AirSelfie - AirSelfie2 Drone - Silver

==== Summary ==== The AirSelfie 2 is a fun little camera drone that takes pretty decent quality pictures & videos. It is sleek & lightweight, has excellent fit-and-finish, and is very durable. There are, however, some room for improvements. The drone launching height should be a bit lower to avoid crashing into ceilings and the AirSelfie2 app requires further refinement for better compatibility with Android phones (especially those running the newer 9.0 Pie build). And the price should be either lower or the package should include more extras such as a portable powerbank. All in all, it is a delightful device to capture pictures & videos with. *Pros: -Small & lightweight. Easily fits inside pockets. -Quality build materials & great build quality. -Excellent fit-and-finish. -Nice leather carrying pouch. -Flexible flight control options - Easy, Medium, & Expert. -Worked very well on iPhone & older Android phones. -Battery charges up quickly. -Good picture quality under ideal lighting conditions. -The "CaptureMe" mode is cool & worked well. -1080P videos looked good & decent. -Easy to transfer pictures & videos to PC. *Neutral: -It's a bit of a struggle to push the drone into the leather pouch case. -Finicky Power On/Off button. -Battery life is too short (~5 minutes). -Airselfie 2 app is buggy on Android Pie 9.0. -Video stabilization could be better. -Picture & video quality degrades in low light situations. *Cons: -Too expensive. Should include a powerbank at least. ==== Design ==== The AirSelfie 2 is a solidly built camera drone with excellent fit-and-finish & quality build materials with a solid and durable feel. Made of aluminum, it's pretty light, smooth to the touch, and does not feel cheap. Due to its small size, handling the AirSelfie 2 is a breeze and it comfortably fits within the hand and inside most pockets. Its four propellers are located within the body frame, thus being well-protected in case of a crash. There are 3 visible components underneath the AirSelfie 2 - a Power On/Off button, a Visual Sensor, and a Sonar Sensor. At the front side is the camera that is capable of taking 12MP pictures and 1080P 30FPS videos. There is also an LED indicator that lights up in different colors to denote battery charge status & drone status (Red LED for Charging, Blue LED for drone power on). I found the Power On/Off button to be somewhat finicky and unpredictable. Sometimes I will be able to power the drone on or off right away on the first try. Sometimes, it will take me multiple attempts. I highly appreciate the presence of a USB Type C port on the AirSelfie 2. It makes my life so much easier since most of my other devices also use USB Type C for charging (e.g., laptops, phones). Despite initially experiencing charging issues with the AirSelfie on the first day - the drone would not begin charging and the red LED kept turning off - I've experienced no other hardware issues since then. The Selfie charges up very quickly and when it's connected to a PC, it is quickly recognized as a USB device and I'm able to transfer my pictures & videos easily. To sum it up, I like the design & build quality of the AirSelfie 2. ==== Controlling & Flying the AirSelfie 2 ==== Despite the helpful video tutorial and User Manual provided, I initially had difficulty correctly launching the Selfie. When I first hand-launched the Selfie, it was inside my living room while I was standing straight up. The Selfie quickly took off right into my ceiling and continually rubbed against it across the room until I pressed the "Emergency Power Off" software button on the phone app. Since then, I've learned to kneel down first then hand-launch the Selfie so it won't scrape into the ceiling again. When outdoors, kneeling down first was not necessary but still recommended to keep the hover height more manageable. You can always fly the drone up higher later if you want to. I also experienced some difficulty at first making a connection between the Selfie and my phone(s) in a consistent manner. I discovered, through trial-and-error, that the best way to connect the Selfie and a phone together is by performing the steps in this order: (1) Power on the AirSelfie 2 and wait until it stops its intro beeping noises. (2) On the phone, go into Wifi Settings