DJI UAV Aerial Photography Flight Controller Puzzle Drone Remote

This is (was) my first drone. I didn't want to drop $1000 on a DJI until I knew how to fly. This little guy is a great drone. I will keep this short: I didn't test the camera or even use it. I just wanted to get a drone I could fly indoors and practice. The first thing I can say is READ THE MANUAL. There are things on the controller that are not obvious as far as operation (like trimming the forward/back/left/right). That said, this does fly well for a $100 drone. However one of the motors burned out after my 2nd day of use. So that was rude. Also I would HIGHLY suggest you use the prop guards...my houseplants would also very much agree. Here's a list of pros and cons:PROS:1 - Flies well and is very durable (I crashed it about 20 times)2 - Great lights for night flying3 - Looks cool4 - Comes with 2 batteries (about 5 min. of flight each one)CONS:1 - Motor burned out on day 22 - You have to screw in the prop guards which isnt obvious in the instruction manual3 - Batteries are kind of a pain to swap out4 - The light on the USB battery charger dont turn green when the battery is chargedSo overall I think this is a $49 drone, not a $100 drone. I am not a fan of having to contact support and wait for motors along with shipping and all that hassle. For $100 I thought the motors would at least last a few months...it's not like I was flying in wind or even outside. But it is a cool little drone, just not super well made.UPDATE: They sent out a replacement drone to me right away after reading my review on . That is unheard of these days!

This is written with about 20 flights having been flown. This is my first drone. I suggest downloading the instruction manual from the website, it is slightly different from the one included in the box and is better at explaining some features. I started out frustrated that I could not get the drone to link with the remote. The instructions say to hold the throttle stick down, turn on the remote, and quickly move the throttle up and down. WRONG. simply turn on the remote, then move the throttle up then down. Works every time. The gyro does a good job keeping the drone level. but the trim adjustments don't work very well, if at all. Some people have complained about video quality, but I think the video is just fine. The headless flying feature works, but if you are like me and walk around when flying you will find it is better to learn to fly without this feature. The default mode is standard flying, not headless. The default "speed" is slow but "speed" is not really speed but responsiveness. It is very simple to increase the "speed" and you will want to do this if there is any wind. The return button seems to be useless. The build quality seemed flimsy at first, but a several crashes later it is still holding up. The best things about this drone are that parts are easily obtained on , and the customer service is really fast and really wants you to like their product. Just these two things alone make this the drone you want to buy.

This is a great bang-for-your buck drone that's best suited for beginners on a budget who want more fun than what a mini drone offers. You do have the versatility of flying this drone indoors or outdoors.For beginner drones, I think three things are most important to review before buying: Battery life, crashability, and ease of control. Here's a rundown of how the F181C performs in each category, plus some of its drawbacks.Battery life:I got 8-10 minutes of flight time per battery charge cycle. I imagine you can get more if just hovering, but what fun is that? I was a little concerned before buying the drone that battery life would come in under the stated range, but was happy to learn that actual performance matches up well with the stated range. I live in Colorado and even tested it after a snowstorm in 20 degree fahrenheit weather. I kept the battery warm in my pocket while outside and loaded it into the drone when ready to fly, which may have helped to keep it flying as normal. With the two included batteries, you can expect 18-20 mins. of combined flight time.Crashability:Beginner drones are meant to be crashed and no doubt you'll likely do so many times if this is the first time flying a drone. Even though it costs roughly $100, I was never too worried about crashing the drone because I knew it would be safe. It comes with propeller guards that can cushion any crash, whether it's landing upside down or flying straight into a tree. I've crashed it about 10 times now and there are no issues or dings to speak of. The drone does also come with an extra set of propellers if you happen to break any.Ease of control:I think this is where this drone shines the most. I've flown many other beginner priced drones and they're all a bit more sensitive to user controls than this model. While some may prefer the extra sensitivity, it can lead to more crashes and less sensitivity makes learning to fly a drone easier. The main reason why this drone is easy to fly is because the controller joysticks all have feedback i.e. there's resistance when pushing a joystick and it lightly returns to center after releasing. Controllers without this feature are more difficult to control and the correcting movements tend to move the drone crazily about. It's kind of like playing a car racing video game and you turn too hard one direction and then over correct, only to go further off the intended path in the other direction.Drawbacks:1.) Speed -- Some similarly priced drones are speedier. You'll find it hard to fly this drone if there's more than a slight breeze. In slightly windy weather, you'll have the forward control fully juiced but will be stuck in place, or even be blown backwards.2.) Build quality -- Admittedly, the build quality matches similarly priced drones. But one can hope for better build quality at every price point. While not a deal killer, the drone is lightweight plastic and the propeller guards and landing feet don't always stick in place when carrying it around. They do during flight though.A few other things to know:No doubt this is one of the better drones I've found for under $100. But potential buyers should be aware of a few things when buying any drone at this price point.1.) The photo and video capabilities are great to have, and it's a fun perspective when viewed a few hundred feet in the air, but the cameras on beginner drones aren't great, both in resolution and functionality. The remote has a camera button to start a recording but I found it only worked intermittently and there's no real way of telling if the camera is recording when in flight. The camera also records wavy footage when doing any maneuver but a hover.2.) I was surprised by all that's included in the box, most of which was very useful. You'll get the following items: Drone, controller, 4 propeller guards, 4 replacement propellers w/ hardware and screwdriver, 2 landing feet, 2 batteries, a USB charging cable, a 4gb micro SD card, and a micro SD to USB adapter. Be sure to also have some batteries on hand since these aren't included in the box.All in all, this is a great drone within its beginner, budget category. To reiterate, I was pleasantly surprised by battery performance and ease of control, which overshadowed the drawbacks of its speed and build quality.

I am 71 years old, and have always wanted to fly a remote control plane or helicopter, but they were just too expensive to experiments with. I bought this affordable drone, spent some time getting familiar with the controls, and flew it for the first time with incredible success. It does all the hard work for you! Just give it enough power to get to the altitude you like, point it in the right direction, and tell it go where you want. Rotate it in flight to smoothly turn around and come back to you. Even without the camera, it is incredible fun.

revised review: after 1st time out getting some video, copter worked fine, downloaded videos and every one was apparently corrupted. videos were not playable. yes there were some hard landings but they were all in tall grass. shouldnt have damaged camera if thats why they arent playable.Revised Review #2. quadcopter makers sent a complete replacement copter. it works fine and video is also working on this unit. excellent customer service, quick and painless! not often that you can find a company that stands behind their product aswell as . A++

I have been flying the F181C two or three times a day in the week since I received it. It is my first Quadcopter, and I am very happy with it. I bought the 4-way charger https://www..com/gp/product/B01HHZ9MG8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and two extra batteries. This thing is great fun! I have flown in a lot in my small living room, as well as outside in some breeze and at night. No crashes or incidents yet (I have some RC experience, mostly with fixed wing slopers and electrics, and also a Blade helicopter, which did not last long.)It is easy to fly, and the bright blue and red LED "nav lights" make orientation easy. I have been getting 6 to a little over 8 minutes flying time on a battery. I am taking good care of the batteries, making sure they are cool before charging, and not leaving them on the charger too long after the charge lights go out.I like the sound of it: Not loud, just a nice propeller hum. My cat and dogs pay little attention to it when I hover over their heads. Overall I'd say it is a quality product, and I like the fact that spare parts are easily available and replacement motors are reasonably priced. I don't know how long they will last, but brushed motors do not last forever.The camera is of no interest to me. I did try it out. The picture and video quality are pretty fuzzy. I just want to fly it, so I took the camera off. It feels extremely light, but seems sturdy. I know I will eventually test its crash worthiness , but so far no incidents.Another factor in my choosing this one is all the reviewers who praised Customer Service .

I have to say has exceptional customer service. I'm writing this review for another reason.I am a rookie when it comes to drones. Not knowing much I had been flying my drone with only 50% power because I was not to sure of my abilities. (50+ yrs of age) I was getting the hang of things after 3 or 4 flights (battery changes) so I tried increasing my altitude. I was somewhat protected by our condo building. So as soon as the quadcopter was above the tree line and close to being above the 4 story condo building the copter took off and I was unable to control it.It drifted into a fenced in nature preserve next to our complex.I climbed the fence and searched for an hour and did not find it. I went out the next day and tromped around for 2 more hours. This was late September.Needless to say the weather got colder and eventually snowed a few times before I went back out in early January to look for it again.This time I found it after about 25 minutes of looking. After the rain, snow, and cold it looked to be in perfect condition. I thought for sure it was not going to work.Well I let it sit indoors for a day before I tried it and with a charged batter it started right up and I am able to fly it today!! you also make a more then reliable product.Thank You for the craftsmanship of your products!!

The F-181C is a mid-size entry level quadcopter with a maximum rotor span of 14.5 inches, putting it roughly the size of the UDI 818. And like the tried & true 818, this quad flyer from is an excellent entry level drone for those just getting started.It also shares a design flaw with the popular 818, exposed motor housings that are at risk of sticks or other foreign objects contacting the drive gears and causing a malfunction. UDI recognizes this shortcoming, and includes spare gear bushings with their drone. A better solution would be to just enclose the vulnerable motor housings; like they did on the FPV model X-4000. almost got it right with the F-181, except as the attached photos show, they leave the housing open at the bottom, right where critical gears are working. says they use feedback from us to improve their product; so it will be very interesting to see if the F-181 gets enclosed motor housings in the future.On my second outdoor flight the small gear slipped down, loosing contact with the large gear on the right front motor. I pushed it back into place and kept flying. It slipped down again, resulting in another hard crash. I again pushed it back into place, this time hearing a 'click'. Figured I was good to go, but I no sooner got back up to 40 feet in the air, and the small gear failed again. Crash #3. This time the small gear was just gone.A couple pics and an email or two later; and Fanny at customer service was quick to offer several options. That's a big plus for any purchase, they have THE BEST customer service department I have ever worked with anywhere. They offered a discount on a replacement motor which comes with the gears, but all I really need is the little gear piece. Asked for a set of 4, & said I'd be happy with 1. Fanny sent me 8 of them!Fortunately, I didn't have to wait for the replacements because I'd previously bought the "Aiskaer" 20 piece replacement gear set for the UDI 818 available on . Both drones use the same exact set of motor gears. (The Aiskaer kit contains ten large gears and 10 small ones.) With the missing gear replaced my F-181 is back in the air and flying as good as ever.It's worth noting that the LiPo battery used in these drones absolutely NEEDS a cool down period of 15 to 20 minutes before you recharge them. Failure to observe this cool down period will drastically shorten the life of the battery & drone. One of the F-181 features I like the most is an internal battery with external charging port, and an on-off switch next to it. No more messing with exposed wires. It takes 90 minutes to fully recharge the battery. I suppose one could use spare batteries but changing them requires removing the camera, and might overheat the motherboard.Another feature I like is that the camera isn't fixed like most; you can aim it to shoot straight ahead, or angled downward according to your preference. The camera shoots above average video; it isn't bad, plus it also has audio, though you probably won't hear much except the rotors & motors.Your bottom line here is the F-181 is a very capable and fun quad: backed up by a robust & enthusiastic customer support team. Over 700 other reviewers agree that you can't go wrong with this drone.

