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Halo Drone Pro Review | Digital Trends

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Halo Drone Pro Review | Digital Trends

"The Halo Drone Pro isn't bad – it just isn't comparable to other drones that cost over $ 1,000."

Outstanding workmanship

Impressively long flight time

Laggy video transmission

Cumbersome setup

Low price-performance ratio

Halo isn't exactly a big name in the drone room. The company started selling hoverboards that (much to our disappointment) are not floating technically. Shortly after the company had achieved success in the mobile technology business, it switched to drones (which luckily hover) and now offers a quadcopter called Halo Drone Pro: a revamped version of its full-fledged flying machine at full price. We ran a test to see how it could assert itself against UAVs from well-known drone companies like DJI and Yuneec.

What's in the box

The Halo Drone Pro arrived in its own high-performance hardback backpack and immediately impressed us with its gunmetal gray plastic housing, which immediately reminded us of something that you could fly in the actual Halo video game – only without weapons.

Fortunately, the Halo drone is at least equipped with a 4K camera that can capture still images and videos. The remote control has a nice, classic RC airplane look & feel with precise, responsive metal analog sticks and a variety of mysterious buttons. In the cave-like backpack there are many small devices that belong to the drone.

It looked like something you could fly in the actual halo video game – just without weapons.

There is the follow-up module that acts as a beacon for the drone – provided it has a direct line of sight with GPS satellites. There's a vague James Bond-like wrist controller and Wi-Fi module that you need to plug into the back of the controller to stream videos to your phone. Halo even includes two additional rotors for those of us who tend to break them.

Playing with the Halo Drone Pro has two different sides. Flying is obviously a key element to enjoying a drone, and it's a lot of fun to zoom through the sky with halo. The other side, however, is all you need to do before you can actually blow the drone up. It's definitely less fun here.

Sync city

All of these things in the handy bag need to be synced before you can do anything, and as so often, pairing the Halo Drone's peripheral heap with your mobile device can be a huge pain. With an Android-based Samsung Note 8, it was a constant struggle to quickly sync the controller, Wi-Fi transmitter, follow module, and drone itself and play well together. To make matters worse, we had to go through this rigmarole every time we wanted to fly the drone.

This meant connecting to the drone's Wi-Fi network (it always took a few minutes to find), waiting for the app to find the controller and drone's Bluetooth signal, and making sure the Follow module was clear Line of sight to the sky has for a GPS signal. If you want to use the watch controller, you must ensure that it is synchronized instead of the main controller, since it cannot be operated at the same time.

The actual app (and you need to use the mobile app to use the Halo drone) is anything but intuitive, especially with synchronization issues. However, it is easy to argue that the user interface is denser and more complicated because it is a "pro" drone. In any case, Halo could work with a UI expert to optimize, among other things, the synchronization and calibration process.

Learn to fly

If everything works, however, the halo has a lot to offer. It is a robust device that continued to chug despite some glitches caused by pilot errors. At some point when we got the controls under control, we accidentally let them buzz right into the side of the house, causing a painful series of crashes and crunches. We lost a rotor thanks to this mishap, but the drone itself was still perfectly fine.

It was a constant struggle to sync the controller, the Wi-Fi transmitter, the follow module, and the drone itself

Another questionable piece of flying was caused, at least in part, by an error in the video signal. The video feed is not very sharp and sharp, although this drone is equipped with a 4K camera. The video quality when played on a TV or other screen is just fine, but not exceptional. The picture quality is better on bright sunny days (of which there were almost none during testing), but the camera has real problems with poor lighting conditions that plague the winter months here.

Even worse, despite the Wi-Fi broadcast package, there is a noticeable delay in the video feed of approximately one and a half seconds. This means that you really can't fly it over the video feed and are forced to visually lock the Halo drone while you are floating around.

Robust enough to suffer a fall

I spectacularly discovered the delay in the Halo drone's video playback as I mischievously tried to follow my child through the back yard. After flying perfectly for a few minutes, I suddenly heard a terrible crunch and wail as the drone was caught in high, dead vegetation on the edge of the property – even though the video on my phone screen hadn't yet arrived there. Strangely enough, as bad as it sounded from a distance, it didn't even lose a rotor then, although my child is now making fun of my poor piloting skills.

