Holy Stone GPS Drone with 4K UHD Camera for Adults Beginner; HS360S 249g Foldable FPV RC Quadcopter with 10000 Feet Control Range, Brushless Motor, Follow Me, Smart Return Home, 5G Transmission

This my first ever drone. I'm writing this review after turning it on twice. I say turning it on because although I used it twice I don't really consider them uses. The first time I was a bit hesitant because it got dark by the time I was able to use it. But my anxiety to turn it on won over my fears. After a bit of fumbling around I was able to get it calibrated and the blades rotating. I like that once you press "Take Off" button it sits at a height that is not too high and not low and it just sits there without any inputs from the controller. I don't really think that you're flying this drone. Is more like positioning it. I mean once it's in the air you touch the controls, let them go and the drone stays there. You want to go higher? Just push the stick up until you reach your desired height and let go. Want to rotate? Push the stick in any direction and then let go once your facing the desired direction. The same with back/forth and side-to-side. Very, very simple. The drone just stays where you put it. Not flying, just positioning it. The FPV experienced zero glitches and the image was wonderful. I just want to mention that I forgot to remove the protective film on the camera lens when I recorded the two videos in this review. I'm nowhere close to considering myself a photographer but I feel the quality of the image is OK. The second time I turned it on (used it) was inside the house. Yes, my wife was not home at the time so I was in the clear. I could not get a GPS signal so I switched it to "Altitude Mode" so I believe it was using "Optical Flow" sensors to maintain position. It worked great and I was able to move it around the room with ease. This was early afternoon. Once the sunlight started really coming in it was causing heavy reflection on the floor so Optical Flow was having problems keeping the drone positioned while hovering. I was able control it while operating the controls but when I let go the controls the drone would lose control and not stay hovering in one place. It crashed a few times but nothing broke. Nothing on the drone nor anything in the room. This is why my limbs are working so that I may write this review. The only thing that happened is that a few props received very light damage. The only things I don't like are: 1- The drone is not include in the comparison list on holystone.com. It lists the HS360 but not the HS360S. 2- The props are not available on either holystone.com nor amazon.com 3- holystone.com WhatsApp chat agent told me that the props for HS360S are not compatible with any other drone. Depending on the price this may be a very bad thing. 4- Only one battery in the kit 5- The batteries are too expensive.

This is an amazing drone for the money. For a present I was given the cheaper Holystone HS 440. Although that drone flew excellently, this drone 360 with GPS is really the one to get. It is extremely easy to fly, even for a non-video game beginner like me. It has a much better camera and has the really critical feature of being able to return to you with one button. I very quickly lost the first drone when it went to high and then I couldn't bring it back because it didn't have GPS. The 360S does have this feature and it works like a charm. Also the HS 360s has far better range. The technology on it is really quite amazing, especially for the price which with the discount and coupon was less than $150 (while the 440S was $100). One other big plus was they have an extremely helpful customer service number. When I first tried to fly it indoors, I couldn't get it to work because I didn't know that you have to turn off the GPS. I called the customer service # and it was the fastest pickup I have ever experienced with a customer service #. In less than a minute they gave me the info I needed. The pictures and video taken are quite good and clear, but if you want very high quality then you need to go to professional drones which are very expensive. One thing to be careful of is taking out the arms, which they do warn you about, but I didn't read the instruction manual carefully enough. As a result, I broke a piece, but it was easy to fix with a little hot glue. The bottom line is that this is a fantastic product for the money.

Drone is very stable and capable. Easy to fly for beginners. Great camera as well. Battery life is as expected, approx 20 minutes with minimal wind. If I could improve it at all, I'd add mechanical image stabilization. I would consider this a moderate range beginner drone. Much more than a kids toy, less than professional.

For the price this is one of the greatest drones that can be had. Very easy to set up and fly. Real nice beginner drone.

I am a beginner with drones (I mainly fly RC aircraft), but I find this drone amazing. It takes about 1 minute to set up (insert the battery, connect the phone, and sync the GPS), with the GPS sync taking about half that time. From then on, it’s pure fun and enjoyment! The drone is very smooth to fly and is very stable. Fly it to a spot, hover, and it will stay there, even in a fair amount of breeze. I also like the fact that it has an adjustable ‘Fence’ that you can set. For example, if you are teaching someone to fly, you can limit the drone to 100’ from the remote, and the drone will stay in that zone. I also appreciate that it comes back to the landing zone when the battery is low, if communication is lost, or upon the press of a button. I have not yet been able to use its 10,000 feet range (that’s almost 2 miles) to keep it in my sight, but it has always maintained a very solid connection to the remote for control and for the video. I’ve read many things about the camera; however, I find that it takes beautiful pictures and great video. Yes, it’s not the high-quality video that you can use for promotional ads, but this is not a $10,000 drone. When you combine all the other features that come with the HS360S, this drone is a great value, and I would highly recommend it to anyone that loves to fly.