Bought this in March and subsequently returned it plus a free replacement sent by vendor in exchange for my agreement to retract a 1 star review..Some time later after much email exchange with vender I got a SECOND free replacement.I was determined to try to make it work so I visited several web sites for a clearer set of instructions which stressed the necessity of syncing the drone and controller.This very important drill is sort of buried in the difficult to decipher instructions that came with it.Since then I have logged considerable time on this one PLUS a third free replacement that I got because THE CAMERA didn't work on the second one????.I have had to replace 3 motors on # 2 and 1 on #3 thus only 4 instead of 5 stars.Excellent customer service even though correspondence is difficult. Tough little drone for the price and docile flier great for a beginner.JUST READ AND UNDERSTAND THE INSTRUCTIONS.

My husband and son LOVE this drone so much more than all the other ones we have tried over the last few years since they came out on the market. It is easy to fly and control and land and actually does what you want it to do and not go rogue. My son is 10 and has no problem using it. I will say though that the third time my son used it he dropped the controller on the ground and part of the joystick came off though it was still usable. I contacted the company and they immediately got back to me and said that they could send me out one that had been sent back to them but the joystick will hopefully work. We agreed this would work (I was happy with the agreement) and then I had to leave for about a week for a family emergency and the drone never came in. Right after I returned I had an email from them stating that the drone got lost in the mail and they would like to send me out two and would that be okay? Well of course it's okay! And I didn't even contact them, they contacted me. I am extremely impressed with their customer service and their product.

I chose the F181C because it seemed like a good entry level drone for me to try out. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something only to discover I didn't enjoy it. The F181C arrived well packaged with clear instructions on how to set it up. There was minimal work to do in installing the skids and blade guards although you WILL need your reading glasses for those little screws. They give extra screws in case you lose one in the carpet so no worries there. I have flown an RC helicopter before so for me, the flying was no problem at all. If I was a beginner, this would be a good choice because it is stable and has beginner modes. So far, my only complaints are that the pictures and video aren't great but they aren't terrible and the battery only lasts about 5 minutes. It takes nearly 2 hours to recharge a battery. Other than that, it's a fun good quality unit. If it came with 3 or 4 batteries or recharged significantly faster I would be elated with it. The unit flies well indoors but has no stabilization in breezy conditions as there is no GPS. For a hundred bucks, I'm pretty happy with it. I will probably purchase amore expensive model in the future with a better camera and longer flight times but this was a good place to start flying drones.

I've flown drowns before; from tiny handhelds to ones that take two hands to lift, and I just want to share my experience. This drone is AWESOME and VERSATILE, and the headless mode is phenomenal. My praise for the device is based mostly on what you are getting at the price point of this drone; I don't think you can find one with more features or better battery life for under $200.I love this drone because it has all the same controls we use in our high schools to prepare students for the Unmanned Aerial certifications (UAS & UAV). The drone is lightweight, responsive and agile and offers different flying modes and speeds to cater to the pilot's skill level. For the price, the battery time is above average (@ 10 minutes), but battery life will be less if you're recording video while in flight.HolyStone provides a second battery so that you can easily swap batteries out and keep flying��one battery can be charging in the house while the other is in the drone. They also provide you with a bunch of extra propeller blades, which come in handy. Our cat decided to chew on ours (pictured) so the extras are a huge bonus!Because the device is so light weight, crashing it ("hard landings" as we like to call them) won't break it, but the parts are plastic and aren't indestructible so be aware of that if you're a beginner. Also, wind will have a huge affect on the drone due to it's weight when flying outdoors. You should only fly it when there isn't any wind at all, otherwise you'll be fighting to control it all day.The only negative I can report about this drone is the receiver. We had two drones literally fly away on us right upon lift off. To gain a perspective, we used the drones everyday for a solid 4-month period and on 2 occasions right after changing the battery, pairing it, calibrating and taking off slowly, the blades whizzed at a high speed and the drone disappeared straight up into the sky, completely unresponsive to anything we did with the remote.In both cases HolyStone replaced the drones with new ones, as they shipped us replacements that arrived within two days of us contacting them (once by phone, the other via email).This is clearly a communication issue between the remote and the drone itself; but hate to totally blame the company. It's very possible that numerous wifi and other bluetooth connected devices in close proximity are causing interference, as there is a ton of congestion /interference around the buildings where we fly the drones. Or, an ugly "hard landing" could've damaged the device's receiver prior to take off.Bottom line, I feel like this drone is perfect for beginners (my daughter is 7 and became a pro with it quickly) and will keep those with intermediate skill busy for hours. It is easy to control and agile enough that it can be flown indoors or outdoors. It includes all the controls and features necessary to prepare for UAS & UAV certification. And when it's lit up and the blades are whirling it just looks like a mean machine!

Make sure you pick up some extra batteries because this thing is super fun to fly!The auto 360 flip is a cool and exciting feature. It is very level and the trim works beautifully. Not FPV, but it does have an onboard camera with SD card so you can get some really cool shots. The camera isn't the greatest, but it is steady and gives a good picture in daylight. I worked mine pretty hard the first week and wore out a motor. They are easy and cheap to replace, or you can spend a little more and get some really good upgraded motors. I think that the price is a little too high. A few annoying things: the landing gear and prop guards are not secured on the drone so they fall off very easily. After I crashed into a tree, I lost a prop guard and had to abandon the others because it was off balance with only 3 guards. My tip is to hot glue those bad boys in place ASAP if you want to keep them. Luckily i have a 3d printer so i can print out some new ones, but others may not be so fortunate.

Excellent medium sized drone with amazing customer service backing it up! This is my second drone with my first one being a small Hubsan that was fun to fly but had challenges outside in the wind. Saw this one was a little bigger but still not as big as a Parrot or Phantom. Arrived on time and once I had installed the landing legs, the propeller guards and the batteries were charged it was off to flying. It was a joy to fly right from the start and I particularly liked how I could turn the camera on or off from the remote control. They joy however was not to last..... an inverted hard crash caused one of the plastic gears that drive the props to either disintegrate of fly off somewhere in my backyard unable to be found. This rendered the drone un flyable and I thought I would be writing a bad review but I figured I would give their customer service a try before rendering final judgment. I shot off an email to Holystone and within an hour had a response and a way ahead. The Holystone rep informed me that I would probably need to replace the motor due to how the gear was attached and also sent a link to a youtube video demonstrating how to perform the procedure. The motors arrived today and the package also contained 4 of the plastic gears I needed. I was able to replace the gear and have been flying it for the last few hours with no ill effects. Holystone also followed up with an email today to ensure I received my parts and was able to resolve my issue. The promptness of their response and willingness to follow up to make sure I got up and flying again was refreshing and I would recommend this product for anyone in the market for a medium sized drone with a built in camera.

This is my son's 3rd drone. The first two were from different manufacturers and obviously didn't last long. 's customer service recommended . My 13 years old son is very happy with the drone. He didn't have any problems with putting the parts together. He had a few bumpy flights at first but the issues were resolved thanks to Customer Support. I think reading the manual first, getting used with the basic functions before doing any fancy moves, and limit the flying time to 5 minutes are the most important points to have great time with your drones. My son has got up to 7 minutes once or two times but he's more comfortable at 5 minutes. There's nothing worth more than seeing my son's big smiles and laughs while making the drone flying upside-down. He's just showed off flipping the drone around and wouldn't let his older sister or my husband touch his drone. He's a very good pilot now. Thanks Fancy, Echo, Sherry and Customer Support Department for relying to our inquiry quickly and following through efficiently....??. You resolved the issue less than 24 hours. That is every impressive! You Rock!

First of all, my son loves this thing. He had mastered the tricks and loops and stuff within an hour of powering it up. It has lights that can blink: red and blue and at night, it's kind of creepy because you think the police are sitting there in the dark with their lights on. Maybe that's just my neighborhood, though... With just the red light blinking on and off, it COULD pass for a stealthy Cylon, so there's that, too. Not that I'm advising anyone to prank unsuspecting neighbors/family members. That would be bad. So don't do it!There really aren't any cons to this little guy that I can see. It's easy to manouever, lands gently in the auto-land thingy that I have no idea how it works and overall can take quite a bit of use. It prefers to land/start on solid ground rather than grass, so give it what it wants. It is NOT a suitable alternative to a weedwhacker no matter how cool it looks when landing on tall grass.The video capability is pretty cool, too. It uses a microSD card which is handy since I had a half a dozen of them left over from old devices. I don't have the video because this is my kid's drone and I'm disinclined to try and pry it out of his hands just to upload a video. You know how kids are these days...Overall, this is a really great drone. It doesn't use infrared to communicate with the controller which is a MAJOR bonus here in the land of eternal sunshine. We won't speak of the little one from Christmas two years ago that used IR and got lost somewhere because it flew into the bright sun and got confused. And we also won't speak of the similarly priced drone from last year that broke within a week of opening it because the gears were made of crap plastic.Well made, decent camera capability, good battery life, easy to operateKid tested, parent approved10/10 would buy again

The drone is a nice size - small enough to play with indoors, large enough to use outside as well. Remote functions work well and are quite responsive. Camera takes very good pics - surprised at the clarity. Easy to use, basically right out of the box once batteries are charged. My only issue (but not a deal breaker) is that the drone is affected by slight breezes so take extra care when flying outdoors if you go too high (winds change the higher you go). I've had several drones, and this is the best yet for the money. The customer service is great too (5-stars!), if you should ever need to contact them they are really good about responding back to you. Very happy, would highly recommend.

This is my first drone. I did a lot of research over several months just to see if it was worth it to get a drone worth the money, simple but decently constructed and dependable.This specific drone for $100 was more then expected. It was completely assembled and ready to go except for blade protectors and landing gear. It took me about 2 to 3 minutes to add those. The charge on the battery was sufficient to start it up and fly it for its maiden voyage. I was very happy to see it fly without very little effort. Once I trimmed the controls it hovered very well with little bumps on the joystick to keep it centered. I flew it the first time in my living room which is about 20 feet by 15 feet. No problem buzzing around the room without hitting the walls.Anyone who wants a simple but rugged drone for the price should consider this model.Since flying it I have hit walls, ceilings, bushes, etc... none of the crashes have hurt the drone in any way. It comes with 4 propellers and the small drive gears on the props which I have still not used. Other parts are available from .Keep in mind this is a small drone weighing less then one pound. It's a lightweight aircraft and is not recommend to be flown outside in any windy conditions.Example: 2 mph winds or higher and the drone will get blown away in the direction of the wind and you will need to chase it. It is not meant to be flown in any noticable winds. If you want a heavy duty drone that can handle high winds outside then you will need to invest in a much more expensive and heavier drone. Even then any remote controlled aircraft can have a tough time in heavy wind conditions regardless of how heavy or how much money you spend.Good drone to start with for the price. Once you get used to this drone you can spend as much as your heart desires to achieve whatever it is you want to do with a radio controlled aircraft.

If you're getting this drone to learn how to fly only to eventually get a more expensive drone just go ahead and get a higher end drone. This isn't an "entry level" drone more expensive drones simply are much easier to fly than cheaper drones.Battery life is rather poor and this drone is probably overworking the batteries it came with so you're going to want to be careful of sudden battery failure. I've flown this drone quite a bit and its batteries have already catastrophically failed (bulged due to outgassing) as shown in the photos. These batteries are now a fire hazard and need to be disposed of properly.This drone is fairly stable flying and at full power it can fly trough moderate wind gusts but its vertical hold or really any kind of hold is non-existent. It's pretty much automationless except for its gyro and you'll have to continuously correct its flight path which is honestly challenging and I like that but its probably not what a lot expect certainly not if you want to use it to take photos. On to that the camera is just barely okay. Then again given the price range its neat it has one at all.Overall I like it and have had a lot of fun with it.

