I have used numerous low-priced drones before.
I’m not looking for anything too professional (and expensive), I wanted something basic and inexpensive and I know HR does make cheaper priced drones. But most importantly, test the 4K video camera recording. This is the primary focus, video capture!
At this pricepoint, I expected the usual performance of 15 minutes of flight time, 3-4 hour battery charge.
And for this brushless GPS drone, the HR 4K Camera GPS Drone is something I wanted to try. I like the fact that it’s almost ready to go out of the box. You just need to charge the battery and apply the guards (you don’t have to but it’s definitely worth doing). In addition, you get four extra blades which is cool.
After I installed the battery, I hit the second top left button and it activated the drone and it elevated and literally it takes off. I was trying the return back but in fears of getting lost, I had to pull down on the left for it to stay down before it went to someone’s back yard. So, definitely practice this in an open field first to get a hang of it.
While the drone did work, there was one major problem that really affects the score of this drone. It’s the app.
Use a QR Code Reader and it will take you to the software to download for iOS or Android.
The app doesn’t work on an Android device (I tried ony my Sony Xperia and Samsung Galaxy S10). It will turn on, it will go on the main app screen but it will not connect to the drone.
As mentioned, the main reason of what I wanted to use this drone for the 4K video camera recording footage, was not possible. The 5G Wifi Real-Time transmission was not possible.
It appears the reviewers who were able to get the app to work were Apple iPhone owners. Unfortunately, I no longer have an iPhone, so I wasn’t able to test this out on an iOS device.
So, as a drone to have fun flying around, this drone is perfect for that. But for video and photos, you will need to depend on the phone app software, which in my case, for Android devices, it doesn’t work, so that really defeats the purpose if that is your primary goal.
Last but not least, the instructions are not exactly going to help you get far. Turn on drone? There is a button that turns on the lights, but is this the actual “on” button? Is the white circle on top the “on” button?
I’ve used cheaper drones in the past that took photos because the software worked, but if the software doesn’t work (as mentioned I tested this on two Android devices), I wasn’t able to test the full capabilities of this drone, but only using the handheld controller. And looking at other reviews, others have experienced the same issue.
So, if using this as a drone to fly and have fun for 15 minutes, it works perfectly well. But if you want to use it for video or photos, this may not what you may be looking for.
The HR 4K Camera GPS Drone is something I can’t recommend until the Android phone app is fixed.
