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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Perfect Choice

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser

  This was a gift for my daughter. She absolutely loves it. The functionality is easy and it made some great quality videos for Christmas. She is a photographer and this device will help her take some cutting edge pictures and videos.

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  PrincessP Posted 2 months ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Fun camera companion

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 25 Contributor

  Ever wish you had someone that could follow you around with a camera, maybe reach 10ft into the air and get a cool panorama, maybe just make a cinematic zoom? Well, that is what the HOVERAir X1 can do, and so much more, with a push of a button and launching from your palm. Simply pop in one of the two included batteries, hold the power button a few seconds to power on, fold out the wings, press the mode button for one of 5 presets plus a custom, press the power button again and hold out your hand. It launches itself, pans back, depending on the mode, starts recording, then returns and awaits your hand to land. The initial presets are mostly quick 10-15 second recordings, and there is follow. Follow mode will follow you while recording for as long as the battery will last, and that seems to be just short of 10 minutes. After you have gone through with trying some of the basic modes, you can unlock more modes through the app. This includes things like the ‘Dolly Track’ where the drone will hover in front of you and try to maintain a set distance from you the whole time. It is perfect for that style of recording where you are walking and talking to the camera directly. After using it a few times, you can unlock the side track dolly, where it will stay off to your side slightly at an angle, also perfect for specific recording styles. Now, both of these modes are pretty amazing, however, there are times that it doesn’t quite hang in there. Like rounding corners will sometimes leave the camera confused or even end up turning into a follow mode instead. It’s perfect for short clips or walking a fairly straight path for up to about 10 minutes per battery. But, most times, in a 90 degree or more turn, I’d have to recall it, get the new angle, then launch again, which isn’t bad. This camera relies fully on tracking you as a person. So, it needs a clear path and lots of light. If the lighting is too low, even for a simple zoom out and back, it will not do it if it can’t clearly see you. However, you can eventually use manual mode, which just turns it into your typical FPV drone and you control it to wherever you want it, regardless of the setting. Now, as cool as this drone is, there are still limitations. It has no avoidance mechanisms. If there is a branch in your path, it will hit that branch and do its best to try to recover from it. Same for any other object in the path. The good thing is, it has a pretty decent plastic cage around the blades, so it doesn't cause as much trauma as typical drones do. For each of the original presets, you can adjust various settings, like the distance, rise or lower, time it takes to rotate, resolution, vertical recording and HDR. By default it records in 2704x1520 at 30fps. You can adjust this to 1080p at 30 or 60fps and HDR. If set in vertical, it is locked to 1080p/30. You also have to enable audio and grant permissions on your phone if you want audio to be recorded. However, it is recorded from your phone, so it has to remain on and screen unlocked, then it will add the audio to the video when saved. As long as you are aware of this, it is the best option, as the drone is fairly noisy on its own. The storage is internal at 32GB, but 8.7GB of that is used by the system itself. It's still plenty of storage space to burn all the way through the batteries multiple times. But, it will eventually get to a point that you have to clean off anything that you have already downloaded. Overall, this drone is a perfect trip companion. It’s not small enough to fit into your average pocket, but certainly something you could keep in a bag, as it also comes with a little bag of its own, and pull it out whenever you are ready to get that wide shot. Once already set up, you don’t need the phone unless you want to record audio, change default settings or want to download the video/images right away. It will however, cause heads to turn as soon as everyone hears it.

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  DavidJr Posted 5 months ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Impressive performance (How does it do that??)

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  The HoverAir X1 isn’t like any other drone I’ve used before. It’s really a flying selfie camera – featuring impressive tracking technology and high-quality video recording. It’s also, lightweight, compact, and easy to use. You don’t grab a controller or use an app to fly the X1. Instead, you tell the X1 what type of shot you want, launch it from the palm of your hand, give it a moment to “lock on,” and then go about your activity. The X1 will get the shot you asked for, then wait patiently for you to extend your hand before landing gently in your palm. Really, it’s that simple. The app has a fun tutorial that leads you through the basic modes, like hover (the X1 stays put, rotating as you move to follow you), orbit (the X1 backs up a few feet then makes a big circle around you, and birds-eye (the X1 zips up into the air, gets an aerial shot, then returns to you). Those modes are great, for sure, but the X1 really amazed me with its track and follow modes. Basic follow mode is just what it sounds like: You launch the X1, then start walking, running, cycling, skating, skiing, whatever. The X1 follows you, keeping you in the shot, adjusting its speed and altitude as you speed up or slow down. Dolly Track is even more impressive: You launch the X1, which backs up and waits for you to move. As you do, it flies “backwards” capturing you from the front. Side Track is similar but from the side. It's hard to capture in words just how impressive these modes are, but I’ll try. My family and I got on our bikes and pedaled around the neighborhood, down streets and paved trails. The X1 followed along like magic. I put the X1 in Dolly Track mode and went for a short run. I ended with an awesome video that looked like a camera operator had been rolling along in front of me. The app allows you to adjust settings for each of these modes. This includes things like whether to rotate in birds-eye view, the distance and angle (high, low, flat) in follow mode, etc. There is a manual control mode that lets you get shots like a traditional drone (I used it to inspect the roof), and a Smart Control mode that lets you use hand/arm gestures to toggle through the other modes mid-flight. So, you can start with a zoom out, then signal for an orbit to the left, then fly up for birds-eye. You’ll need to edit out the gestures if you don’t want them in your final video, but it saves time and battery to not need to land between each shot. There are a few little things to look out for – for example, the X1 is programmed to follow one person. You can’t use it to track your pet, and it has struggled a bit when I tried to capture multiple people in an activity on certain modes. Plus, it can’t be used over water or in low-light settings. Battery life is only around 10 minutes, but this combo pack includes a spare battery and two-slot charger, so that extends your sessions somewhat. The default data transfer method is for your phone to connect to the X1’s personal wifi network, but I’ve also been able to plug the X1 it into my computer via the USB-C cable to transfer videos like it's an external hard drive. Overall, this is a great product, and I’m happy to recommend it and give it 5 stars. I’m having lots of fun with the X1, just documenting activities for sharing with friends and family. It would be even more useful for a serious content creator who wants to capture their activities hands-free without someone else running the camera.

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  EricJay Posted 5 months ago