Contixo - F29 Altura Max 4K GPS Drone with 3-Axis Gimbal, 5" Screen Remote, 3KM Range, 23-Min Flight, No FAA Needed - Dark Gray

I'm really satisfied with the Contixo F29 so far. The camera quality is clear for what I need, and the built-in touchscreen remote makes flying a lot easier since I don't have to use my phone. It's lightweight, folds up nicely, and the GPS return feature gives me peace of mind when it gets a little far out. Overall, it's a solid drone for the price and I'm happy with the purchase.

This drone with a 5-inch touchscreen and a 3-axis gimbal is without a doubt an incredibly advanced product. The 3-axis gimbal works perfectly — the footage is extremely stable, and the 4K resolution looks fantastic. Filming went very smoothly. The built-in touchscreen on the remote controller feels super high-end, and I love that I can control everything directly from the remote without needing to connect my phone anymore. The weight is a perfect 249g, so I can fly it without registering with the FAA.

Verdict: The Contixo F29 is a decent mid-tier budget drone (not necessarily for beginners) that aims to offer a lot of value. Flight performance is ok, with acceptable performance if you know how to fly a drone and if you give yourself ample space for imprecise controls. To be clear, in my personal experience, it does not fly flawlessly like a premium drone… It can certainly perform impressively in some areas, such as range, camera control, and resolution. If you have ample space to learn and operate this drone, you will be happy with it. However, if you require precise performance and perfectly stable flight, I don’t recommend buying this drone. Pro tip: (1) To get the best quality footage, use the SD Card in the drone, not in the remote; (2) Flight take off is not as stable as my other drones; you need to give yourself extra space on take off and landing; (3) The rear propellers sit very low; use a hard flat surface for take off and landing, or use the included landing pad. Experience. I have been flying drones for over eight years now. This is my fourth drone, including two from the premiere drone company on the market (one large and one compact). I have used them in high wind, in snow storms, on vacations, etc. I generally think they are a remarkable invention and really enjoy using them for family memories and to explore things that we can’t easily see. First impressions. I really appreciate that the drone comes with a compact carrying case and a remote with a touch screen. Included in the box are everything you need, to include spare propellers, two batteries (!!), two chargers (!!!), a few small tools, and a 32 GB SD card. The remote control is actually bigger than the drone when it’s folded up. The quick start guide is good, and the full manual is very good. While the drone and remote feel quite plasticky (more than others for some reason), this is standard for most drones for weight and durability. The propellers are quite small. I like the shape of the drone, but the rear propellers sit quite low, so you will need to consider where you take off and land. Performance. Many years ago, this drone would have been impressive. In today’s market, I think it performs at about its price point (mid-tier budget); impressive in some of its capability with some significant give and take in stability and precision. The Contixo F29 wobbles and drifts a bit (forward/backward for me) on takeoff, so I highly recommend you give yourself space. Once airborne, the drone will stabilize and can fly mostly smoothly forward, backwards, and sideways. While flying is smooth, my drone drifts down so I have to monitor altitude so it doesn’t crash. Of note, directional change is not aggressive, so you really need to plan extra time for your movements; this was something I needed to get use to because in my other drones, you can fully-reverse any direction within half a second. I did not test the range on this because there are too many obstacle where we live, and without sensors, the drone would most certainly crash against trees or building when trying to come back. With the lack of obstacle sensors, consider very carefully where you will push this drone to the edge of its range; for example, a place that would be fine for that is on an empty beach and going out to sea at lower altitude (no obstacles). With ample space and time for maneuvers, you CAN do a lot for this drone at this price. Battery performance was good for me: about 20 minutes on the drone and maybe an hour on the remote. Features. This drone advertises a 4K UHD camera with 3-axis gimbal. The footage is decent if you record directly from the drone and then use the SD card in a computer. It also comes with a 5” HD touchscreen, which works well. The three-different return home functions are great to reduce likelihood of losing the drone (press to go home, signal loss, or low battery). Activating handy features is easy from the touchscreen. Follow-me is as it sounds… the drone will follow you once you activate the feature; be careful about obstacles since this drone does not have sensors… it will hit branches or other objects. Orbit mode will make a circle around the point where you activate orbit mode; you can control speed and direction of the rotation. Fly far is essentially an epic selfie mode, sending the drone away from you while it films to reveal a spectacular scenery. Sky-rocket flies straight up while filming and Spiral flies the drone upwards in a corkscrew path. Finally, you can guide the drone’s flight path by touching the screen, which it is neat but not something I use. Safety features. The charger won’t charge the battery if you are using a plug adapter with too many amps, which I think is wise to avoid overcharging, overheating, or any other battery issues. The recommended power adapter is 5V / 2 Amps. The drone and carrying bag are small enough to put in a bag back or carry-on bag, which is required for items with batteries. Things I love: - 4K UHD camera with a 3-axis gimbal - 32GB SD card is included - High-quality durable carrying case - No need to register with the FAA - Built-in 5” HD screen on the remote - Lots of powerful flight features, made easy with the touch screen, and several one-touch activations - 3 km range - It comes with two batteries AND two chargers, thank you!! - Great size for packing in a carry-on bag when you are flying - Comes with a handy landing pad Things I don’t love. - It takes a few minutes to connect to satellites, but this could just be my current location. I end up flying in Altitude Mode to get started faster - I think that the on buttons should function the same on the remote and on the drone. Short press then long press on both devices! After several months, I will not remember that these turn on differently and will be confused - The rear propellers sit quite low, so if you have to take off or land in the grass, the propellers will hit and flip the drone. Best to land on a hard surface, or… use the included landing pad! - The battery fits quite tight, which I suppose is a good thing so it doesn’t fall off during flight, but it’s also a bit hard to remove - When the drone crashes (yes, I have crashed it in bushes a few times because I overestimated its ability to turn quickly), the propellers just keep spinning, even if just one of them is free. There should be an easy stop button on the screen that just says “STOP”, followed by a confirmation acknowledgement. Right now, it’s tricky to try to grab the drone in the bushes while propellers are spinning and the remote will not stop the propellers through the standard two joysticks down Overall, the Contixo F29 is a capable mid-tier budget drone that offers quite a bit of value for the price in terms of features, and flies at the level of a mid-tier budget drone (some wobble, drift, and imprecision). If you need precision, I recommend getting something else. If you have space to learn and fly it, it’s great and will provide hours of fun and satisfaction.

