Side by Side Comparison of: USA Toyz vs Syma

Bought this for a birthday gift for my husband and comedy ensued. The first run outside, yes the first.. managed to get it stuck about 60ft up in a tree. He blames the wind, I might blame inexperience.. long story short.. He managed to get it down a day later after furiously throwing random things at said tree, what finally worked was a nylon rope with a weight tied on the end if you're curious. Why am I including this hilarious story on the review you might ask and here is your answer for that. After being hung up 60ft in the air and being hit several times with various flying objects and sitting overnight, then lassoed with a rope and knocked 60ft hard fall out of a tree... this thing didn't have a scratch on it. I'm not even kidding, aside from the battery being dead (obviously) there wasn't a single thing wrong with it and not one piece broken. It still works, still flies, still does tricks, not a scratch on it. If that's not 5 star, I don't know what is.

Well I must say that this worked beautifully, and had more power to it than I expected. Not yet knowing how to maneuver it very well, I thought the vacant lot I was in was big enough. It wound up in one of the neighborhoods in the middle of the street. My son and I jumped in the car, drove over to the next block. A couple of the neighbors were helping me look for it. There it was sitting right in the middle of the street and thankfully it did not get run over by a car. It is wonderful to play with and the extra battery that came with it was appreciated. You're going to need it because each battery will only last about 15 minutes. It lights up...it does flips in the air and I had quite a bit of fun with it. I'm going to buy several more batteries for it and take my son out to the desert where he can fly it, without the concern of it landing on someone's roof. The directions say you cannot fly near homes or buildings or powerlines or trees. Take it seriously because this thing will really take off.

On first opening the package, I was impressed with everything that this drone came with! Not only was there a 4gb micro SD card, but also a USB card reader for plugging into a PC to see your pictures and video! There were also 2 full sets of replacement propellers, a small Phillips screwdriver for changing the propellers, a replacement set of the small white gears that drive the propellers underneath, 2 batteries with charger, and of course the controller, manual, and Drone itself. The ONLY thing not included that I needed to get flying and recording video was the 4 AA batteries for the controller.Each battery gives a flight time of between 7 and 8 minutes, and they take approximately 20 minutes to charge, though that may depend on the specific usb charger you plug into. It is nice that they are charged via a USB port, since that means you can take any usb power-pack along with you and recharge the Drone batteries while you are out and about.Controls are pretty straight forward, with various modes depending on familiarity and skill level, including one that determines how sensitive/reactive it is to moving around. Pretty good instructions too.I would have added a flight video as well, but unfortunately amazon does not allow posting video AND pictures, and I wanted to show you the picture of everything included in the box.The one recommendation I have is to NOT land this in the dirt - I made this mistake thinking it would be better than the grass, however just an inch or so above the four feet on bottom are the gears driving the propellers above. So when it landed, some dirt got up in there and had to be brushed/blown out before my next flightOverall happy with this particular model and the general ease of use.I received this item at no charge for an unbiased review and my honest opinion. I do my best to help you make an informed purchase, so if this was not helpful for you please comment and let me know what further info you are looking for.

Bought this for my grown up son at christmas. He loves it! He does have experience with R/C airplanes so he is not a novice. He was flying it in the house on Christmas day. He even did a flip (accidentally pushing the button). He has been flying it a lot and hasnt been able to destroy it yet. He did manage to get it too high and the wind carried it away, lucky to find it again. This drone is very durable. It seems to take excellent video. I am planning to purchase one for myself. I dont know if we can fly together or if we will interfere with each others machine.

My son has been asking for one of these forever but I was hesitant since we have gone through a dozen flying toys that he couldn't really fly and/or broke quickly. This one is soooo different. Right out of the box he was able to fly this really well -even outside in a good breeze. It is super fun for the whole family and takes a crash landing like a champ. We have not played with camera yet. I will provide update when we do.

