Phenominal drone! Best value for a high quality drone

5

Thomas Wenn

EDIT 10/27/2018. I may adjust the star rating on this review. I need to contact customer support because my drone in mid air just took off on me... so let's see how their customer support is. Will update shortly.

I was one of the lucky ones that was able to pick this HS700 up during a flash lightning deal with a coupon! I must say this drone is a lot of fun, i will order the two extra batteries so i can keep this up in the air since charging takes about 6 hours for 15-20 minutes of flight. This drone is great for beginners because you pretty much can lose it unless you crash it, the fly to home function is a huge plus!

A fantastic Machine For 1200 cheaper then the best competition.

5

William C.

First off I don’t leave reviews. I am not being paid. I build pools. I NEED to take pictures of my projects for advertising. I NEED to have a good drone because I am a great pilot but I get excited and crash allot. I am a seasoned RC pilot but know my limitations.

I cannot say enough about this machine. For the novice this is the one. Take off and landing? Wow works perfect. The 360 loop is priceless. Great camera challeneges my GoPro. Don’t fear do it. It will make you money saving you money having someone else shoot photos for you.

I love it. Hate the calibration but it that’s the o my downfall who cares. Great products guys. Thanks you for not spending all my money.

READ the directions!

Have a blessed one!

The Best One Yet!

5

Bob In St. Louis

This new drone is a high point for Holy Stone drones. Brushless motors, 5G WiFi, Programmable GPS Flight, and much more. But the real story is in the flying, handling and fun. To begin with, the flight time is great! Up to 20 minutes (closer to 15-17 realistically) of flying time. The motors are strong enough to fly in reasonably windy conditions and maintain control. The distance you can fly away (even though I will never go out over 1/2 of a mile) is amazing to me.

It may seem a minor point to some of you, but the quick release propellers with no screws required is very attractive to me. I have fought with those little tiny screws on other drones and it drove me crazy with my fat fingers. Now I have an easy way to replace a propeller and/or motor if needed. Some other minor, but nice touches are the battery charging bag, the flight notebook with sticky notes and sticky book marks, and spare parts.

I was surprised there are no propeller guards included or available. On other drones, propeller guards have saved me from busted propellers on several occasions. Of course, 4 extra propellers are included with the drone in case you do bust them up and they are easy to replace. Also, I discovered that the propellers are strong enough to handle smacking into asphalt and surviving when I crashed on a parking lot.

The camera is dynamite. A full 1080p HD camera. Sharp clear pictures. So much better than 720p. This really makes a difference. A big plus is the ability to use another camera if you choose. The only problem with the camera is the location of the memory card slot. With the camera plugged into the drone, the memory card is somewhat blocked by the camera plug and the landing gear and is difficult to eject or insert. Unplugging the camera does alleviate the problem, as long as you remember to plug the camera back into the drone.

While the price is not cheap, it does seem very reasonable for the product vs their competitors. While I would love to have all of the collision avoidance sensors and the like, another $700+ is totally out of reach for me. Maybe Holy Stone will be adding those features in their next GPS drone again at a very attractive price.

The bird flies very nicely, even in a sustained wind, which I had on my first flight, of course. It is very quiet and handles very well. The responsiveness is very good and the speed is very acceptable. The 700 was able to maintain its position in the wind with only minimal drift and corrected quickly. Being somewhat conservative, I stayed pretty low and close for my first flight in order to check everything out. Everything worked well, and I was very pleased.

Safety and caution should be owners main concern. Should not be used recklessly

5

Vermie

I like the design on the Holy Stone HS700 Drone, the overall quality, and it’s easy to operate. I’m having fun and it’s certainly going to make my work easier and save me a lot of time. This is my first drone but I highly recommend it to my friends and family. I wish I had purchased it sooner.

Great mid-level drone at affordable price

5

Donovan Colbert

The Holy Stone HS700 features mid-range, semi-pro features at the price point of a high-end toy drone. It has many features that Drones costing hundreds or even a thousand dollars more feature, but is also lacking some key features that make those high end drones very attractive.

After 4 days with the Holy Stone HS700, I think I’ve finally figured out a few of the things that are not very well described in the spare documentation included, but some mysteries still persist.

I’ve had a Hubsan X4 drone, a quality starter drone with replaceable parts and great durability for several years now. It is an acrobatic drone with trick maneuvers and a very poor “webcam” quality camera. It has no stabilization, drift must be manually trimmed, and flight time is short, usually around 5 minutes per battery.

