Holy Stone Mini Drone for Kids and Beginners RC Nano Quadcopter Indoor Small Helicopter Plane with Auto Hovering, 3D Flips, Headless Mode and 3 Batteries, Great Gift Toy for Boys and Girls, Blue

Lovely little beginner drone
So this is an indoor drone to be sure. I first turned it on and ran it and it had a mind of it’s own. Turns out I had my fan on across the room and the breeze it created played merry havoc with the gyro in the drone. So yeah. Be very careful if you take it outside.Other than that, what a great little drone. I charged up a battery (One of them was ready within 10 minutes, I was surprised), slapped it in, and off I went. Follow the instructions and calibrate the gyro on a flat surface *every* time you pair or after a crash. In fact, I’ve used gyros like this for head tracking in other projects and it just helps to re-calibrate every landing. It only takes a couple seconds- you’ll get drift after a while.Anyway, battery life is around 7 minutes like advertised. I’ll time it later. Headless mode worked great (it works depending on initial calibration). Including 3 batteries is a wonderful thing.So this is actually my 2nd drone. My first is a syma and I was having no end of troubles with it so I just went and bought this smaller guy to learn on. I’m glad I did. I learned several things- like the gyro takes a sec to stabilize your drone and it can be a lil sqirmy until then. I learned that calibrating trim shouldn’t be done until the drone is more stable. And that’s just in the first 10 minutes. I went back to my Syma and tried again using what I knew and things worked *much* better the second time around. I still actually like this to the little costco syma I got, and suspect I’ll be bringing this little guy with me more often.Down sides- It’s a *little* pricey for what you’re getting, but with the 3 batteries it works out okay.- It is *very* breeze susceptible.- The battery system is friction and a little 2 pin clip you need to be careful with- If you’re running low on battery the loop function doesn’t like to work.Pros:+ Rugged- I bopped it around a few times but because of the prop cowls it just bounces and stops+ Small- For an indoor drone this is good- more room to move around. The syma is about 6″ and it covers distance very quickly compared to this guy on speed 1. Speed 3 is pretty fast.+ Great for learning- I imagine I’ll be stepping up at some point to a more powerful drone, but for now this is giving me a good introduction to headless and traditional flight.From what I’ve heard, Holy Stone has amazing customer service. If you’re having problems with your drone, make sure it’s on a *flat* surface before you calibrate the gyro, and give it another go. Otherwise, talk to CS and see if you just got a bum drone.