 I am just getting into flying quadcopters and after a lot of research decided on this one as my first. This is much better than I even expected and a ton of fun to fly. It can go at a pretty decent speed,height and is very durable. It will hold up well for the crash landings that are bound to come with learning how to fly. Here are a few tips and observations-Buy a 5 pack of batteries to continue the fun ($19)-This gets blown by the wind easily so make sure you have plenty of room.It also makes it more challenging to fly so it's great for learning.-Reset the gyro if it starts flying weird. (Pair controller,then right stick down and then to the right until the main LED blinks)-The camera is fine for capturing videos but don't be expecting go-pro like footage for $100.-The return home function only works in headless mode and you must hold down the function button the entire flight back to where you first paired it.-Taking off the outer shell really makes it a lot faster and more maneuverable.-The props probably aren't going to cut you but be careful anyways.-If the videos start slowing down or becoming choppy,format the sd card. Just make sure to do it in Fat 32 and add a PHOTO and VIDEO folder-You need to hit the video button again to save the recording and stop it. If you just shut off the controller it won't save.-Fly in mode 2. It's much faster and responsive-Have fun!!!UPDATE: For whatever reason the footage looks pixelated on this video. It must be on Amazons side because it doesn't on my computer. The file format is in avi and can't be changed by the way.

I'm pretty blown away by the price/performance ratio - it really exceeded my expectations.

I think this drone is great for beginners and can be used even after you are no longer a beginner. It's very stable, light, and durable. The "web cam" on the bottom is fine for playing around and many replace it with a better one later.

The copter is well supported by the market with many options for replacement parts, cases and additional batteries. All of these parts are reasonably priced.

Durability is excellent. We have crashed several times and the unit still looks and performs perfectly. We are using the optional (and included) blade protectors which probably helped.

This model does not have a "headless" mode (where the drone controls are simplified). In "normal" (not headless) mode, the drone has a front, similar to an RC car and the controls are relative to the direction the drone is facing. In headless mode, the drone has no concept of a "front" and forwards is always defined as the same direction relative to the remote. Headless mode is nice for young children or users who are too casual to invest learning time. In terms of learning to fly, headless mode has limited use in that it removes maneuvers that are possible with the normal control system.

One additional caveat is that the larger size of this drone (large dinner plate) makes it less optimal for indoor flight. You might consider getting this and another syma drone for this (such as the X12S) because the remotes are interchangeable between the two.

Bought this for our 9 yo for Christmas 2015. Within minutes we both had it down and we were good enough to even fly it indoors.

This thing just works! Fires up every time and rarely needs to be trimmed. We've run into walls, trees, etc. and it still flies like a champ.

I don't know if all drones are this easy or if we're spoiled by this one. I'd say this is the one to get if you're a beginner.

If you are looking at your first mini-quad, as I was when I purchased this, then your looking at the right product. Let me start off by saying that I have had zero experience with quads before this and after about 2 weeks I have mastered my orientation and am having a blast each time I take this thing out. I was immediately hooked when I first went outside with it, but a tip is to stay low to the ground and use the prop guards and landing gear for a good amount of time until you can handle this mini-quad. Parts are plentiful and really cheap as well, so don't forget to get some extra parts kits for those beginners' crashes because we all have them!

Here are the things I really love about this quad.
*Totally modular
*Very stable
*Very nimble when flying without prop guards and camera, almost too nimble, master orientation before giving this a shot.
*The camera I received was indeed HD to an extent, but I received the X5C-1 version by luck which also included a 4gb micro sd card.
*This quad is perfect for the beginner until you can move up to a 350 size quad.
*A very popular bang for your buck quad that can amaze your friends and family.

Here are a few of the cons to my personally, but I did not retract a star for them.
*Stock battery at 500 mAh is paltry, buy the Tennitor 4 pack of 600 mAh with a 4 in one charger for extra fun.
*Li-Po batteries can be dangerous and requires extra money to be spent for good balance chargers also please pick up a Li-Po charging bag! Your house will thank you for that.
*All the extra parts and batteries need a case, which go for around 35 bucks, again it is costing more money, but it makes it easy to take to the park.
*The stock range is crap on this quad, grab a 2.4 ghz wifi router antennae and solder it in the remote receiver. Doing this simple and cheap mod will double, if not close to triple the range.

I tried to cover everything I have learned in the past 2 weeks, it has been a wonderful ride so far. I just finished the range boost today for my quad and the new X5C-1's have a different setup for soldering an antennae than what was shown on some vids I watched. Leave a comment if you have a question regarding this or anything else. If my comment was helpful to you, please give me a yes for helpful comment and thanks for taking the time to read my review.