I have many starter drones and this one is by far the best! it is sooo easy to fly and control. I flew this for many hours and flew it into the side of my garage! (my fault) It didn't get a scratch but one of the four motors started smoking and was done. I Emailed and spoke with Andy. he sent me a link on how to replace the motor which I did and everything went great except the flight that was all over the place. I emailed Andy and he got back to my in 10 minutes and told me how to recalibrate the drone and it worked perfectly! I was amazed at the customer service I received. This thing is indestructible!!! I was ready to buy another one before Andy helped me out so instead bought the HS-300 which I will be receiving Monday. All I can say is "get this drone!' Look for my review on the HS-300. I normally don't write many reviews but I had to share.

I previously bought the " F181W Wifi FPV Drone". I was so impressed with it, I ordered *THIS* drone: F181C. The difference is this drone does not have a video downlink to do "First Person View" (FPV) flying with a headset or smartphone. FPV does not matter to me and I saved $20.Once again, caveats: This is a toy. Also, expect to break parts. Based on the first we have, gears and propeller guards will wear out around 6hrs of flight (10min x 36). Buy replacements ahead of time:Gears: https://www..com/dp/B078J3PCRN/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_2Guards and propellers: https://www..com/dp/B01MG2QUU3/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_6This is a DURABLE toy. We've had several mid-air collisions as we race around the light post, fire hydrant, and the tree. Some have been rather severe. All the radio/drone pairs work with others. When pairing them, do it one radio/drone at a time.Both F181C and F181W have a 25%--50%--75%--100% sensitivity mode. For indoor flight, I use 25% mode so that I don't run into walls and furniture. For outside, 100% is required if there is *any* wind at all. After (estimated) 10hrs of flight for the both of us, we have no problem flying in 5mph wind on the street in front of the house without hitting trees or cars. Still, when there is wind (5mph), we do not climb above 20' or so.This drone is totally worth 5 stars and the ~$100 price tag.

Amended Review 9/6/17 - I wanted to mention how persistent Customer Service is at . I received many emails after writing the review below both explaining the experience levels and asking for more information on the image quality. They bent over backwards to make it right and I am very impressed. I am in Customer Support myself and strive to do as well as they did with me.Original Review: This is my 3rd experience with drones though I still consider myself a beginner.On Setup, this is fairly easy to put together. It would help if the tip of the screwdriver provided were magnetized as the screws are very small and difficult to hold on to and placed in position. Minor issue.Flight is fair. When taking the drone higher than 40 feet it is prone, even on a fairly calm day, to catch warm uplifts and pull away. Have had to use full forward stick to fight a backward warm lift to return the drone to controllable space.Trim is useless on this drone. I have tested in my large garage with absolutely no wind. Attempted to set trim but the craft continues to drift to the right and back with centered stick. Must continually make corrections to hover in a stable pattern.Camera is pointed too low. To get a test picture of my home I had to take the craft up to 30 feet above the house and 40-60 feet away just to attempt to get a shot of the house, otherwise, I pulled pics of the front sidewalk or landscaping only.Camera is distorted - any straight line - roof edge, sidewalk, driveway, wiring - is in a wavy line. Cannot get a good clear picture due to the distortions.Experience levels, 25/50/75/100 don't appear to stay set. May set it at 25 or 75 or 100 but it seems to revert to 50 on its own.Summary - for simple playing around in the yard, it is a fair toy. For getting any kind of clear pictures, it is really useless. It is a good tool for practicing control of the sticks. Posted generously as 3 stars, might be a little lower but since it was inexpensive I could not go lower.Edited 2017-07-28Customer service contacted me regarding the review - 4 times actually with the same email.. I understand now the Experience levels and have become accustomed to the settings. Camera is still distorted and points too low - must get very high and a good distance away from something ot get a good shot and then all lines are wavy/distorted.

I love this drone! I got this drone so that I could learn to fly a drone before buying a more expensive one. I've been flying this drone everyday these past couple weeks for about 5-10 min each day. I lost control of it a few times, but I was able to recover the drone. I think the front right engine must have burned out or something. When I start the drone up, three of the propellers are spinning at the same rate, but one is a lot slower. It fly's okay with a full charge but after about 2 min, you hear a bad noise(like a cat being stepped on) from the drone and it just shuts down and drops from the sky. So far, this has only been while the drone was about 6 feet off the ground. I don't dare fly it high anymore, because I'm not sure when it will seize up and drop the sky. I don't think I got my $99 out of the drone.

I bought this drone to get an idea how the smaller drones perform. I usually fly a Mavic Pro and a Yuneec Typhoon H. This drone is a blast to fly and is a great starter drone for young people (14+). The speed is remarkable and unlike my other drones, it does acrobatics with ease. I also fly it in my home because I get more practice flying without the danger of taking out my two cats. At the price point, I think it's a fine bargain although I would opt for getting a few extra batteries. When I first saw the charger it looked so cheap, but it's not and it's very effective. I also experienced a problem at one point with balance of the drone. I received remarkable and personal help all along the way. We were on a first name basis by the second email. Best of all, one person will track problem issues all the way through the service process. Help with my other drones goes from one person to the next when making inquiries. Great drone for my purposes and would make an outstanding starter drone for anyone.

Just a quick update. I increased the star rating to 4 rather than 3 because of the stellar customer service is exhibiting. They were exceptionally quick responding and are very open to resolving whatever issues I have experienced. That alone is a terrific way to set a high standard. I'll post a final review after evaluating the proposed resolution.=== ORIGINAL POST ===All in all I enjoy this drone. It's my first drone and was not sure what to expect. I was comfortable with the price and if it did not work out it's little risk. If nothing else, this drone did wonders in terms of helping me catch the bug of drone flying.First the good. When I read the description I was concerned about the mere 7-8 min flight time but honestly that was enough. My flying has rarely lasted longer than 16 mins (drone came with 2 batteries). The controls are easy to get a hang of and after a few sessions I was able to maneuver the drone around obstacles with limited collisions. The drone itself is exceptionally durable. With all the crashes I've had I've yet had to replace the blades with the replacements included in the package. Lastly the F181 is a good size. I didn't want a micro drone but also didn't want something that would necessary require FAA registration. This fits the bill perfectly. I can clearly see drone and the direction out in a field with no issue.With all that said there are a few things which I'm not crazy about. First, it seems like the drone needs to be calibrated all the time, a couple times per session. Also I feel like the wiring is subject to damage. When disconnecting the battery there's stress placed on the wires to the drone and then removing the battery you need to begin by slightly pulling the battery wire. Also, in order to close the battery compartment you needs to really twist and batter connector and wires. Maybe this won't be an issue but every time I replace the battery I'm thinking it's going to snap or pull off.Finally, feature I wish the F181 had was the ability to live stream the camera to a device, whether an LCD on the controller or a mobile device. This was not listed as a feature so I was hesitant to state this in the review, but other drones within the same price range offer this capability.With all that said would I recommend this to a friend? Yes, however I would also suggest they think about what features they are most interested in and do a comparison.

I just got this and haven't had time to record a video yet, but it's very easy to operate. Unlike a less expensive drone I bought a couple of months ago, the F181C hovers perfectly. The start/return button is great to use. It's also attractive. The battery is twice as large as that in my last drone, so I hope it lasts longer!One caution is that the screws that hold the skids and guards in place are extremely small for an adult to deal with. If you have fat fingers, are older, and/or have vision problems, find a 10 year-old child with small hands to help you. Sadly, there was not a 10 year-old child included in the box, so you'll have to find your own.

This is a fun drone and a good beginner's drone. It is pretty sturdy with the exception of the landing gear which became loose after a couple of landings. That can be "fixed" by putting a little plastic a wrap in the hole where the landing gear goes into the drone. I am very happy with the customer service that we received. Customer service deserves five stars. We were assisted by Wendy who helped with syncing the remote. She reached out to me a couple days later to make sure that we were enjoying our drone. Then, she sent an email a month later to make sure that we were still satisfied with our purchase. We are very satisfied customers.

I got this drone for my 7 y.o. daughter for Christmas because she insisted on having a "spy drone". I didn't want to get her one that had a smart phone attached to it because she doesn't have a phone and I didn't want her to depend on my phone while she was playing with her toy. This one can take pictures and videos with a micro SD card inserted although we actually haven't used that feature yet. I was concerned that she was going to cause a major crash and burn strait out of the gate, so I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a drone. With all of that said, this thing is great! It has multiple speeds, so you can start it off slow to get acclimated to flying it, a great feature for a 7 year old, but you can ramp up the speed and zoom around very quickly as well. It can do flips as well, so that's pretty cool, but don't tell the dog that, she doesn't appreciate it. We didn't pay attention to the instructions at the start and put the landing gear on without screwing it in, so we lost that pretty quickly, but it still takes off and lands great! My daughter (and my husband and I) have been using it for about a week now, have crashed it several times and still it works great! I like it that this drone comes with tons of spare parts and a spare battery as well. They know you're going to break a propeller sooner or later, so that's great planning. This drone is the perfect beginner drone. I highly recommend it!

UPDATE!(07-09-2017) I am still enjoying my son's drone. We haven't taken it outdoors yet because I just feel that we are not ready to take a chance as for now. Overall, it's a cool drone.UPDATE!!Due to the bad experience that I had with the F181C RC Quadcopter Drone I was contacted by 's customer service. I received this nice little F181C RC Quadcopter Drone within two days. I followed the instruction and tips that was given to me, and also watched a half a dozen YouTube F181C RC Quadcopter Drone test/review videos. I build up the courage to test fly it, but indoor instead,to get the hang of it. This is a pretty cool Drone, I like it. , thank you for reaching out with your quick excellent customer service. I will post another update when I do the real test outdoor, also I change my rating from 1 star to 3 stars. More stars if everything goes well outdoor with the drone. 5 stars for customer service. Thank you!I bought this for my son as a birthday gift. I received it on June 21,2017 very nice and small. I though it was going to be bigger but it's cool. Took it out the same day. The first take off was good. Second and after was okay. Tried the return command and didn't return. Took it off again, it started to drift off so I tried the return command moving the joystick and nothing was working. Therefore, it drifted off into I don't know where looked for it for hours and the next day nothing. Today June 24, 2017 I found it on the grass, it was in a tree. I was so happy. Took it back home, charged the battery and it still worked. I charged the other 4 battery that I purchased with it. This time I took it out to an open field with no trees. Turned it on, pressed the throttle up and it went up kind of quick. Therefore, I tried to bring it back down/return it and NOTHING. The F181C RC Quadcopter Drone DID NOT COME BACK OR DOWN IT CONTINUE TO GO UP UP UP AWAY INTO THE CLOUDS! I AM SO PISSED THAT I LOST $109.99.I usually don't do reviews especially negative reviews. If I do I like to give positive feedbacks but I am so pissed and just amazed of the bad experience I had with this product. Maybe it's due to my inexperience or the cheapness(maybe the more you pay) of the product. If anyone consider purchasing this, you are being warned��.purchase at your own risk. I am afraid to spend $1000 if this what will happen to drones.

