What makes a good beginner drone?

Hey everyone,

In this short article, we are going to look at what makes a good drone & talk about some of the key features that you are going to want to look for when buying a new drone for the first time, so we are going to focus on learner drone features.

There are many different uses for drones, from aerial video.  Some of the most well known drone uses are:

- Aerial Video & Photo drones
- Racing Drones
- Fishing Drones
- Toy Drones
- Commercial Drones

When starting out, it really doesn't matter what you want to ultimately do with your drone, you really need to start by learning how to fly.  There are a couple of important features you will therefore want to look at - when choosing you first drone and these include:

- Does it have Altitude Hold?
- Does it have GPS?
- Does it have Optical Flow Sensors?
- How sensitive are the remote control joysticks?
- Does it come with a remote control or do you need to use a phone to control it?
- How stable is the drone in the air?
- Does it come with Propellor Protectors?

 Altitude hold can be a really useful feature particularly if you haven't flown a drone before or have very little flying experience.  This feature means that you dont have to control the height of the drone once you take it off.  This means that you only have to control the direction of the drone.

A GPS sensor is another sensor that makes it easier to fly.  Essentially this sensor helps keep the drone in the same place horizontally, in other words the same geographical position.  This means that the drone will not move UNTIL you give it direction controls on the remote.

The Optical Flow Sensor in some ways operates like the GPS Sensor by keeping the drone fixed in one position, HOWEVER the Optical flow is an actual camera - therefore this sensor will not work if the drone gets too high (as it cant make out ground details at height).  A benefit to Optical flow bases positioning is that a drone will hold position indoors (whereas a GPS drone needs to be outside to get a good GPS fix to work properly).

It is generally easier to control a drone if the Joysticks aren't too sensitive or the drone does not behave too aggressively when given joystick controls.  It is easy to panic if you start to see your new drone about to crash, so if the controls are a little less sensitive, it gives you the ability to correct things....before you get to a crash situation.

As a rule of thumb, it is normally easier to control a drone with a purpose built remote control RATHER than a phone alone.  It has become trendy over the last couple of years to fly drone just with a phone alone, but trust us - having a remote controller does make things much easier, especially when starting out.

Even beginner drones have lots of variation as to how stable they are in the air.  You want to choose a drone that is easy to control with the remote control & does not move around too much (also see points 1) and 2) above.

Propeller Protectors are a great idea if you are a Newby drone pilot, for a couple of different reasons:
a) Because Propellers came be quite dangerous when spinning at Speed & if the come in contact with a body part...it can hurt!
b) Propeller Protectors just help protect the propellers from crashes and damage.  When you are a new flyer - you ARE going to crash, so if you can help protect your propellers it means you are going to fly for longer (without having to replace them).

An important point to remember here also is that all of the features above come at at a cost, which means the more of these features you add to the drone the more you will pay for one.

If budget is concern & you just cant afford to pay for these additional features, then the next best thing is to get a cheaper toy drone & practice with this one - as the Joystick controls and learning to move the drone around is going to be just the same as one a more expensive one.  Which means once you are comfortable with the toy drone, you can then work your way up to something more expensive.

There you go with some useful features that you should look at when choosing a new drone as a beginner.  Here at Tech Outlet we have hand picked drones that are great beginner drones & are easy to fly.  If you need any more help when choosing a new drone, then don't hesitate to get in touch with one of our friendly team!