Syma X5SW Explorer 2 FPV RC 2.4G Quadcopter Drone 2.0MP Wifi Camera RTF

SHORT VERSION: This is a fantastic entry level drone for any adult or child. It has lots of features, and is highly durable, with lots of spares available on Amazon. Highly recommended.Ok that's if you want the short version :P Now for the details:)LONG VERSION:I initially bought two other quadcopters that were more expensive, and yet inferior. These were returned, after reading reviews and watching numerous youtube videos, and finally figuring out what i actually wanted from this thing.So....what do you want? Hopefully, my thought process that arrived at this quadcopter may assist you also.Quadcopters come in a range of prices, with the more expensive ones obviously having extra functions and better controls and power.But, even though i was going for a cheap entry level drone, i wanted it all...namely:1) A durable Qaudcopter - i wanted something that wouldn't break the first time i flew it and crashed it, and if i crashed it, i could fix (ie plenty of spare parts for sale).2) A decent flight time - i wanted something that i could fly for as long as i wanted, which meant replaceable and rechargeable batteries.3) Easy to fly - i wanted something that would be relatively easy to learn to fly.4) Had a camera with real time POV ability - i wanted to be able to see what it was going and record it - the fun being i could show people what i did!5) had headless mode - so that forward would be always forward, back is always back etc, which ever way it faced.6) had autoreturn - so that if needed i could get it to return automatically to me.7) value for money - i wanted it all, but i wanted it cheap !!As mentioned above, the initial two other quadcopters i'd purchased had all 7 of these points, or so i thought. However, there is an 8th considearion relating to option 4 that i had not considered - the app or the mem card.8) does it have an SD card or use an App - Recording video or pictures on a quadcopter is done normally by two methods - directly onto an sd card, which is on the quadcopter, or by streaming it wirelessly to a smartphone app, which then lets you view it in real time (almost - about 0.5 sec delay), and record and take photos at will. The quadcopters i'd purchased had both options available, but when i tried the app, i found it was not really supported, and had been basically made and left, with no updates and bug fixes. As a result when i tried to view my camera for a live feed, my picture was simply a green version of reality....not very nice to view and therefore a huge reduction to my enjoyment. So they were returned.The syma quadcopter i purchased also had several options regarding camera and sd card functions. The one i went with was the "Syma X5SW - 1", a version of the syma X5S. The W means wireless video, meaning it streams the image to a smartphone app, for a live feed. the "-1" is a newer model, upgraded to deal with some issues about flying in the wind.So how did the Syma x5SW-1 do with all my wants and needs? Well.....extremely well.Firstly, its a sizeable quadcopter for the price. About a square foot in size. Looking at its design from the ground up, we can see the quadcopter sits on four legs, raising it above the ground by around 2-3 inches, helping it to absorb any heavy landings, and protecting the blades, and base of the quadcopter from damage upon impact with the ground. The body is of good quality plastic, tough enough to survive falls from height, and still go on. The blades are big and flexible, to help also with any accidental impact. And the blade protectors are also flexible and light, to offer some protection, but to also not be so heavy as to start affecting the quadcopters flight time too much.1) Durability wise, I, and my kids, have flown them (i bought 2) for quite some time now, and they have fared extremely well inside and outside. I have a 3 year old by who basically likes to put his on full power, let it rise, then drop it to zero power and let it crash. It has hit the ceiling and the ground many many times and still not broken. However, one of the motors did burn out when he kept the motros running on when it crashed and got stuck against something. Which leads me to my first tip - when its crashed or about to crash, just cut the power immediately. This will preserve the motors, and allow you to fly it again, once you recover it. If you do this one thing, it will probably survive 99.9% of the crashed completely unharmed. The motor was very easy to change though (more on this later). My 10 yr old daughter has also been using hers for the same amount of time, so for about a month it has been played with every couple of days inside and out, and has not been damaged. There are some scratches on the blades, but the main body is unscathed, and it is only in the last day or two that one of the blade protectors has been damaged, and needs replacing - after countless crashes into obstacles and the ground ). The quadcopters can survive a real beating - including free-falling (by choice, it was a test!) from over 40 metres high onto a grassy field, over 10 ft onto conrete ground outside, hitting trees, bushes, parked cars...etc. Higly durable - fantastic.2) Flight time is just similar across the board with these quadcopters. You are going to get around 5-10 mins of flight time per battery, depending upon battery. However, you can get spare bateries easily on the internet, and this allows you pretty much