Hubsan H501 X4 (Preview)

Whether you say it a drone or a quadcopter, the fact is that this gadget never seems to get old or boring to play with. So here we’re, in search of a drone which is something more than a simple Quadcopter. While searching we came across our protagonist Hubsan H501S X4 – A mini (small) drone featuring a 1080p camera, FPV and GPS support. So now you don’t have to need to get a separate case for a quadcopter, it fits perfectly with your luggage.

What’s in the box?

Inside the box, these items are found:

• Hubsan H501S X4
• Remote Control (FPV permanently installed)
• 1 battery (7.4V / 2700 mAh)
• 4 spare propellers
• Charger with EU adapter
• Tool

Design and Features:

Quadcopters come and go, few are able to make an impact on the market. Luckily, Hubsan H510S X4 is among these quadcopters. The reason? Is its design. So far we have not seen any of the quadcopter so charming and perfectly finished. The flawless metallic golden paint on the blades and white or black on the body gives it a designer-like and professional appearance. The aero-shaped brushless motors are meant to be in a stunning design like this. Even the weight clearly suggests that Hubsan here has produced more than just a simple toy.  It’s even equipped with LED lights neither over nor less and helps you to fly X4 in dark. Moreover, a 1080p camera is situated at the front of the drone provides the best angle and view for shooting during a flight.

The commands can directly be controlled via the remote control. The selling point of the Hubsan H501S X4 is the installation of FPV display on the controller. This display features live view mode of the camera, as well as telemetry data such as elevation, distance, capacity utilization of the individual motors and coordinates displayed. Wonderful isn’t it? If you’re lost, the GPS system is there to navigate your drone throughout the journey. The stable design of four motors located symmetrically makes the quadcopter, air resistant. Even though the size is small and the weight is less, X4 will never fly away with the gush. Thanks to the four satellites signals along with GPS Hold nailed standing mode in the air. In addition to this, you can never lose it when the Follow-me Mode is activated, as the copter flies along the remote.  This works via a GPS receiver in the remote control to the constant contact with the GPS module the copter stops. So there’s no limit to fly this one.

Even with the GPS mode another feature is also added which is the return-to-home mode, with this Hubsan returns automatically to the landing place (near the remote) through precise movements. This also raises the possibility of Altitude Mode, which means that you can fully concentrate on camera regardless of what the altitude is. The last feature similar to all the drones is a headless mode (control of the drone independently of the relative position of the pilots for flying object). All these features can be switch on and off via sticks present on the controller.

Flight behaviour:

We’ll know that to start the limitless flying experience, the engines must be started. In the case of  Hubsan H501S X4, this is done by pressing both sticks in the outer bottom corner of the remote. Even the lifting is easily done with no unbalancing. During the flight, there’sno noise heard from the drone – it’s a quiet flight experience. Soil turbulence is nearly negligible in this quadcopter. Like previously said, if we activate GPS mode, the drone remains exactly on a fixed position despite the strong blows of wind. This also prevents the user to experience fly away effect. The Altitude Mode, controlled via a built-in barometerenables us to stay within a limited height range.

Often the problem is that the pilot disappears from the picture frame because the UAV is not working fast enough with the movements of the to follow remote control. This has well finished with this drone through 180 ° rotations when the pilot passes under the copter. The return-to-home mode is automatically activated when the gadget reaches the limitwhich is 800 meters or the remote control is switched off. It is done manually via RTHswitch and the drone vertically rises to 15 meters and dodges any upcoming obstacle, then it flies straight to the start position and slows down when the landing time comes.

Now talking about some of the cons, The FPV transmission via 5.8 GHz antenna is advertised with a range of up to 300 meters, but unfortunately here comes a small flaw. The FPV picture is not really stable and flickers strongly. For a normal flight with intermediate FPV flight, the transmission is enough but not recommended for a long  one. However, the transmission of telemetry data is functioning properly.

Camera:

The camera is able to record a video or picture of a resolution of 1920 x 1080p. Even if the camera lacks stabilization and focusing (which is not in the case of this product), due to thestability of the quadcopter (GPS mode) you can get a stunning and anti-shake recording. The photos are remarkably colorful, have good contrast and have mainly a surprisingly good light-dark balance on. Even on larger screens, the film quality from very pleasant to look at. The pictures and videos captured are stored on a microSD card, which is plugged directly into Hubsan H501S X4.

Flight Timing:

Hubsan H501S has an average flight time of 20 minutes. We said average because the timing increases and decrease with respect to the flying direction and wind speed. This duration seems to be excellent as most of the Chinese quadcopter are able to stay for only 10 to 15 minutes in the air. For us, 20 minutes are enough.

Specs Sheet of Hubsan H501S X4:

Dimension	25.00 x 25.50 x 7.50 cm
Motor Type	Brushless Motor
Remote controller	2.4 GHz, 10 channel mode 2/1
Functions	Camera,Forward/backward,FPV,GPS location tracking,Headless Mode,Hot Point Following,One Key Automatic Return,Self altitudes and position hold,Turn left/right,Up/down
Altitude limit	800 m
Gyro System	Yes, 6 axes
Camera	Yes, 0.3 MP Full-HD recording
FPV LiveView	Yes, 300 meters
GPS support	Yes
Accessories	4 spare propellers, charger, remote control