Price:$109.99+ Free shipping with Amazon Prime
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on February 16, 2017
I found it very easy to learn to fly. It helps to read the instruction manual first. :) I had a few crashes early on because I didn't know how to kill it. Two motors burned out after a couple of days. I bought replacement motors and it worked great (replacing the motor is rather easy, just time consuming due to all of the screws). However, more motors burned out within a few more days.
I contacted Holy Stone directly, and they were able to send me out a brand new F181 very quickly. I received the replacement in less than a week. I was really pleased. So far no motor burnouts...fingers are crossed.
For the price point, I am not sure there is a better drone. The video quality is okay. The LED lights really help to fly it at night. It is rather difficult to fly in wind over 5 mph. You need to crank up the power to 100%, but that will drain the battery quickly. It is very easy to maneuver and it is small, so flying indoors is no problem once you get some practice.
I contacted Holy Stone directly, and they were able to send me out a brand new F181 very quickly. I received the replacement in less than a week. I was really pleased. So far no motor burnouts...fingers are crossed.
For the price point, I am not sure there is a better drone. The video quality is okay. The LED lights really help to fly it at night. It is rather difficult to fly in wind over 5 mph. You need to crank up the power to 100%, but that will drain the battery quickly. It is very easy to maneuver and it is small, so flying indoors is no problem once you get some practice.
on April 2, 2017
This is my son's 3rd drone. The first two were from different manufacturers and obviously didn't last long. Amazon's customer service recommended Holy Stone. My 13 years old son is very happy with the drone. He didn't have any problems with putting the parts together. He had a few bumpy flights at first but the issues were resolved thanks to Holy Stone Customer Support. I think reading the manual first, getting used with the basic functions before doing any fancy moves, and limit the flying time to 5 minutes are the most important points to have great time with your drones. My son has got up to 7 minutes once or two times but he's more comfortable at 5 minutes. There's nothing worth more than seeing my son's big smiles and laughs while making the drone flying upside-down. He's just showed off flipping the drone around and wouldn't let his older sister or my husband touch his drone. He's a very good pilot now. Thanks Fancy, Echo, Sherry and Holy Stone Customer Support Department for relying to our inquiry quickly and following through efficiently....😀. You resolved the issue less than 24 hours. That is every impressive! You Rock!
on January 4, 2017
This thing did not work straight out of the box. 2 rotors turned sporadically and not enough lift causing this thing to go out of control at an angle sideways. Spent a few hours watching video and trying to calibrate, but no dice. Read a lot of good reviews, then got scared waiting for the product when I saw the numerous 1 star reviews detailing similar situations. Will return soon.
UPDATE - 6-27-17 I actually received a replacement for this about 3 weeks ago. I was impressed that the manufacturer was willing to replace. I have tried it out and seems to be working well. I do not have much time to fly it as I work quite a bit, but am going to let my co workers teenager use it for a while. That will give it a good test for sure.
UPDATE - 6-27-17 I actually received a replacement for this about 3 weeks ago. I was impressed that the manufacturer was willing to replace. I have tried it out and seems to be working well. I do not have much time to fly it as I work quite a bit, but am going to let my co workers teenager use it for a while. That will give it a good test for sure.
on May 1, 2017
Product is just ok. The trim was waaaaay off. And even when I adjusted the trim all the way to the right to compensate, sometimes it would still continue drifting to that direction (no wind involved). Then I'd start it up another time and the trim would be the opposite. It was guess work every time I turned it on.I lifted it too high one time, and it started to drift off over the trees. Partly due to the trim, but not in full. I never saw my drone again. I had it for 2 days. Manufacturer offered me half-off another. But I'm just not willing to spend even that on another.
**Update. Seller contacted me immediately and sent me another unit free of charge. I appreciate their help. Even the replacement they sent, I have to constantly adjust the trim while using. I will set the trim all the way to the right to keep it steady, then I will fly it for 5 seconds, and it'll start drifting to the right. So I'll have to adjust it again. Annoying. This happens constantly for the entire duration of use.