Amazing product for the price. This is the first quadcopter I've ever flown or owned. If you want to learn how to use a camera quadcopter/drone before buying a bigger more expensive version get this to start. It does take some practice to fly but was quite easy once I learned how. Fly it indoors to start and keep it a couple inches off the ground until you get the hang of it. Use the trim buttons on the remote to zero it in. The first time I flew this outdoors I got it caught in a tree because my piloting skills weren't good enough yet. I had to duct tape a 20 foot painters pole to a 16 foot tree saw pole to get high enough to get it down. Even after falling through the tree branches all the way to the ground it was completely undamaged. It feels cheap but it is remarkably tough. Today I flew it in an open park area and even with some strong breezes I was able to control it. It takes some concentration but this copter is precise enough that you can hover and land on a platform that is 6 inches square or even on your own hand. For the price I paid I have zero complaints. The battery life is not very long but for less than 9 bucks you can buy these two extra batteries like I did. Mudder Upgraded 680mAh 3.7V Lipo Rechargeable Battery for Syma X5 X5C Quadcopter. I would also recommend putting a rubber band around the middle of the copter to hold the battery door/camera on better. If you bump the ground too hard it could pop the battery door open. Easy fix. Video quality is not crystal clear and not stabilized so don't expect professional footage but for the price you can't beat it. It also records sound but likely you will only hear the propellers and wind noise. Still, it is pretty cool that it even has sound. This thing is great! Go get one. I might even buy a second one.

First off, this product arrived on time and undamaged.

Overall Impression:
This Quadcopter is a great little R/C "toy" for it's price.

History (What I Use It For):
I bought this product for my father (a retired pilot) who has Parkinson's Disease and Heart complications (replaced aortic valve, etc), so you can imagine he is not the most mobile or coordinated anymore. However, that being stated, he has no problem flying this in our fields. My reasoning for buying him this product is that he use to be heavily into R/C flying and had a workshop specifically built for building planes (both R/C and real planes). Before his health started to fade, he flew his R/C planes daily (weather permitting of course) and frequently built models for local clubs and aviation museums. However, after his first surgery, he no longer was able to accurately fly and he sold all of his planes (which you could tell broke his heart). Recently, I found this product and thought, what the heck, it seems stable…and indeed it is if there is no wind and the trim is adjusted properly. He was originally opposed to trying it, since he feared crashing it via his health symptoms, but after I finally made him take the controls, he fell in love with it. You could see the spark reignite his R/C aviation flame. As such, for the price, it is a wonderful and stable product. To top it off, I pressed the down button for him to record his flight and he was very impressed to see the farm from such a vantage point later on the computer. He always wanted to do that with his R/C planes, but never got around to it.

Pros:
1) This Quad is very stable in calm winds (no wind is best) and with proper trims set, which is easy to do (check your manual).
2) Very light weight and the blades have a protective guard to reduce injury potentials.
3) Flies accurately with good control handling.
4) LED lights aid in dawn and dusk flights in terms of directionality (not so much during the daylight though).
5) Comes with propeller blade replacements in case of damage (4 total).
6) The camera is actually quite good in daylight conditions, not excellent, but still impressive. Not worth attempting though in darker conditions.
7) Decent Battery Life. The Quadcopter's internal battery, which you charge via USB connections (unless you buy a different adapter which we didn't), lasts about 7-14 minutes pending the amount of torture you put it through (attitudes, speed variations, maneuvers, camera utilization, winds you are fighting, etc).
8) Accessories are easy to come buy. I also bought, separately of course, four extra batteries, an extra 4 USB battery charger (buy one, you won't regret it), spare parts, and a carrying case with foam inserts specifically fit for it. Since I wanted a tighter fit for the chargers, batteries, and spare parts, I simply heated a screwdriver tip with a lighter and then melted smooth segments in the foam case to fit each piece perfectly (be care if you decide to do this and do it in a well ventilated area). Now my father has everything he needs in one light weight case... which is ideal.
9) The batteries recharge quickly, about 60 minutes total with both chargers in use (the single one it came with and the extra one I bought with four charger docks). If you choose to buy a separate 4 battery charger like we did, you can spend your day flying the Quad longer with all 5 batteries (the one it comes with and the four separate dock one we bought extra), and then have them all recharge again in about an hour to go out flying again. It averages out to be about 35-70 minutes of flight time (usage dependent according to each battery's specs.) to only one hour of charge time. We personally average about 60 minutes each time we went out (with all five batteries) with a one hour charge duration. I assume if you so desired, you could bring a computer along and charge during flights too, but I wouldn't recommend it since the little motors should have some time to cool down between flights (to extend their life and not burn them out).

