Holy Stone HS720G GPS Drones with Camera for Adults 4K FAA, 2-Axis Gimbal, Built-in Remote ID, 120°FOV, Brushless Motor, 5G WiFi Transmission, Smart Return Home, Professional FPV Drone for Beginner

I was looking for a small budget friendly drone. I own a full size drone and it is somewhat cumbersome to transport it and all the things you need if you want to take it somewhere. Came across the Holy Stone HS720G on Prime Day and couldn't pass it up for the price. Was not expecting a lot for a $200 drone. But let me say, I was blown away once it got here.One of the best parts of the design is by far its portability. Folded up it is about the size of your hand. Came in a nice carrying case which also contained the remote, a battery, a USB charging cable for the battery, and extra propellers. Upon initial inspection it definitely has a plastic feel to it. But also has a bit of weight. It is 13.3 oz / 377 g, so you will have to register it with the FAA.The remote is small. At first I thought it was going to be too small to be comfortable. But it has two palm handles that fold out from the bottom to hold on to which makes it easy to use. Controls are minimal, but there’s everything you need for flight and basic camera control. Plus, there’s a simple LCD screen that shows essential information. The controller runs on AA batteries.I was also a bit concerned about the phone cradle. But to my surprise, my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra fits into the cradle even with the case on. Though I will say if I had even a slightly larger case I would have to remove it to make the phone fit. Due to where the buttons are on my particular brand and model phone, I need to shift the phone slightly toward one end, which makes it slightly off center. But not a big deal.The drone uses a single rechargeable battery that advertises 23 minutes flight time. About average. Down side is it takes about 5 hours to charge. So if you want to spend more than 20 minutes at a time flying it would be wise to invest in a second battery.Initial setup is beyond simple. Download their Ophelia FLY app to your phone, turn the drone on, connect your phone to the drone's WiFi SSID, pair the remote to the drone (which is a single step process), calibrate the compass, and you are ready to fly!Initial flight impression is the Holy Stone HS720G seems pretty easy to fly. The controls are basically the same as more advanced drones. The connection between the controller, your smartphone, and the drone is through Wi-Fi. I was experiencing signal lost if I fly further than roughly a hundred feet at an altitude above 50 feet. I did notice that I can fly higher with no signal loss when the drone is above the controller, but a combination of altitude and distance is the issue. Definitely not the distance they advertise. Again, my phone is a Galaxy S22 Ultra. Definitely a newer phone. So I don't think it is the WiFi technology of my phone that is causing the issue. When the phone disconnects from the drone you lose the camera view. I was lucky and the controller remained fully connected. So I was able to fly back into range and reconnect. However, if control is also lost you would have to activate Return to Home to bring the drone back. So, although the Holy Stone HS720G is advertised as being able to fly at much greater distances and altitudes, it’s best to keep it reasonably close.There are a couple of features in the app, Follow Me, Tap Fly, and Point of Interest. I only tested Follow Me. With the drone at about 50 feet in altitude I activated the Follow Me option and started walking around my property. It seemed to follow me pretty well. Once or twice it when I would turn and start walking a different direction it would continue on it's current path for probably 10 to 15 feet before deciding to turn and continue following me.The gimbal and camera are a pretty basic design, with the gimbal offering 2-axis mechanical stabilization while the third axis is taken care of by electronic image stabilization. You can change the camera view in a vertical motion. But not side to side. Not a huge deal. But if you are wanting true 3 way adjustment you are going to have to spend more money on a different brand. You can store pictures and video on your phone with the app, or on the drone via microSD card. I didn't have a card laying around so the couple of pictures I took were stored on the app. You get higher resolution storing them on a SD card.Overall, I am very pleased with the HS720G for the price point. Is it a DJI Mini or Mavic? No, it's not. But it is a very fun little drone that you can play around with and take pictures and video with for a third of the cost of a DJI.One last thing I want to touch on is Holy Stone's customer service. I cannot say enough about them. This drone review is actually on my 2nd HS720G. My first one had a catastrophic electronic malfunction on the initial flight. I contacted Holy Stone tech support via the Tech Support button in the app. Took less than a minute for a live person to be chatting with me. I explained in detail what happened. The person asked me a few questions about the event, then told me he was sorry that it happened, and was going to send me a new replacement. He asked me for my Amazon order number. I provided my order number along with my personal information, and in 4 days I had a replacement sitting on my doorstep. That is something that I would have never expected from a budget drone manufacturer. I would give these guys 5 stars on their customer service alone.Bottom line.. buy one!

