6 Best Drones for Beginners
Getting started with drones feels a little like stepping into a science-fiction movie—exciting, but you feel bewildered by the sheer amount of options available. Some of our review team come from a similar background, have flown remote controlled aircraft and scaled down four-wheeled racers, but there’s something different about drones, like they’ve climbed out of a Skynet induced dream, courtesy of a Terminator movie.
After getting to terms with a wide collection of the best drones for beginners, we’re here to tell you that there’s no need to feel intimidated. These little smartphone and controlpad guided flyers are fun to control and easier to master than you might think. Entertaining features come preloaded on many, with 4K cameras creating immersive flights, almost as if you’re up there, piloting the drone, taking aerial footage of landscapes, creating 360° panoramic videos, and just generally having a blast.
Unlike any other form of downsized flying, advancements in stabilization technology and intuitive flight controls has brought drone fun to the masses, giving you the opportunity to view landscapes and towns from a whole other vantage point. Even so, beginner drones can’t be described as user accessible unless you understand certain key features. Auto return, basic object avoidance and FAA registration requirements, among other things, need to be made clear. Because of this, there follows a quick guide to what you’ll need to know to take flight in your new starter drone package.
A Heads-up for New Drone Pilots
Know about no-fly-zones and places where you can’t launch a a beginner drone without permission. Airports are off limits, obvious red flags. This guide created by the FAA will help prevent you from making bad calls. Basically, it amounts to this, don’t interfere with manned aircraft and don’t lose line of sight. Airspace regulations must be obeyed.
Drones must be certified through this FAA webpage if a recreational drone weighs more than 0.55 lbs, and an understanding of the questions stated in the TRUST test goes a long way towards assuring a safe flight, every time. Now, with all of the intimidating facts out of the way, let’s talk about fun.
Get comfortable with your drone’s controls and features before launching into the great unknown. We’ll start slow and help you get a feel for the basics. Ready to enjoy the full experience? We’ll jump right in with the DJI Mini 3.
Note: To be clear, under 249 grams, take the TRUST test and drive out to an open space on takeoff day. If it’s heavier but still intended for recreational use, register your craft.
Our Best Drone Recommendations for Beginners
DJI Mini 3
This wouldn’t be much of a best drones for beginners article without an entry from globally dominant Da-Jiang Innovations. Staying firmly within the 0.55 lb (250 gram) weight threshold, the ultra-lightweight DJI Mini 3 features a maximum horizontal speed of 16 m/s, assuming no headwind. It also ascends at a speed of 5 m/s and has a 4000 m maximum takeoff altitude, enough to make you feel as if you’re flying with the raptors.
Starter drone pilots look for the flight figures. They want to know how fast their drone is flying, like some World War I ace pilot who flies out of the clouds to take down an enemy aircraft, Lewis guns flashing. Our reviewers were looking for another type of ‘shot’ maker, a 4K camera with excellent video and still image capturing capabilities. The DJI Mini 3 didn’t disappoint, its f/1.7 lens enabling better performance in low light. Faster shutter speeds were also possible when the aperture was set wide.
Beginner pilot highlights – A three-axis mechanical gimbal stabilized our compositions, increasing image quality. We’d taken our test unit to an open area, no crowds or power lines in evidence. We launched, tested the hovering accuracy range, which stayed well within the ±0.1 m vertical and ±0.3 m horizontal limit, beautifully stable. This was while set to vision positioning. Using satellite-based GNSS Positioning, those figures climbed slightly, to ±0.5 m and ±1.5 m, respectively.
The development of the three-dimensional flying skills needed to fly a new drone along a given flight path was the order of the day. We used the estimated 38 minute flight time with prudence, with plans to upgrade from the regular Intelligent Flight Battery to the Plus version, boosting flights to 51 minutes. During this flight, we recorded 4K HDR footage, using the 1/3 inch CMOS sensor to digitally zoom in on points of interest.
Unfolded, the DJI Mini 3 dimensions are 251×362×72 mm, which is roughly the size of a 13 inch laptop. Included is the easy-use DJI RC-N1 remote controller, which has a space for a smartphone. For a package that supplies the DJI-RC remote, a larger investment is required. Either way, whichever remote you opt for, grounded drone pilots gain a live view flying perspective, making this unit a powerful opener in our best drones for beginners review.
