Customer Ratings & Reviews

Having never piloted a drone before, the opportunity to trial the Snaptain SP7100S was approached with beginner’s mind, and no preconceived expectations. As I received my drone late November, the lack of warm, clear, calm weather proved to be somewhat of a limitation. Additionally, since I live midway between my town’s municipal airstrip, and the heliport of the local hospital, all the legal flying terrain is a bit of a drive for me. I had anticipated learning to fly at the local park’s ball field, but my preparation education steered me to the app B4UFly (which I highly recommend) and I quickly learned that the FAA had other ideas from my novice ignorance. Basically our small city is completely off limits for recreational airspace flying. The Snaptain 7100S is a weight of drone that requires it to be registered with the FAA, which is easy to do online. There is a short educational treatise to read and a few question exam to take online, to be granted a license (which costs $5 for a 3 year certificate). Also the drone needs to be marked with your license number, which can be just with a Sharpie on the body of the drone, or online sites will make you a sticker with your contact number and license number. Since the body of the drone was black, a Sharpie would not show up too well, so I sent off for the $3 stickers. All these details are outlined at the online "FAA DroneZone" (just do a web search, and it will be easily located) and they walk you through everything you need. The 7100S comes in a very nicely constructed, durable carrying case, with custom molded cradles for the drone, the hand controller, and areas for the manual, extra propellors, and the charging bricks (USB powered) for the drone and the controller. The camera takes a microSD card (not included in the package, but under $10), which is pretty much the standard for amateur drones. In my reading, a 32 Gb card was plenty large for most of the photography/videography you might do. The card needs to be initialized to a Windows format, from what I read, and since I only have Macintosh computer, I found an app that would do the formatting for that requirement. Snaptain has an app for you to download to your cellphone, which will be instrumental in monitoring the camera's field of view, and direction you are aiming the drone’s camera. This is available in both the Apple app store and Google Play, for both iPhone and Android phones. There were several Snaptain drone apps to pick from, but I downloaded “Epic” as the instruction manual directed for the SP7100S. Also note in the app, there is a “beginner” slider switch, which I chose as appropriate for my skill level; it is not clear to me what this changes, and not stated in the manual, but I didn’t want to risk my drone to my inexperience). The hand controller has a spring loaded cradle to keep the cell phone at your fingertips while working the joysticks that control the drone while aloft. Having no prior drone flying experience, getting the hang of which joystick to use and push in which direction was a definite learning curve. Certainly the choice of a $250 drone over a $750 drone was ideal for a beginner. The Snaptain was quite forgiving in my simple demands. Powering up the drone and the controller are separate steps but well outlined in the instruction manual. You connect your phone to the drone via WiFi, so if you are close to your home in flight, you might want to set your phone to Airplane mode, so it won’t try to link to your home WiFi, leaving your drone an orphan. You need to go to your settings app on your phone and connect to the Snaptain signal. Personally I had a bit of trouble with the calibration steps – to calibrate the compass and the gyro. After a few false tries, powering down, starting over, it finally connected both, and subsequent start-ups were much quicker. The controller will connect to the GPS satellites to help guide the drone, especially important for the “return to home” function. Your # of satellites will vary, or course, with your location, and on the cloud cover/overcast status of your weather. Apparently, you can even trace out a flight path on a map, and have the drone fly the route chosen, but I did not get to that task. All of these steps are repeated at the startup for every flight. I have no prior drone experience, but assume this is true for all makes and models of drones. I’m sure it becomes automatic once you get the hang of it, but I still keep my instruction book open when taking off. My initial flight was in a wide open field adjacent to a soccer field (vacant of all people and dogs) in the next town north of us. The manipulation of the two joysticks control everything: starting up the rotors, then push up on the left stick for take off to your desired altitude. There is a button on the remote to engage an automatic takeoff or landing, but I stayed with manual flying to try to gain more experience with how the drone responds, while I was in open airspace and no obstructions, trees, power lines, etc. This 20-25 minute flight time: up and down and some easy circles took about 75% of my battery. My second flight, a few days later, was spent starting to learn the control and use of the on-board camera. Again, being a new pilot, I did not have any comparison to other drone images, other than having seen footage by professionals on movies and television commercials. So rather than rock stable panoramas, my footage was recognizable, but not pristine. When changing speed or direction, there was certainly some “wobble”, but that is as much a function of my tremor on the joysticks as the drone’s fault. Using the camera for stills and video does eat up battery life, and I was cautious to stay close and land early. I did not want to drain the battery and have it fall from the sky and risk damage to the drone. My final flight of this introduction was spent trying out the features like headless mode,”follow me”, and point of interest. Headless mode made the controls easier as a neophyte pilot. While in the headless mode, you only need the right stick to fly. I’m not quite sure why it is called “headless”, maybe just that you don’t need to think as much to fly. You switch into headless with a short push on the marked button outboard of the left joystick, and again to exit that mode. A long push, however, will initiate an Emergency Stop, which I assume causes the drone to drop to the ground, like a wounded bird, to the peril of the drone. The follow me mode is supposed to track the drone to follow the lock on the controller, but it did not seem to track me that closely or accurately. There was a moderate wind (6-8 mph gusts) that day, which could have been an additional challenge for the drone. The point of interest mode, which I did not test out, apparently lets you choose an item to focus on, and it will circle that set location and altitude, shooting in this area. You can obtain multiple photos and video, and then later edit and choose the ones that suit your purpose. The pictures the 7100S takes are certainly adequate for home/amateur use. The camera works better if it is a well-lit day. Videos would be improved with image stabilization, which I have come to appreciate with my iPhone. This actually was my second SP7100S– the first one came with one of the 4 rotor motors not working, which was obvious fairly early on, before any flights were attempted. I did not even try a lift off with only 3 motors. I contacted Snaptain customer support, and they shipped me a new one, along with a post paid label to return the defective one. It was a very satisfactory customer service interaction, and they were courteous and prompt in making things right. Overall, this was an excellent drone for a new drone pilot. I didn’t have a crash landing or drone stuck up in the upper branches of a maple tree, so consider it a successful introduction. I could have eased my experience by starting out with a “toy” model, of which there are countless options. Having the ability to have GPS return to home, and shooting hi-resolution photos and videos were crucial for my interests, so a lesser model would have been quickly relegated to the garage, and a wasted $100.