unlimited playtime as they are reasonablyh cheap. The housing for the battery is a simple compartment, closed by a good quality locking mechanism, which is easy to open by human hands, but less so by impact. In all my flights, the battery has never come out. The battery is connected by wires, which just unclip when you want to charge them or replace them with fresh batteries. I recommend purchasing at least six spare batteries, charge them up and stick them in your pocket. Easy.3) Flying was easy with this quadcopter. My 3 year old can control the up and down with ease, as well as some lateral movement when there is plenty of space (ie outside). My 10 year old got the hang of it after about 5 minutes of flying, and can easily control it outside. I highly recommend trying it inside first to get used to it going up and down and controlling the height, without fear of it flying away from you (even though it wont really). Then when you can get it to sort of hover (even though it wont completely stay still), try left right forward backwards. But to be able to really practice, go outside on a calm day and fly it in a field. The reason is suggest in a field is because if you crash it into reasonably long grass, it takes no damage. As mentioned before, just remember not to keep the motors running. Once you get the hang of it you can whizz it around as you like. Its great to fly it with a friend, and have them tell you what they can see on the screen. You can fly by using the screen as guidance, but because of the delay, and how quick it can be flying, id recommend you simply watch the quadcopter with your own eyes, and let your copilot tell you what they can see on the screen. Also, if you end up losing it, its harder to locate if youve not watched it fall with your own eyes. The quadcopter has a decent range of control, and is reasonably powerful, so can work in a light wind. Moderate or heavy winds will make it drift a lot, and make it much harder to control. So if its a windy day, keep it at home. A simple method to check is look at the treetops. If they are blowing around madly, its not a good day. If they are pretty much still, its a good day. It can go reasonably fast forwards and backwards, it can turn very quickly, and it can fly quite high also. I had it go waaay above my house, so i can only guess the height was around 40 - 50 metres in the air, and i got some great photos and video footage. Once you get to a height where it loses signal, it will just cut power and fall, so its actually a good failsafe, as with some more expensive quadcopters, they just continue with the last command...crazy idea. This way, itll just fall to the ground, and you can locate it. Once you get used to it, its quite easy to know where to position yourself and to keep moving with it, so you always have control. The cotroller is very responsive, and you can do fine tuned movmeents as well, as it has "trim" buttons to make fine adjustments, which you can of course use to simply adjust position slowly, rather than using the sticks, which will give greater movement. This is ideal if you are taking video footage, and want a super smooth rotation or pan across something - you just turn the trim up a little, and this changes the energy to the relevant blade, making it spin or move more slowly, effectively making it turn or move the quadcopter slowly at a uniform slow smooth speed. It also has 2 control settings. One option is the left stick does up down, and turn, and the right stick does forward back left right. The other otion is the left stick does up down and left right, and the right stick does forward back, and turn. Both are fine, just suit yourself. Personally, i find it easier to have the first method, and ignore the turning unless i consciously want to change my view point for video footage. You can change between the two options by this method: first, turn the controller OFF, then push and hold the trim button by pushing it to the right, and holding it in place whilst you turn the controller on again. There should be a beep and the controller has a little led screen saying mode 1 or 2, which will change from one to tother other with each time you do this method. Obviously there are 4 trim buttons, so the correct one to use is the one located under the right stick. This trim is normally associated with "left-right" trim when it under option 1. The quadcopter also has 4 flashing lights, 2 orange and 2 green, and this also can help you work out which way it is facing, alothught when it gets really high, its harder to see of ocurse :) All in all, its a great flier, and easy to handle and play with.4) ok, well the video and real time was mentioned above, and thats quite relelvant. Although the video is real time, its about 0.5 sec delay, its much better to watch your quadcopter, and let others view the realtime footage, and tell you what they can see - simply for safety and to not lose your quadcopter. Its great for filming and taking pics of your quadcopter adventures, and the quality is absoutely fine for the price - 640 x 480, video recording in 3gp, gives a really decent picture too, with no distortion. The only thing you will get is if you lose signal with it, so ask whoever is watching the screen to keep an eye on the wifi signal. Please note, no sound - its just video footage or photos.5) Well, to be honest i havent bothered with it, as i found flying the quadcopter easier than i thought. Pretty much if you stay in