If you ever consider buying a drone maybe the Holy Stone wasn’t your first idea because it’s not a big name like DJI Phantom or a GoPro Karma. Maybe you are wrong. Nowadays you can choose from a big variety of drones because it’s market has grown enormously. And now you can choose from a lot of drones which may be cheaper and as good as the mentioned drones, or even better. In this review, you’ll be able to see the pros and cons of the Holy Stone HS700 FPV Quadcopter.
The Holy Stone isn’t quite a new manufacturer. First, they’ve come to the industry with miniature drones mainly for children. Their first big invention was the HS170 Predator, which is a mini-drone, and it was really good. But they are as good as big drones like at the mini-drones. We’ll see…
What’s in the box?
- The Holy Stone HS700 Drone
- Remote Controller
- Drone Battery
- Propeller (8)
- Landing Gear (2)
- Camera
- Camera Holder
- Phone Holder
- Balance Charger
- Charge Transfer Box
- USB Cable
- Screwdriver
- Propeller Spanner
- Pouch
- Logbook
- Manual
Specs
1. Drone
- Motor: Brushless Motor 2204 1500kV
- Max Flight Height: 120 m
- Max Flight Distance: 800-1000 m
- Battery Capacity: 2800 mAh
- Max Flight Speed: 25 km/h
- Max Flight Time: 20 min
- Weight: 370 g
- Size: 220 x 220 x 155 mm
As seen in this Holy Stone HS700 FPV Review, the drone is built with a large 2800mAh battery. The battery provides up to 20 minutes of flight time in calm conditions or when flying it indoors. In windy conditions outdoors, you’ll probably use it less than 20 minutes of flight time per charge. But if you look after you’ll see that the drones of his dimension last around of 8-10 mins.
The battery comes with a charge transfer box, a balance charger, USB charging cables and a battery charging cable. The battery takes about 5 to 7 hours to charge fully. Which is a bit much, so if you forgot to charge the batteries you’ll have to wait quite some time to use it. But If you would love to increase the flight time, you can just get a couple of extra batteries.
2. Camera
- Effective Pixels: 2 MP 1080p
- Lens: 120° Wide-angle
- Gimbal: 90° Manually Adjustable
- Photo Size: 1920 x 1080
- Video Resolution: 1080P@25fps
Just a word. As you can see the camera isn’t the best. The pictures aren’t really sharp and the video is a bit shaky due to the obvious lack of motorized gimbal. Because of that, we recommend to change it for a GoPro Hero 3 or maybe even a newer model. The bracket can support a GoPro Hero 2, 3 and 4 so there should be no issues as far as mounting is concerned.
3. Remote Controller
- Remote Control Range: 1 km
- Transmission Frequency: 2.4 GHz
- Battery: 1.5 V AA x 4
The controller is quite big but it’s lovely, good looking, highly responsive and easy to use. Like every other controller it has a phone holder too where you can see what your lovely drone sees with the 5GHz Live video transmission for a smooth and responsive FPV mode. If the drone loses signal the controller remains connected. The controller also has a small LCD screen where you can see basic things like the battery stat, flight height, and distance, as well as the number of satellites that you are connected to if you’re interested in such things.
4. WiFi Mode
- Live Stream Range: 400 m
- WiFi Live Stream Frequency: 5 GHz
The drone’s camera is equipped with a 5G transmission function that ensures you enjoy the clear live image and video transmission while you (I mean your drone) is flying. For the image and video storage space, the camera has an 8GB memory card. If you wish to boost the storage space, you can easily install a bigger memory card for more space.
The build
The first notable aspect is the weight. The Holy Stone HS700 FPV Quadcopter only weighs 608 grams, and It measures 8.7 by 8.7 inches, which makes it truly unique. This makes it an incredible drone for outdoor flying activity and its very easy to transport.
The parts are well built is sturdy, massive and long-lasting. However, the HS700 FPV Quadcopter does not come with protection guards and thus the pilot should always keep some distance when operating the drone
It has a really powerful motor. One of the most important design aspects of the Holy Stone HS700 Ophelia drone is the quality of motors which is a powerful 2204 1500KV brushless motors. The drone eliminates friction to achieve higher rotation per minute (RPM) for faster-flying speed and maximum performance. If you are an expert you may think that could be better but once you see it in action you’ll immediately change your mind. It’s amazing how powerful it is and that’s really something because we are talking about a pretty big drone here. You can get high-speed aerial footage with it, and that’s what most of the people want from a drone.
Flight experience
The HS700 drone responds to the controls quickly and with precise. It comes with various flight features that ensure that you enjoy flying your drone in the easiest way possible.
The drone is equipped with GPS which can detect and use up to 19 satellite for smooth and stable flight movement. This enables you to locate the drone’s flight location in real time. The device also has a lot of intelligent options like Follow Me, WayPoint and even Point of Interest. In addition, the pilot can customize the flight path when using the App. Or you can just draw your flight route of choice on the screen of your smartphone and the drone will fly along that particular route.
Because it’s equipped with GPS this the drone has a lot of safety modes as well. One of them is that the drone is able to automatically return home to the take-off point when the battery starts to run out of power. Or when the drone loses connection such as when you accidentally fly the drone out of range, it will turn back to the place that it flew from or to the person holding the controller. Your days when you searched your lost old tech drone is over because this good boy will always find it’s way home.
If you didn’t know the drone comes with beginner protection feature which limits to 50 meters radius and 30 meters altitude. But after you think you mastered the drones control you can disable beginner mode via using a smartphone app.
Pros and cons:
Pros
- Long Flight Time
- Great Control Distance
- Quiet Noise
- Quick Release Propellers
- Durable
- Professional
- Can customize your own action camera
- GPS assisted flight ensures you that the drone cannot get lost
- Nice app for video streaming
- Easy to operate
Cons
- No 4K Resolution
- The battery takes long to charge
- Does not have protection guards
- Flight time reduces in windy conditions
- No 3-Axis Gimbal
- No dedicated transmission signal
- Limited Control Range up to 0.5 miles
My final thoughts
It’s a really great drone, besides it looks great it has many up to date features which place the drone next to the greatest ones yet. What I’m a bit disappointed is the camera quality and the duration of charging, which I think has to improve. But if you’re not a perfectionist I can only recommend to you. It’s a professional drone with great abilities, you will be able to make some amazing videos with this drone, as showcased in our Holy Stone HS700 FPV Review.
