Drones were once a luxury item reserved only for those who had thousands of dollars to spend ... but things are changing and when Dromida offered to send me their latest drone, I was initially disappointed that it was only priced at about $250. At that price it must be terrible right? ... I was wrong! It's actually a great drone and the absolutely perfect entry level FPV drone for someone who might not want to invest in the expensive hardware before confirming that they really want to start a potentially expensive new hobby.
The Dromida XL 370 mm camera drone that we received has virtually everything the more expensive models have, except some of the fancy follow features. The only real sacrifices are that the controller feels a bit cheap and it generally lacks some of the fancy avionics features such as being able to follow you or execute a flight pattern. Likewise, other elements such as battery life (10-12 min per 2 hour charge), maximum flight range, and the camera are scaled down from the more expensive models. The biggest of these compromises that bothers me is the sort flight time combined with a non-removable battery.
However, where it counts, the Dromida XL 370 mm has got it going good. It was surprisingly resilient as I learned to fly it in the backyard of my friend's home. You should really take this to a flight field and not do what we were doing, but sometimes you just have no choice. Despite "bumping" into walls, stones, and fences - as well as trimming some palm fronds - the drone remained completely flight-worthy. Granted the blade edges had some marks and were no longer perfectly smooth ... but it still flew well. Plus, Dromida does include extra blades as well as blade guards that you can install to help eliminate that issue.
Additionally, it does come with an auto takeoff/landing button that will take it approximately 2 meters in the air and also return it to the ground, an Altitude Hold button, and even an Auto-Flip feature.
When it comes to the camera, that was surprisingly good as well. It includes a built-in 1080p video camera that streams live to your phone attached to the controller allowing you to take both video as well as still images. Unfortunately, there camera has a fixed position so you can't do some of the more fancy video but again, this drone is under $300 and for that price it is pretty amazing!
Overall, I am super impressed with the Dromida XL drone! It is a fantastic gift idea for anyone shopping for guys that love technology toys.
