Xiaomi Mi Drone 4K First Impressions & Unboxing, Set-Up And First Flight

Drones are something I have wanted to get into for a while, but ultimately put off for so long due to two main factors, the cost and the fear I would crash it in a second wasting my cash never having enjoyed it. Luckily the Mi Drone turned out to be so much easier than I ever expected to pilot. Unlike those tiny cheap quadcopters I’ve flown & crashed in light wind, the Mi Drone uses GPS and it’s bottom sensors to hold an almost perfect auto hover. Letting go of the sticks it will just sit there and hover automatically for you in the GPS mode, the application can even handle the takeoff and landing all for you if you don’t feel up to it.

Just take off with the push of the controllers dedicated take of a button or use the application take off feature. But then all that’s required is pushing up on the left stick, max speed and getting some decent altitude is easy enough. Even in some light to medium wind, the Xiaomi Mi Drone hovers and handles very well. I thought I was in the beginner’s mode when I first flew it as it looked to be enabled by default in the app’s settings. But clearly it wasn’t as I could reach 120m in height, the beginner’s mode limits you to 50 meters.

Timecodes:

01:33 – Unboxing
07:04 – First set up
10:28 – App and settings
16:11 – Test flight with commentary
34:51 – Thoughts

The drone is by default set to 10 m/s movement speed limit by default, but using the application you can go to as fast as 16 m/s, while it’s not as fast as the DJI drones costing much more I find that even 10 m/s is quick enough for me while I get used to flying it better.

Here in Spain, the legal max altitude is 120m, which was set by default, but it can be adjusted to 500 meters which seem crazy to me. And the range is around 4kms, but I’m restricted to 500m which means I’ll have to just get closer to point of interest to record. And no night flying (Seems logical) So make sure you check your local no-fly zones, altitude and distance limits. Personally, I see flying 4kms away a bit reckless really, just too risky and while you can see what’s the camera’s view on your mobile screen via the application it only works till around 2kms and at that range, you have no visuals of the drone.

Amazing shots like this are possible that 10 years ago would have required a helicopter and thousands of dollars!

The 4k 30fps footage taken seems decent to me but isn’t as good as say my Galaxy S7 or S8 in terms of dynamic range and sharpness. But for a drone, the wide 104-degree angle fits in a lot and the stabilisation from the 3-axis gimbal and rubber dampers does an excellent job. Sure It’s not perfect, some judder and wobble from light winds and the drone itself mostly when just hovering is visible, when moving it seems almost rock steady. But there is an issue of the occasional horizon not being level as seen in the video. Hey but what can you expect for a $475 drone, as it is we get a lot, auto hover, waypoint GPS, orbit flight and dronie (Drone selfie) flight modes. What it lacks is a follow-me tracking mode and collection avoidance system.

Flight time is 27 minutes. I managed around 22 minutes with about 30% battery life. Note that at 30% it will warn you to return home. At 20% it automatically returns home. And getting back is easy, no need to work about that if you having trouble getting back to where you are. Simply switch the return home switch in the middle of the controller, the drone then makes it way back to you and maintains 30m or whatever altitude you set. This was another feature that worried me, I envisioned pressing the switch to only have the drone fly into some trees or my house. That could happen of course if fly around high buildings, but as long as the altitude is good, it will be fine. No worries there for me.

Overall it’s an amazing product I feel, top build quality from Xiaomi on this, it looks and feels much more expensive. I’m highly enjoying it and don’t regret for a second buying it. I’m like a kid with a toy just wanting to get out and fly it again and again. So another battery pack would be welcomed as it takes about 3 hours to charge to full from empty. And it doesn’t come with a hard case to carry it in sadly. So two things I need to buy and recommend if you’re serious about it.

The Drone cost me $485, but it’s currently $469 at Gearbest, with coupon MI4K. The cheapest price around I’ve found. Much cheaper than the DJI Spark or DJI Phantom 4, but those are different drones for different needs. Don’t forget to check my review to know exactly what you get before committing and some sample footage from my first flight in the med coast of Denia here. Expect some more Mi Drone 4k footage, maybe a nice tour of Denia’s sights from the air? It will be much shorter than my full first test flight!