Cheerwing Syma X5C-1 Explorers 2.4Ghz 4CH 6-Axis Gyro RC Quadcopter Drone with Camera

I purchased my first two Syma drones in 2015, an X8W and an X8C. They are both good drones that are much larger than the X5SW that I purchased in February of 2023 and this X5C-1 that I purchased just this last week. For me the problem with the X8W and the X8C is that their much heavier size and weight, and plastic parts that are nearly ten years old translates into a lot of repair parts if you make any type of hard landing or run into something. Thankfully, parts for even the older Syma drones are still available and cheap.Flying drones is a hobby for me and I have a lot of other drones and each has its own set of unique features. Some of them are tiny and used for flying in the house on days when the weather is bad. Several have GPS and pretty decent cameras, including a DJI drone with a remarkable camera and remarkable 3 axis gimbal which takes spectacular photos and video. This drone can be programmed using GPS waypoints with several different software packages. It will fly a specific route defined ahead of time where you can specify everything for both video and still photography. It also has incredible range and numerous other features.You might wonder why did I just buy another $40 toy drone that is very similar to my other small Syma drone? My old X5SW has been a favorite for practicing hands on drone flying to maintain and improve my skills. It has hundreds of hours on it and is starting to get a little tired. I thought that it would be a good idea to get a spare while they are still available.Here is why… the Syma drones I own do not have altitude hold, they have a throttle lever that does not have a spring so that you have to constantly adjust it to maintain your altitude. Despite this being a feature of any true racing or actual FPV drone controller... this is getting to be a very rare feature in inexpensive toy drones. The newer model Syma drones such as the version 3 of the X5SW are all coming out with altitude hold as well.It is much easier for a beginner to fly a drone with altitude hold and GPS. You can fly them to a position near you, take your hands off the controller and they will hover in one place until the battery goes dead. My Syma drones requires constant input if there is any wind at all. This develops your muscle skills for the controller and awareness of what is going on with your drone that a super easy flying drone will not.Why is this important? When flying drones it is not uncommon to get yourself into some type of hairy situation. It happens all the time. Sometimes it is caused by the wind, sometimes just a moment where you become distracted momentarily. If your skills are not developed and maintained it is almost certain that you will do the wrong thing basically every time. Your expensive drone will fly away; your drone will fly into a tree, your drone will hit powerlines, or fly into a structure or end up upside down on a road where it will get run over.These two small Syma drones are also nearly indestructible. If it looks like you are about to fly into a tree all you have to do is cut the throttle and it will drop to the ground picking up enough momentum that most the time it will not get caught in the upper branches not be that difficult to retrieve and most likely not get damaged when it hits the ground. If you somehow do manage to hurt something the parts are super cheap and easy to replace, with videos on YouTube showing you how to do it. Many of my other drones will need some type of repair nearly every time and often the parts are difficult to find.Another nice thing is that the batteries are super cheap. For about $10 this drone currently can be bundled with four extra batteries and a 4 way charger. If you didn’t do this to begin with it still does not cost much later. I would recommend getting the batteries that Syma sells.The batteries last around 9 minutes when new. For the longest life LiPo drone batteries should be stored at around 3.85 volts. These two drones start blinking and then losing power before they get to 3.85 volts. So. if your kids or you do not charge the batteries after you are finished flying chances are the batteries likely are already at the proper voltage for storage. This is not common. Most drone manufacturers like to brag about how long their batteries last by designing the drone to drain them to a much lower voltage. Syma could have designed their drones to keep flying until the batteries were at a low voltage which would damage them if they were left that way. I still have batteries from my Syma X8 drones which are nearly ten years old that are still working pretty well. Other than DJI most other brands do not seem to care much about their customer’s long term battery life.I highly recommend this drone, my personal favorite is actually still my trusty old the Cheerwing Syma X5SW Version 1 Wi-Fi FPV Drone that this one is a spare for. They are very similar, costs about the same and uses most of the same parts, but it is configured slightly differently. The X5C has a higher resolution camera. The X5W has a WiFi camera that can theoretically be used for actual FPV flying under the right conditions. I do not use either with their cameras because I have other drones with much better cameras along with gimbals. I just like the flying manners of the X5W a little bit more. The X5C is a little lighter with a lower profile so it climbs faster and doesn't slow down as quickly when you change directions. But you really cannot go wrong with either.

