Customer Ratings & Reviews

This drone is I'm sure nice for some people, but I didn't enjoy it.

working with solo for a replacement unit. Tech support nor myself can get the controller to pair with the drone.

I'm disappointed that Best Buy didn't tell me this company was going out of business. Now buying accessories is near impossible. Thanks bestbuy for the misleading investment. I'll probly use this item for a year and the batteries will not be any good. Now I'll just have a 500.00 paper weight.

I have been in the RC hobby for over 20 years starting with airplanes, then helicopters and then quadcopters / drones. The Solo was originally introduced as a rather high end drone, costing about $1000 for the drone / controller itself. This did not include a gimbal for steady camera and video shots, which was I believe around another $400 originally. In order to function fully, the system requires a Gopro Hero 3+ black edition, or a silver or black edition Hero 4. At retail this would have set you back about another $500, you were looking at very close to a $2000 investment + any extra batteries that you would have needed. There were some hiccups with the original early release Solo's, as there are with most new products, but there was also a fairly long delay in the gimbal becoming available. This led to some disappointment on the part of early buyers at having a lot of money tied up in a device that, lacking the gimbal, did not produce very stable video. The gimbal did eventually become available, and a lot of the early bugs were taken care of in the later releases of the drone. All of this, combined with the relatively high pricepoint, and dependency on the relatively pricey Gopro camera led to the Solo having a tough time competing in the retail market. At the current price point of $299 in a package deal including the gimbal, and extra bonus items, it is a very good value, for certain users. The reason I say "certain" users is mainly that 3dr has discontinued sales of the drone to consumers, and is no longer supporting the software that interfaces with the drone, or firmware updates. They are still selling the drone to commercial and industrial users for certain purposes. That being said, 3dr still honers their warranty. Also there is a very active and large (over 9000 users last time I checked) Facebook group dedicated to the Solo. 3dr also still provides tech support in a limited degree via online chat. The main concern with the drone going forward will be availability of certain proprietary parts in the event of a failure or crash. If you are an experienced RC hobbyist, have some mechanical and electronics skills, etc. then there are ways around a lot of these types of issues and this might present a very good bargain for you. There are readily available third party prop replacements, for instance, and another third party company is about to release a new, more capable flight controller for the drone. The flight controller is the "brain" of the bird, and by the way is designed around open source software for the most part. There are third party, improved GPS modules available. There is a third party, more advanced version of the operating software called "Solex" for android devices that is being supported and upgraded. Solex is available at a reasonable price, but is not free. There is no IOS version. If you are strictly an end user with no interest in RC or DIY, truthfully, you might be better off with something still under full factory support. The Solo in it's stock form does not have the range that many of it's recent competitors do. It is rated at around 500 meters, and your mileage may vary depending on local conditions and interference. In stock form, it should be considered basically a line of sight drone...not something you will be able to fly for miles out of the box. I have enjoyed my Solo very much and feel like it was a good buy for me, considering my interest and background in RC technology. I've tried to give you the good and bad in this review so you can make an informed decision in your purchase. I hope it was helpful.

I received this on the 6/17 and have flown it a handful of times out in large fields to get a good feel of the drone. It has worked as advertised thus far for me. I have used some of the advanced features such as follow me, selfie, orbit without any hiccups. RTH and Pause have also worked perfectly. The range seems adequate since legally you are not supposed to fly the drone out of your FOV. ** I have been reluctant to fly it over water or in an area that could have GPS interference. I have read some horror stories on the forums regarding GPS issues. The App has worked perfectly for me without any crashes or errors. I was using my Iphone 6. 3DR supposedly has an update in the works for these issues and I am going to hold off flying until the update just to be safe. All in all I would recommend this.I think it will get better as time goes on and the bugs are worked out and more accessories become available. (very disappointed that the gimbal and backpack were delayed)

Don’t waste your time or money on this. Product is already off the shelves and discontinued.

I purchased this drone after I bought a session 5 GoPro. Both work great just not together.

