DROCON Drone with 1080P FPV HD Camera, 5G WiFi Adults RC Quadcopter, Auto Return Home Mode, Long Control Range Outdoor Drone, Easy to Use for Beginner, Black

The media could not be loaded.  Bottom line rating first:Overall, I like most everything about this drone, the large size, the looks are awesome, and it is ultra easy to fly. The camera takes nice photos and flight stability is solid. The combination of flight time, long recharge time, and also spare batteries not being available at this time are the only reasons that I decided to round my overall 4.5 rating to 4 rather than up to 5. When Drocon makes spare batteries available, I will change my overall rating to a 5.Me:Before commenting on the Drocon DC-08 drone, let me start by saying that my background in the R/C arena consist of a few decades of flying mostly fixed wing aircraft. I've also dabbled with coaxial rotor heli and several drones with varying degrees of capability and difficulty. I'm providing my impression of the Drocon DC-08 in hope that at least some portion of my experience will be somewhat useful to other users. My review of this drone is from the standpoint that the product category is a beginner/novice GPS drone with video in the $100-$300 price range.Packaging:The drone arrived in a package that completely protected the contents from any damage. All major accessories (remote transmitter, propellers, battery, propeller guards are contained within 4 additional internal boxes. A layer of foam padding provides additional protection for the drone's camera and battery during shipping.Assembly:Assembly of the drone can be completed 100% without the use of tools, even though a spanner is provided to hold the motor stationary while the propeller are being installed. However, it was easy to hold the motor hub still with just my fingers. The whole assembly took about 15 minutes and consisted of installing the propellers, inserting propeller guards and legs, and finally plugging in camera and sliding it onto the bottom of the drone. After installing batteries in the R/C transmitter and drone, I was ready for little drone action.Flying:Flying the Drocon is easier than any drone that I own. When linked to GPS satellites, the stability is remarkable. The attached video is from the drone's camera on a windy (15mph winds) and gusty day. At approximately 52 seconds into the first video, you'll see the Drocon get hit by a gust of wind and completely recovered itself with absolutely no input from me on the transmitter. The drone and video was even more stable on my first flights on calm windless days. This thing is so easy to fly that it will take-off and land with a single long press of the appropriate icon in the phone app. However, I prefer to fly using the remote control which operates as a Mode-2 transmitter. Mode-2 transmitters has the height/throttle function on the left joystick and is the most common configuration used in United States. While I have not yet tried switching to high speed operation, I am inclined to say this drone is not intended for racing or aerobatics. Rather, I believe the Drocon DC-08 offers beginner pilots a very high probability of success without crashing, especially if the included instructions and warnings are followed. The funny thing about flying this drone is that it seemed to have an artificial intelligence version of self survival and self preservation, avoiding crashing to earth if all possible. What this means is that the drone tends to return safely toward its initial take-off location whenever something wrong is detected, such as low battery or lost radio signal. I have found that when the drone resisted one of the transmitter commands, it was attempting to stay in close proximity to its take-off location because the battery level was low.My recommendation is to avoid flying drones that use a headless mode for beginners. In my opinion, flying a headless drones makes flying 10 times easier; however, a headless feature encourages beginners to fly incorrectly and develop bad habits that will prove difficult to overcome when they want to advance in the future. The result for headless drone pilots is that they will lack the skills and appropriate reflexes to fly a drone without crashing unless it's either headless or FPV. I am happy that DC-08 Drocon does not offer a headless function. Also, this is not some small toy and is definitely an outdoor drone that is too large to be flown inside the house.Battery Power:The common comment that you may see in reviews is a desire for a longer flight time before the battery is exhausted. I agree. From take-off, to maintaining a constant 8.2 meter hover, to landing, the maximum flight time that I got 11 minutes and 07 seconds. This was achieved by forcing the drone not to land for as long as possible even though the low battery warning was beeping. At the end of the flight, the battery voltage was down to 6.04, which is lower than I like to see for a 2S lipo battery. In all fairness, when I repeated a battery test but allowed the drone to return home and auto-land, the final battery voltage was a respectable 7.88v. The flight time was shorter but final voltage was fine. To avoid abusing the battery, I recommend against forcing the drone to keep flying once the transmitter alarm starts beeping and the drone first attempts to return home. The drone will eventually auto-land to prevent damage to the battery or drone. Don't abuse the drone and both you and the drone will be happy.Charger:The battery has a long recharge time of approximately 4 hours which is longer than I would like to see. I believe this is due to using a USB charger which receives power from USB phone chargers or USB computer ports that have limited power output . Using USB ports would be a bottleneck that limits how fast the included charger can recharge the 2700mAH lipo. While the Drocon DC-08 is not a $1000 drone, it is a more serious drone than common toy drones that use USB chargers. Using a USB charger for this drone seems equalinent to forcing a hungry tiger to live on mice. This drone is a beast that needs to be fed some serious energy and the USB charger will eventually get the job done, but much too slow. This drone could really benefit from a higher power charger. I would like to see Drocon offer a fast charger that would take less than an hour to recharge the battery. In fact, I probably would prefer a fast charger over a spare battery.My last comment on the included USB charger is that when the charge is completed, the battery voltage was at 8.75v, which is higher than the 8.4v that's considered to be the upper limit for normal lipo batteries. However, some brands of lipo batteries support higher charge voltage so maybe the Drocon battery supports higher voltage as well. Nonetheless, for proper battery care, I would recommend running the battery down to around 50% if you intend to store the drone without using it for a long period of time . All voltage readings were made with a lipo battery voltage tester and verified with both a Fluke DMM and also a B6 type R/C hobby charger.Pros:1) Drocon has a lot of features for the money (1080 camera, vertical gimbal, Return-to-Home, Follow-me, Surround flight, auto-take-off and land, GPS and Compass) and each feature works very well.2) easy assembly3) easy to fly and awesome flight stability4) Camera produces very clear photos and video. Fast motion appears slightly delayed but I believe this due to the low performance of my android phone.5) no headless feature is a real plus (obviously this is just my opinion but it's my review)5) Drocon has a great Product Support Team.6) 1 year warranty.Cons:1) Flight time could be longer and recharge time should be shorter.2) Spare battery is not yet available. However, Drocon Support indicated that batteries, propellers and other spare parts are expected to be available in a few weeks.DC-08 recommendation for the manufacturer :1) Offer a fast charger that can charge the battery at 1C or faster. This would reduce the recharge time from 4 hours to 1 hour max.2) Keep up efforts to offer spare parts a high priority.3) Consider offering a version of the DC-08 that use brushless motors in order to increase efficiency and overall flight time. It could be called the DC-08-BR.4) Consider increasing return-home height to approximately to 20 meters. Mine drone returned at 11 meters. A height increase would allow clearance for a greater number of buildings and trees.