one orientation (ie always behind the quadcopter) headless mode will make flying a lot easier, as pushing forward on the direction stick will make the quadcopter fly away from you, which ever way the quadcopter is actually facing - but i like the challenge of flying it, and trying to work out which way its facing- to me it makes it more fun :) So although i like having the setting as an option in case i want to use it, i havent bothered yet :)6) This quadcopter doesnt come with autohome button. But if its going out of control, just kill the power and let it fall, and pick it up. Or if you cant control it simply kill power to let it drop, then put power on while its falling to control descent for a softer landing, or try and control it at a lower height. If youve lost control because you dont know which direction its facing, just do one movement at a time, till you work out which way its facing, then slowly bring it back. The key is not to panic!! If you fly it too far, it will cut out, so if you play with it in a wide area like a park or field, you should be fine. So ive found i have no need so far to use the autohome function, even if it had it :P which it doesnt.7) Bought it for £44 - fantastic value for money. Its great fun to play with, and you can easily buy spare parts and fix it yourself. Ive had a motor repaced, and the blade protectors. The blades are also easy to replace but none have broken yet, as are the legs, and everything else. Its all modular, so you can just buy a set of spares an replace as needed.8) This model only has the wifi signal for the video, there is no SD card on it. The benefit of having an SD card is that the footage will be uninterrupted, as there will be no break in signal. But if you arent bothered about POV real time viewing, then SD card will be fine. The wifi signal method works great, as you can save it straight onto your smart phone and view it immediately. Of course, the only concern is loss of signal, resulting in a choppy recording.Verdict:Overall, this is a fantastic entry level quadcopter. Highly durable, great value for money, easily repairable with pretty much just a screwdriver and spare parts (although you will need a soldering iron to replace motors as you will need to rewire the motors in - very easy though). Extremely easy to fly.I'd highly recommend this product to any child (aged 3 years and older under supervision) or adult who wants to try out quadcopters as a beginner. If allowing a child to use, i recommend the adult practice first, so that they can assist the child if it starts going wrong :)

For the price what's not to like - it flys pretty darn straight, flips, takes videos. Much better than I expected at this price. Its super light and as a result, when it drops from 10 feet, due to me not knowing how to fly yet, it seems to survive pretty well - being a really popular brand you can always count on spares being available ... eventually I will probably need some.My expectations were pretty low given previous experience of those rubbish little helicopters that fly up, immediately go out of control, crash and break. This quadcopter is not like that, not at all, the control unit and the craft do actually seem to be linked, you really can fly it. But find a good empty patch of a park for your first flights, unless your garden is 100ft square.A couple of things that you should know before buying however :1. The battery lasts 5-7 minutes, for heavens sake buy a 5 pack of compatible batteries. All quadcopters I've seen, including the expensive ones suffer from this. And if the lights flash in flight change the batteries, running the batteries flat trashes LiPo batteries.2. There is significant delay on the "FPV" camera, so its going to be tricky to fly just using that, all wifi type cameras are likely to have this.I bought this in addition to building a "proper" quadcopter for upward of £200, I figured that this cheap one would allow me (and more importantly my son) to learn to fly before moving up. What will my £200+ one do that this one does not (once I build it), well it has GPS, return home, loiter, real 5.8 Mhz video feed, range to around 1 mile ,,,, but hey to start out this Syma unit is surprisingly good.Also note controller is mode 1, i.e. throttle on left (good) and colour is black like the picture (description said white) - if you really care ask the seller.

Before I get going, I have a little video of me and my brother trying to fly this outside for the first time, check it out:[...]This is a pretty decent little drone for the money. Its very durable and after a bit of practise it is quite easy and fun to fly. I practised flying it around the house before taking it outside. First mistake I made was to take the blades off to clean it etc. Little did I know that they have to be put back on in a specific way for it to function, makes sense really but I didn't see this mentioned anywhere in the manual.Second, and probably the biggest problem with this drone is wind. There is literally no point what so ever in trying to fly this in even the slightest breeze. Its literally uncontrollable and will just be taken off with the wind, which could easily result in a lost drone.Overall its quite a good little drone for the price, and has definitely got me interested in getting something better. I'll try flying it again outside sometime when its less windy, but for now i'll just be flying it around the flat for practise, which is still pretty fun anyway!