Autel Robotics Evo Nano+
Still adhering to that beginner-friendly 249 gram lightweight build limitation, the Autel Robotics Evo Nano+ starter drone doesn’t need registering. Little bureaucratic acts like this can be a dealbreaker for cautious beginners. They’re looking for instant drone-y gratification, so the lightweight build won’t incur the wrath of the FAA. Dimensions can also impact beginner-friendly appeal. Some massive commercial-grade quadcopter that barely slips into a user’s arms will be off putting. The dimensions of this model are only 260x325x55 mm, not much bigger than a medium-sized tablet, yet it still has a max takeoff altitude of 4000 m.
It also uses the all too familiar remote control form factor with the attachment cradle. It’s here that we placed our smartphone and hooked up the Autel Explorer App (iOS and Android). Its through HD live View on this app—hosted by the smartphone screen— that aerial photography on the 4K/30fps HDR camera gets transmitted.
Beginner pilot highlights – The 1/1.25 inch sensor size and f/1.9 lens aperture on the mechanically stabilized camera work in concert with an ISO 100-6400 light sensitivity. With the Autel Robotics Nano+ flying around at a daring 15 m/s (Sport Setting), higher shutter speeds snapped crisp images while 4K HDR clips panned and tilted smoothly. If we sent the drone into hover mode, it shot static aerial landscapes with good exposure, even in low lighting.
The beginner features we took most notice of were the autonomy modes. By selecting one of these intelligent tracking modes, the drone followed us around like a puppy on a leash. It automatically avoided objects, tripod tracked, parallel tracked, and accepted gesture controls. Mission Planning programmability even allowed for waypoint adding and basic flight path entering. These are great when the pilot wants to focus on some other aspect, such as taking photographs with the gimbaling camera.
Dynamic tracking is the last of these handy modes. We tested it by using our phone remote to ‘lock’ the drone onto a tester as he took to a cycling path. Like a guided missile, the Autel Robotics Nano+ framed her silhouette and took chase after her. A few additional cinematically themed flight patterns were also applied at this point. We tried out orbit and flick, feeling like cinematographers as the camera panned while the drone dipped, recording a selected object during its short 10 minute flight. If necessary, though, using a max 28 minute flight time, the drone can travel 16.8 km, using level 5 max wind resistance to defy tough headwinds.
Ryze Tello Beginner Drone
The review team who’ve driven to a nearby open area can appreciate aerodynamic shapes as well as the next person. And we certainly did appreciate the flight-softened lozenge shape of the Ryze Tello. Its four propellers blurred—curved finger guards protecting curious hands— as it glided into the warm afternoon air, a max 13 minute flight ahead. Then, reaching a full 30 m altitude, it took off at a respectable 5 m/s, dodging between bushes.
The beginner-friendly credentials kick off with VR headset compatibility. Imagine feeling as if you’re flying, using the 14-core Intel processor and collision detection system to perform aerial tricks like a caped superhero. Focus on that and forget about takeoff mechanics, because the little flier also features auto-takeoff and landing, so a simple flick on the remote gets the fun off to a quick start. Is it the best drone for beginners? Well, the 720p camera just prevents it from hitting the heights as a top photographer’s aerial filming tool, but the fun aspect does kick it high up in our review. It’s also tiny, unboxing as a miniscule 98×92.5×41 mm air-ready body that weighs no more than 80g.
Beginner pilot highlights – The vision positioning system on the Ryze Tello kept it stable and hovering while the 5MP camera reeled off a few shots. It’s tough for starters in this hobby to multitask, piloting the drone and framing subjects in a camera lens, so vision positioning kept things simple. Intelligent flight modes came next, offering such thrill appropriate tricks as Bounce, Up and Away, and 8D flips. A mobile device selects these, so we downloaded the Tello App (iOS and Android), taking a break to explore its various modes.
Running on reliable 802.11n Wi-Fi, the pocket-sized drone used its dual antennas to keep a wireless remote lock. We tested this several times, never losing the connection. After that, we took the craft to its flight ceiling, 100 m, and used EZ Shot mode to hover it. The drone hovered, rotating its little 5MP camera through a full circle. The resulting short 360° video was good enough to post on a social media page, putting aerial coverage of the park on full display for anyone to view.
Throw and Go was also incredibly fun. It’s a mode that allowed our nominated pilot to pick up the drone and lightly throw it into the air. We felt like we were releasing a wild bird back into the park, free to find a mate. There was no danger, the curved guard rails around the three inch propellers provided ample protection, and they didn’t even start spinning at full speed until the drone was thrown. Ultimately, we think this drone is a home run winner of the fun award, although it does lack some features videographers might be looking for, like auto flight patterns and advanced subject tracking modes.
