Potensic RC Quadcopter, Premium Upgraded X5C-1 Syma RC Drone 2.4GHz CH 6 Axis Gyro Quadcopter with Additional Spare Parts and Carrying Case

This past December I visited a friend who had one of the expensive Phantom drones. After demonstrating it for me he let me take the controls. From then on I was hooked and had to but a drone for myself - but on a less expensive scale. So after reading various reviews and watching innumerable YouTube videos about drones in my price and experience (novice) range, I decided upon purchasing the Syma X5C-1 quadcopter. What follows is my impression of the Syma quadcopter and the Potensic kit. Please realize I am a complete novice and this is my first drone so my review may be somewhat lacking in detail. Okay..a lot of detail.The Potensic kit I am reviewing is actually my second kit. The first arrived in good order, but there was a problem with a part of the kit. One of the prop guards was broken and twisted to the point of being completely unusable. Also, almost all the parts were scattered about inside the case but I assumed it was due to rough handling during shipment. I emailed the seller and within an hour had a nice response. The customer service rep (CSR) asked for details and pic of the kit which I promptly supplied. I asked if a replacement guard could be sent to me as everything else appeared okay. The CSR could not do that due to the way the kits are put together. However, she did ask me to return the kit to Amazon as she felt that a used kit had been sent in error. Okay, a minor setback and disappointment, but I did as she suggested.About a week later a replacement kit arrived from Amazon and it was completely different from the first. This time everything was in its place and looked perfect. I guess I did get a used kit! I am glad I listened to her and got a replacement. This is the kit I will review for you now. The kit contains all that is pictured and described in the ad. The case is of very good quality and is a nice way to store the quadcopter safely and free of dust. The extra parts (blades and motors) will, I'm sure, come in handy at some future date. The spare batteries and charger all work well, but it does take a long time to get them all charged and ready to go (from 1.5 to 2 hours). About the only thing I feel is missing from the Potensic kit is a wall-outlet USB adapter. I had an extra one which I added to the kit myself. Otherwise you will have to plug the charger into a USB port on a device for charging. Overall I am very pleased with the Potensic kit and the service I received from the CSR.The Syma quadcopter has been a joy from a novice flyer like me. As other have mentioned, the English translation for the instructions are horrible. But they are enough to get you started and you can certainly find better instruction online. So far my flying-time has been less than an hour (owing to wind and generally poor weather), but the time I've had has been a blast. My backyard has been my airfield and there are a lot of hazards to contend with (trees, shrubs, and my Boston Terrier). I can attest to the durability of the X5C-1 as I have managed to use it to inadvertently trim both my trees and shrubs with the blades (while keeping the prop guards in place), have crashed it after losing power (on both grass and concrete), and have crashed it into the side of my house. Hey, I'm still learning! The worst was when I landed on the lawn and my dog dashed through the screen door and attacked the flying-demon that was, in his mind, attacking me. He grabbed it and shook it violently before running off with it (the props were off). I gave chase, always a bad thing to do with a Boston as that means it's game-time, and eventually got the quad back. Badly scrapped and bitten, but still flyable. Flying is now done with my black & white bullet well secured. ; - )This Syma quad seems easy to learn to do basic maneuvering and control. It definitely does not like wind and seems to drift in the slightest breeze (again, I am new so I may be more of the problem and not the wind). I have not used the camera yet as I have been concentrating on control. I do wish the camera could be removed as I am sure that would help increase flight time as it does add drag. The battery compartment door is a bit of a pain to use, but it gets better with use.I am quite happy with this entire kit and would recommend it as a first-time quadcopter / drone purchase. Any complaints I have are minor and do not detract from the fun you can have with it.

This is my second drone, and I really like what you get for the price. The drone is easy to fly and having 4 batteries to play with and a 4 GB memory card is great. Also, having two full sets of blades and 2 replacement motors is a big plus. The drone handles well and has decent range, I'd say I've pushed it to about fifty meters. My biggest issues are that the camera does not work and the one random picture I got from it is of terrible quality. Also, the remote has a bunch of buttons but only the levers and power button do anything. Overall, fun toy for the price, but that's about it.

