Holy Stone HS170 Predator Mini Quadcopter
This is one of the more budget drones that you can order for your friends and family. If you want to learn how to fly a drone or if you want to teach somebody to fly a drone, then Holy Stone HS170 Predator surely can be a good option and letâs see why that is the case.
Also, since there is not that much support for the beginners from the company, you will have to figure everything out by yourself. This can sound like a bit lazy on their part, but it lets people explore the magic of flying by themselves. But of course, it wouldâve been more helpful if they put more effort into giving some better instructions.
Holy Stone HS170 Predator Mini Quadcopter Features and Specs
If you read the user manual, you can see that this drones isnât intended for children under 14, so you should be careful to whom you gift it and if itâs a teenager, he should use it only under adult supervision. Luckily, this drone doesnât need a registration in order to fly it, so you can fly it right out of the box.
- Price: $39.99 (on Amazon)
- Flight time: 6-8 minutes
- Environment: Indoors and Outdoors
- No Camera Included
- Battery: 350 mAh
- Charging time: 60 minutes
- Weight: 408 grams
- Wingspan: 26.9 cm
As you can see, the Holy Stone Predator Mini can be flown in either indoor or outdoor environments and it is windproof and shockproof. Thatâs some quality design right there and even if you donât get a camera, you can appreciate how itâs built.
The chassis is made out of grade-A polycarbonate material which means it is quite resistant, but it is also aerodynamic.
The Predator has 4 high-powered engines that can keep the drone steady in the air because of the 6-axis gyro stabilisation system. Also, this drone has the headless feature, which means that
the drone will always be oriented in the direction of the controller and no in the direction of the droneâs head.
The Good and The Bad
The good
- Good for Beginners
- Very nice response time from the controller to the drone
- Ease of use, you can basically almost run it out of the box
- Average flight time
- The Battery is upgradeable
- Indoor flight
- No FAA Registration needed
- Stunt capable
- Windproof and shockproof
- Good price
The Bad
- The battery life isnât that great
- No camera
- No inscriptions on the RC
- Long recharge for how much it can fly
- The motor assembly can break very easily
The Remote Control
If you get a close look at it, it almost looks like a some kind of weird game controller and there are no actual inscriptions on the controller itself, so it can take some time to learn what everything does. Putting that aside, the controller isnât even that bad. It fits nicely in your hand and it looks ok overall.
Everything seems quite responsive and if you manage to train a bit, you will find out that you can do some pretty neat tricks with this controller and drone.
Conclusion
The Holy Stone HS170 Predator Mini Quadcopter is a quite decent drone actually, and you might get to like it a lot. My main complaint is that it has no camera at all and I think they could have fit even a little camera in there, even if it was bad, but at least it was there. Other than that I highly recommend this drone, but be sure to buy some extra batteries, because they sure drain fast and you donât want to recharge it al the time.If like this review you can view more quadcopter reviews here.