and select the "AirSelfie2" network. Wait until the phone says the connection is complete. (3) Open the AirSelfie2 app & choose a flight mode. When I followed that sequence, I was able to consistently make a strong and reliable connection between the Selfie and all the phones I tested with (Galaxy Note 4/Android 6, Galaxy S9+/Android 9, Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact/Android 9, and iPhone SE/iOS 12). Once successfully paired up, the AirSelfie 2 offers 3 different flight mode options - Easy, Medium, and Expert. My favorite method of control is the "Expert" mode (i.e. joystick mode) since I'm able to control the Selfie in a more precise and faster manner. My prior experience with other drones definitely helped me to get quickly used to the onscreen joystick method of flying. Using the "Easy" mode was too frustrating for me because there are just too many different navigation buttons to keep track of and tap on. Plus, I found the Selfie to react a bit too slowly & unpredictably. Once in the air, the Selfie turned out to be a decent flyer. It maintained its height & hovered stably, it reacted quickly and accurately to my phone control inputs, and flew around smoothly (up and down, left to right, and left & right rotations). Depending on the setting I was in, I terminated the flight by either just grabbing it with my hand or using the phone app to initiate the landing sequence. Knowing that the Selfie's propellers are well-protected within its frame, flying the Selfie has been a fun and low-stress experience. I only wish it could fly for at least 10 to 15 minutes. It would've been even more awesome if the Selfie offered swappable battery packs I can carry around. ==== Camera & Video Performance ==== The AirSelfie 2, equipped with its 12MP camera, does a pretty job taking clear photos and smooth 1080P 30FPS videos. As long as you have good lighting, the pictures & videos come out nicely. I highly enjoyed using the "CaptureMe" mode whereby the Selfie recognizes your face and locks on to you. When you move left and right, the Selfie automatically rotates itself and keeps you centered. It works really well in good lighting conditions but in low-light, the Selfie will sometimes lose you. Like most cameras out there, the Selfie's photos become blurrier, a bit smudgy, and less detailed in low-light scenarios. The video quality also takes a hit with introduction of some grain & noise. Even in the most ideal lighting situations, however, the Selfie's photos and videos aren't as good as pictures & videos taken with my Galaxy S9+. But frankly, that's to be expected considering its small size and price point. If you want higher-quality photos and well-stabilized videos from a drone, then expect to spend between ~$800 to $1,000. With that said, I'm still very satisfied and content with the camera & video performance of the AirSelfie 2 & look forward to using it more often. ==== Room for Improvement ==== When it comes to compatibility of the AirSelfie2 app and my phones, I found the app to be a bit buggy on newer builds of Android - more specifically, Android Pie 9.0. Both my Galaxy S9+ and Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact are on Android 9.0. Although I can reliably connect to the Selfie and fly it smoothly from those phones, I'm not always able to see the pictures and videos inside the Selfie's gallery. Sometimes they are there, sometimes the gallery is just completely empty. I did not experience this issue on my iPhone SE on iOS 12 and my Galaxy Note 4 on the older Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. I'm hoping that with newer firmware & app updates, the performance & reliability will be improved. ==== Closing Thoughts ==== The AirSelfie 2 is a well-built and durable camera drone that is fun to fly and operate. It takes good to great pictures & videos as long as there is good lighting. In order to continually use the AirSelfie while out-and-about, I highly recommend taking a powerbank with you to keep it always charged up. At $250, I feel the Selfie is a bit overpriced for what it can do. Therefore, I can only rate it 4 out of 5. Still, I recommend it for those who wants to up their selfie game and take unique pictures & videos from a flying camera drone that is highly portable and simple to operate.

