Thursday 28 September 2017

Air Hogs DR1 Micro Race Drone (Luke Bannister Edition) Review (age 8+) for SpinMaster

Our latest review for SpinMaster is the DR1 Airhogs Micro Race Drone. Drones are incredibly popular this year and the technology has really come on massively. This indoor drone has flight assist technology with automatic take-off, height lock and landing. Perfect for the beginner.


Your drone is packaged in a carefully thought out box with minimal plastic packaging - easy to open and recycle on Christmas morning. You will have to charge your drone via USB before you can play (40 minutes for approximately 7 minutes flying) and the controller takes 2 x AAA batteries (not included).


You are supplied with a small bag including spare blades and a USB cable for charging, as well as tools and instructions.


Also in the box is the controller. A familiar gaming style controller with joysticks and shoulder buttons. It includes the take-off button, as well as a choice of beginner or advanced modes, and a stunt button - I'm a way off a barrel roll yet, but one day...


The drone itself has been engineered with durable ducted propellers (strong and carefully shaped). It's tiny!! 7.5 x 7.5 x 2.5cm, and very light.


This is such a small and delicate looking microdrone that I was nervous before we started, but the plastic is surprisingly thick and strong. It's really quite robust and we haven't managed to break it yet, despite very many impressive crashes.


Control is very intuitive with a really nice nice side-swoop and rotation, and the height is easy to get the hang of - it's very light and very responsive, so you do need to be gentle or it'll shoot off - or up! There is a 6-axis gyro for improved stability and control and you'll barely see the DR1 tilt at all.

The drone uses a communication frequency of 2.4GHz and range is excellent at 250ft - although whoever has a house that big! Obviously you can choose to play outdoors, but keep it low or you'll have your drone for about 15 seconds...

The controller even has 4 channels to allow you to race up to 4 drones at once. We've only got one and I think that's enough for now! Here's a look at it in action..


We've a long way to go before we're as good as Luke Bannister, the world drone-racing champion, but practise makes perfect. This drone actually works very well in a landing or hallway, as it likes a flat terrain better, but once you've mastered Beginner Mode and movc on to Advanced, you can start to fine tune your flying manoeuvres and use the terrain changes rather than fight them.

The AirHogs DR1 Micro Race Drone (Luke Bannister Edition) is made by SpinMaster and suitable for children aged 8+ (in common with most drones as children aged 7 or under usually don't have the coordination or logic to fly them safely). You can find out more and watch videos of the DR1 Micro Drone in action on the AirHogs website.

Available now rrp £44.99 from all toyshops including Smyths.


We were sent our AirHogs DR1 Micro Race Drone for review by SpinMaster

2 comments:

  1. That is small! I'd be afraid of losing it. My little lad would love it though and I'm sure he'd master it much quicker than me. I've actually watched professional drone races, they are really good! My older brother (yes, older, he's ancient, lol) has a really expensive drone that he flies outside and takes the most amazing videos. (He always puts naff 60s music over the video though!)

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    1. It's not so much losing it indoors as piloting it under or behind furniture - our sofa has been out a few times this week! :D I'm scared to take it outside until next Spring, I think we would lose it as it's always breezy here - and usually raining! :)

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