Parrot’s A. R. Drone 2.0 and the HD Fisheye camera totting BeBop Drone is what many of us want, but the exorbitant price tags stop us from getting our hands on one. The drone maker however has revealed five new mini drones at price tags that won’t burn a hole in your pockets.
Parrot has unveiled five MiniDrones called the Hydrofoil, Airborne Night, Airborne Cargo, Jumping Night and the Jumping Race. The Hydrofoil, as the name suggests, is at its best when in water. It is essentially a small quadcopter that attaches to a plastic boat with fins and propellers. The entire setup can help the mini drone slide on the water surface at the speed of 6mph. If you want to fly the drone, simply detach the quadcopter and enjoy some air time touching speeds of 11mph.
You can control the Hydrofoil via Bluetooth at a range of 80 feet, but the battery life is a disappointing seven minutes. As for pricing, it seems to be a tad expensive at $180 or Rs 11,445 approximately.
The Airborne MiniDrones are available in two models — Airborne Night and Airborne Cargo. The former has LED flights, which allow you to fly them at night, while the latter doesn’t. These drones boast three-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes to keep them stabilized, and a downward-facing still camera. Using Parrot’s FreeFlight app (iOS and Android), you can control different aspects of the drones like LED light intensity, flight speed, altitude, and perform various aerial tricks.
These drones too can touch speeds of 11mph, but again the claimed battery life stands at a disappointing nine minutes. On the plus side though, the company claims that these drones can be charged in just 25 minutes. The Airborne Night with its LED lights is priced at $130 or Rs 8,266 approximately, while the Airborne Cargo is priced at $100 or Rs 6,358 approximately.
These three aforementioned MiniDrones can only click still photos, and it is only the Jumping Night and Jumping Race that can record videos. The two drones come with huge wheels that let you touch speeds of 8mph on the ground. These boast 4GB storage on board and with the camera onboard you can record videos at 30fps at VGA (640×480 pixels) resolution. The key advantage these models have over their counterparts is that battery life stands at a decent 20 minutes.
Another key difference is that the Jumping drones connect via Wi-Fi, which gives them nearly double the range when compared to Bluetooth. The Jumping Night boasts LED lights for nightly excursions and is priced at $189 or Rs 12,017 approximately. While the Jumping Racer comes sans LED light, it too is priced at $189.
These MiniDrones sound quite interesting, and more importantly are affordable. The five models go on sale in the US in September followed by other markets.