What’s weird, though, is that the drones available to us normal people tend to fall into two categories. On the low end, there are glorified remote-control helicopters, with crummy cameras and toylike software; on the high end, there are your DJI Phantoms and Yuneec Typhoons, which are amazing, but complex and expensive—$1300 and way up.
With its new Breeze drone, Yuneec has attempted to create a drone for the rest of us. It has whittled away everything the company doesn’t think you really need for everyday aerial photography—a standalone remote control unit, motorized landing gear, 25-minute battery, and obstacle-avoidance sensors. What remain are the essentials, like a very good 4K video camera, sensors for maintaining position indoors, and extremely easy-to-use software.
For this, Yuneec charges $500—a new low for a drone of this sophistication.
(Its closest competitors are the older Parrot Bebop 2, whose camera can’t move or tilt and isn’t 4K, and the Dobby, which flies for only 8 minutes and can’t return to its takeoff point.)
A shiny white bubble
Every drone lives by the same painful equation:
battery life = drone size
The battery is by far the heaviest piece of a consumer drone. So if you want more flying time, you have to settle for a bigger drone that can carry the heftier battery.
The Breeze is marketed not as a drone at all, but as a “flying camera.” The subtext: “You don’t really care about battery life or wireless range, because this thing’s really meant for selfies and short videos.”
So, the bad news: The Breeze battery life is only 12 minutes. (Less, actually, because when the battery gets low, the thing beeps and starts landing on its own.)
There are three pieces of good news, though. First, you get two of these batteries in the box, which is beyond fantastic; while one’s flying, the other can be charging.
By David Pogue.
Full story at Yahoo News.
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