Cons:
1) It is difficult identifying directionality when it gets further away or higher in elevation. As you can imagine, since it is completely symmetrical, any directional cues vanish as it travels any distance. It does have LED lights to show directionality, which is great at dusk and/or dawn flights, but the lights are not clearly visible in daylight. It takes some practice to learn and might have been better if the product had been painted in two separate bright colors to easily address such a concern. However, for the price, that is truly not a flaw of the product, just personal preference.
2) The Quad can be touchy in terms of synchronizing with the controller. Basically, make sure the Quad is level when starting of, otherwise, it tends to just blink like crazy (from the LEDs) and does nothing. This is once again not a true product issue, but a personal method we had to learn. Also, if the Quad starts drifting abnormally in flight where the trim isn't helping (and wind is not the issue), just land it, turn both it and the controller off, then turn them back on and re-sync it again. It took us a bit of time to figure that out, but it is not so difficult with practice. This is a product issue that more expensive Quads usually don't have, but for the price, it really isn't an issue.

Special Safety Notes:
1) PLEASE fly responsibly. Even though this Quad is an inexpensive "toy," its blades can cut you our injury spectators.
2) Keep all spectators at a safe distance.
3) Only fly this in an open area. Since this product is so light, the higher you go, the more the wind picks up and carries it away. Therefore, make sure you have enough space to account for that incase it is not powerful enough to deal with it. For example, we have a few large fields with neighboring tree lines. During one particular flight, when the Quad flew above the tree line height, the winds increased drastically. So much that in 5 seconds the quad drifted 500 yards in the opposite direct we were flying it with the controls peaked. This is important to consider since we had very little wind in the field region itself. It was only when we reach higher altitudes when the winds picked up (in that particular case). Therefore, if we had not had enough land to safety bring it down, it might have crashed. If you were not flying in a safe region and the same thing happened, you too might have crashed and/or injured someone if the reception was ever lost (via distance).
4) Anyone new to flying should not fly this indoors nor at any extreme heights until you learn how to fly it fluently. Once again, directionality becomes and issue since it is painted one white tone and since it is so symmetrical. As such, unless the lighting is dim enough to see the LEDs, it might prove difficult for a newbie to know what direction they are flying before it becomes too late.
5) Before Flying The Quad to maximum heights and in ruff conditions, you should always break-in any R/C motors. I do not know if they already do this in the factory prior to delivery for this model, but a safe bet is to spend one battery spinning the propellers at slower speeds to break-in the motors. It is too simple of a process not to do if it means not burning out your motors on their initial flight.
6) Have Fun, just be smart doing it.

Conclusion:
This product is worth every penny and was able to re-spark an elderly man's old passion for R/C aviation. I fully recommend this product to any R/C hobbits, both veterans to the hobby and/or newbies, who have the common sense to fly this safely and responsibly. It is truly a blast to fly.

I've included 3 photos to present the camera's quality: One of a deer in a field during the onset of dusk, and 2 just above the same field's tree line during the day.

I hope this review helps.

So far, my son is loving this thing. Because these drones are so light, they tend to be hard to fly in conditions with any wind - this one is no exception; in fact, he had a harder time controlling this in wind than his last, light $50 drone. It's nice that the props are a bit more protected with this design.With that said, he is loving the extra battery included to extend the flight time and the quick charge nature. We'll see how it holds up.

This drone works great so far, its controls are fairly easy to manipulate and it responds very well, the batteries don't last very long though, usually around 7-8 mins. Overall I enjoy this drone, my biggest complaint about it is that it is so flimsy , it's made out of the thinnest plastic you can imagine, I know it has to be light for flight capabilities, but it' s really thin, but beyond that it works very well and the red and blue lights on it look really cool , especially at night , if someone sees it at a distance they probably think it's a UFO. It came with an extra battery and also some extra propeller blades. This model also has a camera that works and the quality of the video and pics are decent. Overall for the money, I think it's a great buy.

super fun to fly... once you get the hang of it.this is my first drone and initially, it was a bit tough to get the hang of. After a little bit of practice, easy as can be. Its really fun to break out when company is around just to let every have a go.sturdy enough to make it through "hard landings" but I wouldn't try flying it into the side of a building.The battery life is a bit lacking... but easily remedied by ordering extra batteries.

