Fly This Drone With a Recycled Phone.

I want to echo what other reviewers have said, that this is a great starter drone, with the added bonus of having a built-in camera. Other than charging the batteries, it's ready to fly out of the box, with no assembly required. It's surprisingly easy to fly for a beginner like me, even though I'm a septuagenarian and don't have the best reflexes or hand-eye coordination.

I was having a load of fun with it, but there were a few things regarding the use of a smartphone that I didn't care for. (No way was I going to spend the big $$$ for a drone with a screen equipped controller for my first drone.)

Issue one: My everyday phone is too large and too heavy to attach to the drone's controller and be comfortable to hold. It made the controller feel very top-heavy.

Issue Two: I didn't want to risk dropping and ruining an expensive phone, or having it slip out of the controller's clamp while I'm flying the drone.

Issue Three: Having to change the phone's settings each time I wanted to fly the drone.

Then it hit me: I didn't need phone service or even a phone with a SIM Card, I only needed a phone with WiFi, so why not recycle an old smartphone as a dedicated screen for my drone's controller?

This revelation solved these issues for me, and made the drone even more fun to fly.

My solution was to dig out an old pre-paid TracFone that was collecting dust in a drawer. (There must be countless millions of obsolete smartphones floating around out there. If you don't have one already, ask around, or visit a cell phone store, they'll have boxes of them.) The phone I had was a nice small, lightweight Samsung Galaxy A01. Viola! My drone controller now has a dedicated "Screen" That is both lightweight, compact, and won't freak me out if it gets dropped. I semi-permanently attached it to the controller using Velcro. The lighter weight makes the controller MUCH more comfortable to hold too.

There is a bonus to using a dedicated smartphone with the drone's controller in that I can permanently leave the phone set up for use with the drone. I can disable security so I can just swipe the screen and go. I can leave the screen brightness turned up to full brightness, set the screen timeout to 30 minutes, the phone in Airplane Mode with WiFi enabled to extend battery life by not having the cellular radio on, and only the Drone's app on the home screen. The phone stays Velcroed to the controller, ready to go whenever I want to fly.

In conclusion, I'm very, very happy with my drone and my sort-of customized controller setup, and I hope my suggestion of recycling an old smartphone proves helpful to those of you who read this.

I've wanted a drone for a long time now because I'm fascinated by them. But I never pulled the trigger. I finally did.

I purchased the X-Pack 7, 2.4G Mini Foldable Drone with Camera. The price was right and it seemed like a good product to start with having never flown one before. I wasn't wrong.

You can usually tell the quality of a product before opening by its packaging. The X-7 was smartly packaged from the clean graphics on the box to the separate components on the inside. The unit has 2 batteries and extra blades; nice additions.

Instructions were easy to understand ( although the English is strained). One insert included QR codes for easy download of the phone app to either an iPhone or Android.

After charging and installing the battery, turning on both the hand controls and drone, the unit connected immediately.

The hand controls were easy to operate. The holder for your smart phone grabbed and held the phone tightly.

I've never flown a drone before. I admit I couldn't maneuver it very well and was fearful I'd lose it it a nearby creek or wooded area; a moderate wind and light weight of the module added to my difficulty. I need much more practice!

There was some issue with the phone app I downloaded. It wouldn't launch. But I contacted support and they were incredibly responsive. They developed and distributed an updated app within days.

I have since been able to launch the app and test the controls including the camera which clearly displayed on the phone. Nonetheless I'm worse at using the phone than using the hand controls. Practice. Practice. Practice

All in all, this is a great unit for those just starting. The price is right and it's well manufactured.

This drone is a blast to fly. I'm a 49 year old man so I can only imagine how much fun kids would have with this thing. It looks amazing and has the coolest lights. It came packaged very well. It came with a few extras, including 2 drone batteries. The instructions were easy to read and follow. I had the drone flying in the air in no time. One tip: When you connect the drone to WIFI, it will say "No Internet". Don't worry, because that's what it's supposed to show. Open your app, secure the phone to the very convenient clip on the remote controller, and view live video as you fly the drone. The quality of the video was excellent. I had no latency issues at all. Every response was immediate. I flew it high without any trouble. One of the features I love is the one tap take off and one tap landing buttons. It automatically takes off for you and lands for you. Or you can do it yourself if you want. I even tested the automatic landing button when it was very high and it immediately started to descend, landed gently, and the propellers stopped spinning. I have practically no experience flying drones, but this one is relatively easy to fly. I imagine after playing with it for about an hour you could become a pro at it. I was able to keep it hovering in one spot using the trimmer buttons. The flip feature is really cool. It will flip in any direction. It's very durable. I accidentally ran it into the bushes a couple of times. One time it got caught up in some briers and they got wrapped around the propellers but I unraveled them and the drone still worked as good as new. It wasn't affected one bit. I imagine it could take a pretty good beating and keep on going. I like it. It's a super cool toy. A great way to pass some time. It would be an awesome gift for a kid and at an affordable price too. The one thing I wish though is that the battery lasted longer. It only lasts about 8 minutes. I'm not sure if that's standard, but I find myself getting disappointed when it stops because I want to keep on flying it. That's why it's nice that it comes with 2 drone batteries. Once the first one runs out, just pop the other one in. It takes less than 30 minutes to fully charge them. I saw where you can by something like a 4 pack of extra batteries here on amazon. That probably wouldn't be a bad investment. That way you can keep your session going a lot longer.

I originally got this as a gift for a grandson but wanted to try it out first. Turns out he is going to have to come to my house to play with it because I'm keeping it! I'm not the type of person to read instructions until I absolutely have to. I like to have things work right out of the box. This is very easy to use. I'm not very techno savvy but after downloading the app it synched with my smart phone right away. Without reading the instructions I got it to fly. I also got it stuck in two trees and a couple bushes. This thing is tough. It is light and seems a bit fragile but it isn't. I thought for sure I had destroyed it a few times but it just kept working. Now that I know it works I'm going to take some time to read how to really fly it. It is super fun. I was surprised the battery lasted so long. I played around with it for about 45 minutes and it was still good to go. It even comes with an extra battery. I took a couple photos. They are kind of blurry because it was moving and the sun was almost down but I was pretty impressed. I have a lot to learn about how to control it but am excited so far that everything seems to work well. It even has cool lights on it and makes great beeps so it sounds legit. The controller seems a bit cheap but it works well and even has a slot to hold your phone. I may be fighting my grandson for time with it! This one is fine for all ages. I'm a senior woman and got some funny looks in my retirement community but I think they were just jealous.