- This is my second drone from Holy Stone. I had an HS700 that I enjoyed for years though I did replace the camera with a GoPro Hero 4 (it had a built-in cradle for camera swaps). It was time to upgrade to something not quite as bulky but still wanted to remain in the low to mid-price range. My drone arrived yesterday and immediately I was impressed with the case. Suede like feel, sturdy and compact (my old drone didn't come with the carrying case). I charged up the battery and got a bit of flight time in this morning before the weather got ugly. Of course, I added this drone to my FAA Registration account, added the label and off I went (I have a TRUST Certificate). The controller is a HUGE improvement over my previous drone. The sticks are accurate and responsive. The LCD screen has pertinent information and is easy to read. My phone sat well in the cradle to use the app. Pairing and calibration went through easily, I was in a wide-open field and I didn't have any trouble picking up satellites even with some cloud cover. I recommend the 'B4UFLY' app to ensure you are in legal airspace (always check with FAA Regs). I flew for about 10 minutes just manually getting used to the controls and the speed. This thing was very stable, much smoother making directional changes and picking up speed than my last drone. Then I only briefly tried 'Tap Fly' and 'Follow Me' in the app for another 10 minutes or so, both worked exactly as I commanded in the app. I hit the return home as the battery was getting low and it landed about a foot and half away from my pad, maybe a little less. Not bad, it was cloudy, misty and a breeze was picking up. The optical flow feature is a definite plus for landing. I think most of my crashes with my last drone were during landing. Watch out where you land. My HS700 had large landing gear, clearing the grass. This just has small rubber pads, and the props seem very delicate (comes with a spare set).- Camera - It takes decent quality images and video from what I can tell as I'm checking it out now. Recorded seamlessly to the micro-SD. I'm comparing this to my last drone so I'm sure the more expensive drones have higher quality cameras, but the footage is crisp and MUCH more stable than my HS700, even with the Hero 4. I'm cleaning some minor stuff up in editing and smoothing out the corners a bit (still shots too). Not a lot of adjustment options to the camera so it's pretty basic but if you like tinkering in post edit, you can make improvements, but they aren't absolutely necessary so far. I mainly use my drones for vacation and hiking spots (when legally able).- Couple more things, I flew for about 22 minutes on a charge (had a little left). It was about 40 degrees F outside, bit of a breeze with approaching rain. I'm used to carrying around a bulky drone and doing a lot of post edit with my last one. This is nice and compact and the image quality with enhanced stabilization are big improvements over my old drone. Yeah, I wish I could attach larger landing gear for field landings but I'll manage with my landing pad. Plus, I got a lot more room in my trunk now. I got this at a great price during a lightening deal, you can't beat the value versus features. I shopped this with the Ruko GIM2 (I never got a hands-on test), just based it on features, price and reviews. The Ruko has a much greater flight distance but no optical flow from what I've seen. I can't legally go that far (FAA Reg.) anyhow so the Holy Stone was the choice, plus I have found the customer service email responsive and friendly. I didn't have issues with the WiFi dropping but again, I didn't test the limits and stayed within FAA distance regulations. I wish it had another battery but at this price, I think they were keeping it cheaper with the one battery. The Ruko has two in the package but is considerably more money depending on the sale you manage to get.- Ultimately this drone serves it's purpose for me, great features at a great price. It's a legitimate GPS drone and not a cheap toy, I look forward to getting out there with better weather and a more scenic location. I'll try to upload some shots when I do.