It worked really well for my kids to learn to fly at Christmas. It was stable and easy to control. We ordered extra batteries for extended play. And the camera took surprisingly good videos! However, the 4 GB micro SD card that came with it did not work. We installed a new micro SD card pulled from my camera, and then it worked just fine. We have only played with it for one day, but it took all of the abuse that novice flyers could give it. The kids took it home with them, so I have not yet heard of further use. Note: you will need a reader or adapter to play the micro SD videos on the computer. Also, the videos were turned upside down, so some video editing is necessary (good to have kids in the house.)

This is a great beginer drone. Especially if you want it for the image and video quality.Pros:The video quality is very good and so is the image quality.This drone flies easier and has more control then past drones i have purchased.Both batteries can be charged at the same time! :)Light weight (good and bad)Cons:Camera doesnt have different angles and slightly points downward, is not able to be moved up or down it just stays in one position.Does not have option for use with bluetooth or screen to see what you are recording or taking photos of.Plastic parts wear away easily such as the gears.Overall great drone for the price

For under $100, this thing is great. This is my first quad copter and this one is easy to control, takes decent video and still pics. I've included a pic from about 200ft up. Pretty durable too. I've crashed landed this into trees, onto concrete and bounced it off walls, It's a very forgiving design. I didn't give it 5 stars for a couple reasons. The first is that if there is anything more than a gentle breeze, the wind catches it pretty easily. The second reason is that the power bank that came with it is pretty weak. It only charged the two batteries one time. I tried charging my cell phone with it and it only gave my phone a 10% charge. But, that part was free. Do yourself a favor and order a couple extra batteries. Flight time is only about 5-7 Minutes before it starts beeping at you as a warning of a low battery.Overall, great value and good fun for a beginner!

This is a very enjoyable drone for the price. The video isn't HD but considering... It's pretty good for the price. Get extra batteries... They have a charger plus 6 batteries for cheap too... And those batteries are 750 vs 500 that it comes with, I've got 11 minutes flight time out of them depending on what they are doing.

My reason for 4 stars? This drone for some reason has the left control function differently than my other 2 drones. All the way down is stop, like a throttle, versus the other two where is it centered by default so if you want it to hover you just have to not move it. Because if this, when you rotate the drone or similar, you often increase or decrease the up or down motion as well. Its not a huge issue and I have no problem flying it, but it's just odd that it isn't like the others. I have the hand sized version by this maker and it has the centered left control. It's also very sensitive, if you deflect it left or right just a tiny bit it will rotate. You will have to concentrate on this one a bit more in tight quarters for sure. It's not a deal breaker, but if someone showed me a controller for if that was centered instead, I'd probably invest in it just to have it work like the others.

Other than that, it's great, and 10 minutes flight time with the larger capacity batteries makes it very fun.

This quadcopter got listed on an aggregating site I use to look at daily deals around the internet, so when I saw the reviews coupled w/ the features coupled w/ the price, I thought 'why not'?I had no experience w/ flying one of these and yet 5 minutes out of the box we were off and running. Admittedly, the flying takes some finesse and there is a learning curve (mine has consisted of crashing. A lot.) but it won't take you long to feel like you're ready to go shopping for a silk scarf, goggles and leather jacket so you can Top Gun your way across your yard. I got a little too exuberant and flew it pretty hard into a tree. Recovering it resulted in breaking one of the motors, so now it's a 'tri'copter. :( The Syma is a great product and was not the problem, it was my lack of foresight to not fly it in the middle of a grove of trees. How dumb is that, anyway?!Seriously though, I am impressed the Syma offers this level of product at this price point. And it's fun and easy to start flying; so much so that I've already ordered a replacement.

This drone is great! The controller is a little bulky and the controls a little touchy. but once you get used to it, it is great! i bought this for my 10 year old son and he absolutely loves it. We opened the package and found that you can buy mulitiple battery replacements at a great price. This is a great drone for starting out. I figure I can let him get used to controlling something like this and then when he is a little older, invest is something with a better camera!. This item was shipped quickly and packaged well. This drone is great fun for kids and adults!

Great little entry level drone. The camera is not the greatest but I bought it mostly to get used to flying a drone. It comes with a remote control. I found the key is most new drone owners move the controls too much. Make small movements until you get used to the drone and then maybe you can race your neighbor. The batters allow for about 6 to 8 minutes...if you are going to fly it any distance I would be heading back to the take off spot after about 5 minutes. The camera is not great but I mostly wanted this low end drone to practice flying. I have found that the extra (and I do recommend extras) batteries you can buy for this unit don't all give you the same amount of time. I highly recommend this drone as a starter.

