I am very new to drones, so I didn't want to start with an expensive, complicated one right from the start. The Holy Stone HS700 is a great drone to get started with, at a price point that won't break the budget. The camera that comes included is a very good, basic 1080p camera that is lightweight but surprisingly sharp. It comes with an 8GB Micro-SD card which should comfortably store 30 minutes worth of footage. However, with Windows 10 you cannot connect the camera directly to PC to access the videos (like GoPro), so it is a good idea to invest in a SD Adapter card if your PC is equipped with a card reader. Also, beware that the Micro-SD has to be inserted fairly far into the camera for it to lock in place, so some sort of pointy instrument will be needed to remove and insert the card.
Out of the box, the setup is relatively easy, and comes with spare propellers which is a nice bonus. One word of caution, however; the instructions are very poorly translated, so it may be more insightful to check YouTube for assistance in setting up. Also, the steps to pair the transmitter to the drone are reversed; the Quick-Start guide states to plug in the drone battery first before powering up the transmitter. After 30 minutes of frustration, I contacted customer support, who was extremely helpful, where they had me power up the transmitter first before inserting the battery into the drone. That worked.
The drone battery takes a long time to charge (about 4-5 hours) through a USB connection. I've been using a phone charger adapter to charge the battery via a standard wall receptacle. Given the length of time to charge the battery to full for a 20-minute flight, it is highly recommended to purchase an additional 1-2 battery packs to have on hand.
In all, it is a very good drone to start with if new to the hobby.
Great aircraft, especially for beginners
4
Amazon Customer
Easy to maneuver, and highly recommended for those getting into the drone photography market.
Great little drone that is super easy to fly
4
Connie
I received the HS700 for Christmas 2018. I have flown it around the nearby park and from a rocky ledge in Snow Canyon, Utah where the wind was gusting quite a bit. The HS700 handled the wind very well and features like Auto take-off/land, Follow Me and Return to Home make piloting it super easy. I don't give it 5-stars simply because the supplied camera is only 1080p and has no image stabilization. Sure the camera does the job, but I want 4k resolution and smoothness like butter. I was going to upgrade the HS700 to the GoPro Hero7 but am unable to since there is not a mount available that will fit (searched all the Interwebs and even chatted with Holy Stone). Only GoPro 2,3,4 will fit, BUT you have to use the GoPro app to see live video from the drone. That means you can no longer use the all the cool features on the HS700's Ophelia app (Follow Me, RTH, Circle, etc). As I explained to Holy Stone, that is a huge problem that needs to be remedied. Other than that, I totally recommend this drone! It's super easy to fly even as a beginner.
Road Bumps to Getting Started - Locked Motor Rotor
4
William I Russell
Beware of loose screw(s)! Shake your drone and listen. The first picture shows a screw lodged inside one of the four drone motors. It's apparent this stray screw was lost during assembly because the motor was fastened by all the four usually placed screws; as shown in the second picture. The undesirable fifth screw lodged inside the motor probably fell down during assembly. This lost motor-fastening screw was never retrieved; obviously. When I assembled the blades there was no problem. However when I turned-on the four motors during the powering-up phase, one of the motors was locking up (the motor with the stray screw, of course). So happens this lodged screw caused the motor to turn in one direction and make ratcheting sounds in the other direction. An undesirable, extra screw might not lock up a motor till certain conditions are met; hopefully, not occurring when you are flying over a hillside and it crashes into some rocks and starts a fire. Soon will do some hovering over my driveway and see if any other weird conditions occur. A picture of the circuit board is also attached. I've got the drone back together, but I'm wondering now if I should've looked for additional stray screws!
Stray hardware located inside products has always been an embarrassing problem for equipment builders. Stray hardware pieces would often be found inside military grade equipment at aerospace companies I've worked at in the past. What Holy Stone could do to prevent this particular four-screw, motor attachment problem is not to allow "screw dropping" space between the plastic drone housing and the outside of the motor frame.
Nice Drone, easy to fly!
4
Justin & Adele
I really like this drone a lot! IT comes with a camera that takes a pretty good picture! I'm sure if you had a gopro or something it would be even more amazing! That said the picture for the built in camera definitely isn't bad being much more crisp and clear than other drones I own (although this is the most expensive drone I own so I would expect that!)
The drone (unlike budget friendly drones I have) is able to get quite high and isn't affected by the wind too much. It wasn't a problem to get the drone to come back to me. I absolutely loved that the control pad has a display that gives a ton of information. It lets you know how much battery your drone has (and will beep when it's time to bring the drone back!) as well as information related to the signal between controller and drone and such.
Overall I really really enjoy this drone! I've dinged it a star because I'm not quite sure how to get the GPS integration with my cell phone to work. Whenever I start it I can "See" the drone registering on the GPS but it never seems to download the map of my area to more precisely see where the drone is in relation. If I can better figure out how this works I'll come back and update the review!
Overall I definitely think this is a great drone for someone who wants a fully featured drone without spending double or even triple the price! I highly recommend it!
Very nice drone, but.....
4
Kenneth A. Smith
So I have been flying this drone for a while and I think I can offer an honest review. This is one of many drones I fly, several other Holy Stone products, a tiny little S9 from BROADREAM (great fun for about $20-30 on Amazon), an Autel Xstar Premium , and a Mavic pro. So here are my opinions about the Holy Stone HS700. First of all, the aircraft itself is excellent! Very responsive and the GPS works great. Return to home put the drone within a few feet of the takeoff point-impressive for a drone in this price range. Handles wind very well-if you look at the way the tree branches are moving in the video I posted you will see what I mean. The controller is also very good, giving some flight info, satellite connections, etc. The app for your phone/tablet is also very good So why not 5 stars? Two reason-camera and battery. The camera itself is ok-not great, but as you can see by the photos I posted not bad at all. The problems are several. I knew the camera was not gimbal mounted, but I certainly expected that camera pitch would be adjustable in flight like the HS100 but it's not. The camera also does not have electronic image stabilization so making smooth videos is nearly impossible. On the plus side, the camera mount will work with other cameras that have EIS and/or 4k video, but unless you already have one the cost of such a camera puts the total cost of the HS700 and camera upgrade into the range of a DJI Phnatom 3 which has a 3 axis gimbal and 2.7k video camera. The other issue I have with the HS700 is the battery charge time. Although flight time is fairly good (I have averaged about 17 minutes flight time) the time to recharge is terrible-5+hours! My Autel and DJI Mavic batteries are much larger and charge in about an hour. So, bottom line, Holy Stone has an absolutely excellent aircraft in the HS700. Too bad they dropped the ball with the camera and battery