**Update. Seller contacted me immediately and sent me another unit free of charge. I appreciate their help. Even the replacement they sent, I have to constantly adjust the trim while using. I will set the trim all the way to the right to keep it steady, then I will fly it for 5 seconds, and it'll start drifting to the right. So I'll have to adjust it again. Annoying. This happens constantly for the entire duration of use.
on April 18, 2017
Product reviews can be a problem. A million years ago when I worked in Radio Shack, there was a transducer supply around the corner. I asked the owner why one transistor sold for a dollar and the same one also sold for $20. He told me about quality control. During production, one out of one hundred of the one dollar transistors were tested, but one hundred out of one hundred of the $20 transistors were tested. It was the testing that increased the costs. Not all of the transistors were expected to work. If you really wanted a reliable transistor, you paid the price. No doubt a lot of things for which there are reviews by customers are the same way. When you look at the reviews, you see a lot of happy people who bought a product that worked and unhappy people who did not. So. If you have a company that sells something--quadcopters, for example, how do you deal with the inevitable malfunctions? If you are Holy Stone, you decide to have the best customer relations that exist anywhere in the universe. You track reviews and you do everything you can to make people happy. The world is not perfect, F181 RC Quadcopters occasionally malfunction--and Holy Stone takes care of everything magnificently. When you buy a Holy Stone Quadcopter, you can buy with confidence. So do it.
on June 5, 2017
The first time I flew this drone, it veered to the left and to back. I adjusted the trim and it flew okay. This was all inside. I decided to take it outside and it started drifting towards a tree. I hit the return to home button and it just slowly drifted away while beeping. I am not pleased
with this drone at all.
Pros: It looks nice.
It handled okay indoors. (after trimming)
Cons: Bad handling outside and then flying away with no way to turn it around
I am still looking for it and if I find it I will be returning it. There are cheaper drones that handle a lot better than this one. Even on 100% mode it feels sluggish.
Update to this: Make sure to calibrate your gyro. It makes all the difference. My new one came and did the same thing until I calibrated it and now it is a fun little drone to fly.
UPDATE: I have been contacted by customer service and they are sending me a new drone, free of charge. They have the best customer service that I have seen and I am updating this review to reflect that. They did everything that they could to make it right. I realise that several things could have gone wrong to cause the drone to fly away. Whatever you do, read up on the RTH function, before using it. I think that is this drones biggest flaw. I realise that not all drones will arrive perfect. But Holy Stone will stand behind their products.
with this drone at all.
Pros: It looks nice.
It handled okay indoors. (after trimming)
Cons: Bad handling outside and then flying away with no way to turn it around
I am still looking for it and if I find it I will be returning it. There are cheaper drones that handle a lot better than this one. Even on 100% mode it feels sluggish.
Update to this: Make sure to calibrate your gyro. It makes all the difference. My new one came and did the same thing until I calibrated it and now it is a fun little drone to fly.
UPDATE: I have been contacted by customer service and they are sending me a new drone, free of charge. They have the best customer service that I have seen and I am updating this review to reflect that. They did everything that they could to make it right. I realise that several things could have gone wrong to cause the drone to fly away. Whatever you do, read up on the RTH function, before using it. I think that is this drones biggest flaw. I realise that not all drones will arrive perfect. But Holy Stone will stand behind their products.
on May 14, 2017
Bought this in March and subsequently returned it plus a free replacement sent by vendor in exchange for my agreement to retract a 1 star review..
Some time later after much email exchange with vender I got a SECOND free replacement.I was determined to try to make it work so I visited several web sites for a clearer set of instructions which stressed the necessity of syncing the drone and controller.This very important drill is sort of buried in the difficult to decipher instructions that came with it.
Since then I have logged considerable time on this one PLUS a third free replacement that I got because THE CAMERA didn't work on the second one????.
I have had to replace 3 motors on # 2 and 1 on #3 thus only 4 instead of 5 stars.
Excellent customer service even though correspondence is difficult. Tough little drone for the price and docile flier great for a beginner.
JUST READ AND UNDERSTAND THE INSTRUCTIONS.
Some time later after much email exchange with vender I got a SECOND free replacement.I was determined to try to make it work so I visited several web sites for a clearer set of instructions which stressed the necessity of syncing the drone and controller.This very important drill is sort of buried in the difficult to decipher instructions that came with it.
Since then I have logged considerable time on this one PLUS a third free replacement that I got because THE CAMERA didn't work on the second one????.
I have had to replace 3 motors on # 2 and 1 on #3 thus only 4 instead of 5 stars.
Excellent customer service even though correspondence is difficult. Tough little drone for the price and docile flier great for a beginner.
JUST READ AND UNDERSTAND THE INSTRUCTIONS.
on April 21, 2017
Just starting flying the drone this week (holiday present, but the weather has been dreadful!) . . . so far, I am very happy with it! It's easy to fly right out the box (though it's really going to take some time to master it), basic controls are easy to learn quickly, and has several different modes so that you can set it up to your flying preference. For example, you can slow it down a little bit for beginners, and speed it up if you want more of a challenge. It also has headless mode so that your controls aren't dictated by what direction the drone is facing, just what direction you started off facing. It also has auto return and auto land function - both seem to work well, especially the auto land. I haven't had much luck with the auto return, but then I tend to move around a lot - might be me and not the drone. Has some fine tuning functions, and an "auto flip" mode, haven't tried that yet.