Since a trip to San Diego where I saw a drone flying out over the bay, gaining altitude and descending, traveling smoothly from point to point, and then returning to its home position - I’ve wanted to upgrade. But the idea of spending $700-$1500 on something that might just end up crashing into a lake, ocean or forest never to be seen again has held me back.

When I saw the Holy Stone HS700 on Amazon for well under $400, I was tempted but hesitant.

I hemmed and hawed, going back and forth between Amazon’s HS700 page and the drone page from the local big-box retailer known for its blue-shirts. At one point, I had made up my mind to pull the trigger on one of the much more expensive drones designed for “pro-amateur” users, but then I had a moment of clarity. I read the overwhelmingly positive reviews for the HS700, thought about what I’d do with the $450 I would save by not buying from the Blue-Shirts, and checked out on Amazon instead.

My hesitation was based on several factors. While the reviews were positive, I felt like they were mostly by casual users who didn’t really have the option of purchasing a more expensive drone. The video quality posted with reviews was low quality and it wasn’t clear if that was an issue with the drone or with compression when uploaded to Amazon. To cut to the chase there, the videos actually look great, but Amazon is compressing them. One thing I found attractive was the option to mount a GoPro but the included camera does a great job with trivial amounts of video artifacts or lens distortion. With the integration of the camera via WiFi to your phone using the Holy Stone “Ophelia” app, I think the features of the included camera probably make it a better option than an after-market sport cam. The fact that the mounting gimble is not auto-leveling or self-adjusting means a high-end sport-camera is probably overkill for this drone, anyhow.

I’ve taken the drone out 4 days in a row now, and each day my experience has been more rewarding. The included documentation is sparse. The English in the manual is not perfect, but it is far from the worst Chinese-to-English manual I’ve ever seen. Pairing, Initialization, Gyro and Compass calibration, connection to the Ophelia app and initiating a one-touch takeoff all basically follow the order of the manual – but some steps seem to not work, or work inconsistently, and it isn’t clear to me if it matters or not, if you get the major pairing and calibration steps right.

Day 1 was in a flat expense of barren desert behind an outlet mall. The sun was beating down on me, there was a mild breeze blowing the pages of the manual, security showed up and I had to talk to them. Ultimately I didn’t get much flight time before the battery ran out and I didn’t feel very confident in my ability to pilot the drone. I was very nervous about the Return to Home feature. This was because I didn’t get the gyro and/or compass calibration done right, so the drone was drifting severely in the breeze. If I had let the drone climb to the 100 feet it requires to perform a Return To Home maneuver – I think it would have sailed off into the desert.
Day 2, I took the drone into a suburban greenbelt with a large open field. I figured out how to record video and take pictures using the Ophelia app, but was again unable to get the drone to calibrate completely and I was experiencing heavy drift. I spent this day mostly familiarizing myself with the app and trying to get some experiencing free-flying the drone. It is less twitchy and acrobatic than the Hubsan X4. The HS700 is designed to be a video-drone, not a racing or trick drone. The controls are more precise for rotating and the drone maintains altitude without a lot of attitude correction, unlike the Hubsan. While this might make it easier for 1st time fliers, I found I had to unlearn habits I picked up on my previous drone. In particular, the HS700 is designed to hover. On the Hubsan, I must keep the props at speed to maintain altitude. If I release the throttle, the drone will drop like a rock. The HS700 is designed to maintain altitude. You have to throttle down to descend, and the drone resists it. With my previous experience, this hesitation to descend rapidly feels uncomfortable. But for a first-time drone flyer, it means it is far more difficult to crash your quadcopter into the ground.
At the end of this session, I finally completed a full calibration. Until that point I had been getting an error message,

“Drone not in hover mode or not enough GPS satellites,” Whenever I tried to go into “Follow-Me Mode,” in Ophelia.

Once calibrated, the One-Touch takeoff went into a very stable hover and I was able to enter the “Follow Me” mode. The drone battery ran out almost immediately though, and I had to land and call it a day before testing.

One of the problems is that the manual doesn’t align well with the actual experience of calibrating and pairing the drone. The steps in order are to hold the lock button and turn on the transmitter, then install the battery in the drone while it is on a level surface facing forward. There are a series of beeps when this is done, but the manual does not describe what they mean. The manual describes LED patterns, but those don’t always match what happens on the drone. After a few seconds and some beeps, the lights will turn yellow and flash alternately from front to back. The documentation then says, in step 9.6, to calibrate the gyro by holding both sticks down to the bottom left. I am not sure this consistently works or is necessary. There is no real audible or visual key to tell if this is taking place. The manual claims the LEDS will flash green, then turn yellow and flash alternately from front to back.

