Dragonfly drone wants to be a slightly cheaper alternative to DJI (REVIEW)

Let’s face it: flying things are just cool. The romantic appeal of slipping the surly bonds of earth has been a facet of the human psyche since time immemorial, mostly because it’s something we can’t physically do – damn you, gravity! Until recently, sitting in the window seat on commercial flights was as close as most of us could get to really flying. But with the prices of aerial drones creeping ever lower, now is probably the first time in history when becoming a pilot (albeit a drone pilot) is universally accessible and reasonably affordable.

China’s drone market, in particular, has exploded over the last year, with numerous startups springing up to compete with big domestic names like DJI. One such company is SimToo, which aims to set itself apart in the crowded market with its Dragonfly, a US$500 drone that sports a Lily-style follow me feature and a 4K camera packed into a pretty small case.

I got a chance to put my piloting skills to the test with the Dragonfly. Here’s how it fared.

The underside of one of the Dragonfly’s four collapsible rotors.

Light as a feather

The first thing you’re likely to notice about the Dragonfly is that it’s almost all plastic. Aside from the built-in 4K-capable camera and the battery, it doesn’t feel like there’s more than a scrap or two of metal in the entire thing. Even the watch and the GPS tracker strap feel like pure plastic. But that’s by design: the Dragonfly is small and it is light. Its chief claim to fame is that all four of its rotor arms can be folded up against the body, and even with the battery loaded it doesn’t weigh more than a few pounds. The entire thing – including the watch and GPS strap – can be easily broken down, tossed into a backpack (via the included carrying case) and taken along on a hike. Disassembling and reassembling it is quite simple once you get the hang of it, and doesn’t require any tools.

The Dragonfly slims down quite nicely when you want to travel with it. It also comes with this nice case for transportation.

Aesthetically, the drone looks attractive enough. It’s not going to win any awards for visual design, probably, but it does have running lights under its rotors that pulsate blue and red, which makes it look pretty cool. They would probably also make it pretty easy to track in low-light or nighttime filming, although I’m a bad enough pilot that I didn’t try flying it at night myself.

It’s worth pointing out that the Dragonfly doesn’t come with a microSD card, which you’ll need to record videos or photos with the drone’s camera. That’s a minor annoyance given how inexpensive the little cards are, but it would have been nice to include one so that buyers could fly and film with the drone right out of the box.

The Dragonfly takes to the skies.

The freedom of the skies

Actually flying the Dragonfly is a bit complicated at first. You control the camera via the drone’s smartphone app, which connects to the drone via wifi. But the drone itself is controlled by the watch it comes with, and if you want to use the follow-me feature then you also need to wear the GPS tracker. All of these (phone, drone, watch, and GPS tracker) have separate batteries to charge, which is a pain.

Inside a Dragonfly’s eye

Ch-ch-changes

Should you buy it?