1. Best drone for beginnerNo headless mode, no atti mode. If you want to buy other expensive drone. Buy this one to practice first. Fairly easy to control, stable indoor flying. Not stable against wind, so if you can fly this well outdoor you will be more confident to fly other higher class drone. (when the GPS signal and atti lost).2.Do not afraid to crash this drone, it's is not easy to break since it's sample and does not have fancy sensor. Use this advantage to learn the common mistake that people made.3 Old is betterIt's old model indeed but more reliable than the newer model. And it is cheap, you shouldn't spend over $50 to buy a drone you crash every single fly.PS.Avoid people to practiceFlying time is suck if you want to have fun, buy extra battery.Camera is useless, you can take Landing rack and camera off to increase flying time.

First off, I want to start by saying I would give the Syma X5C-1drone 5 stars, not because it is an excellent 'beginner' or 'learn to fly' drone, but for the price. In fact, I own two of them - although one is crashed high in the top of a yellow pine! That said, I went with 4 stars for four primary reasons:1. The full spares kit - extra props, prop guards, landing skids, and motors - is a must buy with this little drone. The Syma X5C-1 is tough - both of mine have been flown into walls and ceiling fans, caught in trees, and crashed hard onto concrete. The prop guards, props, and landing skids take the brunt of crash impacts and they do break and crack. Hard landings and crashes also knock the battery hatch open.2. The battery life on the single battery provided with the X5C-1 is very short - 7 or so minutes in calm conditions with no camera usage; 5 minutes or less in windy conditions and/or with camera (especially) video usage. Buy the higher Ma bundle of six batteries and charging hub. These will extend your flying time by around 30% or a bit more. Or, kill two birds with one stone and buy the bundle with the higher Ma batteries and spares kit.3. The Syma X5C-1 camera is next to useless. Yes, it works, but at 2mp, it barely rates as 'poor.' If you want high quality stills or video, this is not the aerial camera unit for you. (Again, consider the pricing...) One odd thing about the camera system on these drones is that the images and videos on the micro SD card cannot be removed, or the card reformatted. (If they can, I've not found a way to do it.) I shot a few sample pictures and videos, but cannot remove them from the card, and could not find a way to erase the card. Even after trying a reformat with three different camera bodies, my MacBook Pro, or one of my wife's PC's, the card will not reformat. Also, if the connection between controller and drone is lost, the photos/videos will also be lost. For me these aren't serious strikes against the X5C-1 as I don't see it as being anything close to an 'aerial photography/video platform.' Still, they are an annoyance. The camera is easy to remove if you decide to do so.4. The remote for the X5C-1 is functional and responsive, but the left stick - which controls yaw and the speed of ascent and descent - is not sprung. When released, it stays right where it is instead of springing back to the center, or neutral, position. Aggravating at times, but, undeniably one of the things that makes this a good learning drone. Incidentally, I found these remotes will pair with other X5C-1 aircraft.I have had minor trim issues with my units, but a quick reset to factory defaults - easily done - resolved them. The drone is bullied by anything stronger than a gentle breeze. Again, another factor that emphasizes this is a good drone for learning the basics of flight. The Syma X5C-1 is probably one of the best drones with which to learn to hover - and by that I mean it doesn't do it that well without constant input from the pilot - but this how pilots learn. You have to be careful with the altitude though - it is easy to lose visual on the drone quickly, especially on an overcast day, and potentially lose it out of range. For this reason, I switched the forward prop guards from the white stock ones to the red ones included in the spares kit, and the aft guards to blue, also included in the spares kit. This has helped tremendously in staying oriented to the drone during flight.There's also a button on the remote which allows the drone to to flips when used in combination with a right-stick control, but I've not bothered with it. There are two modes, 'Low' and 'High.' The remote defaults to the low mode when switched on and the remote can toggle between the two using the same button which flips the drone in flight. Stick with low mode until you're comfortable and flying in a wide open space. The high mode increases the drone's performance significantly.Overall, I like these little drones. I always recommend the Syma X5C-1 to friends who express an interest in learning to fly. In fact, I suggest they buy two with the spares kit and extra batteries. They are cheap enough so losing one to a crash or flyaway isn't a hard pill to swallow, but they're also well designed and built to take the abuse a learning pilot can dish out. Even though I'm flying a much, much, more advanced drone these days, I still take my remaining X5C-1 out once in a while for the pure fun of it.