This little foldable GPS drone is pretty impressive for the retail cost in comparison to some with a lot higher price tag. My weather has not been conducive at all for flying drones since I have been trying to try this one out and use it to photograph some of the area. Freezing and below temperatures, rain, and wind are the perfect weather conditions to NOT subject your drone to or fly it in. The weather seemed to break one afternoon, and I did get her up for a brief time, which was enough to see that it is a solid drone that seemed to fly fairly stable. The clarity of photographs taken were pretty clear and they can be seen instantly on the mobile device used in conjunction with the app and remote control. I was able to land the drone without any breakage, etc. I tried to find a break in the weather the last 3 days, but the wind and rain seemed to interfere with the satellites connecting to the GPS. The Vantop Snaptain SP7100S has many features, and the controls can be accessed either on the app or the remote. The remote’s internal batteries must be charged and the battery pack for the drone is removable for charging. Charging cables are included for both. The first total charge took close to 5 hours. With that, the drone flew for a little over 25 minutes before charging was needed again which seemed to charge much faster with each subsequent time. In addition to the drone, remote, and charging cables, the drone also comes with 4 additional spare propellers and a screw set for repairing any propellers that may become broken should the drone crash or land in a tree, etc. It has a slot for a memory card of Fat32/exFat format that can be any capacity up to 64 GB. All of this is very neatly packed in a hard carrying case which makes it very easy to store and to safely transport. After the batteries for both entities are charged, the battery pack should be inserted into the drone. The front and rear propellers should be extended, and the drone placed on a flat surface. The remote also folds for storage and both the handles and the antennas should be folded out. The remote needs to be place to the rear of the drone. Before every flight, the drone must be calibrated. The app is not always efficient in showing these steps, but I have had times that it did. The app should be loaded onto your mobile device and the directions are not clear at all that the mobile device should be connected through the wi-fi setting to the snaptrain wi-fi. To do this you might need to put your mobile device in airplane mode to stop other interferences that you might have set up if you are close to your home, office, or vehicle. After these initial steps are completed, and to get ready for takeoff, the drone should then be turned on by pressing and holding the button on top for a few seconds until all the green lights on the tail are lite. Then press the on button of the remote and when a beep is heard, the two should have paired. At this point the compass and gyro of the drone must be calibrated each time it is flown. Turning it horizontally until a beep is heard and then holding it nose up vertically and turning it 2-3 times until a beep is heard is the way to calibrate. By reading the manual one can quickly learn which lights on the drone are to be blinking fast, slow, and stable during this process. The drone needs to sit for a minute to connect to satellites and there is a place on the app that will tell how many satellites it has connected to. After this is done, which with routine becomes a quick procedure, the drone is ready to fly. Some of the features include a RTH button or Return to Home where the Drone (if not out of its transmitter’s range) will return to the starting point. It will also return when the battery is getting low. Other commands include an emergency stop, POI, or Point of Interest where the radius of this point can be set and the drone will circle an area, Follow me Home where the drone should follow behind on a trail of hike, etc. The app can show the altitude and the distance traveled of the drone and control the camera, the video, and many other things about the flight. I am looking forward to warmer and calmer weather to really make use of this drone for various architectural reasons. I definitely do recommend it. It’s a great drone for the money and is packed with a lot of different commands and maneuvering options. Reading the manual before starting is crucial to a successful flight.