The first time I flew this drone, it veered to the left and to back. I adjusted the trim and it flew okay. This was all inside. I decided to take it outside and it started drifting towards a tree. I hit the return to home button and it just slowly drifted away while beeping. I am not pleasedwith this drone at all.Pros: It looks nice.It handled okay indoors. (after trimming)Cons: Bad handling outside and then flying away with no way to turn it aroundI am still looking for it and if I find it I will be returning it. There are cheaper drones that handle a lot better than this one. Even on 100% mode it feels sluggish.Update to this: Make sure to calibrate your gyro. It makes all the difference. My new one came and did the same thing until I calibrated it and now it is a fun little drone to fly.UPDATE: I have been contacted by customer service and they are sending me a new drone, free of charge. They have the best customer service that I have seen and I am updating this review to reflect that. They did everything that they could to make it right. I realise that several things could have gone wrong to cause the drone to fly away. Whatever you do, read up on the RTH function, before using it. I think that is this drones biggest flaw. I realise that not all drones will arrive perfect. But will stand behind their products.

Are you purchasing a drone for indoor use and it's your first drone? then the F181C drone is made for you. This drone can be flown outside but there must be absolutely no wind or the wind will easily carry it off. Even if there is a slight breeze this drone will not be able to handle it and could easily cause pilot error. I also fly it at night when there is no wind and can easily be navigated due to its lights. The drone is very light weight and body of the drone is pretty fragile in my opinion. The drone does have protectors for the propellers which is very useful when learning to fly it. The camera does a decent recording job and comes with 4 GB of memory. It also comes with 2 batteries with approximately 14 minutes of flying time combined. Also, the batteries need 100 minutes to fully charge. In addition, since it is just a hundred dollar drone, do not expect it to perform like those expensive ones. It is made for simple flying and for learning how operate a drone. Also, this drone appears to be built with the least amount of material as possible but yet it works just fine.

I should preface this review with the fact that I am a beginner flyer, having only recently entered the drone world due to the extremely low entrance fee of the JJRC Elfie. I enjoyed that one so much I decided to up the game and bought the F181. It should also be noted that I've only taken it on a single maiden flight thus far.The F181 is a great beginners drone, easy to fly and quite fun. I'm not too happy that the controller defaults to Level 1, it's "Beginner" input, which didn't have enough power to correct for even a slight wind. The good news is that it has four levels, and in about a minute I was taking to the skies in "Expert" mode!At the end of my first battery I attempted to utilize the 1 touch return available on the drone. It promptly veered to the right and set down in high grass, terrifying me that the propellers might be damaged. Thankfully, they were not and for my subsequent batteries I manually had it touch down on asphalt. It should also be noted that each battery lasted maybe 5 minutes. It is advertised as 5 to 8 minute flight time, so that's right on par.The camera isn't anything to write home about. The picture quality is really bad, but they warn you on the box. It has a 2 megapixel camera. For reference, the iPhone 6 has an 8 megapixel camera and iPhone 7 has a 12 megapixel camera. Also, the video may be at 720p as advertised, but the framerate is extremely low. Frequent stutters and blurring mar the playback. Also, in video mode the drone will record audio, but I can't figure out why as the only thing I heard was a very loud close up of the drone engines. I highly recommend muting before playing these videos.If you're looking for a great flying experience in short burst for an exceptional price point I would definitely recommend this product.

Product is just ok. The trim was waaaaay off. And even when I adjusted the trim all the way to the right to compensate, sometimes it would still continue drifting to that direction (no wind involved). Then I'd start it up another time and the trim would be the opposite. It was guess work every time I turned it on.I lifted it too high one time, and it started to drift off over the trees. Partly due to the trim, but not in full. I never saw my drone again. I had it for 2 days. Manufacturer offered me half-off another. But I'm just not willing to spend even that on another.**Update. Seller contacted me immediately and sent me another unit free of charge. I appreciate their help. Even the replacement they sent, I have to constantly adjust the trim while using. I will set the trim all the way to the right to keep it steady, then I will fly it for 5 seconds, and it'll start drifting to the right. So I'll have to adjust it again. Annoying. This happens constantly for the entire duration of use.

Just starting flying the drone this week (holiday present, but the weather has been dreadful!) . . . so far, I am very happy with it! It's easy to fly right out the box (though it's really going to take some time to master it), basic controls are easy to learn quickly, and has several different modes so that you can set it up to your flying preference. For example, you can slow it down a little bit for beginners, and speed it up if you want more of a challenge. It also has headless mode so that your controls aren't dictated by what direction the drone is facing, just what direction you started off facing. It also has auto return and auto land function - both seem to work well, especially the auto land. I haven't had much luck with the auto return, but then I tend to move around a lot - might be me and not the drone. Has some fine tuning functions, and an "auto flip" mode, haven't tried that yet.The drone seems to be reasonably tough - I've crashed it multiple times so far, some of them fairly hard, and as of yet, nothing has broken! It does come with a full set of replacement blades. Battery life is OK, for just standard flying, I'm getting between 8-10 minutes per battery (it comes with 2). Batteries are a little slow to charge fully, somewhere between 90 minutes to 2 hours for a full charge.The camera/video function is OK - without a live stream, it's a little hard to tell what you're taking a picture of, though. The video is actually a little easier, since it just shoots away while you are flying, but note that the rotor noise is VERY loud on the video. I haven't had much luck with taking still pictures at all, so can't comment on the quality, but the quality of the videos is pretty good. Be warned - it's fairly hi-def, so it's about 1-2 MB a second roughly - a one minute 30 second video came out to be in the neighborhood of 180MB. So it is a memory card sucker. I bought an extra.Overall, I'm pleased with the drone - definitely a good starter drone, I would recommend it to a friend who was looking.

On my first flight outdoors, my F181 took off like a shot up and west, never to be seen again. I frantically tried all the return and power off commands on the controller but to no avail. (This was after carefully binding the controller and drone according to the directions.) Its as if the controller had no command over the quad. (Other F181 purchasers also have had this problem. See reviews. )I contacted --and to their credit--they quickly sent a replacement. The new quad obeys command and is easy to fly. Much easier to hover than my other eachine and Hubsan quads, even in a slight breeze.I'd strongly suggest that any purchaser test fly their F181 indoors (at least for the first few flights.) If, after pushing the engine start button, the quad takes off straight up and hits the ceiling, don't take it outside.Kudos to Holystone for their quick response to my emails and sending a replacement.

I purchased this for my dad's birthday. The assembly instructions were clear and easy to understand. It took no time at all to get it flying, but getting it to go where we wanted is another matter. Ha ha... We like it because it's simple enough to operate, yet still challenging and will require some practice to master it. The one drawback that we encountered was trying to figure out where the red charging light is. The instructions reference a light that will illuminate when you plug the battery in to charge, but they don't specify where it is...and the light shuts off once it starts charging. A little confusing, but after charging both batteries, we saw that the light is actually inside the USB dongle itself. I can recommend this drone as a great entry-level drone.

This has been a great first quadcopter. It was a Christmas gift for my now 11 year old son. He had no trouble flying it right away on the easiest setting. It's definitely an outdoor toy at first. Once he improved, he had no trouble flying it inside without hitting the ceiling. Winds of 5mph or less are no problem. Much more and it's hard for him to control. He loves the video feature. Video is the quality I expected for the price and MPs. Recently lost a gear off one of the motors after too many hard landings. Emailed customer service. They responded quickly, apologized for the failure, and put new motors in the mail right away. 5 stars for customer service as well! I recommend this product, and will buy from them again.

I found it very easy to learn to fly. It helps to read the instruction manual first. :) I had a few crashes early on because I didn't know how to kill it. Two motors burned out after a couple of days. I bought replacement motors and it worked great (replacing the motor is rather easy, just time consuming due to all of the screws). However, more motors burned out within a few more days.I contacted directly, and they were able to send me out a brand new F181 very quickly. I received the replacement in less than a week. I was really pleased. So far no motor burnouts...fingers are crossed.For the price point, I am not sure there is a better drone. The video quality is okay. The LED lights really help to fly it at night. It is rather difficult to fly in wind over 5 mph. You need to crank up the power to 100%, but that will drain the battery quickly. It is very easy to maneuver and it is small, so flying indoors is no problem once you get some practice.

My wife purchased my first drone for Christmas. It was horrible and most unmanageable. It flew as if it had a mind of its own. It ran away twice. I had to go look for it. I took it back to the store after reading the reviews on .This came with good flying directions. Also, there is a video at the website to make suggestions about flying your drone. Right out of the box, I was able to fly it with just a little learning curve. I took it out again today and had a very good flying experience. The batteries with lights on and video running lasted about 15 minutes. I would definitely buy this again.

I bought this for my 10yr old's birthday hoping it would be easy for him to learn on. I flew it first to show him how the controls worked and to make sure it would be stable. I was pleasantly surprised that, even in a slight wind, it was very stable and easy to control. The fact that it uses a "game controller" style controller was a plus. I handed it over to him and he had a blast with it. I have to get a micro sd card to know how the pics look but honestly that was not a big concern, flight was. I bought the extra pack of parts but I don't think he will need to use many since it is so stable. Very pleased.

Product reviews can be a problem. A million years ago when I worked in Radio Shack, there was a transducer supply around the corner. I asked the owner why one transistor sold for a dollar and the same one also sold for $20. He told me about quality control. During production, one out of one hundred of the one dollar transistors were tested, but one hundred out of one hundred of the $20 transistors were tested. It was the testing that increased the costs. Not all of the transistors were expected to work. If you really wanted a reliable transistor, you paid the price. No doubt a lot of things for which there are reviews by customers are the same way. When you look at the reviews, you see a lot of happy people who bought a product that worked and unhappy people who did not. So. If you have a company that sells something--quadcopters, for example, how do you deal with the inevitable malfunctions? If you are , you decide to have the best customer relations that exist anywhere in the universe. You track reviews and you do everything you can to make people happy. The world is not perfect, F181 RC Quadcopters occasionally malfunction--and takes care of everything magnificently. When you buy a Quadcopter, you can buy with confidence. So do it.

ok I updated this rating because I was impressed with the companies desire to help! originally I was not happy because when I ordered the Drone it came incomplete and I had to order parts to finish it and I did not contact the company but based off my rating the contacted me and made it right! now for the drone itself! it is a simple beginners toy! its not fast, it is strictly line of sight, the camera is an external mount that does get in the way of changing the battery which lasts a good 10 to 15 minutes depending on what you are doing. it is easy to control and very maneuverable, but if you go to high and it is away from you it will drift so keep it low! the camera takes a ok picture but it is a best guess what your taking it of and if you video while moving it will be watery looking! so I gave it a 4 this time because it is a intro unit and it is fun I did like how hard the company worked to make me happy and when ready I will probably try one of their better models!