Potensic Atom Premium
The article editor called in a request to really push the beginner envelope. Rather than fun and simple, he wanted a drone that was beginner-friendly but packed with flight modes and desirable recreational features. We came up with the Potensic Atom, a beginner level drone that nonetheless featured some impressive performance-rated capabilities. It boasts level 5 wind resistance, a 4K camera, and RTH (Return-To-Home) convenience, yet it still comes in at 249g, avoiding registration.
It still pays to strike a happy balance. The numerous features shouldn’t befuddle the mind of a newcomer, shouldn’t be off putting. An easy-mount smartphone remote control cradle takes care of part of this requirement, offering physical controls in place of hard to master touchscreen navigation. Dual antennas are mounted on that remote. We approved of this, as there’s nothing worse than dropping a connection while halfway through a cool aerial trick. Bottom line, we were well satisfied with the Potensic Atoms’ beginner-attentive flight control designs. It flies easily and intuitively, the remote App just works, and the RTH feature allows for hard flight path resets when things go awry.
Beginner pilot highlights – The camera was, shall we say, impressive. A 4K resolution came courtesy of a 1/3 inch Sony sensor, which is remarkable when we know just how photographically superior their mirrorless range has become. It shot razor-sharp videos and stills using a combination of digital zoom and a professional-grade 3-axis gimbal to steady shots. No matter how far we tilted the 300x242x58 mm aerodynamic body on its advanced quad FOC ESC drivers, it created stabilized images.
Even with Visual Tracking helping, it can be tough to navigate a drone flying at 16 m/s. It ascends to its ceiling max of 4000 m and winds take hold. Intelligent Flight Modes come to the rescue. Boomerang the Potensic Atom past a group of trees, circle or gracefully spiral around a landscape spot, gathering smoothly rendered video from the inbuilt 12MP camera, gimbaling as it snaps off 1/24-1/25,000th second images with crisp edges, no motion blur present.
A long list of features continues past this point. GNSS tracking and a downward-facing vision system steady drone hover. And that hover is maintained even when there’s a strong crosswind present. Are you taking videos on the edge of a coastal cliff, offshore winds coming in strong? The drone hovers in place, taking stabilized videos. All-in-all, it’s a beginner friendly craft, but it has enough user overhead to satisfy the discerning cinematography student who loves working on aerial shots.
BetaFPV Cetus X FPV Beginner Drone Kit
We’re dipping into FPV territory with the Cetus X beginner drone. The letters expand to showcase our need to try out First-Person View flying. This way of interacting with a quadcopter (drone) was briefly touched upon earlier, but it often means getting involved with tricky headset shopping. Intent on avoiding this step, we called in a drone that’s sold as a full kit, complete with VR goggles. A gamepad-like remote control rounds off the kit. We unboxed and got to work.
It’s a little difficult to get used to the first-person perspective, so expect a slight learning curve. We used the 4-blade Gemfan 2020 propellers to establish a hover. The LiteRadio 3 remote felt intuitive in hand, our tester having spent plenty of late evening hours playing on a similarly shaped PS5 controller. A precision barometer tracked height, keeping the hover level. Thus familiarized, the VR02 FPV goggles took over, creating the impression of flight. Like Superman taking off for the clouds, our Cetus X FPV drone rose on a bed of air.
Beginner pilot highlights – A C04 camera feeds to the FPV pilot perspective. A second camera, the M04, transmits the video feed to a monitor. Again, it’s not going to be easy for a newcomer to FPV drone flying to simultaneously manage flying and camera composing, but we didn’t have any issues. Various selectable air modes helped. For instance, you’re going to end up upside down when you take your first faltering flight. Turtle Mode automatically rights orientation when this embarrassing navigational error occurs.
Other modes to experiment with include Angle and Horizon Mode. We left Manual and Sport alone, making the assumption that they were designed for seasoned drone pilots. Weighing in at a mere 55g, we didn’t feel as if the little drone was getting out of our control when it was pulling around a tough curve, as we made it do several times by performing a tight figure of eight around two oak trees in the park. Happily, the camera adjusted from 0 to 40° during such maneuvers, really capturing the moment in sharp relief, wood bark and all.
It’s an interesting shape, durable and displaying a unibody look that’s quite unlike the other drones in our best drones for beginners review. Showcasing aerodynamic looks, the materials in the Cetus X are, quite evidently, durable enough to take the occasional bad landing. That made us feel a little better about our ‘turtle’ flying. Unfortunately, at least when compared to other drones in this list, the short 5 minute flight time was disappointing. No sooner were we pulling off tricks, fooling our eyes into thinking we were flying ourselves, than it was time to land. The higher capacity BT2.0 550mAh 1S battery takes some of the sting out of this fact.