I saw the AirSelfie updated to gen 2 and wanted to try out their new drone. First Looks: The AirSelfie 2 came very well packed and included a charging cable, leatherette pouch, a quick start manual and that’s about it. The drone itself is built very well, the frame being made out of very rigid aluminum. The blade protectors had absolutely no give to them and you would have to hit them pretty hard to damage them. Setup: The first thing you want to do is charge the device up either using their included micro USB cable, but like me I have a bunch already plugged into a multi port charging bank so I used one of those. While waiting for it to charge I installed the APP from the Google Play store. Fortunately while the device is charging you can set it up, just press the “very tiny” power button next to the bottom camera. Once blue light is on showing the drone is powered up you use your phone to search for a Wi-Fi connection, there you will see the AirSelfie network available. Connect to that and use the default Wi-Fi password mentioned in the manual and you are ready to go. Flying: The first thing to do is calibrate the drone, easily done, just follow the instructions given once you’ve selected “Calibrate” from the settings menu. I used two sticky note pads to set the device on as you want the sensor elevated just a little. After this I set the speed as “slow”, since I’m using it for the first time. Launching the device took a couple tries as it takes both hands as you have the device sitting in your hand palm up, and press the “launch” icon on the app and hold. After about a second you will hear beeps coming from the app, “keep holding” and then the motors spin up. Now just gently sort of toss it up in the air and it catches itself. The first time I tried this it took off toward the ceiling and stayed there. I had to use the power button to shut it off to get it to come back down. I once again tried it and it launched without problem. Flying indoors is the best way to get use to this; it takes a little getting familiar with the controls. I’m using the simplest settings. After some practice I could fly around pretty easily, but have to remind myself this is more of a selfie camera than a dedicated drone. The very short battery life “around 5 minutes” doesn’t let you fly around like you would a regular drone but it does give you enough time to shoot some pictures and short video clips. Thoughts: This is a pretty neat device, it shows how far things drone wise have come over the years. It does do what the manufacturer says and is good for selfies and quick videos. The picture and video quality is pretty good. Outdoors I was surprised at the quality of the pics it took, but indoors under low lighting it’s really poor, and the same goes for video. Video outside is decent, but the drone does move around a lot, the stabilization isn’t as good as it should be but it works better inside where there isn’t any wind for it to deal with. The run time is very short, about 5 minutes, I was actually able to get a little over 6 outside but it was a very cool day and kept everything from heating up so I think that helped. I have it hooked to a quick charger with a display and it shows it’s pulling just over 1A at 5V, it takes around 40 minutes to charge it, and so you’ll be waiting awhile in between flights. Outside, any breeze will push this around, even the slightest, and I had to keep my fingers on the controls at all times to make sure it didn’t drift into objects. I was surprised though that while flying a pine needle fell right on top of it “we have lots of pine trees in our back yard” the end of the needle went into one of the motors, and you could hear it, but the device corrected itself and stayed in the air. I was able to grab the needle and it re-balanced itself without a problem, “that did impress me”. The build quality is also something that I wasn’t expecting, even after a few crashes into pretty solid objects it doesn’t have a scratch on it. This is really for someone that wants a novelty device that you can shoot some quick pictures and short video clips, “it may work well for a realtor”. If you plan out exactly what you want to do, and what pics/videos you want to shoot ahead of time you will probably get enough out of this. Just don’t expect to fly around shooting pics and videos on a whim as the flight time is just too limited for that. The charge time for me was the biggest disadvantage, if it could charge faster I’d easily give it a higher rating.