As this is my first quadrocopter to own or fly I can't really compare it to others, but I can tell you it has been a joy to learn with. The feature to scale its output up or down is nice, and it is more than tough enough to handle a newbie to the hobby. I'd say you may have to smack it head long into a brick wall at 100% output with the blade guards off to hurt this thing! It's survived everything I've accidentally put it through so far, even still running the original props!It's pretty user friendly and strait forward. The controller it comfortable to hold and the LCD on top displays everything you need to know.There are LED lights on the copter itself ( Red on back, blue on front ) So knowing your bearings is a breeze, and if your battery is low they will flash for you. I also love the way the controller will remember how you have the trim set.The camera that comes with this unit is pretty sweet for such a small and low priced copter, I was even surprised it does sound, but that is probably it's draw back, with the props going all you pretty much hear is something close to a weedeater or angry hornets nest, and lots of static.I'd highly recommend this quadrocopter for anyone looking to get in the hobby and have something that can be scaled as your skills progress. At the price I think it's a great value plus the extra equipment that come with it, ( Extra battery, 4X props, 2X USB cords for charging, and a thumb drive for the 4gig micro SD ( Also supplied.)) make it a sweet deal. themselves seem like a great company, they make a great product, they keep in touch with you from your order, and all the way until after, just to make sure you are satisfied. They even offer every piece of this unit as a separate purchase, so regardless of what goes out you can replace it, that is something I love about them.My advise for anyone looking to buy, check out Youtube, there are lot of videos that show just what this thing can do.

Motors dead.Like others that have replied above, the motors have given out just after 3 flights, even with resting in between flights etc. Could just be a bad batch, but was not happy, however has sent replacements out, so just a case of tearing it apart and putting in new motors. Excellent customer service, while I agree that the exposed gears may cause some issues soon, the overall quality of the drone for it's price is really nice.Wanted a starter drone with more advanced features, and that is exactly what I got, will be good and I can not worry about breaking a 500-1,000 drone as I get use to flying and maneuvering the drone. Overall a solid drone for the price, with features more commonly found on more expensive drones, giving a much easier learning curve compared to the mini drones.

Here is my Honest Product Review.I LOVE THIS THING!!!! I am very novice at Drones and this thing is cake to get up and fly around. First time I started it (after watching a youtube video review, and reading the easy directions) I flew the thing around the house. Was very easy to figure out and much fun. I then took it outside to see what it could do in the wind. It handled surprisingly well. Of course you have to be careful in wind and it takes some concentration, but it handles well. I have not messed with the camera as of yet, I took the camera off to save the battery. I want to learn how to fly better before I start thinking of camera work. Ive stuck in a couple trees and crashed it hard once, and this little thing handled it like a champ. I need a new landing gear and plan to buy one soon (it was a hard crash lol). Over all I am a barber and flew it around the shop and I think i have talked a couple people in to buying one or at least checking out for drone products. I would recommend this to anyone interested in trying drones out for the first time.I had a small small one from another company and it was very difficult to fly and brittle. I read good reviews on this one and they were spot on. I can't wait to try the camera out. So if you're new and searching for a drone, look no further.BTW I bought the 2 extra batteries and 5 in 1 Max 2.5A Current Input Fast Charger, well worth the extra money to purchase. You can't go wrong. Great gift for someone also.

I had just got this drone. I simply charged it along with the HS170 i bought together. Both needed trimming which was done in house. My son and I both noticed that this F181 would rev up really high with the throttle and even though you were moving the throttle all the way off, it was erratic. A few more trimming attempts and we seemed to get it stable.First flight, was with the HS170. This drone operated flawlessly for 6 mins. We started up the F181 and kept the throttle low and cruised around the complex. About two mins in, we took the drone up a little higher which necessitated some throttle and the drone climbed and climbed and although I was reducing the throttle, it kept climbing. Since it was dusk, the drone was never recovered after about 45 mins of searching.I notified and within 5 days they had sent me another drone. As others have stated, their customer service is top notch.

Our 12 year-old grandson said it was the "best present ever". We followed the excellent instructions for assembly, set-up, and control. After testing indoors to confirm all was well, we then took it outdoors. We haven't viewed any of the photos or video yet, so cannot comment on their quality, but the drone itself is easy to fly. This is my first experience with drones, but I am happy with the purchase, and so are both grandsons (ages 12 and 14) so far.Expect about 8 minutes of flight time from one battery pack. A recommended 10 minute cool down between flights is recommended to avoid overheating of the motors and circuitry. If you are not expecting to get a $700 drone for around $80, I believe you will find this to be a great first drone.

One of the landing gears appears to have been melted off which makes landing and takeoffs awkward. Will contact seller for a replacement. Other then that I love this drone and will continue to do business with .Update: contacted and was advised to email them with pictures of the defective landing gear. Hope this is resolved soon.Update: I bought two of these drones. One was a gift and the other was for myself. Flew the drone outside and it started to ascend and wouldn't descend. I was fighting with the drone to get it back down, but would not budge. I was able to control going forwards and backwards, but ultimately it took off on it's own and would not respond despite repeated attempts to land the drone and cut the engine off. I really like this drone, but the flyaway is a deal breaker for me. I'll have to follow up with the person I gave this to make sure their model hasn't flown away either. refunded my money, but buyer beware.Update: Was contacted by email and number to by Iris. She apologized for the drone flying away and will replace the drone free of charge. Pretty cool.

So far so good! Bought it for my son for Christmas!! I will say we had a pretty hard crash and it still works. Lost one blade guard but customer service was available via Facebook chat and sent me the info i needed right away and was very helpful!! I will say this when my son and i lost it lol we noticed two things. One we need more practice but two, the range on this dron is crazy!!! Over a great product for an even better price!!!

This was a Christmas for my 9 yr old son. For the price, it's a nice drone for sure. It's very stable, hovers pretty well, basically great for beginners. It doesn't do very well if there is any breeze/wind. If there is, it does a bad job of hovering in place. The unit comes with two batteries and charging cables, so that's a nice bonus. The camera is OK, but what I expected at this price range. We did have one issue with the unit. One of the wires on the camera connector came out and is impossible to get back in (very tiny). Like most of the other reviews state, customer service was very responsive and sent a replacement camera quickly. I would definitely recommend this for a beginner drone.

I bought this with the intention of running my dog with it. I, nor he was disappointed!I fly it about 3 feet above the ground and he will chase it all day.He has caught it a few times and it doesn't seem to phase the drone. I have crashed it into walls, gotten it stuck in a couple trees. It just keeps on going! I did break two of the prop guards so I just took them off. It seems to be durable enough without them.If it hits something solid (like a wall) it will shut down to protect the props.It will hover by itself and does a pretty good job maintaining altitude for a gyro-only drone. There is no GPS. The instructions are not perfectly clear, but I finally figured out how to operate it and all its features. Headless mode works well and headless return is OK. I don't know about the camera as I haven't used it yet.Battery life could be longer. You only get about 8 minutes of flight time with a 100 recharge time. You do get two batteries though.Seems to be a good value for the money and I would buy another.

My wife surprised me with your F + Series 2.4GHZ item F181 for Christmas. I am sending this review per your request on the inclosed card for an extra battery.My review on the drone is very positive. I have never had or flown one before and because of the head/headless mode it makes it super easy for beginners to fly.I thought the instructions were very well written. The only addition I would recommend is that if you are flying in any wind at all you need at least 75% thrust or you risk the wind simply taking it away. Another issue is getting the battery into the compartment under the drone connected and closed. I have tried it several different ways and I eventually get it all in there but it would be nice if it was not such a challenge. But as for as flight time and handling this unit is great and tons of fun.I have taken several pictures with it as well that function works like a charm and I was very pleased with the photo quality.I would highly recommend it to anyone that is looking for a reasonably priced drone that works very well and is easy to fly.

First Drone ever, and wasn't expecting it to be quite so challenging to maneuver. My husbands surprise birthday present and I bought it without any input from him. He's learned to maneuver it with just a few mishaps early on. We like the fact that you can take video and still pictures, but it's difficult to see the screen on a sunny day, so we never quite know what we are getting! Only other draw back is it''s only 7-8 minutes per flight before you have to recharge. Instructions say to allow a cool down between battery changes, too so just having a back up charged isn't the solution. For the price it was a great introduction to owning a Drone! It responds well...my husband is pretty detail oriented and read ALL of the instructions before turning loose with it. A little susceptible to wind gusts.

Got this for someone as a gift and they seem to love it. They have never messed with drones before and this seems to be a great choice for beginners. Based on what I understand from other droners you will crash your first drone so don't spend a ton of money on first one. Takes decent video(kind of choppy but not awful) and flys great (as long it's not windy) for a $100 drone, I think it's a good value for what you pay for. It's even crashed twice so far and survived without any visible damage/defects. Battery doesn't last too long (about 10 minutes) But it comes with two batteries so just have to land/swap it out and your good to go. Gets pretty good range and height as well and the led lights are cool. I might order one for myself to use.

I will update as we use it more, but so far, I'm really, really impressed. I'm a newbie and a teacher. I wanted something I could easily demo this summer at camp. This copter has already proven to be easy to use, tough as nails and engaging as can be.This is going to make my summer Maker Camps pretty epic.We unboxed today. It took maybe an hour or two to charge the battery, and we were flying. (I ordered the fast charger and two more batteries.) No one in my family is a very good pilot yet, as this is our first drone -- the poor thing ended up in a tree already, hit the pavement, and banged around my kitchen -- but the F181 is still going! I love that it comes with a spare battery, spare parts, and a screwdriver. That's attention to detail. Plus, the price is great. Can't wait to explore more and use the camera. I'm hoping my camp kids will enjoy aerial prints off of my Cannon Selphy.I've already shared it with my friends. So far, I'm really happy with the purchase. Will post as I use it more!My only downside comment would be that it could really use better documentation and instructions in the box. YouTube videos and web posts certainly helped. If you folks at Holy Smoke want something written up, let me know. I've got a publishing background, and considering I'm in education, I'll work for blades and batteries. :)

I have only had this drone for a couple days, but man is this drone easy to learn with!! I had zero drone experience, never play video games, and usually not so great at remote controllers. I was flying this drone around my living room within 20 minutes, and on day 2 I was flying in expert mode taking arial pictures of my house from way above the tree line. Ultimately, I absolutely love this drone. So easy to fly and learn with. If I had to say anything negative, it would be that the battery wires are a little hard to stuff into the battery compartment when changing the battery, and that the video and picture quality isn't great. But that was to be expected with a beginner drone in this price range. One thing I do know, if this drone proves reliable I will be buying another when I am ready to upgrade.