The Contixo F29 Altura Max 4K GPS Drone has some desirable specifications on paper and comes as a nicely equipped complete kit. It wants to be a mid-range, mid-tier drone, but after you put it through its paces, it is clearly more of a budget, lower-end drone. Once you open up the package, you realize a lot of thought was put into providing you with everything you need to have some fun flying and getting some aerial views. The drone is pretty light weight, and it comes with a nice carrying case, so it will be easy to take on travel. It also does not require an FAA license to fly (in the USA), due to its up to 3 KM range, though other countries may have different rules. I first tried to charge the batteries using my laptop’s USB-C charger and they would not charge. As it turns out it needs a weaker charger, since they don’t have overcharge protection circuitry built-in, so I ended up using an older phone charger that did the job, though it took a few hours to fully charge both batteries. The next challenge was getting the motors started. Following the instructions in the manual after completing all the calibration steps successfully, lights are solid but on Step 9 holding the joysticks in the 7 and 5 o'clock position it just does not start the motors. After many tries, including holding the one-key take-off button for 3 seconds, it finally started and took off. I let it hover in my driveway for a bit, made a few simple moves to get used to the controller, then went up higher to check out the snow on the roof and the pool covered in snow. After a few minutes of flying, I started having difficulty controlling the drone, it was responding to some commands, but not totally coming back the way I wanted it. All this time it was within line of sight, I wasn’t even looking at the remote controller display, I was looking at the drone itself over my neighbor’s house. After a kamikaze landing in my neighbor’s backyard I was able to recover it and watch the video footage and pics I took. Snow bank took some of the impact before crashing into the fence, so most of the damage was a couple of missing propellers and a bent rear landing gear. The video and pics were stored on the 32 GB SD card that was included with the drone. The camera is 4K UHD, mounted on a 3-axis gimbal, so it’s fairly steady, but the quality looks more like just FHD to me. Looking at the picture properties, the camera maker is listed as ShenShu ISO-100 speed. The remote has a good size 5” HD touch-screen display, and works well, with the exception of some smaller icons that don’t always respond to first touch. I didn’t get to try the follow me feature since this drone does not have any sensors, so it will not avoid obstacles on its own. The drone battery lasts about 20 minutes, while the built-in remote battery will last close to an hour. All in all, this drone can be a lot of fun for a beginner on a budget, but more suitable to fly in an open field without buildings, power lines, big trees in the way. A software update may improve the control, precision and performance of this drone. Note: After trying to do some troubleshooting myself by following the instructions on page 20 of the manual, I installed the Fly FTP app to download the flight logs to my phone, but it's in Chinese and I can only view them on the screen. Apparently those features are not yet available for the US version. I contacted Contixo support after the start-up and crashing issue due to loss of control and they were very responsive and sent me a replacement drone that works more reliably - one extra star for very responsive support seemingly based out of California.

Return to home didn't, GPS wouldn't, camera wasn't...I was paying to for.