Pros:
Build quality spot on. Quality of materials and construction is high.
GPS tracking spot on.
Wind resistance spot on. With GPS and a pretty windy day the drone stuck in its spot easily. Very impressive.
Not sure of the actual speed, but it’s pretty fast, plenty fast in High mode. Great fun.
Plenty of accessories, case two batteries, spare props. All good.
Cons:
EIS seems to work, but you get frequent periods of shakiness as it tries to stabilize the image. You can however get incredibly smooth moments of footage, definitely shots that make you think this is a great drone for the price.
Image is blurry even compared to cheap phones and lacks vibrancy and sharpness. 4k it might be in name, but nothing else...it feels like 720p/1080p upscaled badly to 4k.
Severe chromatic aberrations. It looks like you have special effects in your video, very bad around windows etc. Expected with the price, but very bad on my unit.
Hot pixels on my unit (10+ of them). Not an issue unless you shoot in low light and again to be expected somewhat for the price. But anything more than 3 and I would be disappointed.
Camera vertical rotation provides only one speed, which is too fast and results in jerky footage. Basically you cannot use this feature during footage recording, you would have to clip it out.
Battery life is questionable (I think I got 18mins). Still good enough though I guess for most. It is cold too, so that doesn't help.
Absolutely no battery monitoring capability, just 4 bars giving remaining life, and the first one goes as soon as you take off. No voltage, no resistance measurement, no charge cycle count. Pretty pathetic.
Battery charge time is ridiculous. I knew that at time of purchase, but the fact the charger cannot charge two at the same time basically means you have to wait 10-14 hours to charge your batteries. So you can’t get up in the morning and decide to fly that day, you need to plan ahead. Keep batteries charged? That brings me to the next crucial point...
Batteries provided are LiPo. They need to be stored at a storage voltage. You don’t want to leave these babies charged or discharged...they need to be just right ~ 3.8v if you’re not using them for a week+. They also need to be kept in a LiPo bag in an old ammo tin (with the seal taken off). This point is the biggest safety concern in the list.
The batteries don’t clip in to the charger, so trying to charge them in a LiPo bag is a real pain, it’s easy to knock them out of the charger cradle.
App developer decided to release an app update over the Christmas holiday period that improved something apparently, I wouldn’t know, as it started crashing after 10 seconds on my phone. Apparently a widespread issue on Android. I’m sure this will get fixed, but how is this allowed to happen? Where is the QA? I feel the app is built by one guy in his bedroom. It isn't even published by Holystone….
Free battery offer: Write a review of the product and the company, send them a link to it and they’ll give you a free battery. I suspect this has led to a number of more positive reviews that it should have done. They don’t ask you to write a positive review however.
If Holystone fix all the above in their next drone, then I would say it is going to be exceptional quality. However, due to the vast number of oversights, some which didn't even need to be an issue, for me it’s a 5/10.
And don't forget, it's over 249g. And in the UK that is very important now.
| Manufacturer | Holy Stone |
|---|---|
| Brand | HOLY STONE |
| Package Dimensions | 29.7 x 21.4 x 9.4 cm; 1.44 Kilograms |
| Batteries | 2 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Item Weight | 1.44 kg |
