Extreme Fliers Micro Drone 3.0+ Review

Following our review of the Parrot Mini drone, we have been sent the Extreme Fliers Micro Drone 3.0+to review. This drone was originally funded by an Indiegogo campaign and is intended to be a low-cost entry to FPV racing as well as being a fun toy for beginners and expert quadcopter fliers alike. This is the 2nd revision of the 3.0 and it is now fitted with what they claim to be the world smallest mico-gimbal. This new gimbal should provide much more stable footage compared to the original 3.0 drone. Priced at £166 on microdone.co.uk the Micro Drone 3.0+ it is quite affordable, offering a much more professional drone package than the £99 Parrot Mambo. Moving past the Mambo and Micro Drone 3.0+ and you are looking at spending around £300. So, the 3.0+ sits nicely in the middle in regards to pricing. The full specification of the Micro Drone 3.0+ includes:

• Top speed of 35 MPH
• 720p HD in-flight footage.
• Stabilised video which uses its micro motorised arm to steady footage in the air.
• 120-degree wide angle lens allows you to capture a wider field of view
• Robust Metal Structure with Modular Design
• 3 Speed Setting for Indoor and outside flying
• Propeller Guards for extra protection
• Stunt Mode
• Virtual Reality Headset
• 4 GHz Handset
• Smartphone Holder
• Re-chargeable Battery

In the box, you also get an extra set of propellers which will come in handy if/when you crash your drone. It can be controlled via the handset or via the phone app which is available on both Android and iOS. As you can see from the above specification, you get considerably more in the packaging than the Parrot, this includes a proper handset, a smartphone holder and a VR headset. However, compared to more expensive models, it lacks GPS which will make control a bit more difficult. The drone itself is quite large as far as micro drones go, it fits into 2 palms, this gives it a more premium look and feels compared the Parrot Mini. The controller that is supplied with the drone is massive itself and includes far more control options that I am accustomed to, including invert, stunt mode, smart orientation, slow, fast and insane. Extreme Fliers claims the Micro Drone will reach up to 45mph. The battery in the drone is rated at 550mAh and the manual states it takes 60 minutes to charge. After 60 mins of charging you will only get around 5 minutes of flight time. Thankfully the battery can be charged externally, and spare batteries are £12 for 1, £22 for 2, or £53 for 5. So technically you will need the 5 pack to give you the option of continuous 5-minute sessions. Unfortunately, this is just a common issue with microdrones. Fitting a big battery on a small drone isn’t very feasible. The camera on the drone accepts up to 32GB microSD cards, but you can also record directly to your phone. It is removable from the drone, and the 3.0+ model has the gimbal built into the camera. The overall build quality is decent, though I don’t have a huge amount of experience with drones. It is much better than the Parrot though. The handset itself is very plasticy and looks like something off a retro RC unit. Controlling the unit isn’t quite as simple as the Parrot, but that’s partly due to the fact it is more advanced. The sticks on the handset are quite sensitive, so it takes a little while to get used to. You can also control the drone via your phone. With the App, you can watch the video feed, start and stop video recording, take photos and even control the drone using virtual sticks. You can try and control the using flying in FPV mode, but there is a bit of lag so if you are flying fast and need to make quick manoeuvres it is going to be quite difficult. The image quality from the drone is decent for the price and size of the camera. This is obviously not going to compete with some of the professional setups, but it is much better than the poor camera on the Parrot. The additional gimbal seems to help things too. I did find I crashed the drone more frequently than I would like, this is quite likely due to my lack of experience. The battery would generally disconnect which would inevitably require an annoying walk to go and fetch it, and after a while, I noticed the battery pins would need, and some damage to the propellers occurred.

Overall

This is quite a fun drone to use, it is definitely a step up from the Parrot and is much more advanced, and it is especially a lot faster (when in insane mode). It also appears to be quite simple to fix, with microdrone selling plenty of spare parts, all of which are quite affordable. A pack of replacement propellers is just £7. It does appear quite prone to crash, and get damage, so the low cost replacements will likely be needed. You can buy the Micro Drone 3.0+ today for £164.00 from microdrone.co.uk.