I am a first time drone user and did a fair amount of research online before purchasing the F181. I was looking for a drone at the beginner / intermediate level in the $100 (or less) range. It had to have good reviews on drone review sites and did not have to be a GPS or FPV drone. Based on those criteria, t I purchased the F181. I did look at some videos on the internet about how to fly a drone because I did not want to totally learn by experience.I have flown the F181 a number of times now to form an impression and write this review. I am very impressed with the F181 and it is exactly (or maybe better) than I expected. Specific points: 1. It is unbelievably cool looking, particularly the LED lights 2. The controls work very well 3. The left stick is spring loaded so when you let go of it the drone hovers where it is - this works well 4. The camera is OK - meaning the camera is good given the price of the drone 5.The drone comes with two batteries 6. You can charge the battery when it is in the drone 7. It appears to be very solid - I crashed it a couple of time (I'm a beginner) and there was no damage. Material it is made of appears very sturdy 8. Reasonably quiet 9. Easy to attach the camera 10. Control console is pretty clear and easy to use.I am very pleased with this drone. It is exactly or better than what I expected. There are only a few things that could be better. 1. The instructions could be longer and clearer. The drone is very easy to fly but it is useful to look at web-based generic instructions rather than just relying on the instructions included with the drone. The instructions are also obviously translated and not very well. I don't understand why companies that are offering a great product can't afford to spend the very little amount that would be needed to have instructions that are written clearly in the purchaser's native language. Note that this complaint is not aimed only at - it seems fairly widespread. 2. There is a video on the internet that is 1 minute 20 seconds long that focuses only on how to turn it on, bind the drone to the controller, and take off. This is basic but when I looked at the directions it was not clear how you actually started to fly the drone - hence someone felt the need to make a video on this! This comment is part of the one immediately above. 3. On the internet reviews, people say one key return and headless flying is confusing. I have not tried this but from my experience with the F181 to date, I think this will be pretty easy and clear. What has caused the confusion (again) is an inadequate explanation in the instructions of what these are and how they work.So overall I give the product 5 stars. It is a superior drone for the price and fully meets or exceeds expectations. The concerns about the instructions are not enough to drop the rating lower. If you can find a product that so fully delivers on functionality and style at its price point, inadequacy of directions is a minor issue, particularly given most questions can be found on the internet.UPDATE:Yesterday I was flying the drone near a lake. Somehow it managed to "escape". It kept flying out over the lake and I could not get it to come back. It finally was out of range and hit the water, sinking. I immediately jumped on a paddle board and headed to where I thought it had landed. The water was very clear and I found it in about 8 to 10 feet of water, at the bottom of the lake. I dove down, retrieved it and headed to shore. I figured the drone was destroyed because it had been in the water for about 20 minutes but carefully dried it out immediately and let it thoroughly dry overnight. Today I charged the battery (charged OK), and tried to fly the drone. It seems to work perfectly. Amazing!!!! So a drone that is not expected to be waterproof sat submerged in 8 to 10 feet of water for 20 minutes and now works perfectly. This is incredible. I will keep flying it to be sure there was no damage but so far everything seems to work OK.The only problem is that the micro SD card from the camera seems to have failed. It would not record a picture or video and could not be read by my computer. I tried a new micro SD card and everything worked just as it should.I honestly can't believe a drone at this price could be submerged in 10 feet of water for 20 minutes and still work (except the micro SD card). Just amazing.

This is my second F181 to purchase. I've been very happy with products and especially their service. My first F181 was purchased back in 2015. It had issues with the motors right out of the box. However, within a couple of days, sent me a brand new F181. They really work hard in satisfying their customers. That first F181 flew great for months, until my daughter decided to pick and blow dandelions while flying. One hand had the remote, the other hand the dandelions. Both eyes were on the dandelions. She flew it hard into a tree, never slowed down. She already had crashed it before and broke one of the wings. I duct taped it up and it still flew great. But this last crashed destroyed it. Now, back to the new F181 I purchased in April 2017. It has the altitude hold function, which really works well. My daughter can now hold the remote in one hand and dandelions in the other. I'm close to the Texas coast so we usually have wind. This unit can handle some winds, but it takes a good amount of handing. The headless system also works very well, you just have to remember to not move around. We do a lot of walking while we fly, so we don't use that function much. Overall I'm very satisfied with 's F181, especially with this new altitude hold. This was also my first drone to fly. Great for beginners.

If you're looking for a good, first drone to play around with it does the job. Be aware that based on other reviews and my experience there *may be* some variance in the quality - so you might need to get some replacement part sent out. Customer service is very good though and covers that risk.(By the nature of a drone it has to be lightweight to fly, has moving parts, a radio and a tiny computer board - add to that: dummies like me flying it up in the air a hundred feet and eventually crashing - what are we expecting here for a hundred bucks?)I also bought spare batteries, and the four-way charger because the battery charge period is 5-7 minutes. Less if you run higher power and less if you run the camera. I bought some extra props/guards assuming we'd have damage. So far however with multiple people 16 yrs and older we've had crashes but nothing needing replacement - with the camera exception below. As described in other reviews the camera isn't very high picture quality but I bought this for goofing around with a drone - so having a camera that does some video and stills at this price is an extra.I did get the camera replaced after I used it once and downloaded the video/stills. Not sure why it failed because it hadn't crashed at that point. But I contacted customer support via email and sent a video of how the LED lights. They agreed it was bad. Sent a new one and got it in a few days. It's worked ever since.The instructions are okay. I didn't expect too much in that regard - diagrams are helpful. Also the instructions recommended using a fireproof bag for storing batteries and warnings about fires when charging did get my attention. I don't leave the batteries unattended when charging nor do I store the batteries by the pile of oily rags in the garage.As far as 5 stars? It fits my needs and wants, and does it for the price with some patience on replacing parts. So for that it gets a 5/5. The bottom line is everyone that flies it has fun!!

So far so good. It's fun, easy to fly for a beginner. and takes a beating. Read the manual before you try it. There are a lot of cool features.My favorites:- Altitude hold (It will stay in the air and not drop if you let go of the controller)- Auto-land (Hit a button and it gently lands on its own.)- Control settings (25/50/75/100% power as you learn to fly it)- Durable (My son hit everything in the house. Nothing has broken or altered how it flies)- 2 batteries+chargers (Long charge time but you have one on standby)

Just got it the other day, put it together and tried it. Works just as advertised. The auto altitude hold is great for me, makes it real easy to fly as I am a beginning drone operator. Much easier to fly than those helicopters. It does not like any wind though, gets pushed around a bit. I am leaving the blade guards on until I get a bit better. It did suffer some crashes, no fault of the drone, rather wind and pilot error without any damage at all. The camera takes great pictures and video, although I wish the video were live, but it just takes a minute to put them in a computer and watch them. I am very happy with this product and would recommend it to anyone looking to buy a drone.

This is my first drone purchase. While I wanted to have fun flying it, I also needed something that I could use as a tool for inspecting roof/tree damage. I chose the F181C for a few reasons:-Needed a good camera-Needed it to be relatively simple to operate-Wanted a dedicated controller, no wifi, no tablet sync-Wanted something around a hundred bucksIt far exceeded my expectations!As a first time pilot, it took a little time to get the hang of it. The controls have a feature that limit the sensitity (similar to a computer mouse) that help you get the hang of it. I dial mine back if I am just taking pictures of a roof, and turn it up to 100% if I just want to zip around the park. The controls in general are very well designed.The lightweight plastic design is ideal. I can't see this hurting anyone. The propellors shut down automatically when impeded (I flew it too close to a palm tree leaf). The lightweight plastic design can take a little abuse, but is sturdy and strong. I felt no qualms letting my 10-year old nephew mess around with it.The camera quality is better than I expected for the price. You get better results as you learn to keep the craft steady, but I was pleasantly surprised with even my first few flights.Overall this is a fantastic product. The package includes a micro SD and some spare parts...haven't needed to use them just yet, because this has proven itself to be a formidable little drone. Would recommend to anyone and everyone...especially first time drone buyers.The battery life is solid, short charging period (they include a second battery). Since it charges via USB, it is as easy to charge in the car/external charger as it is at home. Great for the outdoors. It is also quiet enough to (with some practice) film wildlife without disturbing them.A few notes:-It tripped me up at first, but the LED indicator mentioned in the manual for charging is not on the drone itself, but on the base of the USB cable. (not a problem, just confused me at first)-You cannot connect the drone directly to your computer to download the videos. The micro SD card will need to be removed. Not a big deal, but just have an adaptor on hand. Micro SDs are fragile, so handle them with care.

I had never flown a drone before or played video games so I spent a lot of time researching, I decided on this one due to all the positive reviews. When it arrived the box was damaged and I could tell it was opened so I spoke to customer service who were great and sent me a replacement. I flew it the next day and could not believe how easy it was to control for someone with no experience, just wish it had a longer battery life however it does have 2 batteries. I have been flying it daily and have yet to crash due to how easy it is to control. I will be ordering a more advanced drone soon as I improve my skill at flying. I definitely suggest to anyone looking to get into drone flying to get the F 181C as your first drone, you will be impressed with it. Also the customer service can not be beat, you can reach them 24-7.Ed Llewellyn

This is my first drone purchase, and my first time to fly one. I cannot be more pleased to have selected this drone from this company. The first thing was putting it together and charging the batteries which was easy and they even provide a screw driver. The battery took about 90 minutes to fully charge, plus they send an extra. If you have to call customer service you'll be pleased to know that it will be answered by a live human being. I had to call last night and he patiently and kindly helped me get my drone flying. Once I got a basic sense of how to operate the remote without crashing into stuff, I was having so much fun. I could have played with this thing for hours but I was limited to having only 2 batteries which gave me about 15 minutes of total flying time, also including making mistakes and trying to figure it out. I think I will get more actual fun flying time in with my batteries, but I do plan on purchasing a couple more.

This drone flys excellent and is totally stable. Were coming off of a $25 drone that needs to be flown totally manually and this is WAY WAY easier to fly. More stable and the altitude hold makes it much simpler compared to 100% manual flying. This drone is super fun and super easy compared to what were useto. If you can fly a very basic totally manual drone that does nothing automatically, you can fly this one easily. The auto land is really neat and works very well. You can cancel auto land during the sequence by moving the throttle stick. did a good job on this one BIG FUN!

I'm absolutely in love with my drone! I'd been looking for something that would be a good starter drone. Got a very inexpensive "starter" for Christmas two years ago, and it last just moments. This Christmas, I treated myself to a F181 Quadcopter, and what a difference. Had it up and flying with only about an hours prep (mostly battery charging), and have been flying it every chance I get ever since. Had purchased extra batteries with it, and received the wrong ones from , but sent me the proper replacements as soon as I contacted them. If you're looking for a starter drone with good durability (there is, umm, a bit of a learning curve!), from a company with great customer service, this is the drone for you!

This quadcopter is a great and easy to fly, right out of the box! Everything you would need to get started is all there. The altitude hold function is a great addition to this quad, making capturing aerial footage and flying a lot easier. The headless mode does work, but it's a little tricky to get working properly. I found some videos on YouTube that helped explain that. Do not rely on the instructions it comes with.Pros:Easy to fly/assembleComes with spare blades/screws/battery/charging cableComes with 4GB micro SD & adapterFlight time is around 8minREALLY stable while flying indoorsTransmitter is easy to useLED lights makes for cool night flyingAuto-land featureBatteries charge in about 45minCustomer service is GREATCamera does take acceptable videos and photosBlade guards and landing gear are pre-scewed for easier installationCons:Be aware of the motors. Dirt, sand, and junk can easily clog the gears. Check each motor before and after each flight to ensure they are free of debris, they will last longer.If you're looking for a semi-professional aerial video capturing quadcopter, I would look elsewhere. The camera is very shaky due to the movements of the quad and the quality leaves a bit to be desired, BUT it does fulfill it's purpose.The battery compartment is a tight fit for the battery and the wiring.Battery charger could be clearer to notify you when the battery is fully charged. There will be a little green light that will shine along with the red light when the battery is fully charged.VERY susceptible to wind or any slight breezes outside.The decending speed of the quad is really slow. At first I thought this was a good thing so the quad wouldn't just fall right out of the sky if you put the stick down. When flying outside however, there were some instances where I needed the quad to drop altitude fast but I couldn't do it.All in all you do get a lot of cool stuff with this quad and it is one of the easiest quads to fly. If you are going to fly it outside, be aware of the wind and flying at high altitudes. Any slight breeze and this thing will be gone in a heartbeat. I couldn't test the range of the quad because where I live it's always breezy and I almost lost it twice. Would definitely recommend to someone who is new to flying and is looking for their first video quadcopter!