I was curious about this product and decided to try it out. It is good in concept however in reality there is work that still needs to be done to justify the price range. Pros - Clear Pictures 12MP Clear Video 1080p Application Navigation Packaging Cons - No Audio No Voice Commands On / Off Button location Stabilization Noisy Battery Life Unable to replay Video Recording in App (Must Be Downloaded) :: Packaging :: Right off the bat I was impressed on how this was packaged and the care the company took. I like the resealable bag the USB C cable was placed in along with how the guide book is small. I also liked how they include a nice little travel case to place in when wanting to bring the AirSelfie 2 with you. :: Setup :: The setup was easy to follow and upon installing the software there is a video guide that place. My concern is the location and material of the power button. It is rubbery and located right next to the center sensor as well as when you press the power button you can see the entire sensor casing shift from the press. Also with it being rubbery I fear it will easily wear over time. During the setup it will ask to connect to the devices internal WiFi using a password. Be sure to read it carefully and use the "1234..." and not the box column right next to it stating the name. It is easy to misinterpret that as the password instead of the "1234.." After setting up I recommend going through the calibration right away. I wish the application would prompt to do that right out of the box to help with stabilization. :: Picture / Video :: I was impressed with the picture taking abilities along with the Video recordings. When taking a picture it was always clear without distortion. The video is always smooth without jitters and in 1080p quality. I also enjoyed the face recognition feature that will allow it turn to your direction for picture / video taking. Unfortunately it does not follow you distance wise and if you walk too close it will start bobbing up and down. All picture and video taking is performed by the phone. There is no voice recognition or hand gestures that could be done to have it take a picture automatically. Speaking of voice, there is no Audio recordings in the video. The Pictures and Video is stored on the AirSelfie 2 and is visible through the application. However you will not be able to view the video without downloading it first. it is very easy to download video / pictures as well as selecting the option to share it. :: Flight :: The flying of the AirSelfie 2 is average at best. Even after calibration it has difficulty stabilizing. I would recommend staying within the"Easy mode" or "Expert Mode" for flying. For some reason when choosing "Medium Mode" it becomes very difficult to control the device. Indoors it flies with a slight stabilization issue even if people walking around it or not however outdoors is another story. When flying outdoors the slightest breeze can push it along especially since it already has difficulty stabilizing so would strongly recommend not using this if there is any wind whatsoever. Thankfully the casing is durable and fans are encased well so less chance of damage. Careful on grassy areas as the sensor button is exposed underneath the casing. :: Battery :: Battery length is horrible, it only lasts 5 minutes and if outdoors even less due to the continual positioning of the device. Charging by battery or wall unit is quick, about 15 minutes however if charging by PC or device it will take about 30 - 40 minutes. I do like they went with USB C connection to allow for faster charge / transfer rate. :: Application :: I was very impressed on the application and how much consideration they took in developing it. I loved that it provided a quick video tutorial upon first launch and provides access to replay it along with the instruction manual under the "Academy" section. It is easy to navigate between the 4 categories at the bottom along with many options under each. Device category allows you to control flying the device and provide a good real time view of what is showing in the camera. There is about a 2s delay between the device and the phone however not very noticeable and does not appear to affect video / picture. The gallery allows for viewing / sharing / downloading of the pictures and videos. There is no editing capabilities within the gallery so would need to use another phone / device or PC app to make those edits. The settings provide access to additional options and settings along with a clear cache option. I thought that was thoughtful of them as tech extremist enjoy clearing cache of application to optimize their phone. It saves them for having to dig into the phone itself hunting for the application's backend cache. Overall I gave it 3 stars, the Application is wonderful, the picture / video quality is wonderful and the packaging / casing was nice. However the flight stabilization issues, short battery life, location and material of the on / off switch and Price I had to remove 2 stars. The prices range is way to expensive for what you get versus what is expected.