The drone itself was great. Its the customer service from 3DR that is horrible. My drone had crashed during a auto take off breaking all prop. motors. With no response from 3DR for weeks. Thankfully the great people at BEST BUY let me return it for a phantom. My buddy has this drone and he has had no problems. 3DR customer service is lacking.

The 2nd time I flew the drone ,it just stopped working and crashed to the ground .bestbuy would not replace it even though it was 2 days later .they told me that I had to call manufacturer for warranty and they don't have any plants in the USA. I emailed the manufacturer on Jan 5th and still haven't heard from them .I've called bestbuy and they have done nothing .pretty upset since I am an elite member and spent thousands of dollars there a year .

To bad 3dr is going out of business, because this is a great drone for GoPro....

This drone is very easy to fly. I have some R/C experience, but would have been fine without any. You can literally have it fly itself along different programmed flight programs. I love the live feed from my GoPro, you can see the shot you're getting right from your Smartphone which has a handy holder on the controller. It is nice having the live feed from the GoPro when you are at a high altitude or are far from your view. I even flew by a cell phone tower with no problems. The shots it takes are breath taking, I can't wait for the gimbal to become available on BestBuy.com! If you are looking for a nice, easy to fly drone to do some photography, you won't get any better bang for your buck.

nice drone flys well unfortunate that the camra is sold seperately

It take some time to get the drone sync and download the software.

Limited control distance, additional $ 400 to purchase the camera.

Bought this 3DR - Solo Drone - Black in January in Minnesota. Much to cold to fly it for the first 6 weeks owning it so when it was warm enough to use I opened it up and found that it was missing the battery. I contacted Solo and they said it would need to be handled by Best Buy, I called the store I picked it up from and the sales manager informed me that it was past the time period for him to do anything, and he had used my phone number to look up my history there and since I had never bought anything before he was not inclined to do anything extra. Well I have to say I have been a customer there for many years but always in store and do not give my phone number out. Best buy has lost a 25 year customer. Worst service I have ever had anywhere.

I didn't get to use the drone as my GoPro did not work with it even though I was told it would. I looked up previous reviews ahead of time and all of them said it was a good starter drone. It seemed cool and fun. I wish I could have gotten the chance to use it.

The Solo Drone did not preform as expected after the third time flying it I got to watch my money literally fly away.unit did not return as the manufacturer indicated when battery got low or lost signal.

Can't change password also my go pro that I bought at best buy stioed working and afterbtwo trios to best buy they told me I need to contact best buy and was unable to do so since go pro manufacturer has no really phone number nor live agent to soeak

My background: Have flown R/C helicopters/planes for past 8 years. You have not felt gut wrenching adrenaline until you have flown a fly-bar R/C heli. It is fun but its like trying to swim with a 10lb weight tied to your left leg. The feeling of lawn darting a $2000 heli and countless hours of setup is horrible. Fast forward to 2015, and the drones available have significantly evolved. This particular drone flies well even in wind, which I would have never ventured with a heli. One key item is make sure your GPS signal is good (more than 9) before you fly in wind. I am confident enough to assist my 7yo in flying this thing, even with wind. Obviously if you try to fly without GPS assistance you will have trouble if you are not used to input corrections. Also, the flying modes (selfie, orbit, cable cam) are what makes this drone stand out for capturing great video/photos. As far as tech support goes, 3DR is great. I had an issue with yaw stick causing the drone to return home. I downloaded and sent the flight log to 3DR, then I called them when they opened (pacific time). I had an answer and fix in 15 minutes. They sent me a stick calibration procedure and it worked very well. The reason for a 4 star is the gimbal availability. If I were CEO I would have waited to launch the craft until the gimbal was ready. 99% of people who purchased the solo would have wanted the gimbal with the craft. The gimbal has arrived and is shipping, but there is a huge backlog to get through. If you back-ordered the gimbal (direct from 3DR) in Aug, you will not see it until end of Sept. So, who knows when retailers will see their units. Bottom line is the solo flies well and when the gimbal is used with the Gopro, your videos/pictures will be the talk of youtube and facebook.

