Holy Stone HS450 Mini Drone for Kids Beginners - Hand Operated Nano Quadcopter with Altitude Hold, Throw to Go, Obstacle Avoidance, Circle Fly, 3D Flips, 3 Batteries, Toys for Boys & Girls

As a beginners, we all found it great and easy to handle. Worth of every cent.

The media could not be loaded.  Disclaimer: I was given this drone free to review.This is a nice little drone that is great for kids.In the box is the drone itself, a remote control, 2 USB cables, spare batteries, a set of spare propellers along with a small tool to help change them, a screwdriver to open the controller to fit batteries, and some instructions. Initially I thought one of the batteries was missing as it says it comes with three and I could only see two. However the third battery was already fitted in the drone.The batteries are charged outside of the drone. They have micro-USB sockets on them and a small LED to let you know when they are charged. This means you can fly the drone whilst charging the other batteries. The batteries themselves last quite a while. I didn't time them but it did seem that we were playing for about 10 minutes before they needed changing. The manual says 6 minutes so with landings, take-offs, etc. 10 minutes of play seems about right. The manual also quotes the battery charge time to be 40 minutes. With three batteries if you stick two on charge whilst you fly with one you're probably never more than 10 minutes away from being able to fly.You will need a three AAA batteries for the controller if you want to use that to fly the HS450. The drone can be flown using hand movements but I was not able to get it to fly reliably using that. It may be because it was being flown inside in a smallish room. Flying with the remote was much better so I used that exclusively.Flying is easy. One button makes the drone take off and the same one makes it land. The default way to fly is the drone has a front and back; pushing one of the sticks makes it fly forward. However there is also a "headless" mode where, no matter which way the drone is facing, pushing forward on the stick makes the drone fly away from you. This is great for kids as it's easier to fly than having to think about the direction the drone is facing to know which way to push the stick.The drone has a couple of tricks. It can fly in a circle and it can do a flip. Getting it to flip is a bit tricky and I only managed it a couple of times.Both children (one under 10 and the other not yet a teenager) flew the drone with no issues. It is a testament to it's strength that there was no damage to it when they were learning inside the house.On the negative side it is a shame there is no camera so the children could see things from the drone's view, either live or recorded. As mentioned above I couldn't get the hand-gesture flying to work well. The drone is very light which is great inside but means it is easily moved around outside by the lightest breeze. The product page advertises the drone as for "kids aged 8 and up!" but the instruction manual says "not recommended for people under the age of 14".Overall this is a great little drone for kids to have fun with.

Included with the package:1x Drone1x Wireless Controller3x Batteries2x USB type B charger cables1x very small Philips head screwdriver4x Replacement Rotor Blades1x Rotor Blade changer tool4x Rubber feet for droneFirst Impressions:HS450 is quite a stylish nice little drone with dimensions of about 90x90x30 mm.The drone is light and seems quite durable, it can withstand buying into walls and floors quite easily, although care should be taken as to not accidentally stand on it or drop it from high up as it will definitely not withstand the force.After reading through the instructions a few times I manage to connect the drone successfully to the controller. After practicing taking off and landing it was simple enough to fly about the inside of my apartment after around 15 mins arial practice time.Cons:Battery life is slightly disappointing, you need all 3 batteries fully charged to get 20 mins of flight time. Batteries take around 40 mins to charge, and run out of charge in about 7 mins.Auto hover mode doesn't work very well. The drone drifts upwards and downwards on its own. The trimming system to correct this doesn't seem to work very well either, you hold down the one touch takeoff button and hold the desired stick to rebalance, but the opposite side then begins to drift.The throw and go is quite fun, though I wouldn't recommend using it outside or near water. Inside flying needs quite a large space to get full use out of the drone.Flying takes a little getting used to if you are new to drones like myself, but as mentioned before after a bit of practice it is fairly easy to fly about. I've not had a chance to use the flip setting as of yet, because I dont have an inside space big enough.I tried to use it outside, but the wind was slightly too strong to have a consistent flight around the area without the drone being pushed around. Therefore if you want to fly it outside then a very calm day is needed.Pros:Entertaining little drone for novices like myself, or children to play about with.Variable speed so as you practice more, you can increase the speed to have a bit more of a challenge. Would be fun to race round a course with a friend if they also had one.Pretty much does what it says on the tin for the price so pretty good value for money.All in all I'd give it 4 stars, its a fun little toy for a child or drone novice like myself, but not professional standard at all. The batteries need a bit of work to make the flight time more enjoyable.