As much as I want to love this camera, I just can't. I love the concept but think that they launched it too soon. Seems like they we too eager to throw it in the market and didn't pass it through proper testing. Packaging: Talking about the packaging, I must admit, I was really impressed with the premium packaging it came in was very excited to give it a try. It's a lightweight product, came charged right out of the box. Comes with the camera, a USB Type C charging cable, a leather bag and an owner's manual. Set up: It didn't take too long to setup and connect with my phone after downloading the AirSelfie2 app. To connect, you have to go to your phone's wifi settings and find AirSelfie option there. After selecting it, put the password "12345678" and there you go. They recommend you use it indoor to learn properly. They also recommend calibrating the camera before using it. After doing all the formalities, I thought of giving it a try. Usage: There are has 3 different modes of using the camera: Easy, medium & expert but believe me, it takes quite a bit of time just to learn it. The camera just wouldn't stay at one location in the air and tends to move in one direction, no matter if you calibrate it or not. To get it to fly, all you have to do is place it on your palm, press "up" arrow in the app. The phone will start beeping and right after third beep, gently push the camera in the air. It's supposed to hover at one place unless you move it through app but the one I have, has stabilization issues and I have keeps on moving slowly which is very frustrating. You try to point the camera to one direction but since it's moving, you can't. Plus you are afraid that it may hit the wall or something (happened with me few times). On one occasion, I pushed it in the air and few seconds later, it started acting weird. As I tried to control it, it went smashing into the wall and fell down behind our tv. Got a little chip mark on one of the edges. Camera quality: It is supposed to be 12 megapixels but it doesn't look like it. The image/video quality is just trash. More so if you are using it inside your home where there's very less natural light. Media is stored in the camera itself and to view, it must be downloaded first which is an easy but very slow process. And did I mention the videos don't have any sound? Physical appearance & build: Honestly, it's a very good looking piece of gadget, very nicely designed & build, has a smooth finish. So good that you don't want to put any scratch on it. The On/Off button seems to be so fragile and is located at the bottom of the unit. It's a bit loud when it's flying because of the fans which is understandable. Battery life: Horrible. 5 minutes. Are you kidding me? You spend more than half of it getting it to work and when finally you manage to do so, it's almost ready to die. That is just not acceptable. I agree, to make it lightweight, they cannot put a big/heavy battery in it but what's the point of having something that can't even be used for its intended purpose? Charging is takes about 30 minutes to fully charge, which isn't a big issue when you are using it indoor. Imagine going out and wanting to charge it? You will need a power bank and it doesn't come with one. You can buy it separately from them which is kind of a sleeve where the entire camera slides into. At the price you pay for this camera, the power bank should be already included. Final verdict: I received it just a day before our trip to Disney World & Seaworld in Orlando and was so excited to take it with us to use during our trip but all of my excitement was shattered because of it's performance & battery problem. Long story short, you cannot use it for a longer period such as during trips etc. because you will have to struggle to get it to work in the first place and when you do, it will die within 5 minutes. You will put it on charge (assuming you have the power bank). Wait for it to charge and use it for only 5 minutes again. It dies again. This whole cycle will be repeated and the most frustrating part is, you only get to use it for less than 10% of the time you spend on the whole charging process. Not to forget, you spend more than $200 on this. I agree it's was a great idea to come up with a gadget like this but it just didn't work. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I rarely give 1 star to any product but unfortunately, this one does deserve one.

