Drones Review

As time goes by, Drone technologies are advancing in gigantic steps month by month! In the near future, new models will be released that can reach 10 miles control range. I will update this post with new models from time to time. Drones are undeniably cool, but unless you have the necessary know-how making an informed purchasing decision is virtually impossible - there are so many options, from cheap quadcopters to expensive professional drones for which you'll probably need to justify spending that much on a 'toy'.

What is the difference between a drone and a quadcopter?

In the majority of cases you can think of a drone and a quadcopter as the same thing, though you'll often find more expensive devices are marketed as drones and cheaper toys as quadcopters. In truth, a drone is any unmanned aerial vehicle, while a quadcopter is any drone controlled by four motors. Typically speaking, a drone will be able to stay in flight for longer than a quadcopter.


Flight time and range

Cheap drones tend to fly for about five- to 10 minutes before they need recharging, and USB chargers tend to take 30- to 60 minutes to recharge the batteries. Try to get a drone with replaceable batteries and buy a couple of spares.

Although some manufacturers claim a range of over 100m, it’s best to assume you’ll never get more than about 50m. Small and light drones will be blown around in the wind, so warm, windless days are the best times to fly, although the smallest micro drones can be flown indoors.

For bigger drones, such as DJI's Phantoms, expect flight times around 20-25 minutes. These use big batteries but are of course bigger and heavier than the toy drones. Even the most expensive consumer drones (and we're talking over $3,000) don't fly for longer than 30 minutes.

DJI Phantom 4

DJI Mavic Pro

3DR Solo Quadcopter