A Micro Drone 3.0 review. This was supposed to be a part of my videography kit. But I quickly dropped this drone from my packing list.
“Flight in the palm of your hand… It’s small, smart and streams HD footage to your phone, that’s just the beginning of Micro Drone 3.0. Take it anywhere with style. The capabilities are endless for an expert drone pilot or first-timer.” -Vernon Kerswell, Micro Drone Creator
Before I go into talking about the Micro Drone 3.0, you need to know some things about my gear reviews.
Every single review I’ve done has been positive as I don’t bother with gear that’s less than stellar. If it’s not exceptional and something I personally wouldn’t use, I won’t review it and I don’t do paid reviews, ever.
However, for the first time I’m compelled to publish a negative product review. Perhaps because of the time and money I invested into this as well as the hype.
Extreme Flier’s Micro Drone 3.0 is their third shot in this relatively new and growing industry. They have a proven history so I backed them for this for $250.
That includes $170 for the drone + remote controller, $30 for extra batteries and $50 for the gimbal.
The campaign started in July (2015) with a promised shipping month of November of the same year. I received mine at the end of March 2016. That’s nearly 5 month late. To top it off, the gimbal was not included in the package, nor has it shipped as of this writing.
Sadly, the only positive thing I can say about the Micro Drone 3.0 is the packaging. Think poor man’s Apple packaging, yes, that’s a compliment.
Once I had the drone in my hands I felt instant buyer’s remorse and upon visual inspection, investor’s regret took over. But let’s see how it operates…
Smoothly and precisely. For 15 minutes.
On the flight of the second battery, two rotors suddenly stopped and then gravity did its thing. Crash.
And that was the end of that. You have to understand, I’m pretty good with my hands and crafty with mechanics and tech. I have several patents and as you may know, I make and modify much of my own gear.
That being said, the drone was irreparable.
So that’s all I can say about the actual Micro Drone 3.0’s operation and handling.
As to the operation of the companion (yet necessary) Android app, that’s a total failure – quite literally actually as the app does not open. But it’s not an isolated problem as the current star rating is “1.9”.
Even if the drone didn’t catastrophically breakdown before its 15 minutes, it’s build and material quality is extremely low, especially for their asking price.
Everything about it is cheap. It must be the cheapest possible, well everything that a consumer product can possibly be. A knockoff of this would be less cheap.
12 Comments
So basically, piece of crap? I heard some pretty awful complaints about the quality to.
Well that settles that, I’ll get my drone elsewhere.
Got mine in months late like you did. Mine works fine still but yeah, the build and material quality is amazingly cheap. The app still is broken. And I also never received my PAID for gimbal. Such a waste of money.
NO BUENO! My drone is also dead out the box.
Utter piece of Junk with 0 innovation just a off the shelf TOY drone from a china factory REBOXED. A $50 toy sold for $200 these guys are criminals !!! and there marketing video is all lies !!!!!!
Actually, you just reviewed the Micro Drone 3 better than I did! You’re right on the money, speaking of, I want mine back on the gimbal that I never received. As for the drone, it was an accepted risk which turned out pretty horrible.
My microdrone 3.0 can barley lift the cracker quality camera it came with. So even though my Gimbal never has been delivered I have worked out it will be impossible to use with this drone anyway. The worst buying experience of my lift what a rip off nothing like as advertised. REFUND !!! GIVE ME A REFUND !!
People do not post on the official extreme fliers Facebook page or micro drone 3.0 page because any negative review gets deleted so they can carry on scamming people!! Post on non officiated sites like this only. micrdrone 3.0 is complete garbage mine broke and performed nothing like promised please we need class action suit !! They stole 3 million + with fake advert!!!
Same impression here. A toy.
Difficult to fly / keep stable. Software glitchy. Props flying off.
No gimbal yet, but keep it. I won’t be needing it. Would like the money back though.
And to think that a DJI Phantom 3 can be had for $678 here makes me want to cry.
I bought 10 to retail in Australia and after testing them I’ve come to the conclusion that they are unsellable. Motor burnouts and crocked camera in the camera mounting. I have to find an independent drone tester now to try to get my money back through paypal. I agree with most of the comments above except my packaging came with squashed corners and ripped handles so no I dont even rate the packaging. AU$1800 out of pocket and now I have to get them independently assessed. To prove this product is crap. Disappointed Extream (ly shit) Fliers.
Flight on the second battery? You mean the spare one?
You should charge it first.