Setup The AirSelfie2 comes very well packaged with both Quick Start instructions and a full manual.  However, I still found the steps in the manual somewhat out or order, as it emphasized the need to perform a calibration first, when in reality you need to connect to the drone's WiFi first. Installing the AirSelfie 2 app on your phone launches an IKEA-style video showing you what to do and not do.  However, I feel that voice instructions would have been more helpful than the animated illustrations alone. Once you power up the drone (by holding down the power button on the bottom of the unit until you hear the high-pitch tones), the AirSelfie2 will begin broadcasting it's own WiFi network.  Connect your phone to the network (the password is "12345678", which is somewhat hidden in the manual) then launch the AirSelfie 2 app.  Under "Settings," you'll find instructions for performing the calibration.  You'll want to calibrate the unit often, as it seems to need it in order to fly in a stable fashion. Once the calibration process is complete, you're ready to select a mode (I chose "Easy" for my first flight).  Hold down the Launch icon until the propellers start moving, then lightly toss the AirSelfie2 in the air.  This takes some practice, as my first toss caused the AirSelfie2 to crash to the floor and my second toss caused it to hit the ceiling. Performance If you've flown a larger drone (such as the DJI Spark) before, you'll find the AirSelfie2 to be a lot less stable.  Even when flying the AirSelfie2 indoors in a windless environment, the AirSelfie tends to drift left, right, up, down... pretty much every direction.  It can be tricky to line it up for the perfect selfie.  I did find that the face detection helped: the drone would still drift, but once my face went out of the frame it tried to correct itself. The AirSelfie2 tries to stabilize itself by utilizing a sensor on the bottom of the unit and maintaining a constant spot on the ground/floor/carpet/etc.  Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any sort of GPS positioning in the unit to aid with the stabilization. You'll want to get familiar with the 3 control modes in the AirSelfie2 app: Easy: There is a touch "button" for each movement, such as up, down, forward, back, left, right, and turning. Medium: The app uses a more tilt-based approach that moves the AirSelfie2 depending on how you hold the phone. Expert: 2 virtual joysticks appear on the screen like a more traditional drone. The propellers also work the strongest in this mode, making it ideal for outdoors. The camera is 12MP and can record 1080p video, however low-light performance is somewhat lacking which is unfortunate for indoor use.  Please note that the app will initially show a low-res "preview" image when you open the gallery.  The pictures will look a lot better once you tap the "download" icon and save the image to your phone. Battery Life Battery life can also be problematic, especially when you're learning to fly the device.  A full charge provides approximately 5 minutes of flight time.  Recharging the device can take up to an hour, so you'll want to plan accordingly if you want to take a lot of selfies while you're out and about. The AirSelfie2 recharges with a standard USB-C cable and can be recharged from a normal USB wall charger, car charger or power bank. Value I feel like I need to constantly use the app's flying controls to keep the unit from drifting away or running into something in the house, which kind of kills my smile for that selfie I'm trying to take. However, the unit does appear to be durable as it has survived several minor collisions and crashes. I also like the fact that the unit uses a standard USB-C cable to recharge, but the short 5 minute flight typically limits me to only a few selfies before I have to wait an hour for the unit to recharge.

I got this mostly as a joke as I thought it would be a goofy thing I could have fun with a couple of times with friends and take a couple of pictures while feeling more cool than I looked. I will say that I laughed a lot while trying to function this thing but it wasn't necessarily me having fun with it. It was more laughing at how terrible the whole thing worked at every step. Maybe the only thing I can commend it for is the looks. It's small and looks pretty sleek. For the most part, it feels pretty solid in it's construction but this is probably mostly for necessity than anything as I'll mention in a little bit. So ascetically, decent marks. It also comes with a nice carry bag too. That's where all the niceties end for this review. Everything else is either annoying or just plain doesn't work well. Let's start with setup. I won't say setup is very hard because it's not. If you follow the instruction pamphlet, it's a pretty easy thing to setup. The most annoying thing with the setup for me was that the device doesn't connect to wifi via your home wifi and then communicate with your phone from there. You need to disconnect your phone from your home wifi any time you wish to use this thing and connect your phone directly to the drone. Now, I'm sure this is probably the best way to get as little latency as possible in the greatest number of situations, but my wifi and network is quite nice and I have little to no problems with latency when connecting through my router so it would be super nice to have the OPTION at least to connect the drone to a router and then have the app find the drone via your local network. You know, how almost everything that connects via wifi works. Aside from that annoyance, setup is easy enough to accomplish. My only other gripe might be calibration but I'll talk about that next. Flying this thing is insanely difficult. There are 3 different controls that they label and "simple", "moderate" and "expert" (those might not be the exact works but it's something very similar to that). I tried them all and could