Heliorb.com

I have had my Phantom 3 standard for about a week now and have flown about 15 flights. i am relatively new to flying quadracopters having previously flown an “Ominous” ($79, lightweight, durable, no camera) for a few weeks. The “ominous” took about 10 flights before I stopped crashing it…there was a learning curve because it’s so light and the controls so much more sensitive than the Phantom. The Phantom is steady and easy to fly. Taking still pics is great and the shots look very nice.

New edit > : When I first reviewed this I noted that the video was “choppy” at times and seemed to have quick 1-2 second dropouts. Obviously, I saw that as a flaw. I had been viewing the videos on my iPhone through the GO app’s “library”. Well, this morning I plugged the memory card directly into my Mac and was pleased to see that the videos were flawless. In hindsight I now realize that the app was recording the wifi feed not the actual footage recorded on the card. So now I am happy that everything works fine. I am left with impression and criticism that this product needs way better documentation/online support if it really is to be breakthrough ” drone” reaching more mainstream audiences than the RC hobbyist crowd. It’s well built, functions fine, easy to fly and FUN, but you have to work like a dog online hunting through various websites and forums to really learn why some things do not work as you might expect. Another example..I found it almost impossible to remove the battery from the Phantom and was pretty sure I would break the arms at some point. Google/YouTube to the rescue with a homemade clip on a very effective technique.

Overall build quality is very high. Included instructions are minimal, so you reall have to hunt around to find tutorial videos and owners manuals. One other issue I had that was frustrating was having to do. Mandatory firmware update via wifi. After completing, I swapped to a fresh battery and headed to the elementary school around the corner for my first real flight other than in my driveway. “Mandatory firmware update required” popped up again. To make a long story short, apparently the firmware upgrade was for each BATTERY. After updating the second battery, everything was fine.

This is a fun “drone” to fly. Pretty easy to learn the flight controls and basic camera controls. I have an iPhone 6 and find the screen a little small for using the app which is packed with options, but it’s a minor inconvenience, nothing serious. I also really have to find a sunshade for my phone/drone screen as it is almost impossible to see it bright sunlight, even with brightness maxed out.

This is my first quad copter and I am loving it. For the price it offers a lot of value. Others have provided great feedback on how it flies. I decided to write this review to mention a couple of weaknesses which made my first flight frustrating. Or, more accurately, the frustration I encountered before I could perform my first flight.

My first issue is the lack of documentation for the Standard model. I am able to locate documentation for the Advanced and Professional models but nothing for the Standard model. If it exists it’s a well kept secret. I did read the users manual for the Advanced model but it has flight modes which are not present in the Standard model. Due to the lack of documentation I couldn’t diagnosis a problem I appeared to be having with my aircraft. On a hunch I ended up exchanging it for a new one. My issue is not that the first aircraft had a problem (those things happen) but rather the lack of documentation made it difficult to determine there was a problem and what I needed to do to correct it.

The second issue is a poor out-of-box experience. Perhaps connected to the lack of documentation (though the issues I had didn’t appear to be addressed in the Advanced and Professional models documentation either). I watched the videos DJI provides for the Standard model and everything looked easy to do. However there are some initial setup steps that need to be performed before you can use the aircraft. These steps are not covered in the videos…at least none of the one’s I watched.

The first setup step is to register the aircraft with DJI. This is a fairly easy process except for the step where you actually register the aircraft with DJI. The problem occurs as the registration with DJI needs to be done through wireless and not the cellular connection. Meaning you have to disconnect from the aircraft’s, technically the controllers, wireless and join a wireless connection that has access to the Internet. Not a difficult thing to do but not intuitive (I thought the registration with DJI would occur over my cellular data connection). Again this is where some documentation would be helpful. Once you are aware you need to change the connection it’s a fairly painless process.

The second setup is to update the firmware (if applicable). You are prohibited from operating the aircraft until the update process is performed. Again this involved disconnecting from the aircraft’s wireless connection, connecting to a wireless connection with access to the Internet, downloading the update to your phone, and then reconnecting to the aircraft’s wireless to perform the upgrade. The largest issue I had with the upgrade is the upgrade is performed on a number of different modules (controller, firmware, wireless, etc). I started the update which updated one of the modules and then appeared to stop. After 30 minutes I ended up closing the app and restarting. At which point it updated the remaining modules. I was a little nervous doing this as updating firmware is something that shouldn’t be interrupted and I didn’t want to “brick” the aircraft. If it was working correctly better feedback during the process would be welcome.

Once I completed the above prerequisites I was finally able to fly the aircraft. It was frustrating as none of this is documented. My recommendation to DJI is to provide documentation which details these requirements. I felt I was flying, pardon the pun, by the seat of my pants during this process.

The product itself is very nice and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I highly recommend it but wanted to get this out there to potential purchasers so they are aware. None of these issues would cause me to avoid recommending the product. They’re, relatively speaking, minor issues.

Customer Video Review Length:: 3:27 Mins

while I really like flying this quad/car mine I got came with the 720p camera, while the camera shoots great shape colorful video, the company fixed the no adjustable angle to far down even hovering all you see is 10 feet in front of the quad and when your flying the camera is useless all you see is the ground maybe if you want to hover or fly at 40-50 feet high all the time the camera might be ok, took mine out and tossed it, quad itself hovers, flys flips, rolls and does funnels very good, the 750mah 25c is great and other batts out there fit it I already had some by turnigy and JJRC that worked perfect, already after owning just 2 days have flown at least 10 batteries through it, love it, just not the camera, the car for me only good to use when landing or taking off, driving around is a hassle having no digital steering, plus because of the tork it pulls to that one side when moving on ground, still I bought it to fly, does look cool in the air banking turns with those wheels