Skybird
Well-Known Member
First off, this is a newer updated model of the Hubsan X4 107D FPV like the X4 107C+ minus FPV pretty much similar, the instructions are well written in English and easy to understand. The first thing you notice is that the design is different, there are no more break off legs that you have to keep putting back in place when you crash so there's a plus, but the minus is that you have more screws to take out if you need to change motors or LEDs, the LEDs are no longer on the top, they are now on the side of the legs and more visible, RED LEDs also blink alternatively when recording and taking still shots, another plus is the camera lens has a wide field of view and is not pinhole like the last model, hobbyists had to mod the lens for wider field of view, since the previous X4 had a narrow pinhold lense, and it looks like Hubsan took note of that fact. At the end of our review we will total the plus and minuses and will have some idea of how good this new model is. There is now the abilitly to both record on the transmitter as in the last model and the new feature to record on the quad simultaneously, unlike the Estes Proto X FPV, we did not notice lag on the FPV, a big plus.
The next thing you notice is that there is now a button you press to turn on the quad so you longer have to connect the battery and quad, to some that's a plus, The battery is now a 520 MAH Lipo, a little higher than the highest one used in the previous model 500 MAH, it is not only proprietary but has to be charged in the quad itself, the only other quad that that requires that, is the Estes Proto X- FPV, but that's not a proprietary battery and there are third party chargers for it. will there there be one for this battery, only time will tell, unfortunately because the only way to charge is to plug in the supplied USB cable into the quad, you can not fly and charge like you can with the previous model, definitely a big minus as far as we are concerned. Also there is no higher capacity battery that we know of at this time. Although the battery capacity has increased we did not notice much difference in charge or flight time. To bind, you have to pull both sticks to the bottom left and right respective to the sticks, and to calibrate you have to turn on the transmitter while holding both sticks to the bottom left and then rotate them and push a trim button till the red light blinks, this is very diffferent from the previous model gyro calibration, where you just pushed the throttle down and pushed the right stick sideways till it calibrates. Luckily the props are the same as the other X4 and are interchangeable, there is no prop guard, meaning so far no prop guard as the previous model are there is no mod at this time available. The next thing that has changed is now, not only can you record video on the transmitter/controller, but you can record on the quad itself, in our opinion this should have been how the earlier model should have been, along with the wider field of view lens. The ability to take still shots as well as video is a big plus. Especially with a HD camera, as you can tell in the photos it's more than adequate. We did manage to get some on board video but crashed on a turn as you can see in the video, but the video obviously was preserved! The transmitter is a let down, reason being is that it does not bind with any other Hubsan quad, again you can consider that proprietary, and vice versa the quad does not bind with any other transmitter. One other thing that changed is there is no more battery telemetry, letting you know how much charge is left on the quads battery. at this point you have to ask what was Hubsan thinking when they made both the battery and transmitter proprietary and with the bad changes? It's a shame they didn't just leave it alone, but like they saying goes "New and Improved" although you can argue that's not much of an improvement. One thing that hasn't changed is it still can have the optional Hubsan FPV goggles plugged in, and we can confirm it works, since we have a pair and tested it. The feature that has to stand out above all is the altimeter hold, this is achieved by an internal barometer that keeps the quad in a sense floating at a hold altitude, very cool feature if you can get the hang of it. This is a feature found on much bigger more expensive GPS drones. It's safe to say that with altimeter hold you can achieve better more stable video and photos and less likely to fly away since you are stable at one elevation.
It was fun to fly with this feature but it can also be a bit of a pain. Unlike the previous model transmitter, the 107D+ plus model throttle stick remains centered just like the aileron stick, to achieve the altimeter hold, there are some mods to the transmitter but we have not tried them yet. Speaking of the transmitter unlike the previous model that had only mode 2, this one has both mode 1 and mode 2 so you can fly with the throttle on either stick. The quad itself seems more stable than previous model and seems to have more stability, it's fun to fly and if you can get around some of the drawbacks it's good little quad. We did try the headless mode, but for some reason it would flip, not sure why, at least we know it flips well lol. All in all it's a fun model with it's pluses and minuses, let's add them up and see where it stands.
