Imagine an 8K-shooting camera drone that fits in a pocket, costs less than $700, and can be used with or without a remote. That's the HoverAIR X1 ProMax, and while the drone itself is great, one of its optional peripherals is still a work in progress.
Manufactured by China's ZeroZero Robotics, the US$699 HoverAir X1 ProMax was introduced this August along with its almost-identical 4K-shooting sibling, the $499 HoverAir X1 Pro. The two are the successors to ZeroZero's 2.7K-shooting $349 Hover Camera X1, which I reviewed last year.
As was the case with that model, the big selling feature of the ProMax is the fact that simply by pressing a control button on the drone, you can set it to autonomously perform multiple flight patterns while keeping its gimbal-stabilized camera trained on you ... recording ultra-high-def video the whole time.
No remote control unit of any kind, not even an app, is required. The drone uses facial and body recognition algorithms to track you, along with motion prediction algorithms to make a reasonable guess at where you're going.
Its basic flight modes consist of Hover (in which it hovers in place, panning back and forth with you as you move from side to side); Follow (flies along behind you as you're running, cycling, etc); Dolly Track (backpedals in front of you as you move towards it); Zoom Out (starts close to you, then flies back to a wider shot); Orbit (flies in a circle around you); and Bird's Eye (looks straight down at you from above).
Boosting the gee-whiz factor even higher, the drone both takes off from and lands on your outstretched hand. Once you've finished using it, you just fold it in half and stick it in a jacket pocket, backpack or whatnot.
Although an app isn't absolutely necessary for flying the drone, there is one (iOS and Android) which definitely comes in handy. Along with adjusting flight parameters and reviewing/downloading footage, it's also used for manually controlling the aircraft via a touchscreen interface.
So far, so good. I found that the ProMax performed at least as well as the original X1 in all these regards, but with the following improvements …
- Higher-resolution video (maximum 8K/30fps vs 2.7K/30fps)
- Longer battery life (16 minutes vs 12)
- Faster forward flight speed (42 kmh/26 mph vs 25 kmh/16 mph)
- Longer Wi-Fi range (500 m/1,640 ft vs 50 m/164 ft)
- The ability to fly over water and snow vs solid ground only
- A rear collision detection and avoidance system, to keep it from backing into things when in Dolly Track or Manual Control modes
The Pro model offers almost all of these same selling points, although its video tops out at 4K/60fps, and its rear collision detection system uses a proximity sensor instead of the ProMax's computer vision tech. It also has 32 GB of internal memory, as compared to the 64 GB in the ProMax.
It should be noted that even with the ProMax's high-tech rear collision avoidance system, it still managed to reverse its way into a few trees when I was using it at fairly low speeds in Dolly Track mode.
Dolly Track is generally a bit tricky, in that the drone has a tendency to unexpectedly swoop off to one side or the other. As I said in my review of the Hover Camera X1, it's kind of like trying to control a trailer that you're pushing in front of yourself, as opposed to one that you're pulling behind.
Still, the drone itself definitely meets expectations overall. Where things get a bit iffier is with an optional device known as the Beacon.
It's a little cuboid thingy – with an OLED touchscreen interface and two control buttons – that serves as an alternative to the app (and your phone) for remotely controlling the drone, adjusting its settings, and viewing live video from its camera. The Beacon also boosts the wireless communications range up to 1 km (0.6 miles), and is claimed to help the drone better home in on your location – as long as you've got the Beacon on you, that is.
I initially found it quite difficult to get the device to connect to the ProMax, although a firmware update appears to have fixed that issue. The Beacon's touchscreen also frequently froze up, and stayed that way until I turned the device off and on again. I was told that this is a known issue, which will be addressed in a future firmware update.
ZeroZero touts the fact that the Beacon has a microphone which can be used to record the sound around you while the ProMax is in flight, aided by noise-reduction algorithms that eliminate the sound of the drone's whining motors. It then transmits the audio file to the drone's internal memory. The app does the same thing, but using your phone's mic and memory.
In the case of the app, the audio and video are automatically synced up when you download the footage onto your phone. Things were much less clear with the Beacon, however, causing me to think that it simply wasn't recording audio at all.
After several emails back and forth, I was eventually told that I had to hardwire the drone to my computer, download the video and audio files separately, then manually sync them up in an editing program. This is quite a big detail to leave out of the instructions, and once again, it will reportedly be addressed in a firmware update.
Speaking of instructions, there are at least three sets – one on paper, one in the app, and one on YouTube. The problem is, each set contains some information that isn't included in the others. It would definitely be better if there was one definitive set of instructions, where everything was laid out.
But getting back to the Beacon …
Users have the option of docking it to a single-handed one-joystick remote module – for a combination of joystick and hand-gesture-based remote control – or to two such modules (one on either end of the Beacon) for full-on dual-joystick control. Both methods are a lot of fun, and are certainly easier than sliding your fingertips across your phone's touchscreen when using the app for manual control.
Additionally, although you do have to connect to the drone via the Beacon for joystick control, the app can still be used to view a live feed from the drone's camera.
This is managed by placing the phone in a spring-loaded holder on the dual-joystick remote setup, hardwiring the phone to the right-hand joystick module, then selecting Smart Preview in the app. Getting the phone in there is definitely an awkward affair which is best performed with three hands, but it gets easier with a bit of practice.
All in all, I'd say that the HoverAIR X1 ProMax is most definitely a worthy prosumer successor to the more consumer-oriented Hover Camera X1, and well worth the $699 price tag for the drone alone. In fact, unless you're shooting for broadcast purposes, the X1 Pro will certainly meet all your needs for $200 less.
Based on the experiences I've had with the Beacon so far, I can't quite as enthusiastically recommend paying the extra $139 for it, or $228 for a package that includes it and the joystick remote. Firmware updates should ultimately address all of its current shortcomings, but at this very moment it's still not 100%, shall we say.
And in one final mention of firmware …
In the weeks that I allocated to shooting the following demo footage with the ProMax, 8K resolution was still only available in a few of the flight modes. So, for the sake of consistency, I shot everything in 4K. This actually might be for the better, as it gives potential Pro buyers more of a sense of what they'd get. Thanks to a firmware update issued after I'd shot the video, 8K is now available in all flight modes.
Additionally, although much of the footage may seem to be silent, it does all have audio. ZeroZero's noise-reduction algorithms are effective at filtering out the drone noise, but they also eliminate much of the quieter ambient sound.
Product page: HoverAIR X1 Pro and ProMax
I wish the industry would wake up and cover all their props. Amazed it didn't happen years ago. Oh well.