***Update*** While I enjoyed it for the first week or so I noticed it was starting to have movement while hovering, like a toilet bowl effect. I effectively landed it and recalibrated the compass thinking that may have been the issue. I have flown several other flights and it continues to hover inconsistently and have the same toilet bowl effect. I even changed out the props to new ones and it continues to do it, I have flown it several times since and it continues to be an issue. The most frustrating thing is I have yet to crash the drone until it started flying incorrectly. This renders flying this drone as next too useless. I will save my money and buy from another company such as dji. If the drone continued to fly as it did initially I would still be happy with it, but now it is almost not worth even flying it as I crashed it last time into a tree due to the random jerky toilet bowl flight pattern. Wish It still performed like when initially bought little more than a week ago! —-initial review—— I have been interested in drones for a while, looking to get into taking real estate pictures and making some money from drones. That being said, I did not want to buy an expensive drone for my first and end up crashing it. I wanted to buy a decent drone that could make me familiar with flying using video function and not be terrified of wrecking it. This drone so far has filled all of my expectations and exceeded some. I have crashed the drone four or five times already and aside from, changing some of the propellers out that were provided with for the purchase it has stayed strong with no issues. It is a fun hobby for me so far and enjoy flying it every time. The camera quality is acceptable, the controller is well thought out and comfortable, and the carrying case is a pleasant addition that I love is included. The only negatives or issues that I have had were initial connectivity issues to the camera, which could’ve been user error. This was solved by turning my Wi-Fi off on my phone. The other issue, which is more of a gripe than an issue is it only comes with one battery. The battery takes hours to charge so realistically during a day, I can only fly this two or maybe three times for 15 to 20 minute sessions. My last gripe is the camera, it can be a little disorienting since it moves with the drone and if you are maneuvering quickly or it is a little windy it can be a little difficult to view, but it is fair for the price point of the drone and I knew this when purchasing it. In conclusion, this drone is a great starter drone and checks all my boxes for starting out flying I find myself getting excited to take it out every time.

It took the purchase of 3 cheaper drones for me to realize my flaw and start researching the Holy Stone company. After about 1 wk or research I settled on the Holy Stone HS360S. The simplicity of operations, lightning quick response from controller and overall flight time proved I made the right decision and should of purchased this months ago. From opening the box until drone was in the air took less then 5 minutes. The only skill that's required for operating this drone is being able to read. Amazing ability to hover in place without touching the controller. You simply download the app, connect the controller to the phone via a cable and it automatically connects to the HS app that is downloaded to your device- that simple. Download the app, connect the cable and your ready to fly. Within 45 seconds of operation I realized this drone has already surpassed the distance of all my previous drones and I might go as far as saying all the previous drones combined. Another surprise was discovering after 10 minutes of flight time that I still had over 80% battery life left. Here's the best part and what influenced me to write this review. I emailed the Holy Stone Company with general questions and comments, mainly just wanting to praise them and voice my compliments- not at all even expecting a response from them or maybe thinking I'd get a reply to my email a few days later, maybe a week later- I received a response less then 5 minutes later and it wasn't a auto generated response neither. This was a real person giving a real response to my email. I feel the need to mention- as kind of a disclaimer I guess- I am not a paid spokesman, I'm getting 0 compensation for this review and with that being said, I will be a lifetime supporter for this company as long as quality products like this are made.. Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions and I will do my best to answer.

Happy to say that after a disastrous experience with a DOA HS175G, which came with a dead remote control, my second redemption of a HS360D which is technically a tier higher version, arrived without problem. Both batteries and remote of the new HS360D charged up well and can confirm that each battery lasts roughly about 30~35 mins before automatic return home kicks in. I was able to take both batteries to a local drone friendly park with my son and did some flying without having to worry about running out of juice every few mins. My initial goal was simply just to get a consumer recreational drone where my son and i can play with that don't die every 5 mins because of the short battery life. the stated 40 mins each battery does last "nearly" as long for a combined 60+ mins. note that the drone will reserve the last 15% or so for automatic return flight, hence my 30+ mins battery quoted estimate. a couple additional bonus features that I didn't know about was the GPS follow that allows the drone to auto follow your phone (which acts as a controller screen), as well as a catapult photography mode. both of which were fun to play around with. Overall with a discounted price that I got it for, which you can regularly find them on 20% or so discount, felt worth it. Note that the onboard SD card recording is not very reliable. It often fails to record. But the drone does record a redundant low resolution copy onto your phone wirelessly and has no way to turn this redundancy off. I find that you have you to reformat the SD card with the drone software each time before flight to more reliably force it to record 4K version onto the SD card. so your mileage in this area may vary. i am only knocking off one star due to this because It was a main advertised feature and I went out to buy a 128GB card. Conclusion: I'd imagine that for most casual consumer recreational use, this should tick off 90% of the requirement. stepping up to a pro grade drone will yield gimbal stabilization photography/video function and more flight time.