Tello

Over the past few years, I've wanted to buy a drone, but they just seemed too expensive for a hobby and the cheap ones had really bad reviews. Several articles rated this model as the best inexpensive drone for beginners so I gave it a shot. Overall, I was very impressed how well this thing performed for the price. -Flight time: You can about 10 - 15 minutes flight time depending on what you're doing. While it doesn't sound like a lot, it feels much longer. For longer time, just pick up an extra battery and swap it out. The battery takes about an hour and 15 minutes to charge. You charge it by using a microUSB cable connected to the drone (not included) -Setup: You download the app from the app store and connect it to your phone using a Wifi Connection. Setup was maybe 3 minutes. Tip: If you're on Android, once you connect to the Drone's Wifi, wait for your phone to say it's connected to wifi network but there's no internet and then tell it to stay connected anyway (usually takes about a minute). Once it does that, it's fine but it took me awhile to figure that out. It's clearly an Android issue and not the drone because I have the same problem with Smart Outlets / Amazon Alexa setup. -Flying: It's really easy to get the hang of flying this done. I've flown it inside and outside and even with a breeze, it was pretty easy to control. It went as high as 30' or so (one picture is of a neighborhood over a 2 story home). By default, it's on a slow setting which is better for indoors. If you're outdoors, turn on the fast setting and this thing really zips. It has a really long range and was able to control the done over a distance of more than baseball field. It easily hovers in place and is actually quite stable to control. It does need a good amount of ambient light to operate though. The drone has sensors on the bottom that it uses to look at the ground and stabilize itself. It works amazingly well but had some problems when being used indoors in more dimly lit rooms. This will not fly at dusk or night. -Picture/Video: The picture quality is really good for a 5MP camera mounted on a drone. You could come out with some neat pictures with this. The video feed on the phone itself when you're flying it usually has very little lag but the video saved on your phone can be choppy at time. It's decent enough for a drone in this price range, just don't expect professional level video. Also, the camera on this drone is fixed (always facing forward) so don't expect to angle it down for a bird's eye view. -Durability: Reading over reviews of other drones, I never understood why people kept talking about crashing them, but as a beginner you're going to crash the drone a lot. I've hit halls, ceilings, trees, the ground and many other things. The drone just stops itself, you put it flat on the floor again and tell it to take off. It's remarkably durable and haven't had any issues with it being damaged. It does come with a few replacement propellers if you need them. Overall, it's a really fun toy and a great way to start with drones. It's really well built and powerful for the price and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to start playing with drones without spending a ton of money.

Having purchased a DJI Mavic and not traveling with it because I feared it would be damaged ($$$). I thought I try the Tello out since it had gotten pretty good reviews and seemed to be potable and cheap enough to take on my world travels without much fear if it got damaged or confiscated. When I tried to fly the drone, after downloading the Tello app, I had some issues until I found out that not only do you need to be connected to the Tellos WiFi signal, but you need to put your phone ( iPhone in my case ) in airplane mode. Doing this it solved issues I was having with losing control of the drone. Also the more I flew the Tello the more I liked it. Yes it does have its faults, it fly's fairly stable as long as the wind is calm. Also it seems really tough as I have crashed it several times with no damage whatsoever, as its lite weight and sturdy design seems to be holding up well. As far as video goes its hit or miss, as sometimes there is some jitter to the playback, but it's a cheap little drone and the still shots are of decent quality. When ordering the drone I also got a extra battery and a external USB charge cable for the charging the batteries. This has worked out well, as it seems it takes about 20 minutes to charge a battery for about a 5 minute flight time, which I'm happy with. As for getting a Bluetooth controller I think I'm going to pass on that, as the iPhone app works good and I would like to keep my drone as pack-able and small as possible, ( for the world travel ). All in all I feel like I got my moneys worth with the Tello drone and because of its low cost I fly more and get practice that makes me more confident when I fly the DJI Mavic.

Tello is a very good toy drone for beginners because it can hover in one place on its own (with good lighting conditions) Pros - lightweight and easy to maneuver, decent 5 MP camera that takes nice pictures and videos (for the money it is actually the best), fairly easy to control with your cell phone, pretty durable (fell several times on concrete from about 10 feet with no real damage to the props/body, just keep the prop guards on); Cons - too lightweight (you can't fly it in any wind over 5 mph, I tried, it flies away lol), Wi-Fi connection is spotty and its range is limited, updates are hard to install, once it's dark the drone stops 'sensing' the ground which is a problem because then it can no longer hover in one place on its own and it's hard to land it. The drone's greatest asset is its camera, I enjoy using it indoors. Just know its limitations and you won't be disappointed. Update: I recently got a Xiaomi wi fi range extender for the Tello and it does increase the range a lot! I watched a couple of instructional YouTube videos before connecting the Xiaomi, and luckily there are also some helpful directions on the package itself (after you create an account you can easily change the region, like U.S., China, etc so it's better to just play around and see what region works for you). Second update: so it's been a while since I got it, and Tello is still flying fine. One more thing to consider: with prices on drones like DJI Spark and Yuneec Breeze (you can get it as low as $99, since it's at the end of it's lifecycle) steadily coming down, and new players entering the entry level drone market (like Xiaomi), you might want to save a bit more and just get a Spark or a similar drone instead.