The drone seems to be reasonably tough - I've crashed it multiple times so far, some of them fairly hard, and as of yet, nothing has broken! It does come with a full set of replacement blades. Battery life is OK, for just standard flying, I'm getting between 8-10 minutes per battery (it comes with 2). Batteries are a little slow to charge fully, somewhere between 90 minutes to 2 hours for a full charge.
The camera/video function is OK - without a live stream, it's a little hard to tell what you're taking a picture of, though. The video is actually a little easier, since it just shoots away while you are flying, but note that the rotor noise is VERY loud on the video. I haven't had much luck with taking still pictures at all, so can't comment on the quality, but the quality of the videos is pretty good. Be warned - it's fairly hi-def, so it's about 1-2 MB a second roughly - a one minute 30 second video came out to be in the neighborhood of 180MB. So it is a memory card sucker. I bought an extra.
Overall, I'm pleased with the drone - definitely a good starter drone, I would recommend it to a friend who was looking.
The drone seems to be reasonably tough - I've crashed it multiple times so far, some of them fairly hard, and as of yet, nothing has broken! It does come with a full set of replacement blades. Battery life is OK, for just standard flying, I'm getting between 8-10 minutes per battery (it comes with 2). Batteries are a little slow to charge fully, somewhere between 90 minutes to 2 hours for a full charge.
The camera/video function is OK - without a live stream, it's a little hard to tell what you're taking a picture of, though. The video is actually a little easier, since it just shoots away while you are flying, but note that the rotor noise is VERY loud on the video. I haven't had much luck with taking still pictures at all, so can't comment on the quality, but the quality of the videos is pretty good. Be warned - it's fairly hi-def, so it's about 1-2 MB a second roughly - a one minute 30 second video came out to be in the neighborhood of 180MB. So it is a memory card sucker. I bought an extra.
Overall, I'm pleased with the drone - definitely a good starter drone, I would recommend it to a friend who was looking.
on May 29, 2017
I should preface this review with the fact that I am a beginner flyer, having only recently entered the drone world due to the extremely low entrance fee of the JJRC Elfie. I enjoyed that one so much I decided to up the game and bought the Holy Stone F181. It should also be noted that I've only taken it on a single maiden flight thus far.
The F181 is a great beginners drone, easy to fly and quite fun. I'm not too happy that the controller defaults to Level 1, it's "Beginner" input, which didn't have enough power to correct for even a slight wind. The good news is that it has four levels, and in about a minute I was taking to the skies in "Expert" mode!
At the end of my first battery I attempted to utilize the 1 touch return available on the drone. It promptly veered to the right and set down in high grass, terrifying me that the propellers might be damaged. Thankfully, they were not and for my subsequent batteries I manually had it touch down on asphalt. It should also be noted that each battery lasted maybe 5 minutes. It is advertised as 5 to 8 minute flight time, so that's right on par.
The camera isn't anything to write home about. The picture quality is really bad, but they warn you on the box. It has a 2 megapixel camera. For reference, the iPhone 6 has an 8 megapixel camera and iPhone 7 has a 12 megapixel camera. Also, the video may be at 720p as advertised, but the framerate is extremely low. Frequent stutters and blurring mar the playback. Also, in video mode the drone will record audio, but I can't figure out why as the only thing I heard was a very loud close up of the drone engines. I highly recommend muting before playing these videos.
If you're looking for a great flying experience in short burst for an exceptional price point I would definitely recommend this product.
The F181 is a great beginners drone, easy to fly and quite fun. I'm not too happy that the controller defaults to Level 1, it's "Beginner" input, which didn't have enough power to correct for even a slight wind. The good news is that it has four levels, and in about a minute I was taking to the skies in "Expert" mode!
At the end of my first battery I attempted to utilize the 1 touch return available on the drone. It promptly veered to the right and set down in high grass, terrifying me that the propellers might be damaged. Thankfully, they were not and for my subsequent batteries I manually had it touch down on asphalt. It should also be noted that each battery lasted maybe 5 minutes. It is advertised as 5 to 8 minute flight time, so that's right on par.
The camera isn't anything to write home about. The picture quality is really bad, but they warn you on the box. It has a 2 megapixel camera. For reference, the iPhone 6 has an 8 megapixel camera and iPhone 7 has a 12 megapixel camera. Also, the video may be at 720p as advertised, but the framerate is extremely low. Frequent stutters and blurring mar the playback. Also, in video mode the drone will record audio, but I can't figure out why as the only thing I heard was a very loud close up of the drone engines. I highly recommend muting before playing these videos.
If you're looking for a great flying experience in short burst for an exceptional price point I would definitely recommend this product.