I bought this as a gift for my husband who wanted a drone. However, it'd be his first one and I in no way wanted to pay hundreds of dollars for something he ran the risk of breaking. After some research I came across this drone and decided to purchase, and I am so glad I did! He loves it!!! It has a flying time of about 6-7 minutes and the camera is actually pretty decent camera too! The best thing about this is, if he does in fact have an "accident" with it, I won't feel terrible about having to buy another because of the price!

Being a newbie to the world of drones, I can highly recommend this F181 RC for the earliest of beginners. This drone is extremely responsive, easy to handle, and easy to understand instructions. You can easily master maneuvers such as a 360 degree flip within your first few flights. The camera is suprisingly clear. The mounting bracket is very secure; no vibrations from the motor. If you like to fly high and fast, this is definitely the drone for you. I must also highly praise the customer support staff. Never have i experienced a company with such helpful, precise, knowledgable customer service. All in all, this has been a very pleasurable experience and I highly recommend this drone and this company. I will definitely be purchasing more from this company. Finally, I would like send a special thanks to Jolin. She went above and beyond normal customer service, making my whole first drone purchasing experience an amazing one!

Super excited to get one of these for Xmas. It took awhile to sync the remote to the drone itself, as the directions weren't exactly clear.TO SYNC: Pull the left thumbstick down and up ONCE and release. (The directions say to move it up and down quickly, so I interpreted that as rapid fire up, done, up, down action) The drone did not "beep" so I did not stop. After I sync'd it twice, I got the hang of it.Flying: I took it out into a light wind and it TOOK OFF. I could not control it and crashed several times. I imagine I will get better the more I practice. Indoors it fly's like a champ. I was concerned about my crashing habits, but this proves to be very durable. It comes with several spare parts, but as i get better these are less likely to be needed.Battery: This was the only disappointing part of my experience. I am new to 'drones' so I had made assumptions in my head about how long a flight would be. 100 minutes to charge, but 7-8 minutes of fly time before it's dead. The first time i drained the battery I thought I broke it, because it was non responsive and the lights were flashing rapidly (unlike any other time during operation). Thankfully, it does come with 2 Batteries and 2 USB chargers.All in all - this is an excellent beginner drone. I will probably graduate to a higher end drone as this becomes a bigger hobby of mine.

UPDATE - The company reached out to me and sent me a new drone FREE of charge. I never did find a replacement motor so the original just sat in box unused. The burning out of the motor was totally my fault after carefully reading online I did learn that the drone needs some time to rest after flying otherwise the motor burns out. I have not tested out the new one just yet but am elated and shocked at the gesture of the company and I can't wait to go back to trying it out and will definitely give my drone time to rest and cool down after flights.Fun to fly around especially the 360 flips. It's a little difficult to navigate at first so it def takes some practice. My only complaint is that one of the motors burned out after 2 days and replacement ones are difficult to find online.

This is my second F181 quadcopter that I've purchased. I bought the first one for my 9 year old son for Christmas and after watching him fly it -- and seeing how fun it was and getting to fly it a few times myself I decided it would be a great way for us to spend time together. To be clear, this quadcopter is not a hyper high quality camera, super tech-ed out kind of machine. If you're expecting that you'll be disappointed. That said, the amount of technology and engineering you get for just over $100 is really impressive. My oldest son (now in college) and I bought a little flying helicopter some 9 years ago. It was impossible to fly in doors and after taking it outside it lasted only a few minutes of uncontrolled flight and ended up on the roof. Game over.Out of the box, these machines will hover fairly nicely and are a piece of cake to control compared to that old helicopter. Things have advanced so far since then where my 9 year after a few times out is getting quite good at controlling his. He was able to land it on second base while we were out flying in a baseball field. There is some drift, but you can trim and get things reasonably stabilized. With a few more batteries purchased you can get a solid 30 minutes of flying.Once in the air, the units take on an almost insect or pet like quality - only you control them, adding to the fun. As we came home from the park today, my son literally had the quadcopter out in front of us like it was a flying puppy. Very cool -- especially when you can have that puppy do flips in the air on demand. The controls are very responsive. I also like how it has my son begging to get outside so he can fly - anything that gets our kids off the couch and away from screens in my book is good.So buying a second one was my way to spend more time with him and also share some of the fun with his other siblings. His 6 year old sister had her maiden voyage today and loved it. She was a little all over the map, but the field was big enough there was no danger of losing or damaging the unit.

I initially purchased this for my husband but then my 27 year old son really liked it after trying it out. So my son now owns it and I ended up ordering my husband the model that works along with a smartphone. My son took it to the beach and when he first started flying it, it took off and he was unable to retrieve it. It would not respond to the remote. I contacted the company and they were very professional and offered a replacement. I did initially offer to send the original remote back to them as proof that I did not still have the original drone and that is was indeed lost. It appears that there may be a few defective ones in the bunch. Also, according to customer service you must operate it in a very particular manner, which my son says he did. So I'm not really sure what went wrong. But the company stood behind their product and did what they could to keep a satisfied customer. I would give them 5 stars for customer service. The product itself is good with the exception of a few bad apples I suppose. So far there have been no issues with the replacement.

I am a complete novice and it took me a while to get the hang of the stabilizing gyros and then all was well. Unfortunately I did crash into a branch in the learning curve and managed to burn out a motor. were great and sent me new motors as part of the warranty even though it was pilot error!!! I have enjoyed this drone and am already planning on my upgrade so I can video soccer practice and games. Seems like this is a great model to start out with. I haven't tried the camera yet as I removed it to make sure I didn't harm that in my learning curve.

Finally a drone that flies. This is the third drone bought for my 11 year old grandson. The first one was a mini bought by one of his grandmas (not very stable, the drone that is). The second one bought by his other grandma at a kiosk in the mall. It flew one, burned out a motor No support contact to be found. I bought this one after much research . It appeared to have a lot of support, I saw where replacement parts were readily available through . There was a welcoming email after purchase with an invitation to call if support was needed. My grandson who is pretty tech savy has had it out several times with no problems. He has even taken a couple of pictures. It is such a pleasure to see him enjoying this Drone.

I ordered this and another brand drone in the same week. I liked this one because it flew real nice. A couple of times when the battery was low it flew away. Unfortunately it flew away on me today and was unrecoverable. Hitting return home and trying to fly it back was useless. The other drone I bought was cheaper and when the battery gets low it just auto lands. So I'm out a drone. Keep this in mind if you order this drone. I don't think a 100 dollar plus drone should do this.UPDATE: Holystone contacted me and replaced the drone. I consider this to be excellent customer service on their part. They also sent me instructions on what to do when the battery is low as far as bringing the drone back safely. I will follow these instructions. The new drone flies great as did the first one. It is a fun drone to fly and is easy to use.

This is my first drone. I selected the F181 based on user forums and reviews.I've only had the drone for less than 48 hours and experienced an issue with the drone.I contacted customer service and was amazed at the response time. (same day on a weekend!)They offered a solution which far exceeded my expectations. (Thanks Libby @ !)I've now been up and running for over a week now and still going good!Pros:- Easy to assemble.- Easy to fly.- The led light are nice and easy to see.- In short time I was able to fly inside and outside with ease.- Quick and excellent customer service.Notables:- It's best to perform a manual gyro calibration before each flight (recommended by Libby @ customer service)Cons:- As this is my first drone, I don't have much to compare to as in hardware.- Manual can be a little vague. Check out the YouTube videos as they give more in-depth examples and demonstrations.- Camera/video does not work well in low light conditions.

I bought this drone for my Husband for Christmas. He was so excited as he has been wanting a drone for a while.The only complaint I would have is the directions are not thorough enough for Tech challenged older people.We got stuck, but my husband went on line and watched a few videos he found on the model and got it figured out eventually.He loves it and once he got it all together and charged he had it flying in no time. We live in the Northeast and had snow on the groundso he hasn't had a chance to fly it outside yet. I would definitely recommend this Drone. If we can do it anyone can!

I'm 75 yrs young and I have been fascinated with Drones so I took the plunge with the F181C Quadcopter as a starter Drone. What a blast it has been so far. Lots of videos on the web to help you with assembling the drone (the included instruction manual isn't bad but there are some literal translations which can be a little difficult to follow). The drone is cool and not hard to fly once you get over the fear of flying (pun intended). The Quad is easy to control, even for a novice like me. I've only used it indoors so far and will be trying it outdoors as soon as our weather clears up. Many reviews have indicated the excellent customer service and I can attest to that. I had a question on the battery that I was using and called the customer service line. They immediately sent me two extra batteries. Impressive.

Got this as a Christmas gift from my wife. I wasn't expecting it so a little hesitant to get it going. Very easy and minimal set up with great and easy to use manual. Battery was already charged so it was ready to go. A little difficulty in the beginning getting use to the controls, but with a little time I was able to get it down pretty well. I had never operated one before. I've been having fun with it like a little kid again, and the camera feature is pretty nice. This is a great drone for the price ( I had to see the price to write a review, despite my wife's disapproval ) Highly recommended for hours of fun.

I recently got into the hobby of flying drones out of fun. I am a professional photographer for over 35 years and I have worked on a few jobs that required some drone aerial shots....and have always been fascinated of the abstract and artistic perspective from the air looking downward. I am working my way up to a professional model to take with me on a road trip along with my normal photographic gear I carry. So I wanted to get the feel of flying a drone....I read many reviews and watched many YouTube videos.....and finally decided on the F181 RC to practice with. It was a great choice....I did not want any fancy features...I just wanted a simple controller that was easy to use....and the F181 RC met my needs. I knew the quality of the camera was not going to be anything I could use....so I did not even bother shooting many photos or videos.....I did shoot a few images and video clips just to test out the camera....and I was right....not the quality I am looking for.As for the performance of the drone.....it worked perfectly....I flew it in the day and the night for about a month with no issues at all. I even ordered extra batteries from which arrived quickly...the other great nthing was the customer service from the company....follow up emails when I made purchases to detail conversations with customer service to answer any technical issues or general questions.....I was quite surprised at their customer service and follow up......nice to see today from a manufacturer of a product.

The F181 is my first Quadcopter. It has been a good product to learn on. I have crashed it a number of time with no problems. However, with the legs and prop gards installed, it is useless in even the slightest breeze, totally unresponsive going upwind. At this point I am more interested in developing flying skills than taking pictures. So, I removed the legs, camera and prop gards, Wow, what a difference. It if very responsive even in a fairly stiff breeze. I can not take it out and fly it most days. Before I had to wait for a day that was dead calm. Summary: a good durable copter to learn on. The 5 minute batter life goes by way too fast, but a good value at just over $100.

