Hello, friends. Summer has already passed, but we still have many warm days ahead and we should not waste them in vain. Last year, my son and I bought the first street quadcopter for myself, it was the HolyStone HS240 model, which attracted me with a relatively long battery life and an affordable price. If you are interested, you can check out the review on my channel. The quadcopter was launched with his son, with colleagues at work, and one colleague was ripe for a trial quadcopter already for his son. A model was chosen for home flights or outdoors in calm weather, and, of course, they already chose with a camera, as the child wanted. As a result, at the last sale, the HolyStone HS420 quadrocopter was purchased and today’s short review will be about it.
The quadric is half the size of my previous purchase, this is already noticeable in the box in which it comes. On the cardboard packaging, on the front part, the hero of the review is depicted in all its glory. The model is indicated and the recommended age is from 14 years old, which is just right for us. There is nothing interesting on the back side, the features of this quadric are indicated on one of the sides of the package: there is flip support, camera support and different speed modes.
Everything is compactly located inside in a soft pallet. On top lies the quad itself with three batteries, all other accessories are under it.
So, in our set we have:
- one quadcopter
- three batteries
- one control panel
- two chargers
- 4 additional screws
- one screwdriver
- one screw puller
Also, under all this is a thick booklet with instructions in several languages. I think it will be very useful for novice pilots, anyway I read it carefully. Of the useful things in it, in addition to the description of the control, there is a link to the application for a mobile phone.
Let’s see what characteristics declared by the manufacturer.
- Brand: Holy Stone
- Model: HS420
- control; remote control 2.4Ghz / the ability to control via smartphone via wi-fi
- built-in 720P camera
- 2.4Ghz control communication range:: 100 m.
- Wi-Fi control range: 30 m.
- Quadcopter battery: 3.7V 300mAh
- battery charge time: 60 minutes.
- Flight time per charge: 6 minutes *3.
- flip function, altitude hold, headless mode
In addition, support for waypoints in the application and flight around the point are announced. As you can see, for a $ 20 quadric, the characteristics are normal. And a big plus for buyers is that the kit comes with three batteries at once. Since my first Eachine H8 quad, I bought with one battery, but quickly realized that 4 minutes was nothing at all and had to buy more.
Let’s go back to the quadric. Since the model is intended mainly for indoor flights, the protection installed right away will be great at first. Since you will hit objects more than once if you do not have experience in controlling quadcopters. As they say, it is checked on itself. The case, namely the red part of it, is made of ordinary plastic, and almost all the black elements are made of softer, which absorbs upon impact and is less prone to cracking. The screw protection is attached to small screws and in order to replace the screws or access the engines, it must be unscrewed.
At the front of the drone is a camera that, compared to the size of the drone itself, seems to be huge. But here the camera only has a resolution of 720p, which, given the price of the device, is quite good. Plus, despite expecting the worst, the camera in daylight gives a good picture. Above the camera is a white headlight, which allows you to navigate in flight.
On the back, there is a button to turn on the drone, it is also a parking light. Just below you can see the contact pads for the battery.
The battery is attached from below, on latches in the grooves, it does not fall out during flights, it snapped off a couple of times during falls, but this is normal. The model of the quadric and the voltage of the battery are indicated on the bottom, this is useful to the user.
Running lights are visible even in sunny weather, in cloudy weather or indoors it is easy to distinguish the rear from the front of the quadcopter.
To compare the sizes with the hs240 model, I took a couple of photos of this baby.
The control panel is not overloaded with unnecessary elements. There are two sticks for flight control and four keys. Key assignments, counting from the upper left corner: the photo / video key, under it is the button to enable / disable the “headless mode”, in the upper right corner the key activates the carousel when the quadric starts spinning around its axis, and under it is the auto takeoff and auto key landing.
The key for turning on the remote control itself is located under the phone holder, there are also indicators for the remote control charge and switching speeds of the quadric. The remote is powered by three AAA batteries.
Let’s move on to flight tests. First of all, the quadric was tested indoors. Here its big plus appeared, in comparison with eachine h8, it holds its height perfectly and does not try to fly somewhere. Let’s just say it’s not harsh to handle and is great for a beginner. At first it was tested with just a remote control, then the HolyStone application was installed and testing of the remaining functions of the quadcopter began.
After launch, our application prompts us to register. Before connecting the program to the quadric, the latter must first be turned on, after which it creates a wi-fi network with the name HolyStone-FPV-*****, to which you need to connect your smartphone. After that, a picture from the camera appears on the smartphone screen, and you have the choice either to control only the smartphone or the remote control, but watch the image from the quadcopter camera on the smartphone.
Let’s take a look at the interface of the program a little, since it has a button for rinsing with a description of the interface.
Having connected, we see the same interface, but superimposed on a real picture from the camera. Next, turn on the control panel with the central button, use the left stick to move up and down to connect the quadric to the remote control. It is also recommended to calibrate the gyroscope for the first time, for this we put the quadric on a flat surface and press both sticks to the right and down. Everything, on this, all pre-flight preparation is completed.
Then we press the auto start key, the quadric takes off to a certain height, about a meter, and is ready for further flights. With the same button, you can plant it, and a long press will cause an emergency shutdown of the engines.
Of the interesting goodies, the quadric supports 360-degree rotation in place, plus, if you press this key for a few seconds, the quadric will start a circular flight around the point. True, it does not fly in a circle, but in a spiral. After a few laps, it returns to the point from which it started the flight.
The app also keeps flight time statistics, but only if you fly with the app activated.
Another feature that works only in the application is the flight along the route. To do this, the application has a special icon, by clicking on which you simply draw a route on the smartphone screen and the quadric tries to repeat it. Looks interesting, kids love it. Support for VR glasses has also been found, but for lack of them, I can’t check this function.
The drone can auto-land when the battery is low, and a notification appears on the program screen. Moreover, the quadric not only cuts down the engines, but smoothly goes to land, no longer responding to commands from the remote control.
Like my previous drone, this one can take photos and videos and write to the phone’s memory. Separate folders are created, from which you can then take files. As before, there is not enough memory card on the quadric itself, but for such a price, of course, you should not expect it. Because of the wireless connection, the picture is sometimes dull and twitchy, but in principle they were ready for this. Photo and video are created in the same quality, with a resolution of 1280*720. I’ll attach a couple of screenshots from the drone’s camera below, and a link to the video will be at the end of the review.
Ask price HolyStone HS420
Well, some conclusions after the tests.
To be honest, I really liked this one among small quadrics, first of all, with stability in flight and, therefore, ease of control. Yes, it is not as smart as the Eachine H8, for example, but this is not necessary for an apartment or a room. Of course, outdoor flights with it can be arranged, but preferably in calm weather, as a light breeze will blow it away. I really liked the package, despite the fact that we are buying a budget quadcopter for a child, there are three batteries in the kit and two chargers at once. In principle, a child and an adult will have time to enjoy the flight in 15 minutes. Since I also tested the drone indoors at work, I also received feedback from adult colleagues. The camera is certainly not the strongest point of this device, but it really adds to the fun in use. May I recommend to buy? Yes, you could, but catch sales and coupons, because for the full price you can take a larger model, for example, HS240. That’s all, thanks for reading, if you have any questions, I’ll try to answer.