MJX BUGS 3 REVIEW! Is there a better brushless quad for the money?

[Michael Mechelse]

I did a video review for this quadcopter that I got from Lightake. The cost is approx $100 with free shipping so I believe this is a ton of value here for a drone that is brushless and comes with a mount to carry a gopro or gopro clone, or you can fly as a decent sport flyer. Here's some of the features and specs
Features:
Smart Remotre Control Alarm Function
The transmitter buzzer receives the voltage status of the drone will send out beep sound once the drone is in low voltage, so your drone is always under control. The transmitter buzzer will send out beep sound once the remote control signal is weak or interferenced. Your flight is always safe.

Pure Nylon Fibre Material
Pure nylon fibre material builds high-intensive main body, diagonal 310mm, quadratura X structure design assures center of gravity control is at the very center of the quadcopter which make flight super stable.

Upgradeable
FPV camera or compatible sports camera options are available, along with FPV screens / goggles for the FPV experience!

Specifications:
Drone size: 440*440*145mm
Main rotor dia: 310mm
Motor: 1806 1800KV brushless
Drone battery: 2S (7.4V) 1800mAh 25C
ESC: 6A (No BEC, with lock protection)
Flying time: 18min
Stock Charger Charging time: 300min
Flying distance: 300-500m

I've taken this out with my EKEN H9 Sports camera installed and it took great footage. This is a very steady flyer and the telemetry built into the radio is a great feature. The radio doesn't look more than a toy grade radio but it beeps when LVC is triggered and also has a beep sequence for flying out of range! Low rates still has plenty of pitch and bank with a nice yaw and bumping into high rates makes this a fun flyer as it becomes somewhat sporty! It's a lot of features and quality packed into this quadcopter for the price. Also watching around on youtube and stated in the manual, even though it comes with a 2s battery, it can handle a 3S lipo.
Only small con I can find in this quadcopter is that the battery connectors is the XT30 and that is not a common connector I have in my RC collection. So I have to order some so I can use more batteries with this. I would have preferred Deans or XT60.
Here's my video of the quadcopter, an unboxing overview and a maiden flight!

 

[Jackson]

Seems decent, but it looks like no spare parts are available, not even props. That EKEN H9 footage looked rather poor.

 

[Michael Mechelse]

Seems decent, but it looks like no spare parts are available, not even props. That EKEN H9 footage looked rather poor.

Comes with spare props and many other after market props fit on. no problem there at all, i've seen people use tri blade props or smaller props. check out frequent flyer on youtube he has a whole series of videos on this.
the EKEN camera raw footage is fantastic. It's when i render at 28 million bitrate to keep my file size reasonable for uploading on youtube. I could double it and it would take 6 hrs to render the video on my computer and it'd be a 6gb file. I'm likely going just going to upload the raw footage to youtube of the flight.

 

[Woodrow]

Good review. I have a bugs3 and am in the slow safe learning curve right now. Never flown before. Once I am confident of my basics I will install a camera. Look forward to getting some videos.

 

[Michael Mechelse]

Good review. I have a bugs3 and am in the slow safe learning curve right now. Never flown before. Once I am confident of my basics I will install a camera. Look forward to getting some videos.

Cool stuff. I've flown many toy grade quads and this is my second Brushless model. It's pretty easy to fly in terms of my flying expierence. I'd suggest get a decent toygrade quadcopter with altitude hold and cruise around with that. hold the right stick forward and use the YAW on the left stick to steer. That's what helped me to figure it out better and become confident. before i used to "Get into trouble areas" and i'd just bail on it by killing the throttle. now I can usually fly myself out of those situations
keep at it you'll get the hang of it and enjoy it more!

 

[Gadget Inspector]

Cool stuff. I've flown many toy grade quads and this is my second Brushless model. It's pretty easy to fly in terms of my flying expierence. I'd suggest get a decent toygrade quadcopter with altitude hold and cruise around with that. hold the right stick forward and use the YAW on the left stick to steer. That's what helped me to figure it out better and become confident. before i used to "Get into trouble areas" and i'd just bail on it by killing the throttle. now I can usually fly myself out of those situations
keep at it you'll get the hang of it and enjoy it more!

I have got to get one of these things!

 

[Alex Bond-Smith]

Seems decent, but it looks like no spare parts are available, not even props. That EKEN H9 footage looked rather poor.

Hi, Just logged in now to also see if anyone knows of spares available as mine is on its way on the slow boat from China.

I saw a review the other days that claimed that the Hubsan 501 props will fir the Bugs 3.

 

[Alex Bond-Smith]

What I am after is spare batteries as these are a huge problem where I live. It seems that our Customs dept have banned the import of Lipo batteries. However there are a few available locally and I have seen an adapter on Ebay for an XT60 connector down to an XT30.

 

[erik1909hp]

There are some other opotions, such as : Xiro Xplore X

 

[Jackson]

There are some other opotions, such as : Xiro Xplore X

LOL. You could get 3 Bugs for that same as one of those cost.

 

[Rick M]

If anyone is considering buying a Bugs 3, I have a friend I bought mine from. $115 shipped to the Continental US from Tennessee. Ships same day, and I got mine in 3 days in California. He's the owner of the "Syma X Series Quadcopter Owners" group on Facebook, Jeff Suits.

I have no financial interest in this, just a steer for anyone who might find it useful.

 

[erik1909hp]

No, their price is at same level
you can see in this link
http://gearupz.com/best-commercial-drones/

 

[R Craig Fisher]

Regarding batteries for the Bugs3, I think the current battery they are using is way underpowering the unit. I went on eBay and got connectors that have a little less than 2" of wire connecting them. I got a XT60 male on one end and an XT30 Female on the other. Then I purchased a couple of Zippy Compact 11.1V 3 cell LiPo with 2200mah on Amazon. This will make the Bugs3 fly like a rocket with a camera mounted on the bottom and give you over 20 minutes of flight time.
I peeled the plastic label off the yellow plastic on the battery to give it a slimmer size so it slides into the battery holder easier. I probably wouldn't put the larger battery in on real cold days as it might crack the battery holder on the drone. I have used a velcro tape to mount it below when flying without a camera.

 

[Rick M]

A lot of guys are flying them with 3S batteries. Most are doing some experimentation with props as well. So far I haven't messed with either, but probably will at some point. I'm waiting to hear from someone I know how it flies with HQ 7045 props.