Battery dies quickly

Fair TOY but is VERY light and is only usable on a dead calm day or indoors. Battery lasts a VERY short time but for a child would be a great toy.

This quadcopter was a lot of fun to fly for the 5 minutes that I was able to fly it. I flew it on an evening with very little breeze but it was enough to take the quadcopter very far away from me and now it is lost. It didn't have enough power to be able to push back against the very slight breeze to come back to me. So overall it was a lot of fun, I didn't get a chance to look at the couple of pictures that I took before the breeze took it away into the woods and crashed.

Very delicate. Controller had an issue but we didn't get it returned in time.It doesn't do well outside, so our son flies it in the woodshop.

The good: This drone is fun to fly when you get the hang of it. It will go pretty high and is still able to be controlled in light winds. The camera is fairly good but that shouldn't be the selling feature. It's also pretty sturdy. I have dropped it from the sky, banged into walls and my dog even catches it out of the air sometimes. It's still going strong.The bad: Batteries! I have had this drone for close to 2 months and I ordered 2 new batteries for a total of 4. ALL of them do not get more than 3-5 minutes of flying time. This kind of takes the fun out of it because you have to charge 4 batteries to get any kind of flying time that is worth it. Also, the controller starts beeping when the battery is almost out and it's kind of annoying. Mine starts beeping sometimes less than a minute after I start flying it.

 This drone is okay. I am constantly having to trim it because it never flies stable, even indoors. The video camera quality is not good. When it takes video the video becomes wavy. It can only fly for about 5 minutes before it has to be recharged. It is very light and the wind catches it easily.

Worked great for a couple weeks, now it looses connection randomly and sticks with your last remote command.I.E. On take off I gave full throttle. From 10 feet away my remote lost connection and my drone went up, up, up, and away.... It came down in my neighbors yard so I got it back. This thing is durable if nothing else and image quality is decent, amazing for the price I'd say, but the connection issue is a big deal. It's fun for a while, but I'm on the fence about recommending it. I am not super happy with it, but I also don't not recommend it.

I received my X5C a week ago. My first medium size quad-copter. I also bought 6 matching batteries for it. I charged them all up and went to a park near by to fly.1- It is light. So the wind knocked around quite a bit. With 5+ mph,you can't fly it in mode 1. Use mode 2.2- The controller range really sucks. It lost signal only a bout 30 - 40 meters. It started to fly away. I had to chase after it with the left stick pulled all the way down. It picked up the signal just to turn off the props. It then just dropped out of the sky on to the grass. About 3 stories high drop. That was scary.3- I have to admit; it's a tough drone. Lucky I had the prop-guards on.4- The motor gears are exposed at the bottom, so some dirt got on them. I was done for the day. Took it home to clean out the dirt, afraid that the dirt would ruin the plastic gears.5- I was able to snap some pictures with the camera. The pictures were below average. I recorded some videos; and that was also below average.6- I mod the 2.4ghz antenna using some YouTube videos. I was able to get another 10 meters reliably. I can walk away every few meters and test; and the quad would still pickup the signal; but not reliably. In other words, it would turn propellers on but have no control. I 'd wave the transmitter around and would get the signals back. I was able start the propellers at distances more than 100 meters, but I wouldn't trust to get it into the air.7- The Battery time is about 4 - 7 minutes. Which is not bad for 750 mah. But be careful as soon as the battery lights blink (seconds), it will drop out of the sky.All in all - this is a good beginner quad-copter. It can take a beating. But I wouldn't fly it too high and keep it around 30 meters away max. Syma need to fix the range problem. And they should have auto landing built into the firmware as soon as it lose signal with the transmitterps: Keep a small needle nose pliers around to take out the battery for it is a tight fit connection.

It's fun but takes some practice to get the hang of it. I recommend practicing in a big field because you are going to crash a lot and the grass is way better to land on than concrete or a roof!The pieces snap together pretty easily and the remote requires 4 AA batteries.I wish I read more into this before purchasing because you have to load a USB into the computer to see the pictures/video which I didnt like. I wish you could see as you fly.