Fun non stop flight, like the big drones /w flips. Good practice. Support is the best. Recommended.
I now own a Holy Stone HS100 GPS 2K Camera Drone (not for indoors, it’s a big one) and two HS200 Mini Drones, the first one must have got banged around or crushed during shipping as the top plastic was loose and it didn’t hover properly, rising upward constantly on its own.Note: The video was done even with THAT issue lol.Little concern about that after the support I recieved when I “thought” my HS100 had a hovering issue due to complex calibration and me being new to drones at the time.I contacted Holy Stone directly and was asked a few simple questions and almost immediately sent out a replacement without being bothered to ship the defective one back.I can’t stress the fact enough of how incredible the Holy Stone support team is, you even get a ‘Welcome to the Family’ message upon purchase, allowing for easy contact if there is any issue.Although I sincerely doubt that is the intention of the message, it IS convenient to be able to reach them by their initiative of simply letting you know they are there if any concern comes up.I felt that to be the important factor in my review as is speaks volumes to anyone who may be debating between companies.I would never buy a drone anywhere else at this point.On to the Mini Drone…Pros:Three batteries – You can pretty much charge and fly, the charger has a charging port on each side (so you can charge two at once) starting with one and adding the second while still playing with the third…waiting for the first to be done charging.Personally I was able to just cycle batteries and never take a break if I didn’t feel the urge.Dual Charger Included – Covered that above.Three speeds – Indoor flight training, Indoor crash course, and take it outside lol…not really labeled like that of course. It beeps to indicate a speed change when you press the button, one beep for slow, two for medium, three for fast.Headless Mode – The only way to fly unless your really good, or your used to flying UFO’s heh. (See cons)Trim Function – To calibrate any auto drifting forward/backward or left/right. Which it seems to remember and usually only needs to be done once.Stunt Button – One press and then holding a direction on the joystick makes it do flips in almost any direction. I have only used my perfectly working one a couple times since I have been busy, but I ‘think’ it even does angled flips…hard to tell when it was flying up by itself at first.Propeller Guards – The one thing I REALLY wish my HS100 “did” have, even sold separately–my hover issue on the HS100 came from a crash that damaged my propellers about five minutes after getting it, which customer support stuck with me through 30 messages or so to finally figure out AND sent me a spare propellor kit free of charge.You can pretty much play bumper drones (although I don’t recommend it) without worry. I have literally pushed it away with my palm while someone else was flying without a scratch on me or the drone. Again, I am NOT suggesting anyone does that.Customer Care – Not Service, Care. I was asked to report on how my replacement flew after recieving it, just to make sure I was completely satisfied with my product.On top of that I now have six batteries…and a second one to smack around like a pinball machine lol.It’s fun as all ℍⅇƙ to fly around inside the house, I have ceiling fans and such and still haven’t had much issue.Cons:Headless Mode – It constantly beeps which can drive you nuts and makes it harder to tell if its the batteries or the mode.Considering its an indoor toy, I think this should have been the default setting or just did one long beep and shut up (that would have been ideal for any of their drones), the big ones keep beeping too.That is literally my only realistic complaint.No GPS/Camera – C’mon, it was like $20-$30, what do you expect? Honestly lol…you get what you pay for.Bottom Line:I have loved Holy Stone for its true concern for customers since day one and will continue to love them for as long as that remains the case.The drone is fun, good for almost any age range for practice, as long as they can understand don’t touch the spinning propellors…even though you wouldn’t lose a finger from this model, it’ll freak a kid out i’m sure. I’m up in my thirties and enjoy this thing, good practice for my HS100 too since the controls arre ALMOST identical.Definitely recommended, and if this model isn’t to your liking…Holy Stone is the way to go regardless.To be crystal, I have no affiliation with Holy Stone or any of its staff beyond customer service conversations, i’m just an average joe who believes this is how companies SHOULD be, and I feel the need to let people know when they are.6 stars for letting me keep the buster and spare batteries when I got a fluke.

This drone is excellent. It is very stable (it hovers and stays in the same position when not flying in a direction) which makes it easy to fly, particularly for young kids. It is also very resilient – the protectors around the propellers make it pretty resistant to bumps and crashes. It also comes with three rechargeable batteries and four spare propellers. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable drone for kids.

The holy stone mini drone really deserves 4.5 stars but it is not a 5 star product, so I decided to rate it 4 stars.The good:- Resilient despite me being a beginner smashing it against walls, furniture, you name it. This little thing is still alive and kicking. The guards do a great job protecting the propellers- It is perfect as a first drone because it is cheap and resilient- It comes with 3 batteries so plenty of fun time.- Comes with a double charger and batteries charge fast.- Comes with some spare parts which i haven’t had to use yet, because nothing has broken- It has a “kill” function which protects the propellers from getting damaged in collisions with furniture.The bad:- Big biggest pet peeve with this drone is that it doesn’t have an on-off button which means I have to disconnect and re-connect the battery each time it crashes.- Second biggest peeve is that in headless mode the controller keeps beeping, which is very annoying as this is my preferred way to fly the drone.- It doesn’t really hover well as it tends to drift.- The trimmer doesn’t really rectify drifting, as it then drifts the other way- At times it just has a mind of it’s own and flies whereverOverall, it is definitely not perfect but it’s the only branded learners drone i found that comes with so many accessories as well as propeller guards at this price range. If you are a beginner, buy it.