Once this thing takes off, it truly is a wonderful piece of kit … though be aware one needs to operate the joysticks with minimal and fluid movements (I think one can alter the joystick sensitivity but can’t quite remember?) … otherwise it will jerk all over the place as it responds very quickly … but once more, very quickly, it is very easy to fly very smoothly once you are aware of this … with immediate and very responsive flight characteristics.
One more word of advice … if like us (you try this for the very first time in your back garden … as I am sure a number of you will do?) … one needs to be very aware of the orientation of the drone … while you are flying this drone forward … i.e. the camera is facing forward, the drone responds according to left/right/up/down etc commands … the moment you ‘rotate’ the drone around to fly back (as opposed to flying it backwards)… i.e. the camera is now facing you … the joystick now needs to be moved in the OPPOSITE direction …(joystick moved left to move left when camera facing forward/away from you … to joystick NOW needs to be moved right to move the drone LEFT as it returns to you with the camera facing forward … and of course this makes perfect sense when one understands the flight controls … but before you get his into your head, don’t be surprised or caught out, if you find yourself using the drones props to try and mulch any nearby vegetation (which other than leaves, isn’t good, as any small branches/stems will damage the props – luckily there is a spare set of props included in the box!) … and naturally, when flying this in confined spaces, we are flying this by actually watching the drone with our eyes, as opposed to using the excellent video camera image on the control unit (which I am sure a seasoned/expert flyer would do?). Another hint, actually use the included sun shield, as without it, you get alot of reflection on the control panel screen.
Ideally, the best place to fly this is out in an open field (with permission of course if the field isn’t yours) away from all people/animals/obstacles … to truly have some serious fun … and it really is fun to fly. The operating range is quoted at 300 metres I think?, and to be honest, thats more than you will need for an entry level drone … or have the appropriate space to fly it… very quickly if you send this thing straight up, it could easily get out of sight!
Purchase yourself a spare battery too (as its approximately 3.5 hours charge time per battery) … and make a note of your start time on your watch, as the control unit doesn’t give a true and accurate reading of the battery level (we regularly fly for quite some time with the battery showing totally in the red) … but 20 + minutes flying time, it truly delivers!
HAVE FUN and I hope this review was of some use, for those considering purchasing their first drone … kids and adults alike !