not get comfortable with any of them. The "simple" controls would definitely seem to be the easiest to use. No motion/tilt controls. Just press button and the drone does the thing you pressed. But the layout of the buttons is the least intuitive thing I've ever seen. I was never able to correlate my desired action with which button to press quickly enough before the drone ran itself into a wall. Which brings me to calibrating. The app tells you to calibrate the device by laying it on the level surface (makes a lot of sense) and preferably having the sensor on the bottom free floating. That last bit is important because the sensor sticks out of the bottom so it's impossible to lay the device flat otherwise. My best calibration happened when I finally found a piece of foam with the middle cut out to set it on during calibration. All in all, though, the drone never flies perfectly still. It always drifts. Usually forward. So combining the lack of intuitive controls with the fact that the drone is always drifting forward, you're going to crash this thing into many walls. I'm sure this has something to do with calibration but I've tried many times to calibrate it exactly how it tells me to and the best I've got still drifts forward at least a little bit. So now the drones namesake! You'd probably expect an expensive gadget with Selfie in the name to take amazing pictures. That was not my experience. I would not consider my living room to be exceptionally bright but I don't feel like it's dark either. Regardless, the pictures thing thing took felt like they came from my old Sony-Erricson flip phone. Image stabilization seems pretty good considering how much the drone is moving but they are probably digitally zooming the image quite a bit which results in some pretty poor pictures in my eyes. You might have some better results outdoors in the sunlight but I am definitely not comfortable enough flying this to try it outdoors (it even recommends you use it indoors because of wind). The claim is full 1080p HD video with a 12 MP still camera is probably true but I can't imagine the sensor in the camera is very large at all. Expect to take novelty photos you can say "I took this with a drone" and move on from. Don't expect to frame these masterpieces or film your next studio production with it. Battery life. Oh boy. I guess I can't really knock the device for it's battery life because I'm pretty sure it's printed on the box. But if you don't know yet, it's 5 minutes. You can fly your drone for roughly 5 minutes before it starts yelling at you about a low battery. Then it's back on the charger and maybe you'll be able to take another terrible picture later so long as you can figure out how to fly it in 5 minutes the next time. All in all, I did have some fun with this drone. It's my first experience with any sort of drone so there's that novelty. Most of my fun was spent laughing after the drone ran itself into a wall because I couldn't find the button to make it go backwards fast enough. I wouldn't recommend this unless you have some money you also don't mind setting fire to.

Summary Pros: - Small, light package and carrying case make this selfie drone easy to take with you - Controls are easy to use and include more advanced modes - Camera provides good and reasonably sharp photos in good lighting conditions, with little evidence of motion induced blur. - “Face lock” mode locks onto your face and follows automatically for a good shot - Various failsafe protections including auto-land make it less likely that the uninitiated will damage the drone - Works on standard Wi-Fi, providing good range and noise immunity. Cons: - The camera currently struggles to produce good images in low light or when subjects are backlit. Software updates may improve this. - The battery provides only a few minutes of flight time – probably only 1-2 selfie sessions before a recharge. - Stability outdoors can be an issue, even in mild conditions. - Photos are slow to download from the device and the process is not bullet proof. - Software stability and connection issues. The AirSelfie 2 is a great idea: a small, quiet, and light flying camera that you can take anywhere and that requires no RC flying skills and yet can capture that perfect shot of you (or your group) from just the right angle every time. In theory, this is a perfect solution to those times when you want to capture your whole group and can’t or don’t want to get a passer-by to help you. In practice, it’s still probably a couple of software updates away from truly realizing this vision. The unit itself is very nicely designed, with an attractive grey metal finish and diminutive size (2.75” x 3.75” x 0.5”) and weight (79g / 2.8 oz). It comes with a nice travel case which should make it easy to take with you in a purse or even pocket. There’s a power switch underneath along with some sensors and the camera is mounted on the front edge. Using the device requires the corresponding app, which is available for iOS and Android (I tested the Android version on a Sony Xperia XZ2 running Android 9.0 Pie). You connect the phone to a Wi-Fi network published by the drone and then the