Limited in that it didn't last very long before it died. This was the first drone I've had that was big/stable enough to take outside. For less than $50 it's a pretty decent flyer and the range was better than expected. Will it hover in place like a Phantom? Nah, but one shouldn't expect that. This little guy flew well and handled fine. The camera on mine never seemed to work, but that didn't detract from the fun of flying for myself or my daughter. Structurally, it's really not bad. It's taken a number of tumbles and has nary a scratch or any deformation. However, after roughly 10 flights, one of the motors has failed and the controller and drone won't sync 80% of the time. I was hoping it would last a bit longer than this...

Don't get me wrong, this is a fun drone. It's flying behavior is amazing, super easy to control and very stable. My 7 year old son can fly it with ease. And the quality of the videos (720p) it takes is actually much better than I expected, pretty steady too. But the big problem this drone has is range and its out-of-range behavior. As soon as you are 50ft or further away from the drone this thing will lose connection and just keep going!We've had this drone for 1 hour - and had to go hunt it down in the neighborhood 3 times. Luckily it's pretty big and easy to see with its blinking red and green lights. But if I don't return it asap I know I will lose it soon.Unless you want to fly this drone indoors only, or on a big open field where you can catch up to it when it's trying to escape, then I recommend you look for a different model. This is what we will do...

Cool product with promise. But the instructions are poorly translated into English, and I had to pull hard at various parts to assemble it when it wasn't clear if that was the necessary move or would destroy the product. Fortunately, I guessed correctly. Pull the battery cover off with some strength but gently.Also hard to control, but that might take time.NOTE: Try flying this the first time away from any trees or tall objects!!!

Extremely short battery life. Huge disappointment in that aspect. Besides that...a decent drone. ...but again, the battery life is horrific.

returned

Drove us crazy, did not fly when it was supposed to, and the only way to get it to work was to reset the connections. This could be a cool toy, with some better engineered components. Very frustrating. Christmas present Failed.

If you are looking to get into actual drone piloting this is not what you want to start on! This is nothing more then a children's toy that handles nothing like an actual drone. It's also a necessity to fly this thing in a very open area like a field. It's handeling is to unpredictable to be flown around ANYTHING.

One of the four trim buttons on transmitter is inoperable. It came out of the box this way

For the price this should have a real time camera and display. The controller is shoddy and hard to use.

mine arrived missing a screw for one of the blade protectors which means it will not fly straight. I am experimenting with putting tiny pieces of tape on that arm to balance the unit out but so far all it does is fly towards the side of the missing screw. I guess the balance of this gyro is very very critical to be able to fly it at all. I dont think trim can fix the weight imbalance and the screw is too tiny to find at the local hardware store, it's a little bigger than one in your glasses hinges.

Great product so far. I got the thing running without reading the manual and have it all calibrated. Tomorrow i will try it outside if its not raining or windy. The only bad thing is the battery doesn't last to long that's why i bought the extra batteries with the higher amps because it takes little over an hour to charge. Now i can charge 6 at a time. Flew it today but really windy so I stayed low. I did notice the camera not working. The light stays green after pushing switch to turn on video or pic. I took out the pin connector on cam and noticed the yellow wire pin was pushed down into the connector. I know i can fix this, I don't really want to return it i'm afraid i'll have other problems with motors not working or the same issue. I will drop 3 stars for them not testing there product. because that's the main reason i bought this.

I have been trying different Drones and with Syma name attached to this little guy I thought that this drone will live up to its brand name. But alas I was wrong. Here are the Plus and Minus of this Drone:Plus:- The biggest Plus of this Drone is its cost. At 45$ you can at least have a Drone flying experience.Minus:- Really really hard to control and keeps drifting to one side. Tried recalibrating but to no use.- Battery lasts just a few minutes.- No Altitude hold feature.- Bad camera.- Bad remote design with display on the bottom of the remote rather than on the top, which makes it hard to see.

Disappointing purchase. We purchased 2 of these; be aware that you can't adjust RC frequency. If you have more than one in the house, or if you want to use with a friend who has one, you are likely to run into problems with all the remotes trying to control all of the drones, at the same time. It obviously doesn't work and you'll have to take turns even if you have multiple.Also, and this is probably the bigger issue, this is hard to fly. Huge learning curve, that no one is this house has overcome. It was hoped that as these advance and with 4 propellers, it would be very easy to control. Not the case. I can actually fly a single bladed helicopter with more control, this thing is all over the place.