So this is the 7100S which is essentially the same old 7100 but with new software to prevent all the issues everyone was having with flight generally speaking.  Charger woes: I have a few negatives to me right off the bat that cause great concern for safety given the older hardware design. First major one being micro USB going in to 2023. With charging these so often micro USB ports get tiered quicker and eventually will fail unlike over double the life span a type C would have on here. Since were talking chargers, like the other this comes with a proprietary charger for the battery and another for controller. When i say charger i mean the cord there is no base for these which is another problem. All my tech is USB C at this point i do not have a type A charger and the manual says do not use a computer to charge this (if you have a mac or chromebook or something you still don't have a type A port anyway). So i had to use my bluetooth adapter in my car for the first charge. The notes also indicate that this is not a smart charging device and that you need to unplug the battery as soon as its full charge because it can and will start on fire if you don't as it doesn't stop charging... Now call me crazy but i dont have the time or patience to sit around watching to make sure im not going to burn my house down like that. The charger itself gets HOT to the touch when in use. All the charging cables and components feel extremely cheap like something you'd get in a $40 tablet box. Granted a lot of drones these days are in the same boat i just don't like the fact that something you need to use so often is so poor quality with inferior parts. Ok so once you get past the whole charging and battery situation the drone itself is an excellent unit and design. the motors feel quality and great. The entire case that it comes in is super high quality which feels excellent.  The app i used was on iphone just to note that. I really disliked the usability of the app. It sometimes lagged and did not allow button presses at times i was trying. During initial setup i got stuck on place the drone on a level surface for a bit but got through it. Overall i feel like functionality was a bit sketchy on this but it did the job.  Flight: ok so heres where there is a massive improvement. You no longer get the toilet bowl issue that these used to have where it went out of control. This and the responsiveness from the controller seems to feel much better. I wish it flew longer but its the nature of the beast here. The follow mode finally works correctly and home always worked for me which on the last software was a dice roll it seemed.  Battery: This is a real downer. I could only get around 15 mins of flight per charge so if this is unacceptable to you I suggest you purchase spare batteries as there is only one. WIFI connection: this was a bit spotty but i also fly in a populated area so its to be expected for me. I did not test it out in country areas yet to get the best experience.  Camera and video quality: This is 4k resolution and i have to say it is fairly good for the money. The videos come out crisp and sharp and the detail is good even on photos. Everything looks a bit oversharpened and i havent found a real setting specifically for that part of it so i don't think you can control it. Overall though its very good.  Overall I think for the money on this you find yourself in an interesting place as there are many options to be had. Previously I discounted the snaptain 7100 because of the toilet bowl issues. Since this is fixed in this update I feel like it's truly a great player again. Now I personally would much prefer it had a USB C everywhere and included a charging brick but such is life in technology and that wouldn't hold me back from a great deal especially when this is on sale. 

On paper this is one impressive drone. 4k camera. Remote. GPS capable. Return to home. Way pointing. Point of interest following. And a fully capable app. Stuff that the $$ drones have for a fraction of the price. So what's the catch? Turns out everything. I have an expensive professional drone so I figured the experience would be fairly similar. Pairing with the app to remote is done over wifi unlike a physical connector through the charging port. Where the phone fits to the remote is a precarious spring out camera holder. I had my phone drop out several times because it's not secure at all. Once everything was turned on and ready to fly I crashed it in seconds. What? I've been flying my drone for years without a crash. The major issue here is that this drone has a pretty significant CONSTANT random drift in one direction or another. The main experience here is basically to try to keep from crashing. This makes doing ANYTHING in the app itself precarious unless you fly it way up and let it drift while you do what you need to do. Trying to fly reverse becomes a serious challenge when you fly with reversed perspective while correcting for this drift. I crashed it again while it seemed to want to drift off in the opposite direction I was trying to make it move. Lets move on to the camera. It's ok. However, anytime you move, you notice the camera isn't actually on a real gimbal so your camera suffers from any pan / tilt action your drone is taking. This making getting smooth video exceptionally difficult. It 30 minutes of flight time, I crashed it three times. To it's credit there was no real damage. I tried its RETURN to Home as well. It worked, but was off about 20 feet and needed guidance to not land somewhere it shouldn't. In conclusion this is a very hard drone to operate and wouldn't recommend it for beginners unless they start out in wide open spaces. Professionals would be better suited by sticking to fully featured drones as well even if they cost quadruple the price.

This review is for the Vantop Snaptain SP100S drone with remote controller. This is a great budget drone packed with loads of features. Comes with a very nice carrying case that’s fits everything. The remote (it has a rechargeable battery), the drone it self (also with rechargeable battery), extra blades, and a charging cable for both units. Once paired with your phone through the app and you can watch a live feed from the drone. Which does have its limits of how far you can watch it. The drone can fly way beyond its Wi-Fi connection. So it best to use in an open area where you can keep eye contact. But no worries if you lose sight of it, one of the features is returned home. When using this, it’s always came back and landed within two or 3 feet of where it took off. Very neat. I was impressed of how high and far away I could control this drone makes for some very good aerial photos. I took some bows at night and during the daylight. Both came out very well. You can also record video. But I mostly just took photos so far. My first flight was a little nerve-racking, but after that, I’ve learned that it’s very easy to control. And now I feel very comfortable taking off in even tight spaces. On your phone in the app you can see loads of information like battery life, speed, & altitude. I have gotten about 20 minutes each flight. And the remote has lasted 4 flights before I changed it again. The carrying case is so convenient I just keep it with me in my truck because you never know when you’re going to have the perfect opportunity to use it.