Let me first state that I do not know how to properly fly one of these. My wife bought me one( not this brand) for Christmas 2 years ago and it was junk. It had no instructions and I could not get it to fly. The store would not take it back so I trashed it. Since them I have thought it would be awesome to fly one of these. I read the reviews and decided I would buy the F 181. I received my order promptly and charged the batteries and put it together. My first flight was rough as it took off and landed in a tree. I retrieved it and tried again. This time I was able to fly for about 3 minutes before it landed in the neighbors yard. The quad seems to be fine for what I am trying to accomplish but, I have lost the landing gear and 2 prop protectors. I think the parts should fit more snug so they wont come off so easy. Net time I will use some sort of glue to help hold them in.My flying is still novice so i hope to improve. As time goes on the drone may actually fly correctly, that is I will learn how to control it.I think overall it is a good quad for my needs.After several attempts to fly the drone in my small yard I decided to take it to a larger area with no obstacles. I started off flying small circles around me. I gradually got to go farther away and POOF my drone would not respond to my commands. I lost my drone somewhere. I contacted Jolin at who was very professional and helpful. In the end is sending me a new drone. I did not expect this. goes above and beyond in my opinion. THANKS JOLIN

Found this one when researching highly recommended ones under $200 in another forum. Cool features: Camera- still & video, altitude hold button for using the camera, can do full on flips(!), return home button, on remote camera screen, and on remote battery life indicator (percentage). Purchased for a 12-year-old girl, but even the adults had fun with it! However, on one of our first outings, she took it outside, as high as she could get it, and the wind knocked it down, causing it to go down in an open field.. but this is where the flashing LED lights are really handy. Sidebar - when I say "go down" this does not mean "crash" because the drone has controlled decline feature to avoid "falling out of the sky." Also - this was not a wind gust, or Santa Ana Wind Conditions (for Californians), this was "hey it was a little breezy out" So - I would recommend, know your wind conditions before you go out, and do not fly it in breezy conditions- or at least not really high. This crash landing caused some slight bending in the shield that protects one of the propellers, which then made a knocking noise when you turned it on, and slowed down the speed of the propeller ... but, we made a slight readjustment and it's back to normal. I would also recommend that you purchase additional batteries so that you can charge-and-play at the same time, and swap out. I now see how battery life is an issue for drones in this price point - as others have addressed for this and other <$200 models.

Just an update on the previous post: quickly picked up on the issues I had with this drone. They provided me with the technical info for recalibration. They also gave me the choice for a replacement motor or a new "package"- I took the new package, and will use the previous drone for replacement parts if needed. The new drone arrived 3 days later and flies easily and perfect. truly has Great Customer Service!Out of the box the F181 would not trim properly- with full trim forward and right it was barely controllable. On top of that with less than 30 minutes of flight time one of the motors froze up. This was my second Quad- first one was was fun and I received great customer service- this one was supposed to be an upgrade, but has a lot to be desired.....

received my first f181c quad copter and everything worked great. Read all the directions first. For a newbie to the drone world it took a couple readings to figure things out. once I got it, it was very easy to start and fly. I recommend this as a first beginners drone so you can learn the controls. everything worked great. video is O K. a little grainy. but it is only 2mp so do not expect HD. The first one I bought i made a mistake and did not connect the controller with the drone. it started but I could not control it. It took off and flew off into the mountains never to be seen again. I emailed to see if I could buy a new drone with out the controller. no can do. no problem, it was may fault. but they did give me a 40% discount towards a new one. awsome. their service is really good. they were right on it. I would recommend this to anyone just getting into the drone world.

this is FEARLESS TV FTV . We ? . Watch our Quadcopter footage on YouTube and Buy a Quadcopter Drone.

This post is about the amazing customer service that we received from . We bought the drone after doing product research and it was a value for the features. When the package arrived (on time), we opened the box and the box was ripped. Questionable. When we removed the drone, there were marks on the props and batteries in the remote hand unit. Hmmmmm....We took the SD card out and put it into the computer and there were pictures of someone else flying the drone (and getting it stuck in a tree). We had paid for a new drone and all it took was one phone call to the customer service center and then an email documenting the issues and they IMMEDIATELY sent out a new drone. It was amazing. That is all I can say - it was like someone actually wanted to please a customer - and you talked to a real person! The problem was as the distribution point, but corrected the error. THANK YOU!As for the drone, it flies great. My daughter (10) can fly it and do tricks with it. My son (14) likes the drone and says that it is easier to fly than his. The camera takes nice pictures as well as videos and you can adjust the camera angle...but not remotely. The altitude hold feature is pretty slick and does make flying easy. You will get about 7 to 8 mins worth of flight time per battery and the pack comes with two - which is nice to swap out and keep flying. Final comment - it is pretty robust.

This is my first drone. I still can't fly it properly, but am having fun trying. I had an initial problem with the assembly because the manual is poorly written. I emailed the company and had an answer to my question within 2 hours. Once I got it together and started to fly it, I crashed it at high speed into a tree. Parts broke. Again, a quick call to the company,(answered by a human on the third ring), solved the problem. A very nice representative giggled a little when I told my story, but assured me that she would send a whole bag of spare parts out to me at no charge. I would buy products just for the customer service. It would be tough to be a novice pilot like myself, without a company like standing behind their products, even if they giggled.

I purchased this drone for my husband as a Christmas gift. On the second outdoor flight, the moment the drone was no longer touching ground, it shot straight into the air at top speed and did not respond to any of the control keys. We searched in vain. Before we replaced it, I thought I'd check with Customer Service to see what could have happened and if it was preventable. Customer Service was incredibly prompt in responding, asked a series of troubleshooting questions, decided it was a faulty controller, and sent us a new drone! We received the replacement within days. The new drone flies great, but the photos were consistently blurry on the right-hand side. I asked Customer Service if there was something we could do to fix it, and they sent us a new camera! The drone is a very good beginner drone with some nice features the other beginner drones did not offer. I have never had the pleasure of working with any Customer Service team that provided such exceptional service. Thank you, Nina at Customer Service, for your personable and incredible service. I cannot offer a single suggestion for improvement except don't change a thing!

My 7 year old is flying this thing around the back yard ding flips and making fun videos. It has exceeded my expectations as far as a cheap drone goes. The headless mode works great and makes it easier for my child to fly it. Camera is cool. My only knock on it is that it does not deal well with any kind of wind when flying outside. Even a gentle breeze pushes it around a bit. It is nothing that cant be overcome but can be a handful. Make sure to read the manual to take advantage of all of this drones features and ensure you get the best performance possible out of it. If you buy one spring for some extra batteries. The flight time on each charge is about 5 minutes and as the say "Time flies when your having fun."

I bought this for my 22 year old son for Christmas. Since he had never had a drone before, I was worried that it would not hold up well until he learned to fly it. He has crashed it several times into the trees around our house and the drone has not broken yet. It has held up very well. It takes good video and pictures. He had a hard time figuring out how to get good pictures and video since the camera is stationary on the drone, but now he gets great videos and pictures. The batteries do not last long at a time; however, I purchased extra batteries and an extra charging station, so he can have longer flight times before he runs out of charged batteries. I think this is a great drone for a beginner flyer and it was a great price too.

This thing flies so much better than I expected. I have purchased so many "Cheap" drones over the years that just don't fly straight, don't respond to the remote and crash into everything.... Not this!! This flies very steady, very powerful and is easy to control. I was very impressed with how well this worked, that I bought a second one for my other kid. The only negative is that the battery only lasts for about 10 minutes.. You will definitely want to have a few batteries on hand so that you can spend some quality time at the park.

I love this drone! It is very easy to control. It has three different settings for the speed which helps for when you have just began flying this drone. The photos and videos that you can take with the camera are pretty good quality, but not the best. I love how you can not only take photos and videos, but you can also do stunts with it. The drone flies very steadily which allows for good photos and videos, and also looks amazing when flying it. The range that it can fly to is incredible. The batteries from my experience do not allow me to fly the drone for more that five minutes when you first get them and the time slowly decreases as you use them. Overall I believe that this drone deserves four stars.

The quadcopter has been a solid product. It was bought as a Christmas gift for our 9 year old son. The attitude hold function is the cat's meow when learning how to fly the drone. The quadcopter is a lot of fun to fly, and the additional feature that allows flips is very cool for little kids (and the big ones as well).The customer service deserves 5 stars for sure. After a few hard crashes (we live in a heavily wooded lot), the gyro gave out. The customer service worked with us via email, asked for a few videos, and determined the issue. Even though the drone is out of warranty, they are going to ship a returned drone so we can use it for parts. That was above and beyond as the product was out of warranty and we crashed it. They owe us nothing, yet still supported the product and are helping use get back up and flying. Awesome.

This is so much easier to fly than the drone I had before that cost half as much as this one did. It is a joy to fly. I was leary about buying another drone because of the bad experience I had trying to fly the other one. I'm glad that I got over my fear. I've only had it about a week but have had many fun hours with it already. I am by no means a master pilot but I am slowly learning. This drone actually hovers which is huge for me because it gives me time to think what I will do next. I'm looking forward to getting to truly master this drone. My only "complaint" is that my fingers are too big to easily pull out the micro sd card without using a tweezers. I can live with that. Highly recommend it, especialy for the price.

The drone is a very nice, forgiving flyer. For my 11 year old, it's his first real RC aircraft and it is perfect in that role. It has very forgiving control so that he can get it to hover even with the limited patience a kid that age has. I've flown RC copters with success so picking this one up and getting it to do whatever it's capable of is pretty easily without the stress of flying a copter that I will be repairing if I lose focus for an instant. We were able to take some nice HD video footage with it before the SD card wouldn't stay in place for some reason. I contacted with the issue and they are taking care of the problem beyond my satisfaction. I couldn't really be more pleased with the customer service for a toy like this. I would definitely buy something else from these folks.

The drone I received had a technical problem and I contacted customer support. The response was amazing. They read my complaint and quickly responded, indicating they would ship a new drone to me.This drone handles well and is responsive to controls. There is a little drift while hovering, but nothing serious. There are nice features like headless mode, which is easier to control and learn on, return home button, picture and camera mode, and several controller configurations.The controller attached display indicates battery power, controller range, control indicators, and camera/ photo mode. The display does not show a real time view of the drone camera. This model does not pair with your phone or occulus headset for real time video display, for those seeking that option.Overall a very good mid level drone with excellent stability and control, and outstanding customer service!

The Product support is the primary reason for me giving a 5 star review- This is my first Quadcopter - I quickly lost one motor in my first minutes of usage but Zoe with quickly and thoroughly stood behind the product and within the same day had arranged to send me a unsellable replacement quadcopter for parts... not just a single motor. It turns out the whole unit was also flyable (I got lucky). So, overall I feel like I have gotten my money's worth. This is a pretty easy to fly. I am still learning but I am pleased by the companies response and I would suggest getting extra motors since they can burn out quickly over time or under minor stress. Also consider gears too since they are plastic. I think those shopping for quadcopters at this price range had better be a bit of do it yourself fixer and also plan to buy some extra parts that can certainly fail, This unit can easily handle quite forceful crashes (with guards on) and when this unit is working it is really fun and the video is pretty good. Overall, don't expect a professional HQ robust unit but rather a bargain do it all (stunts/video/images/headless mode) fun starter unit. I know $80-100 seems to be an expensive "buy-in" so it is not really for little kids. However, from reading a lot of other quadcopter reviews, I think this is still quite good bang for the buck overall. I hope time proves me right..

I want to love this quadcopter because I've seen videos of people flying it without too many control issues. I've also reviewed the videos from it and they look acceptable for this price point. In a windless environment (indoors) no matter what adjustments I make it still drifts noticeably making it difficult to fly with much control. Unfortunately, I've seen just one video from my F181. The camera just stopped working. The controller shows the video is on as well, but no videos. The other thing is the USB charger... it doesn't matter how long you leave it on it always shows red. So I don't know if ever have a full battery charge.Does it fly? Yes. Is it controllable? Somewhat. Does it work as well as the F181s I saw in youtube reviews? Unfortunately no. I know the F181 works because I saw people fly it successfully and with control in reviews and take videos as well. Just not mine.UPDATE: 3/23 - Updating to 5 stars because is making sure my problem is taken care of. Great customer service.