Pros: Arrived early, the drone box was well packed and the drone box itself and how it's arranged is awesome. One thing is for sure, you are not wasting any money on some aluminum carrying case. First test flight was limited due to weather conditions but went well, very stable in non GPS mode.Cons: The directions are in a 3" x 5" booklet and the print is very small, you can read most of it but one page you need a magnifying glass to read. Still working on setting up the GPS and phone app, first attempt failed. The directions on this could definitely use some help, I guess they figure you'll figure it out. They should include the micro SD card and extra batteries would be great.I really like this unit, it's well built and has some great features for the price!!!UPDATE: As with other reviewers, Drocon is of no help. Lots of talk, no action. How could they even build the drone without an explosion chart/parts list? Things crash, you fix them and fly again, not this drone. It's like Drocon wants you to buy another one of their drones so you can cannibalize it for parts, not going to happen. I was lucky and with my points and twenty percent off I'm only out 38 bucks, buyer beware!!!

The company is a scam to rob people. Everything in all complaints listed point to a similar method of fraud being done by most drone companies.#1 this product is basically a remake of a another companies drone... but with zero instructions and/or tech support also ZERO ability to purchase spare parts.#2 typically a chinese company will use surplus or returned parts to do a small production of drones with similar but not compatible shells and build features then watch as you throw money at a second and third because of low quality, no tech support, and or lack of spare parts. yadda yaddaso this drone actually in my opinion is nice if you realize it has to be caliberated EVERY TIME PRIOR TO FLIGHT. (not at all referenced)... but ... remote control handset is garbage. also it just will not remain stationary no matter what anyone says. having 5 pound objects fall from sky is not safe and this will always break when it does.... being lowest bidder chinese garbage like 99% OF ALL AMAZON IS.I have a purchase history on my amazon account with dozens of items and almost EVERYTHING after 30 days is broken and worthless that is only when i actually get what i ordered... another story of fraud and deception by amazon... ebay same issues but is actually more reliable now than amazon nowadays.... just saying have a nice day...may it be comcastic