Great value for the price, case, extra batteries, and extra propellers were a really nice touch. I would have gladly given it 5 stars, but 2 of the lens covers on the lighting on the bottom of the struts, were missing. Otherwise, it flies very well, but I'm still learning. I found that tying a kit string on the bottom landing assembly ( but make sure you glue those in securely first) and tying the other end, to a heavy object, allows me to practice. For a hindred- ish bucks, you even get a camera that takes images and video on to a card, that was included! I have only had the time to fly it a few times, but it's loads of fun. It flies for only short durations, around 7 minutes, but with 4 cells, and a quick charger, you can keep flying as long as you keep charging. The case allows you to take it to wide open places, or on vacation, just an all around fun toy. I would highly recommend it as a gift, definite wow factor when you open it up and see all the nifty gizmos!

The media could not be loaded. There are two separate things I'd like to cover in this review - the copter itself, and the package sold by Potensic.I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the copter. There are plenty of reviews and videos about all the features but basically, I really like this thing. I'm a rank beginner to RC flying of any kind. I was getting seduced by the Karma and Mavic copters but I couldn't justify forking out the money for one of those before I really knew what this was all about. I did some research and the X5C-1 seemed to be a good bet for a starter drone. I also like the idea that this thing would make you really learn to fly and not rely on GPS and altitude hold that the big boys have. I like that kind of challenge.I liked the idea of this package from Potensic. I know, from all my other "toys", that if you don't have a place to put all the parts, they tend to get lost so the case was a big seller. I also knew from all the research that I was going to need a lot of batteries and possibly spare rotors. I didn't price everything out but it seemed like the package was at least a decent deal and I don't need to quibble about a few bucks if it isn't. Shipping was incredibly fast. I did the free shipping in 5-9 days and I got it in 2 days. I even got a nice email from Potensic thanking me for my purchase and giving pointers on how to fly. Now, like the manual that comes with the copter, the English phrasing is sometimes amusing but I'm certainly not going to fault them for that - it's much better than my Chinese. However, I'm still kind of surprised that they can't find a friend who is a native English speaker that they can ask to do a quick proofread - both Potensic and Syma. But I digress.I had watched enough YouTube videos to know exactly what to do to get things set up so it didn't take very long but I wanted to charge all the batteries first. This is where I ran into the only small issue - the multi-port charger. They include both the "normal" one-at-a-time USB charger as well as a four port USB charger. The single charger works great but the four port charger is basically crap. The connectors don't make good contact with the ports so you have to delicately position the connectors in the port so you get a red charging light and then back away slowly so you don't upset the positioning. One of the ports wouldn't work at all no matter what I did. I've since read other reviews and this seems to be the case with all these cheap multi-port chargers. Given that, I'm not going to make a fuss, I can charge all four batteries at the same time as long as I have two USB ports available.Most of the learning videos I saw said to do your first flights in a big field outside on a calm day. Well, the wind was whipping when I got it and I wanted to fly so I set things up in my family room with a vaulted ceiling. I won't go into my training steps but it's going well. Obviously, I'm not doing sweeping turns but I've been able to steer it around the house from room to room. I've certainly crashed it several times and it's never shown any signs of trouble. I even shot video and although it was grainy from the relatively low light, I was very pleased with the quality. I didn't see any jello rolls like I've seen in other vids from cheap drone cams. Once I get outside, I'll have a better feel for the quality but I didn't get it for the cam - that's just a bonus.So, all in all, I'm really liking the copter and I've got nothing but high marks for Potensic and this package.Update: After taking some video (which was pretty good BTW - I uploaded it here but it looks terrible in this small version) the camera stopped working. Now I had crashed the drone several times so I just figured I had damaged the camera and was thinking about buying a replacement. I saw that the cam would format the SD card on power on but just wouldn't record video or photos. On a whim, I emailed Potensic and asked them, not for a refund but if they had any thoughts as to whether this might be a problem with the camera or the controller board it was connected to. They promptly emailed back and asked me to try a different SD card. Lo and behold, that worked! The camera is now recording video on a SanDisk 8 GB card I had laying around. I suppose I could fault them for sending an apparently cheap SD card but I'm so happy with their helpful support and easy fix that I don't care. Proper customer support goes a long way for me and I'm really happy with Potensic.