Syma X5C 4 Channel 2.4GHz RC Explorers Quad Copter w/ Camera

I've owned this quad for about 7 months and flown it for a total of maybe 50 hours or so. Overall, this is a great value and will provide hours of enjoyment. Some people have mentioned how the wind affects it, and in a 15-mph wind you'll likely have great difficulty controlling it. But I've found that moderate wind makes it more fun in some ways. For its weight, there is a LOT of body. The downside of that is how affected it is by the wind. But the upside of that is that if it ends up in a free-fall for any reason (battery dies, pilot error, hit by EMP wave, etc.) it will likely survive the fall if it lands on grass, trees, etc. It is super easy to fly on "normal" mode... give yourself about 4-5 flights to get the hang of it. On "high" mode it reacts much more drastically and will lean so much it may hit the ground if you're not careful.Camera quality: Rather than simply give my opinion, I'd suggest doing a search for "X5C videos" and evaluate the video quality for yourself.Flight duration: On average, about 7 minutes. And that's using the video camera about half the time.Maximum range: A friend of mine and I tested this on his 500-ft long driveway. I was at the end of the driveway and the quad was still getting a signal back at the house. And no, I haven't done any of the range-boosting modifications. Depending on where you live you *might* pick up some interference from other signals. I've taken it straight up at maximum speed on a calm day for 60 seconds before it lost connection. At that height you can barely see this tiny quad so be careful! =)Speed and Rate-of-climb: I would estimate around 20 mph and about 10 ft/sec. (you'll need to be on "high" mode - top left button toggles that function).Durability: I took this quad about 500 feet high and let it free fall - it landed in the grass completely undamaged. One time my friend crashed it into my house at full throttle and that incident bent one of the propeller blades - I bent it back into place and it's been flying fine. Worst accident I had was when the wind caught it and it hit a neighbor's roof, then fell 2 stories down onto the pavement. That time it cracked a motor housing. I put some glue & tape on it and its performance hasn't been affected.Tips: Once you get the hang of it, take off the propeller guards. And definitely buy at least 4 batteries with a 4-battery charger. As an added bonus, get a USB portable charger (around $15 on Amazon) to charge your batteries while you're in the field flying. Who wants to have to walk back inside to charge batteries? Fly safe!

If you are looking at your first mini-quad, as I was when I purchased this, then your looking at the right product. Let me start off by saying that I have had zero experience with quads before this and after about 2 weeks I have mastered my orientation and am having a blast each time I take this thing out. I was immediately hooked when I first went outside with it, but a tip is to stay low to the ground and use the prop guards and landing gear for a good amount of time until you can handle this mini-quad. Parts are plentiful and really cheap as well, so don't forget to get some extra parts kits for those beginners' crashes because we all have them!Here are the things I really love about this quad.*Totally modular*Very stable*Very nimble when flying without prop guards and camera, almost too nimble, master orientation before giving this a shot.*The camera I received was indeed HD to an extent, but I received the X5C-1 version by luck which also included a 4gb micro sd card.*This quad is perfect for the beginner until you can move up to a 350 size quad.*A very popular bang for your buck quad that can amaze your friends and family.Here are a few of the cons to my personally, but I did not retract a star for them.*Stock battery at 500 mAh is paltry, buy the Tennitor 4 pack of 600 mAh with a 4 in one charger for extra fun.*Li-Po batteries can be dangerous and requires extra money to be spent for good balance chargers also please pick up a Li-Po charging bag! Your house will thank you for that.*All the extra parts and batteries need a case, which go for around 35 bucks, again it is costing more money, but it makes it easy to take to the park.*The stock range is crap on this quad, grab a 2.4 ghz wifi router antennae and solder it in the remote receiver. Doing this simple and cheap mod will double, if not close to triple the range.I tried to cover everything I have learned in the past 2 weeks, it has been a wonderful ride so far. I just finished the range boost today for my quad and the new X5C-1's have a different setup for soldering an antennae than what was shown on some vids I watched. Leave a comment if you have a question regarding this or anything else. If my comment was helpful to you, please give me a yes for helpful comment and thanks for taking the time to read my review.