UFO 4000

UPDATE: Customer service reached out to me, not to change my review or ask for more stars. Instead they asked for the batch number so the could investigate what went wrong (2 blade props vs 3 blade pros). That is awesome. It's OK wanting to "make it right" with the customer that feels slighted, but it's so much better to care enough to make it better for every future customer too. I did update to a 5 star rating based on the great customer service, not just for me, but for all future customers. And keep in mind, as I note in my unedited review, it's a nice flying drone. I have have some issues with pretty much all small drones that have the same "features" for beginners, that I'm not fond of, but it flies as good as any other 5 star drone - and with this one you get great customer service. Original 3 star review unedited below: All the pictures show a three blade propellers. I got a version with two blade propellers. The box, the manual, and the drone all show two blades on my version as opposed to three in all the material. That's very misleading. I ordered other 2 blade prop drones to compare and to 3 blade prop drones... and now I'm missing a drone for my evaluations. All of this is for the REC Aerial Drone Competition (we need "practice drones", and I'm trying to find drones that fly close to how our competition drones fly - only cheaper). I don't like the false advertising here. Good - the drone flies fairly well once it's flying. Bad - You have to push a special button to get it into flying mode - and the propellers start spinning immediately at that point. And then you can't simply take off as you wish - up throttle causes the drone do jump into the air some predetermined amount. More significantly you have to push that same button to get it to stop... and it doesn't always work, sometimes the propellers refuse to stop spinning after you have landed and you have to push the button some large random number of times to get them to stop. This is bad. This is how you lose propellers and burn out motors. Why do companies do this. It should be that when the throttle is down the propellers stop. That's it. Pretty simple. Want and emergency stop in mid air? Hold the throttle down. Want to catch the drone out of the air? Hold the throttle down. Crash and need to kill the throttle before you burn out a motor? Hold the throttle down. The altenative solution provided with this drone is fumble for another button somewhere on the remote and push it, then wait to see if it stops, then repeat for some number of times. Terrible behavior. All the drones are doing this now, so you'll need an older drone to avoid this horrible behavior. Good - the flips are really crisp. Very little altitude loss, and only a bit of altitude gain before the flip. This is true in all directions. Really nice. Bad - Altitude hold is iffy. It seems to do a pretty good job most of the time... but that's the problem - it lulls you into to thinking it's good enough, but it's not and your altitude has drifted, and since it was close enough you can fix it manually, delicately enough. So it's good-ish for a beginner, but bad if you're flying an obstacle course. That sounds minor, but it's actually a real problem on the obstacle course - it would be better to learn to hold your altitude the whole time on your own. This is most pronounced on turns and stops. Good - pretty durable so far - but it's only been one day with a few dozen crashes. But so far so good. Bad - the prop guards are useless if you hit the ground upside down. The propeller isn't down inside the prop guard!!! What is that point in that? This boggles the mind. The prop guard supports are more protected than the prop!! Seriously. The prop guard supports should be below the prop guard (that's the ring) and the propeller should be fully inside the ring. As it is the bubble canopy almost holds the props off the ground, but it's such a fundamental design flaw. Good - the prop guards haven't broken yet Bad - the plastic seems a bit brittle. It doesn't feel like it can take a lot of abuse... but so far so good. Good - the battery can be replaced with [the smallest I could find] 600mAh batteries. Not because I'm looking for bigger batteries, just any cheap replacements. I find it takes 6-10 batteries to be able to fly nearly continuously. That is fly a battery, then rest if for one flight period, then charge it, and repeat. (charging takes forever, and you should let the battery cool before you toss it back on the charger). Extra batteries are a must and they just barely fit. They are actually thinner (flatter?) than the stock batteries. You do have to stuff the wires essentially inside the drone body though. Bad - the wire for the drone on/off switch look fragile and stuff precariously inside. I hope/think it's enameled wire... (if not this drone might be a fire hazard). Good - the box and packaging are nice. I like the way that drone stacks on top of the remote and then has a clear cover. All of which fits easily back in the box. The below the bottom stack is plenty of room extra batteries and chargers. Overall it flies pretty good and I think most people will like it, but for us it tries to be too smart and so we won't be using except for introduction to drone controls.

Update 7/7/22: I need to add this to my review the drone itself does have some issue that the blades are exposed and I will leave that in. However the company that sells these drones 100% stands behind their products and goes above and beyond to make it right. I first wrote this review a while ago and the company reached out to me directly to address the issue, and I looked into replacing just the blades at first but the cost of a few sets I actually ended up purchasing another drone at the time. This company replaced the damage drone anyway with a replacement and were incredibly nice about it making it a great experience. Companies that get it that parents buy these things for their kids and that they can take some damage but are right there to make it right. I can’t say enough great things about them. Changed my review to five stars. If your considering this drone go ahead and pick one up they are great for beginners and the company stands behind them. A recommendation to the company maybe just add a few more replacement propeller sets with the drone, other than that thank you so much. Original Review: I have to say this first off, it’s a great drone for beginners. Easy to learn to operate, small enough to fly in the house and it does some really cool tricks. My 10 year old got it for Christmas and absolutely loves it. He likes it so much that he flew it a lot and busted some of the propellers. It has spares but since there isn’t any protection for them and he is young and flies it in the house sometimes it hits a wall the wrong way or drops down and they can break. Unfortunately he broke two of the B propellers. It comes with 4 (2) As and (2) Bs if you don’t have a spare A or B and try to other one the orientation is off and it won’t fly correctly. I have been trying to find the propellers just to buy a bunch but haven’t seen them. Was hoping the company might see this review and clue me in on how to get more. All in all even if I am not able to find the propellers I would actually buy this product again. It’s a great drone and since my kid likes it so much I might just end up buying another if I am not able to find the propellers on their own just to replace it.

*9/6/24 UPDATE* - updated to 4 stars for great customer service that goes above and beyond to make sure the customer is happy. the company reached out to me several times and ended up refunding me, giving me a brand new drone, and a free extra toy to make things right. My son was so excited for the refund and for the new toys. Hopefully these toys have a better battery life than our first purchase. My son purchased this less than a year ago with his own birthday money. It was fun while it lasted, but the battery life was terrible. It only lasted less than 10 min. He played with it a handful of times before we put it away and forgot about it. We recently took it out of the box and charged both batteries. I also changed the batteries on the remote. Both batteries won’t even hold a charge anymore. The drone will light up, but then the battery will die right away. The drone won’t fly and doesn’t even work anymore. My son was very sad and disappointed that he only got to play with this a few times before it stopped working. Unfortunately, we can’t return this since we are outside of the return window. My son is sad that he used his birthday money on something that doesn’t even work anymore.

I really love the agility of this thing! And the fact that this is one of the most popular mini drone’s isn’t a mistake. Controller also feels nice in the hand and it’s definitely one of my favorite drones out of the15 mini drones that I own.

Such a great toy, and easy to fly. This was a Christmas present for my 6 year old and he loves it.

This drone is a great starter drone very easy to use i would definitely buy it again absolutely no issues flying it straight out of the box my oldest is going to love this gift

Bought for my kids ,they are 10,13 and 16 age.All of them love it.

Easy to use, fun to fly. My 9yr old loves it.

Really good drone for price it works well . Really well made only downsize is fully charged battety lasts only 10 minutes