Holy Stone HS720E
Office editors aren’t the only ones who can make demands. We wanted a newcomer friendly quadcopter with a bit more control than the average beginner model. The Holy Stone HS720E fit the bill, using a decent handheld transmitter to deliver fine-grained control of its attractive black form factor. Be aware, however, that this is a 557g drone. It’ll need to be registered with the FAA before you can send it into the air. Even with the slightly larger heft, though, don’t expect a big body; the drone is only a 380x230x125 mm package, more than small enough to showcase nimble aerodynamic performance.
A 4K EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) camera rests inside the slender drone body. This is the kind of technology found in decent compact cameras, so we gave the device extra points for this optical trickery. While decent, though, it’s not a match for a 3-axis gimbal, but the wide 130° FOV (Field of View) made up for the lack of mechanical stabilization. On top of that, there was a slot for a 128GB TF expansion card, not included. Now, done with the features on the camera, we moved on to what really matters—flying characteristics. Per article description, we tested those with novice flyers in mind; don’t worry about executing flawless loops on your first go.
Beginner pilot highlights – We loved having the case. It stored any extras like spare batteries and propellers, and kept the transmitter snug. A review member’s smartphone slotted in place above the remote control unit, snapping live view video into focus. That was the whole role of the phone, for physical controls were provided on the transmitter, moving smoothly to steer the drone on its flight path. If video took priority, the efficient quad brushless motors used Intelligent Flight modes to take on the burden of flying.
Of these modes, we tried out Tap Fly and Point of Interest, with the latter locking the drone to a specific spot for still image shots and smoothly flowing 4K video footage. Altitude Hold and Air pressure Sensor settings were also available, automatically adjusting flight height to accommodate changing weather conditions. GPS coordinating, also in the form of Russian designed GLONASS satellite tracking, kept the flight easy to navigate, free of the nasty upside down incidents that troubled our novice flyers when they were trying out more advanced drones. Find the control App here.
It’s a superb novice level flying machine, the Holy Stone HS720E, even though its name could have been marketed with a more exciting tag. The case holds two batteries, included this time, and those batteries deliver 21 minutes of flight, per battery. Working on the 5GHz band, expect a flight range of 999 m (500 m in FPV mode). Also, don’t worry if the signal does become lost at this outer range, for the drone features an Auto Return to Base mode, swinging it back to your waiting hands if it becomes lost.
First Flights with a Beginner Drone
Bringing this post in for a final landing, the flight has been free of turbulence. All of these beginner-friendly drones have much to offer. They even fold up, slipping into a pocket—or awaiting case—so that you can ride out to an open space on a bicycle. We suggest looking for automatic features, to start with. Auto takeoffs and auto landings are a real lifesaver. Use them whenever possible to bypass the boring stuff. Then, in the air, use features like Intelligent Flight Modes and Vision Positioning. GPS tracking is another technology to seek out, keeping the drone stable when its out of range of the ground. You don’t want your precious new investment becoming a dot on the horizon, after all, not unless it includes some form of Return-To-Home functionality.
The DJI Mini 3 won our novice hearts, using Level 5 wind resistance to defeat coastal winds. It featured a 4K HDR camera and a potential 51 minute flight time. Toy World camera mode was one of the features that caught us by surprise. When selected, the drone made streets below look as if they were out of some fantastical model city. Other than that, the choice between a live view on a remote with a smartphone cradle and one that had a dedicated live view screen earned it a place of high prominence on our best drones for beginners review.
Other notables were the BetaFPV Cetus X FPX—an entire first-person perspective rig for an affordable price—and the Potensic Atom. Videographers could do a lot worse, considering the presence of a Sony designed CMOS camera sensor in this finely equipped product. We would only suggest opting for a decent transmitter layout. Some models rely entirely on feedback from a smartphone touchscreen, which works just fine, but we preferred the tactile ‘feel’ offered by physical joystick controls. If you’re a gamer, someone who loves joypad controls, you’ll appreciate the difference.
Your beginner desires may differ from some other keen novice flyers’ requirements. Flying for fun, longer flight times are going to dominate shopper lists, whereas videographers will be looking closely at 3-axis gimbals for their image stabilization shots. Intelligent Flight Modes are also going to be important, leaving the operator free to compose a pan and tilt shot. Of course, camera needs aside, sometimes those flight modes are just fun to play with, causing all sorts of spins and loops just because you can. Just don’t buzz your neighborhood cat. Fly responsibly, as instructed by the FAA and Trust test.