+ PLUS and - Minus
+ No more break off legs - More screws to take out and possibly lose
+ Altimeter Hold - Proprietary Battery
+ WFOV Camera Lens Works with FVP Goggles - No battery telemetry
+ HD Camera -Proprietary Transmitter/Controller
+Record video and Photos - No Prop Guards
+ On/Off button
+ Mode 1 and 2
+ Higher Battery Capacity
+ LEDS no longer on top
Well as you can see the pluses certainly outweigh the minuses. so if you can overlook the few minuses it's worth it.
The next thing you notice is that there is now a button you press to turn on the quad so you longer have to connect the battery and quad, to some that's a plus, The battery is now a 520 MAH Lipo, a little higher than the highest one used in the previous model 500 MAH, it is not only proprietary but has to be charged in the quad itself, the only other quad that that requires that, is the Estes Proto X- FPV, but that's not a proprietary battery and there are third party chargers for it. will there there be one for this battery, only time will tell, unfortunately because the only way to charge is to plug in the supplied USB cable into the quad, you can not fly and charge like you can with the previous model, definitely a big minus as far as we are concerned. Also there is no higher capacity battery that we know of at this time. Although the battery capacity has increased we did not notice much difference in charge or flight time. To bind, you have to pull both sticks to the bottom left and right respective to the sticks, and to calibrate you have to turn on the transmitter while holding both sticks to the bottom left and then rotate them and push a trim button till the red light blinks, this is very diffferent from the previous model gyro calibration, where you just pushed the throttle down and pushed the right stick sideways till it calibrates. Luckily the props are the same as the other X4 and are interchangeable, there is no prop guard, meaning so far no prop guard as the previous model are there is no mod at this time available. The next thing that has changed is now, not only can you record video on the transmitter/controller, but you can record on the quad itself, in our opinion this should have been how the earlier model should have been, along with the wider field of view lens. The ability to take still shots as well as video is a big plus. Especially with a HD camera, as you can tell in the photos it's more than adequate. We did manage to get some on board video but crashed on a turn as you can see in the video, but the video obviously was preserved! The transmitter is a let down, reason being is that it does not bind with any other Hubsan quad, again you can consider that proprietary, and vice versa the quad does not bind with any other transmitter. One other thing that changed is there is no more battery telemetry, letting you know how much charge is left on the quads battery. at this point you have to ask what was Hubsan thinking when they made both the battery and transmitter proprietary and with the bad changes? It's a shame they didn't just leave it alone, but like they saying goes "New and Improved" although you can argue that's not much of an improvement. One thing that hasn't changed is it still can have the optional Hubsan FPV goggles plugged in, and we can confirm it works, since we have a pair and tested it. The feature that has to stand out above all is the altimeter hold, this is achieved by an internal barometer that keeps the quad in a sense floating at a hold altitude, very cool feature if you can get the hang of it. This is a feature found on much bigger more expensive GPS drones. It's safe to say that with altimeter hold you can achieve better more stable video and photos and less likely to fly away since you are stable at one elevation.
It was fun to fly with this feature but it can also be a bit of a pain. Unlike the previous model transmitter, the 107D+ plus model throttle stick remains centered just like the aileron stick, to achieve the altimeter hold, there are some mods to the transmitter but we have not tried them yet. Speaking of the transmitter unlike the previous model that had only mode 2, this one has both mode 1 and mode 2 so you can fly with the throttle on either stick. The quad itself seems more stable than previous model and seems to have more stability, it's fun to fly and if you can get around some of the drawbacks it's good little quad. We did try the headless mode, but for some reason it would flip, not sure why, at least we know it flips well lol. All in all it's a fun model with it's pluses and minuses, let's add them up and see where it stands.
+ PLUS and - Minus
+ No more break off legs - More screws to take out and possibly lose
+ Altimeter Hold - Proprietary Battery
+ WFOV Camera Lens Works with FVP Goggles - No battery telemetry
+ HD Camera -Proprietary Transmitter/Controller
+Record video and Photos - No Prop Guards
+ On/Off button
+ Mode 1 and 2
+ Higher Battery Capacity
+ LEDS no longer on top
Well as you can see the pluses certainly outweigh the minuses. so if you can overlook the few minuses it's worth it.