This thing was awesome. At first. I bought it for my six year old son, for whom it was much to advanced. I have great hand-eye coordination, but it took some real learning. It was a fun little copter.The bad. Starting day two, after about 45 minutes of flying (through battery recharges and swaps), above about 30 feet we noticed that the response time was almost non-existent. It would hold a particular pattern until it was out of range. I couldn't get it to maneuver, but I learned the only thing to which it responded was cutting throttle. So when it "got stuck", I would just kill the throttle and go get it.Today I flew it, and it was great. Until about 40 feet. It "got stuck", and flew into a neighbor's tree. I got out a ladder, telescoping pole, etc, and can't get it. My neighbor now has a new permanent ornament in his front yard, and I'm out $50. It's almost like the propellers would get stuck in a particular pattern and wouldn't adjust. It was IN RANGE.Bummer.

The box had been opened at one end, one of the tie down straps on the copter had been removed, there is a USB charge cable for the main battery which the directions say, "plug into your laptop", no way to plug into a 110 outlet. The printed Operating Manual is nearly indecipherable. It is the worst attempt at the English language I have ever seen.I bought the copter as a Christmas gift for a 15 year old boy so no time to return and find a better model. We haven't tried to fly it yet. I can only hope he is better at "Chinese-English" than I am.

Not worth it

Horrible instructions, cheap quality

No on/off switch on the drone. Must physically attach/detach wiring harness, which will lead to serious fatigue on a connection that is not built for that purpose.

Total disaster of a product. With so many great reviews I'm not sure if I just got a lemon. Headless mode didn't work well. Not the greatest gyro stabilization. Trying to adjust the trim was a nightmare. You have to land the drone every time you need to make adjustments. Also, when turning off the drone/changing batteries you'll need to reconfigure your trim adjustments again. The camera/video quality is terrible. I don't understand how they are calling this HD. Half the time when I was in flight and tried to take a picture or video it wouldn't work. Personally, I wasn't going for this drone for video or picture but more to learn flying a drone before I bought a very expensive one. However, I'm still very disappointed in the camera quality. Before I sent it back I did a test flight with my buddies drone and I feel confident the problem isn't with me, but with this drone.

Highly disappointed only able to use one time before the remote will no longer respond to the Drone and did not crash at all. This was the big gift for my husband at Christmas.

It broke when it was only 3ft off the ground!😒 A total waste of my money

Drone works nicely, the camera not so much. There appears to be a short in the cable. The camera only activates from the remote if I'm applying pressure to the wires coming from the camera to the drone. So I have to start a video while applying pressure, fly it, land it, then apply pressure to stop the video. Impossible to take pictures in the air with this issue. I'll upgrade this review if I can have someone from the company get in touch with me to send out a replacement camera.

This is a nice sized drone but the battery terminal connections are a very bad weak point. The terminal connections do not make good contact unless the connection is pushed to one side and held there. Obviously this doesn't make the unit flyable. Understand that the unit has to be light weight but the battery connection terminals need to be more substantial.

I bought this a few months ago. I wasn't able to use it immediately but I stored it in a safe and undisturbed place. When I finally tried it, the camera did not respond whenever I tried to connect it from the controller. It said in the manual that if I switch the C button up for Photo mode, it should turn red to indicate that a photo was captured. But the lights didn't turn red at all. The same goes for the video function... It was not working. I swithced it on and off, both the drone and the controller several times to check. My batteries were also both fully charged during the trials. I watched a couple of tutorial videos, but the camera function of the drone really doesn't work. I hope to get some feedback and favorable resolution on my concern.

Do not buy this quadcopter. Save your money and bug one that is at least $150. This thing worked at first, then the motors just stopped working. Barely flew the thing. Its really not worth buying. The design is cheesy, the rotors are exposed, and if you lose the thing, good luck getting it back because you can't view the video while you're flying it. The only way to view vid is to take the sd card out and plug it into your computer. Save your pennies and but a quadcopter that has hd video and isn't pixelated like this sad attempt to make a quadcopter. Things worst than something you buy from Wal-Mart and that's saying a lot.

Purchased. One of the motors was burned out right out of the box. Contacted support. It's been two weeks and still haven't heard back.I'm sure it's a nice product for the price but support is completely non-existent.

Was flying it and while it was mid-air the controller stopped working and it just flew away. Turned it off and on again and it started working again but was unable to get the copter back, (probable died), so now I'm left with just the controller. Also battery life sucks you get a good 5 mins and then have to charge for 1 hr.