app connects to the drone. I had intermittent connection issues where the Wi-Fi would connect reliably, but the app would sometimes not see the drone. Re-launching the app a couple of times usually fixed the issue. Hopefully further updates will help. Once connected, you have three control modes: 1. Easy (hold the phone vertically and touch the screen to change the drone position while viewing the camera output) 2. Medium (tilt the phone to fly the drone) 3. Expert (video-game-like touch screen joysticks) Launch and recovery are done by holding a takeoff or landing option on the phone screen for three seconds. Once the drone spins up the rotors, a light toss into the air gets it going. Once landing mode is initiated, just put your hand under it and it will land right in your hand. The process might be a little intimidating at first for the uninitiated, but works reliably once you’re comfortable with it. The easy mode seems to work just fine for selfie taking. The drone is self-stabilized, although sometimes I got it to wander off and it took a few seconds for it to settle down again. The effect is more pronounced outside if there’s any kind of breeze, but it IS useable outdoors. I never had the drone crash into something or somebody, so overall I think that while the flight software could be improved, it’s not bad out of the box. Once in position, you use the phone to take a picture which will match what you see on the screen. There are options to delay the picture by 3 or 5 seconds so you can put the phone out of sight before the picture is taken. Once you land the drone, pictures can be downloaded to the phone. I found the process to be a little slow and on a couple of occasions it crashed half way through. Again, I expect these issues to improve with software updates, but be aware that it’s not 100% reliable out the box at present. The images are stored on an SD card on the device, so you won’t lose them in the case of a software hiccup – just reconnect and try again. Charging is accomplished via a USB-C port and generally took an hour or less depending on flight time. Conclusion I love the idea of this device and I think the hardware is well executed. For the gadget lover who is comfortable playing with technology, it’s a great toy and something new and interesting. That said, limited battery life, poor photos in less-than-ideal lighting, and some technical teething troubles mean that this device may not be right for non-technical people or those who want to take a lot of pictures indoors or in darker settings. Despite all this, I enjoy using the device – just be aware of the limitations and set expectations accordingly.

As fun and useful as it may appear, the AirSelfie 2 is more hype than function. I really really wanted to love this but it has too many quirks to overlook. Pros: • Small enough to slip in your pocket • Works great inside • USB-C Charging Cons: • Short battery life • Not for outside (more on this) • Camera doesn’t have HDR mode • Photos are watermarked Initial setup was easy and pairs to the phone within a minute. The drone emits it’s own wifi signal that your phone will need to pair to. Flying it at first with no drone experience is tricky but can easily overcome with experience. Indoor flight is fine and hovers where you want it to hover. Bring it outside and that’s a totally different story. Any slight breeze and you will be chasing your drone. I’ve done several tests outside and in conclusion, this tiny drone is not meant to be flown without perfect outdoor conditions. You will spend more time chasing it and re-launching it that the “selfie” moment would be long over. The camera works great but only in bright light. It doesn’t have HDR so if the sun is behind you, your face will be much darker than one would like in a selfie. Sure, a little post edit can fix it but takes the fun out of it. Camera performance indoors is a hit or miss. The camera doesn’t have the greatest low light performance and the photos can be grainy. There is a video mode but its more of a novelty than being useful. The battery life is not it’s greatest strength at 5 minutes but I can understand that it’s meant for quick selfies. Charging it with an external battery pack at 2.1amps takes close to an hour to charge. In summary, its fun to fly a tiny drone around your house with photo/video capabilities. Flying it outdoors is a bust if the conditions aren’t anywhere ideal. Stick with the good ol’ fashion selfie stick and save yourself some money. The next version needs a ton more refinement before I can recommend this to anyone. Word to the designers: • Would be great for a longer battery life. I know this will only add more weight and size but 5 mins is too short for anything meaningful. • Recess the camera port. The lens is constantly smudged with my finger. • Relocate the on/off switch away from the bottom and separate from the ground sensors. I feel like im going to break it every time I switch it on. • Needs better outdoor performance. I’ve chased it way too many times due to small breeze. Maybe it’s the bad wifi range because the controls doesn’t work when its drifting away and im running to chase it.