There are alot of drones out there and depending and the best one depends on what you want. Everyone wants the sexy $1000 drone that races across the sky recording footage you might see on the local news. However, I am here to tell you that the tool you need might be a little more subtle.
A small flyer perfect for indoors and a little bit of backyard flying is perhaps the drone everyone should start of with. Most people dream of either racing screamingly fast drones around their neighborhood or taking amazing aerial videos, but most people don’t have the time, patience, or skill to make use of those expensive drones. A small drone to get your bearings, have some fun with, and train should the day arise when you want a top flight drone is my most humble recommendation for newbies.
Eachine H8 Mini
The Eachine H8 Mini or the JJRC H8 mini depending on where you get and what it is branded is my favorite toy grade drone. It is cheap, small but not too small, durable, easy to use, responsive, and most importantly really fun to fly. It flies indoors, it flies outdoors, it does flips, and is just a blast. Other toy grade models either break really easily, are much harder to fly, or are much more expensive than they are worth. If you want to learn to fly and have fun doing it this is the drone for you.
Syma X5C
A lot of list put this as one of the best beginner drones and it does have its merits. It is relatively cheap but generally more expensive than the Eachine H8 mini, it is relatively easy to fly, and it is pretty fun. However, it much larger than the H8 mini, not really suited for indoors, harder to fly, and generally harder to handle. Since it is larger it handles the conditions outside much better than the smaller H8 mini, but as a toy grade drone it is still limited to a rather low ceiling and range so the benefits of that are limited.
Back in the earlier days of drones the Syma X5C made more sense it looks like the DJI Phantoms, it was widely spread so accessories are easier to find, and it has numerous different camera options including FPV. These features still make it a good begineer drone, but are not as important now that the market has evolved.
If you are looking for a bigger flyer to practice with that handles outside conditions a bit better and are not that interested in indoor flying than the Syma X5C is for you. Otherwise I recommend you buy the cheaper and more fun Eachine H8 Mini.
DJI Mavic Pro
This is the cream of the crop, the bees knees of drones. I know earlier I explained that most people want the expensive, sexier camera drones when they would be best suited for a cheaper more fun drone and I stand by that. However, I would be remiss if I did not recommend probably the greatest breakthrough in drone technology. Once you master toy drones their is really only one drone I can recommend to step up to the DJI Mavic Pro.
DJI takes their years of experience making drones and funnels it down into this masterpiece. The Mavic does it all. It records 4K, avoids obstacles, tracks its launch location and current location via GPS, it can follow you via its controller, it can scream across the sky in sports mode, anything you could want from a drone the Mavic does. And most incredibly it folds into the size of a large water bottle for extremely easy transport.
There are countless articles written about the Mavic and I could go on and on, but I’ll leave you with this. If you have spent sufficient time with a toy grade drone and are looking to step up, the Mavic does everything you could want a drone to do in an extremely portable package. There are mid tier drones, but none can a hold a candle to the Mavic if you are looking for a camera drone over $100 I would venture to say Mavic or bust.
Also with regards to the Fly More Combo, I recommended getting it when accessories were harder to get, but now DJI has a better handle on its shipments. I actually like all of the things in the bundle including the bag which I use regularly, but it might feel hard to justify an extra $300 when you could just buy the accessories you need separately. The extra batteries and props are definite must, but the hub car charger, usb charger, and bag are more of convenience thing if you don’t want to shell out the extra dough.
