Gadgetory

it's been a year since our last big overview of the drone market and the industry has changed by leaps and bounds the drones we played with last year were amazing they could do things like take off and land on their own and they could return to home but what makes this year's drone so amazing is that they have so much more in terms of intelligence hell you don't have to fly them half the time anymore you can set them to follow mode or 360-degree orbit it's a flying camera right so fundamentally what you want to do is get it in the air and then you let it worry about capturing the perfect shot last year we spent a lot of time struggling with assembly there were rotors that we couldn't attach and batteries that have loose wires this year all the best drones have really tightened up that process the batteries snap into place easily and the rotors are self tightening that means it's no longer about struggling when you get it out of the box but how it flies in the air the DJI phantom is still our favorite drone out of the box it's the one you can rely on to capture great footage which means a lot when you have a 20-minute battery but some of the other drones we tested are bringing more innovative features to the market 3d robotic solo for example has built smart features like an orbiting cable cam right into the remote making incredibly easy to capture advanced maneuvers that otherwise you'd have to be a great pilot to do another nice feature we saw this year was a remote with a built-in screen that means you don't have to attach your phone or your tablet and you're not burning battery on that device while you're out flying all the units we tested this year except for 3d robotics solo have an integrated camera and one of the great things about that is you can adjust the camera settings on the fly from the remote or the app what that means is if you're outside and changing weather with shifting lighting conditions you can ensure you grab that perfect shot the DJI phantom was still my favorite it's the most reliable the easiest to fly and capture the best footage the digi eye has a number of other interesting features it has both GPS the American system and GLONASS the Russian satellite system that meant that it found more satellites faster and in general was more stable in the air the phantom also comes with a downward facing camera which means if you're flying inside without a satellite signal it can find and hold its position the phantom offers the ability to livestream to YouTube and while it's not perfect yet it's really promising I also found that the phantom was the one that was pushing the most consistent software upgrades out of the box that couldn't do things like follow me or orbit mode but DJI pushed that and now those features work the Phantom is also the only all that comes in a wide range of prices you could get it for 700 bucks with a decent camera or 1250 with the full 4k the runner-up was probably the solo from 3d robotics it's built some of the smart features like an orbit and cable camp right into the remote which makes it super easy to get shots that I couldn't do as a pilot the big problem was that the gimbal and the camera which is a GoPro were never as reliable I had problems with shaking and weird shadows and the colors look washed out the typhoon from uniq is a great drone and it has a feature that I love which is that the screen is built right into the remote often when I'm out flying I have to use my phone which means I'm burning the battery on my principal device just because I'm up in the air typhoon has a great camera beautiful bold colors and crisp picture the problem is that the digital stabilization adds a weird jelly shape to the image the chroma is basically the same drone is the typhoon with a few small modifications it has the same great remote with the screen built-in unfortunately it was nowhere near as reliable and crashed a number of times before I could even get it in the air the para P Bob comes at a great price and a small form factor which is easy to fit in a backpack unfortunately it's not reliable enough to put in the air we crashed two units during our previous testing which is why you don't see one pictured here today the big difference was that the DJI phantom was the most reliable when it came to how it flew and the quality of the footage it could capture at the end of the day that's the decider a number of the drones we flew this year were easy enough that my two-year-old son and my 65 year old father could both fly them but in general drones still don't feel safe for cheap enough to be accessible to lots of consumers now that could change chip makers like Qualcomm are telling us that by this time next year 4k drones could be as cheap as $300 with batteries that last an hour if that happens I believe they will be the next camcorder totally ubiquitous at weddings and beach vacations something you see all the time and in every family you