Jason D & # 39; Aprile / Digital Trends

Had I been a smarter human father type, I would have simply strapped the sequencer to her arm and let her run amok while the drone kept pace from a distance. Personally, I'm not sure what people use the following module for to be honest, but I have to assume that they are things that contain the word "extreme". I just ran the drone like a swimming dog that, unlike my actual dog, doesn't hunt cars / cats / other people on every occasion. In retrospect, a drone that hunts people could have real entertainment value where I live.

If it doesn't crash, the Halo drone is a blast. It's fast (up to 75 km / h), agile and responsive. You can get a faster rig if you choose a racing drone, but the halo feels just fast enough to be exciting for non-racers without sacrificing controllability.

Whether you zoom high above the treetops that surround my house or tighten the floor because I'm a terrible person who laughs madly while scaring ducks, the Halo drone flies great. It also hovers very well. The broadcast time easily reached about 45 minutes under normal conditions. Even at freezing temperatures, the halo ran without problems for over half an hour. That's an insanely good battery life for a drone this size.

Cables … cables everywhere

However, charging is a bit of a hassle, especially if you use all the add-ons. The camera is generally charged from the Halo drone's battery, which didn't seem to cause any problems. However, we have found that charging the main drone battery (using only one battery) takes several hours. Even worse, there's a single charger with multiple charge heads for the remote and drone battery – and you can't charge both things at the same time.

There's a single charger with multiple charge heads for the remote and drone battery – and you can't charge both things at the same time.

This basically means that after discharging the battery, you have to wait at least six hours for all the batteries to be fully charged. A positive note is that the remote control only needs to be charged after several flights. Odder is still the alligator clip-like charger for the next module and wrist control. Again, only one is included, which means that you are forced to charge them one at a time – although during our tests it only took about an hour to juice them both. The Halo shows a clear lack of optimized usability here, not to mention many cables.

The range of the controller is specified at 1 kilometer. However, thanks to its mobile GPS functions, you can set routes that the drone should follow – either by simply tapping point A to point B on the map or complex routes by setting waypoints.

Our opinion

The $ 1,000 drone market is incredibly competitive and developing rapidly. Unfortunately, the Halo Drone Pro just can't keep up. At $ 1,100, this drone costs just as much as some of the best UAVs in the world, but it also lacks some of the bells and whistles that have become standard on drones that cost half the price – especially avoiding objects.

With the ability to follow routes, program, and return to its hometown, the Halo offers some nice features and has certainly proven to be durable, but is still not as complete as some of the other top tier deals in this price range .

Are there any better alternatives?

Yes. With $ 1,100 you can get a damn good drone these days. When you are ready to spend this type of money, you have many options.

First and foremost, we recommend a look at the DJs Mavic Pro and Mavic Air. Both are compact, durable and absolutely packed with functions. You have obstacle avoidance, foldable form factors, excellent flight performance and smarter flight modes than you can imagine. At $ 999 and $ 799, respectively, they're a little cheaper than the Halo Drone Pro.

The Phantom 4 by DJI is also a solid competitor here, as is the Yuneec Typhoon H. Both have a comparable price to the Halo Drone Pro, but offer superior handling and more functions. They're also a lot less fussy to use and don't require as many tricky peripherals. However, it is worth noting that the Halo drone has outlasted both the P4 and the Typhoon H in our flight tests. So if you're looking for long flight times, Halo may be the way to go.

How long it will take?

This is a tough call. Since the Halo drone itself is quite robust and spare parts are available on the Internet, the hardware and the essential components of the drone should definitely pass the test of time.

On the other hand, Halo couldn't stay in the drone business forever. The UAV market is incredibly competitive right now. If Halo doesn't get stuck, chances are it will stop its drone. This would mean that firmware patches, error corrections or software updates are no longer required. To be fair, it's all speculation and we have no way of knowing whether Halo will stay in the drone game or not, but there is something to be aware of.

If the company decides to jump a ship, this drone will age quickly and become obsolete in a few years.

Should you buy it

Probably not. You can get more for your money elsewhere.

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