Review of USA Toyz UDI U818A WiFi FPV RC Quadcopter Drone with HD Camera - 2.4GHz 4 CH 6 Axis Gyro RTF

Review of

USA Toyz UDI U818A WiFi FPV RC Quadcopter Drone with HD Camera - 2.4GHz 4 CH 6 Axis Gyro RTF 

Four out of five stars

Upon opening the box of the drone I easily located all the pieces.  Everything was complete, nothing missing.  Directions were very straight forward and easy to read and understand, it took me about 15 minutes to completely read the instruction manual prior to flying.  The controller calibrated easily with the drone.  I had some difficulty getting the drone to center and stay in one spot.  I played with the trim controls for a good 45 minutes, but even inside my house with no wind I was unsuccessful in getting it to hover in one spot without minor movements of the joystick. 

 I also noticed a slight issue with the engine speed.  I had the drone hovering about 4 feet off the ground inside the house and without touching the throttle control the engine speed seemed to rev up and down slightly.  This caused the unit to bounce in altitude between 4 feet and 8 feet.  Getting the unit to rotate was slightly tricky to master as every time I went to rotate left or right the unit would start to drop in altitude significantly.  I eventually got the hang of that, by slightly increasing the throttle speed just prior to rotating. 

 The onboard camera worked great by connecting via Wifi to my cell phone, a Samsung Galaxy S4. The camera has good image clarity and there was only a slight delay between the camera and my phone.  It did take good pictures.  I was not overly impressed with trying to use the cell phone as a controller though.  I felt there was too much delay in the signal reaching the drone from my phone.    I don’t believe the delay in signal is an issue if flying outside in an open area.  When I was trying to do detailed movements around my house between furniture the drone would run into a wall or chair before the signal would reach it to change direction.  If you are planning on using the cell phone as a controller just make sure you plan your movements a few seconds ahead.  While using the controller there was no delay, movements were pretty much instantaneous.  So I would choose which controller (standard or cell phone) you use depending on what environment you are flying in. 

 Outdoor flying was easy.  Had good reception.  I did accidently drop the throttle speed when the unit was about 30 feet in the air and the drone dropped and hit the ground pretty hard.  Didn’t seem to do any damage.  Started right back up and flew just fine.  Overall it seems to be a good unit.  I did get it caught in some tree branches once, but none of the propellers were damaged.  It held up pretty well.  I did notice the batteries only lasted about 15 to 20 minutes.  So I would recommend purchasing extra batteries if you are planning on flying it for an hour or two.       

This item was made available for free for review purposes. 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SH3MU0U