The next step, 9.7, is the compass calibration. This is important – and I have had inconsistent results. Step 1 is to hold the drone horizontally and rotate it about 3 times until the LEDs turn blinking green. This consistently works for me. Step 2 is to hold the drone vertically and rotate it around its axis 3 times until the front LEDs turn red and the rear turn yellow. Step 1 is always successful, and step 2 frequently turns the front LEDs red, but the back ones remain green. Occasionally I’ve gotten the back LEDs to turn yellow as described – but it doesn’t seem to matter. I thought this might be what was causing my problems with stability and drifting while hovering – but now I think the most important factor is that the calibration in the first two steps happen on a very level surface. With the back LEDs green instead of yellow as described in the manual, I have twice been able to pair and calibrate and successfully have the drone hover and enter “follow-me” mode.

Follow me mode is really what this drone is about. In Follow Me Mode you get a more level and even flight than a human pilot would be able to replicate. In the attached video I’ve included 4 different video captures. The first section is the drone in Follow Me mode. The second is an example of hovering at about 45 feet and rotating to capture a panorama of the horizon. Third is an example of flying manually in “headless” mode and crashing hard into a tree and then a rocky garden bed. This impact did not damage the drone and caused on some minor deformation on the edge of one of the props. It was not significant enough to cause drift or vibration during subsequent flights. The final portion of the video is manually flying with “headless” mode turned off.

A note about “headless” mode. It isn’t very well explained in the manual. As far as I can tell, “headless” mode makes the remote a “relative” control scheme, while turning headless mode off makes the stick directions absolute. To try and explain – if you push the direction stick forward and fly 30 feet out and rotate the drone 90 degrees to the right, to then fly forward you will actually press the direction joystick to the RIGHT. Turn the drone another 90 degrees to the right, and now to move forward you would press the direction stick BACK. The direction you press the joystick matches the direction the drone’s head is oriented towards. It is possible I have this backwards.

Disabling headless mode makes the direction stick absolute. No matter what orientation the drone is facing, pushing forward on the control stick moves the drone forward in the direction the head is facing, pulling back makes it go backwards, left to go left, and right to go right.

I find the second method far easier to fly in, and it is the mode my Hubsan supports. I was in the first (relative) mode when I crashed into the tree.

I have yet to test “Custom Flight Path,” mode - but this is another photographic mode where you can enter a map in the Ophelia app and draw out a flight path you want the drone to complete. If this works as reliably as the follow-me mode, it is a high-end feature that adds value to the drone.

I saw other Amazon drones about $80-$100 more with two-axis gimbles. These drones had fewer reviews and more reports of lost drones failing to return to home, and none had video samples or allowed the use of GoPro and other sport cameras as replacement for the included camera. Holy Stone could make the HS700 a killer package by keeping the price within $50 and adding an automatic 1 or 2 axis gimble to the camera. It is the one major shortcoming I see for this drone. Otherwise, as my confidence grows with operating this drone, it seems to be a very good balance of features and cost for the amateur drone enthusiast who wants some high-end features without breaking the bank.

HS 700 is winner

5

Seneca Dave

Holy Stone has a hit with the HS700 drone. Drone construction is of high quality and looks great. It is easy to assemble out of the box. The manual is adequate to get you started and there is manual on the Holy Stone website that goes into more detail on the operation. The propellers are easy to install without the use of tiny screws found on many drones. The landing gear snap on also without the use of screws. The drone is a pleasure to fly with a GPS system, auto land , auto takeoff and the return to home function. It has a follow me function but I have not had much experience using that feature. The battery allows ample flight time of up to 20 minutes depending on the type of operation. The brushless motors are quiet relative to other motors, and being brushless, there is no need for a cooling period when switching batteries. A totally discharged battery will require almost 5 hours to recharge, so extra batteries would be recommended. Neither the battery nor the drone has an on/off switch. The installation of the battery powers up the drone. The HD camera captures photos and video of high quality. The camera mount has an adjustable tilt and the mount is also compatible with go pro cameras allowing for another option in camera selection. The 700 does not come with propeller guards so caution is required until you gain experience and are comfortable with the control of the drone. Overall the HS 700 has many of the features found on more expensive drones and is a great drone for its price range. I would recommend it for the beginner as well as the more experienced flyer looking for a quality drone at a reasonable price.