Picked up the Solo Drone by 3DR expecting something I could take up, and fly around without issues of range barriers--especially considering the $1000 price-point (and that's WITHOUT the gimbal). It wasn't long till I was losing signal, which was causing the drone to fly home. It was great that the drone comes home if you lose signal, but the fact it would return home after traveling no more than 400 feet from where it took off was, and still is somewhat troubling. Mostly this issue was caused by the vast number of Wi-Fi networks in my area. After taking it to the park, things were quite different. There were no other networks to interfere with the connection between Solo and the controller. To my relief, while I was there, Solo would travel out 1,000 feet from where it took off--without dropping the connection with the controller. This made me feel a little better, but the video feed still got choppy out past 700 feet, and occasionally the return to home feature would kick in due to signal loss. I have read many reviews of people adding aftermarket antennas to boost the connectivity, so that is next on the list of things to try. Looking at the drone itself, it is a killer piece of engineering. With the GPS lock on, it is a very stable flier, even in semi-windy conditions. Very capable of shooting photos with the GoPro...however with the stock camera mount, it vibrates quite a bit. It is something I hope changes with the addition of the gimble, which should be hitting Best Buy's shelves soon. When flying in close proximity to the pilot, it is an awesome product. Very fast, nimble, and responsive--but can be slowed down for beginner pilots. The manual is all online, and is both very detailed and quite helpful when first learning to fly the Solo, as it explains things that are not discussed in the quick reference guide. Take offs and landings are incredibly easy, and can be done manually or with a push of the "Fly" button--a great feature for new users. Another feature that is well worth having is the "Pause" button. It actually stops the drone in mid flight and acts something like a brake, and puts the copter in hover mode where it will wait for further instructions. This is awesome because inexperienced pilots can press "Pause" if it starts getting away from them or heading towards something like a building or tree. Getting to stop the drone wherever it is in flight is extremely useful and could potentially save your investment. Another "peace of mind" feature is the return home button, which brings the drone back to wherever it took off from. It can also be programmed to return home at certain heights to avoid flying into stationary objects. For example, I set the return home height at 120 feet, so if I am flying somewhere out of sight and can't tell the orientation of the craft, I can press the "Return Home" button--which tells the drone to first fly either up or down to 120 feet, then return to where it took off from. The feature also kicks in if you lose connection with the controller, and also when the battery gets too low...which nice to know that it won't just fly away if it goes out of range. Having the option to slow the drones' responsiveness was nice for me because I could let the girlfriend fly it outside (in a big open field) without fear of it getting away from her. It is a great drone to learn how to fly with. That being said, it also has plenty of expert modes for the experienced user. Sport mode is pretty awesome--it makes the copter fly like a fixed wing, moving the craft forward and banking in the turns. It's great for first person view flying (FPV). Manual Mode is very similar to "Fly" mode, except the drone will not stop itself. It definitely requires a lot more input from the pilot. This is something I would recommend learning in a wide open space, because the craft can be carried very quickly by its momentum, which you have to compensate for. With some experience, it definitely provides a delightful challenge. Stability mode uses the GPS location of the drone to maintain the copter's elevation. It is nice for shooting video because while it maintains its altitude, all the user has to do is steer it. It is much like driving a remote control car in the sense that you cannot increase or decrease the elevation, but you can control exactly where it goes in that single horizontal plane. Drift mode is one that also uses GPS, and is very similar to manual fly mode, except the craft will stop itself after drifting an additional 2ft after the stick is released. This one, I would imagine, would be very useful when shooting video to get smooth shots and transitions. The last mode, which I am yet to test, is "Acro" mode... which is short for acrobatics mode. It is completely unlimited in what you can do (roll and pitch wise), and actually is followed by a warning in the manual. It says something along the lines of "if you are not an experienced pilot, you are more than likely to crash if you fly in acro mode," so I haven't played with it yet. In all I think its a great product, but does have some potential to be better. It's a great first copter and easy to learn on, but also offers many desirable features that experts would want.