Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I first bought the HS700 (which I reviewed and liked, though it had a few shortcomings), and I wanted to get one for my son. I find myself actually preferring this drone over the HS700 (sorry, son!), mostly because of the camera image quality and general ease of use. Here's my pros & cons (and in-betweens): Pro: Super-easy to fly! Any beginning drone pilot will be able to fly this right out of the box. Video and photo quality is visibly better than my HS700 Kit includes 2 batteries and an excellent padded zipper carry case. Compact controller folds up very cleverly in travel case. Flight times seemed longer than my HS700, probably over 20 minutes from each battery. My (large) Pixel 3XL actually fits in the cellphone cradle on the controller (without phone case). I like the feed-back sounds for taking photos (camera drive sound) and constant beeping when a movie is shooting. Much easier to access memory card (included!) in the camera than the HS700. Camera has an up and down gimble movement so you can change it mid-flight. Comes with a charger that charges both batteries at once, and it seems to charge faster than my HS700. "In-betweens" (not really pro or con): Software for viewing and saving photos - I found that I have to get to the prompt on the phone to "stay connected to this [the drone's] network even though no internet?" and click a "yes" check box. This lets the phone software stay connected to drone for live screen feed (which is only slightly chunky during flight, but totally expected at this level). Not sure if this is intentional, but the drone would not save still photos unless my phone was connected to it. It did save movies without being connected, though. Camera is pretty good (better than HS700), but struggles with auto color balancing in high contrast images, which you can see in my movie. Some people might not care about this, but I notice it. Auto-land button could be dangerous if you hold it too long - it cuts the motors! I think it's a 2 second hold to cut them, so it's not "broken" but something to be aware of. Hasn't happened to me yet, but came close! Cons (sort of!): You can only turn off "beginner mode" if your phone is properly connected. The photo & camera shoulder buttons are partially blocked by my cellphone in its cradle, but are still accessible. May not be a problem for someone with skinny fingers or a smaller phone. This is a very nice compact, "mid level" drone that they have clearly put a lot of design thought into. I can personally vouch for its durability - I lost it in the sun and flew it into a tree and the drone got stuck! It then chopped its way out of the leaves (!) and returned home unscathed. I have crashed my HS700 about 4 times (at less than 30 feet altitude) and its not even scratched and still works fine. I give it 5 stars because while it's certainly not the greatest drone ever, it's a really fun hobbyist drone and an excellent value.