This thing is awesome! I understand that it's a couple of years old now, but I have had nothing but fun and enjoyment from this thing. First, I'll say that I typically don't like flying drones without a dedicated remote, but the Tello is pretty easy to fly using a phone. The drone doesn't drift like other drones do, so you're not having to continually correct your movements. Next, the camera. Sure it's only 5mp stills and 720p video, but I think it's pretty good for a budget drone. It's like having an amateur photographer who can fly. Sure, the photos could be better, but he can fly! For the price it really can't be beat. The image stabilization is fantastic! The flight modes and video/photo modes are awesome too. Having easy to use things like the "Throw and go" or the hand landing are pretty cool, and circling POV shots add awesome sauce to your bland hiking photos. And while the native app doesn't support things like "Follow me", there is an app you can purchase that does a great job with it. All in all you can't go wrong with this as a reliable little everydrone!

I would never spend $1,000 on a drone even though the higher end ones are pretty nifty just not something I am into. For xmas my 9 year old grandson wanted a drone. We've had plenty of the $20 cheapos which work fine for a few months inside the house and then... Well you get what you pay for. This time I decided to spend a bit more. The Tello is a decent but expensive drone. Definitely better than the cheapos but for us it was disappointing in a different way. We had very little success flying it indoors. It needs more space than our 8' high ceilings and 12x24' living room could offer. Outside it did fairly well but the short battery life (10-15m) means you don't get much time before switching batteries. The control app on the ipad was laggy and hung up a couple of times. My grandson quickly lost interest and we went for a walk in the woods leaving the drone on the back porch. If you want something a little bit better than the cheapos this isn't a bad one to get. You get what you pay for. On the other hand I bought him a "Parrot MiniDrones Jumping Race Drone Max" for xmas four years ago. It is still going strong and his little brother plays with it all the time. "Max" has an honored place on a low shelf for him.

Purchased the Tello drone for my 10 yr old grandson. First drone for both of us. I purchased the combo pack with 2 extra batteries - a must have as the flight time on a fresh battery is 13 minutes. Charged up all three batteries and ready to go. Set up was easier than I expected. Download the Tello app (iPhone or Android), put battery in Tello, turn on, open settings on iPhone, find Tello-XXX in wireless setting on phone, then launch app. We first used it indoors, which was tricky do to low lighting and obstacles, but when we took it outside it really shined. Video is good, 720 resolution is limited, but at this price point it is just fine. Very easy to learn controls. Be sure to check phone requirements, software will not load if phone is too old. There is an online pdf manual, had to do a google search to find it, but very helpful. Enjoy.

1st launch, straight up in the air almost completely out of site. Came straight down, landed in tree. Felt lucky that was able to retrieve it with a long pole. Put back in box until I had more time to learn about it. Pulled it out of the closet 1.5 years later, watched a bunch of how to videos, was glad I saw that their was a recent firmware update. Updated the firmware, went to update it again to confirm latest update. Got 2nd confirmation that firmware is the most recent. 2nd launch, did same as first! Upon take off, not touching one single control, straight up to the point of no visual! Tired to hit the landing control with no success a few times. Waited about 15 min to see if I have any luck on it coming back. Nope! By By $100 bucks plus about 2-3 hours of research time. No thank you! Very disappointed father and son! Many reviews are from people who don't read the manual. I may be new to drones, but I build computers for fun so I think I did all the proper steps. Again do not consider this drone!

The Tello is a BLAST to fly! I wanted something I could safely fly indoors for those times I couldn't get outside to fly my Mavic Pro. I have had "toy" drones in the past and I could never keep them in the air long enough to enjoy them. The Tello, in contrast, is easy to control and it goes into hover mode when you let go of the controls so you aren't having to constantly fight to keep it in the air. I controlled it through the iPhone app for the first few flights which was not too bad. I then got a GameSir controller which made it much easier to fly. That, along with extra batteries are must buys in my opinion. Now I just need to find a good carrying case that will hold it all. I have crashed the Tello multiple times and, since it is so lightweight, it has held up very well. I would be totally comfortable giving this to a child to fly. Because this has a fairly decent camera with a live feed to your phone, I am tempted to set up a little obstacle course and see how it does. Don't hesitate. Buy one.