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06 May 2011
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I must admit, I was a bit skeptical when I first saw the AR.Drone on Youtube. A few of the things that had me worried was the "Wi-Fi" technology it used, and probably the fact that I'd seen Jeremy Clarkson crash one on Top Gear didn't help much either. I couldn't help but wonder if it was all just a bit of a gimmick, something that looked cool on the internet, but wouldn't be that great in real life. I was wrong.
And oh boy, I was really wrong. When Parrot agreed to send me one (Thanks very much for that, by the way), I was quite excited. All of a sudden I began wondering if perhaps it could be as great as it looked, if it was actually something I could have fun with. It arrived, in an absolutely enormous box, and I ripped into it straight away. The monotony of charging the battery only increased my excitement as I read through the instructions and found that it had a range of 50 metres, which is much greater than I was expecting. A bit more reading told me about the Auto Pilot, the vertical and horizontal cameras, and the controls. I'll be going into all of these in more depth further down the page, but for now, I'd like to focus on build quality, since that's what I was looking at first.
It oozes awesomeness and emanates overly coolness. Yes, those are words.
The Quadricopter itself is made of both carbon fibre and a strong plastic, and it feels extremely durable. Add to that the indoor hull, which is a polystyrene type of thing, and you have something you don't feel worried about crashing at all. Which is good, since the Drone itself retailes for $499, so it's not really something you want to break (especially when you're a reviewer just borrowing the product.). While that may seem like a hefty price, for what you get, I think it's quite reasonable.
On the subject of what you get, I may as well mention what comes in the box; The Drone (obviously), an indoor hull, an outdoor hull, a set of stickers, a battery, a charger, and wall sockets for a few different countries. The indoor hull is the polystyrene one that I mentioned, which not only helps protect the Drone from your house, but more importantly protects your house from the Drone. The blades go pretty quick, and if they hit the TV I'm sure they'd leave a mark. The polystyrene indoor hull saves you from that worry by surrounding the blades in padding, meaning the worst you're going to do is bounce off a wall. Or child.
The outdoor hull does away with all the protective foam, and adds some colour to the Drone, making it a lot easier to see. The lack of padding means it can cope far better in a breeze, and I believe it also aids in the playing of the "Virtual reality" side of the drone, which isn't something I've been able to try out, as no one else I know owns one of these beautys. Now, while the lack of padding does make it better in the breeze, it still isn't perfect, and it doesn't take a whole lot of wind to blow you off course, which can be quite nerve racking. It does do an alright job in a mild breeze, but anything much more than that had the Drone flying all over the place. I did find the sudden bursts of wind were the worst, as it seemed to stabilize itself in the more constant stuff, so it does gain back some points there.
And stabilization is something that it's great at. This thing is an absolute breeze to fly, as there's absolutely no balancing at all you need to do. It keeps itself upright the whole time, and taking off and landing is as simple as pressing a button. As far as controlling the Drone for movement, you have the option of using your iPhone as a game controller, with two virtual joysticks, or you can opt for the much cooler version, which is motion control. You still have the two joy sticks, but all you have to do is touch the one on the left and tilt your phone forwards to make it fly forwards, backwards to go backwards. Altitude is controlled with a seperate virtual stick, but I did find I had some problems occasionally, possibly because of low battery. I found that every now and then it would get stuck at a set altitude and not want to go any higher, but it seemed like after I charged it again, it was fine.
And charging is going to be something you're doing a lot of. Powering the four blades and sending a live video feed to your iPhone while creating a Wi-Fi hotspot really drains the battery of this bladed beast, and you'll find the battery won't last for very long.I would get between 10 and 15 minutes on average, so just above and just below the 12 that Parrot states. This wouldn't be such a problem if the battery didn't take 90 minutes to charge, but it does, so it's a bit of a long wait after you've had a play with it. Battery life in remote control gadgets has always been an issue, and it's something we've come to expect, but it is still an annoyance, especially when the toy is so much fun (more on that below)
But I feel I'm getting too negative, and I don't want to. The AR.Drone is the most amazing toy I've ever played with in my life, and I've had more fun with this than any other helicopter I've ever flown. The reason for that would be the live feed you get from the front and vertical cameras. While the quality isn't super brilliant, it's plenty good enough, and comes through almost instantaneously from the Drone, so there's not much delay. This means I could lie in bed and fly it around outside, getting up to all sorts of things the Drone probably wasn't designed for. A few of these include herding cows from one paddock to another, and pigeon chasing, which is actually kind of scary when the pigeon decides to fight back. Don't worry Parrot, the Drone's fine. Don't worry SPCA, the Pigeon's OK too...
So, the Auto Pilot. It's function is to keep it hovering should you either fly out of range or take a call. I had to take a call while flying, and it landed the Drone for me. I'd be a little worried about this if I were flying over a lake or something, but since it was on grass, it wasn't an issue, and actually seemed pretty cool. I really don't know how the AP tech works, so I won't even try and get into it, but I do know that it does work, and that's all that really matters. It's also the AP that makes taking off and landing so super simple.
As far as connecting your iPhone to the Drone, it's as simple as downloading a free app and then connecting to the Wi-Fi hotspot that your Drone creates. I was nervous that the range would be extremely limited because of the Wifi, but I didn't find that at all. 50 metres is plenty, since at that distance it becomes a bit of a speck on the horizon, and while you can still see through it's eye, it is nice to actually see the Copter itself.
I think I've covered just about everything, just time for the conclusion now. The Parrot AR.Drone brings out the little boy in you, and has you absolutely gobstruck from the get go. The combination of the live video feed, the incredible stability and ease of flight, and just the awesome fun factor of controlling it from your phone make it without doubt the greatest toy I've ever played with in my entire life, hands down. If they can improce battery life, and perhaps make it slightly more stable in stronger winds, it'll be perfect. For now, it's just friggin' awesome, which is still quite an achievement.
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