review – If you have ever considered buying drone, many questions may have crossed your mind. How much should I spend? What if it crashes? Do I need GPS? Do I need a license? Is it difficult to master? So many questions. To this day, I’m still that person. I have never piloted a drone before.ahem, I never seen A drone up close until I received the Holy Stone HS360 drone for review. I don’t know how much is involved just navigating a drone in my backyard.
A month after HS360 flew (and crashed), some things became clear. If you’ve never flown a drone before, it will take some time to get comfortable with it.you will Let your drone crash. Flying a drone while learning is stressful.
The main lesson I’ve learned is that the Holy Stone HS360 is a really cool drone that I can fly around my 1+ acre backyard. However, if you are new to drones, I would not recommend buying this model.
What is it?
The Holy Stone HS360 is a mid-to-high-end drone that takes time to master (especially for beginners). It features a folding design, GPS, 2.5K (2560 X 1440 p) camera, image stabilization on a 2-axis gimbal, live camera feed while flying, brushless motors, return home and emergency stop. It can even follow users.
The HS360 includes a transmitter (controller) that holds a smartphone), two batteries, extra propellers, charging cable, and carrying case.what is no Includes a TF card (for recording video or photos) and AA batteries for the transmitter.
glasses
- Weight: 9.75 oz.
- Dimensions: 11 x 8.25 x 2 inches (unfolded)
- Flight time: 23 minutes (per battery)
- Flight distance: 2600-29.5 feet.
- Image resolution: 2560 x 1440p (TF card); 3840 x 2160p (4K stored on smartphone
- Video Resolution: 2560 x 1440p (TF card); 1920 x 1080p (4K stored on smartphone
- Charging time: 6 hours
- Maximum TF card capacity: 128GB
inside the box
- HS360 RC Drone
- transmitter
- 2 rechargeable drone batteries
- USB charging cable
- 4 additional propellers
- case
- screwdriver
Design and Features
Flying a drone is more complicated than I thought. The preparation required before each flight is a step-by-step process:
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- Extend the propeller arms
- Check the propellers for damage (this will affect the flight)
- Insert the rechargeable battery
- Turn on the drone
- Open the transmitter
- Open the app
- Set smartphone wifi to drone (depending on where you live, other wifi connections may interfere)
- Insert the smartphone into the phone holder
- Manually rotate (horizontally and vertically) the drone to calibrate the GPS
- Calibrate the gyroscope
- Wait for GPS to activate (never use GPS at home)
- Turn on the drone and fly
Keep in mind that skipping any of these steps may prevent the HS360 from activating or flying properly. Heck, sometimes even if you do every step correctly, it still won’t fly. You must then repeat these steps until the HS360 is flying. I’ve since learned that drones are finicky things, especially when it comes to wifi and GPS.
The launcher looks like a racing game controller. There are two toggle joysticks to control vertical lift and flight direction. As someone who has never used such a controller, I’m still learning to use the features without having to think about it.
There is a small LED window in the center of the transmitter that shows many functions/settings such as signal strength, battery level, setting mode, altitude and distance. LEDs are easy to see even in bright sunlight. I need more flight time to understand all the information on the screen at a glance. Now, I just want to keep the drone from flying into one of our many 100+ foot pine trees.
There are two folded antennas on top of the transmitter. There’s a slide-out kickstand for the smartphone on the bottom. I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max, so it’s a bit big. While it fits snugly against the HS360’s stand, the iPhone’s case adds enough extra width that it doesn’t fit. As a case fanatic, requiring my iPhone to be “naked” in order to fit doesn’t make me feel safe.
The drone itself is fairly light. Eight propellers are mounted on four folding arms. There is a rechargeable battery slot on one end of the fuselage (two are provided). The other end mounts the camera on the gimbal. The gimbal helps stabilize the camera, resulting in smoother, less jerky video.
Holy Stone includes a nice protective case to protect the HS360 drone and all its components.
Once all the prep steps are done and the propellers start spinning, that’s when the fun begins. Pushing the left joystick forward will lift the drone straight up to your desired altitude (within the parameters of the drone). Keep in mind that propeller speed (and noise) increases a lot once in the air. Just make sure you don’t let the drone fly directly into your face :).
One of the coolest aspects of flying a drone is that, using your smartphone, you can see what the drone is seeing in real time through the built-in 2.5K (2560X1440) camera. It’s cool to look at a smartphone screen while flying. You can even switch cameras and drones to see yourself below. I’ve been able to fly short distances to get a bird’s-eye view of my house and backyard studio building. It gives you a whole new perspective on your property.
Flying a drone has helped me realize its potential—for example, investigating damage after a storm or hurricane (I live in Central Florida) without having to trek through unstable or dangerous areas. But I digress.
Not only can you see what the drone sees, but you can also record photos or videos on a TF card (not included) or in the app itself. The image/video is stored in the smartphone app and can be moved to the location where the smartphone video is saved. Available photo/video quality depends on where they are stored. Higher resolution videos can be stored on the smartphone itself, but TF cards can only store lower resolution videos. Video recording can be started via the button on the top of the transmitter or within the app.
There are two ways to control the camera on the gimbal. There is a tilt knob on the top of the transmitter. It looks like it should rotate, but it doesn’t. Push and pull the knob to control the up and down movement of the camera. This can also be done (and easier) in the app by clicking the up and down arrows in its “pitch” function.
In addition to controlling the camera, the app has many functions and settings. While a physical joystick controls the drone’s flight, the app itself can record video, take selfies automatically, track the user with GPS, and perform many more functions. It even shows the drone’s location on the map.
Since the app relies on a smartphone, using small-screen icons in the sun is difficult at best. I find myself looking for shade just to look at the screen.
Once set up, the GPS will allow the HS360 drone to follow you back to where it took off. These settings can be found in the application window.Note that when I try the return function, the drone does set up what it’s taking off, but it’s not precise point, so make sure you start your flight in an open area away from trees or water.
Keep in mind that depending on where you live or plan to fly your drone, there may be strict rules about how to use it. Also, do not fly the drone over power lines, trees or open water. Just use common sense. Wind also affects how drones fly. It’s light, so even a breeze can push it in different directions if you’re not paying close attention.
what do I like
- Extra propeller!
- let you “fly”
- Record flight video
- Smartphone app lets you view flights in real time
- Fun – once you get the hang of it
what would i change
- Picky connections are easily lost
- Multi-step setup
- Too detailed for beginners
final thoughts
As much as I love the Holy Stone HS360 drone, I wouldn’t recommend buying it – unless you have experience flying drones. The HS360 sells for about $270, which is too expensive for a learning drone. If you’re trying to decide whether you can use a flying drone, I highly recommend starting with a cheap drone. That way, you can fly, crash and repeat until you’re comfortable. Then you can upgrade to a better drone such as the HS360. It is the perfect intermediate drone between beginners and experts.
price: $269.99.
Where to buy: Amazon
source: Samples of this product are provided by holy stone.
