• Free phone app for FPV | • Adjustable camera angle |
• Save pix and videos to phone | • Easy and fun to fly |
• 1 hour & 30 minute charge | • 5 to 6 minute flight time |
The Cheerson CX-30W is one of the best priced First Person View (FPV) quadcopters on the market right now. They offer a free app that allows you to stream the video straight to your phone. This allows you to fly, record and capture still shots right from your smart phone.
The camera can be manually adjusted before lift off. This is a plus because other drones in this price range tend to have fixed cameras.
The Cheerson CX-30W is fun and easy to fly. Its battery will only give you about 5 minutes of flight time and a full charge takes an hour and 30 minutes.
It also uses brushed motors, which is common practice with drones in this price range. So have some spares available. I’d also recommend some extra batteries while you’re at it. This should still keep the cost under $100.
TIP: Make sure you choose one that has the remote control (also called a transmitter) included. Flying with your mobile is fun, but a lot more difficult.
Pros
- Great price for FPV drone
- Links to smart phone
- Fly w/ transmitter or smart phone
- Store pictures & videos on phone
- 3 Speeds (Low/Medium/High)
- Low battery alarm
Cons
- No headless mode
- 90 minute charge time
- Only 5 to 6 minutes flight time
- Limited transmitter range
Specifications
Size: | 5.9 inches X 5.9 inches X 1.8 inches (Length X Width X Height) |
Weight: | 0.12 lbs |
Battery: | 3.7V 700mAh Lithium Polymer battery |
Flight Time: | 5 to 6 minutes |
Controller: | 2.4 GHz RC (Not always included) |
Camera: | 0.3 MP HD camera |
GPS: | No |
Return Function: | No |
Mobile/Tablet App: | No |
Autopilot: | No |
FAA Registration: | Not Required (FAA Page) |
Complete Review
For the money this Cheerson CX-30W is well worth a shot, especially if you’re new to drones. It’s extremely stable thanks to its 6 axis gyro chip system.
If you take this thing outside, you need to keep in mind that it’s made from some pretty light plastic. So it will get blown around quite a lot on windy days and may even get carried off in a gust.
It comes with three speeds of difficulty. To learn to fly it you can start with “slow” mode. Once you improve you can move up to “medium” and then graduate to “fast”. This guy is very responsive in fast mode.
The best part about the Cheerson CX-30W is that it has a camera with WiFi. This plus the “CX-WIFIUFO” app allows you to stream video from the drone to your smart phone. The transmitter also comes with a clamp to hold your phone during flight.
It doesn’t stop there though! Not only can you fly in First Person View (FPV), you can record video and snap pictures straight to your phone! No need to upload your vids & pix onto your computer from a memory chip.
This eliminates the hassles of having defected memory cards, software incompatibilities or the memory card falling out of the multicopter while flying.
Do keep in mind that the camera is not top quality. It’s along the lines of an old flip phone from early 2000.
If that’s not enough, you can even fly the Cheerson CX30W from your smart phone. This actually turns out to be a bit more difficult though, so I would get some practice before taking it outside.
It also comes equipped with a low battery alarm to warn you that it’s time to bring it in and either charge it up or change out the battery.
Battery replacement is a little tricky because it is really hard to get the battery out of its compartment. You also need to be very careful not to damage the latch that keeps the battery door closed.
There are only a few cons with this toy quadcopter. The first is the flight time. I find that 5 minutes just leaves me wanting more!
The second is the limited range of the controller. With an FPV, I would have expected at least a 100 meter range, but instead you are limited to just 30.
Finally there are the brushed motors. This is also a bit of a bummer, because of their tendency to burn out. I guess that is how they can offer the Cheerson CX-30W at such a great price.
In the end, this is a toy drone and you can always buy spare batteries and motors on Amazon.