Weight: Approximately 2.8 ounces (including battery and propellers)
Dimensions: 3.6×3.6×1.6 inches
Battery: Detachable Battery- 1.1Ah/3.8V
Charger: Micro USB Charging Port
Modes: Bounce mode, 8D flips, Throw & Go, Up & Away and EZ Shots.
Video transmission range: 100m
Video resolution: HD 720p
Frame rate: 30FPS
DJI Ryze Tello is a small drone with an onboard nose-mounted camera capable of capturing 5MP photos and streaming 720p HD video. It is a lightweight and affordable quadcopter, perfect for flying indoors ideally suited to newcomers to the hobby. It’s easy to set up, just download the app from the app store, power up and you’re ready to fly. Simple!
This is one drone that really is almost set to fly straight out of the box. Simply download the app to your iPhone or Android phone (or tablet), turn on the drone, connect to the app and you’re ready to go. The auto take-off feature means you can be up in the air and exploring your living room from a new perspective before you can say “chocks away”. Propeller guards make navigation around objects less hazardous, so your Ming vase is (probably) safe. Essentially, this is one of the best beginner drones out there.
The onboard 720p camera allows you to view the world through the eyes of your drone and shoot photos and videos while flying. The flight time is stated as being 13 mins, but we managed just over 11 on the (very compact) full battery. Anything stronger than a very light breeze means that the Tello is not ideal for outside use, but that said on the occasion that we did manage to fly outside it packed a punch in the distance it can fly, and was still under control (if barely visible) when being flown up to 100m away.
- Easy to control
- Poor hovering
- Cool ‘trick flight’ features
The Tello is controlled by an app which can be found in the App Store or Google Play. It is very simple to set up, once downloaded, boot up the app, turn the drone on, and press the ‘connect’ button. This will take you to WiFi within your settings where you can select “Tello”. Now that you are all set up, when you go back to the app you should be able to view your surroundings through the lens of the Tello and you are now ready to take flight.
Despite the Tello being a generally brilliant drone, especially for beginners, it does slightly lack in its quality of flight when it comes to stability when hovering. I often found that shortly after take off the Tello would tend to go on its own little journey and drift off quite quickly. This problem could be a consequence of its lightweight frame or lack of GPS tethering, or maybe its just and slightly less powerful motor/smaller props compared to drones which have been tuned for outdoor flight. But it’s a minor issue and easily corrected, and with the reassurance of propeller guards no matter where it drifts off to, you can always be assured that things are unlikely to end in disaster.
The Tello is able to complete quite a few preset aerobatic moves that other larger and heavier drones such as the Mavic or Phantom cannot. These features include: Throw & Go, 8D flips and Bounce mode: Throw & Go has to be my favorite. The Tello starts resting in your hand and you throw it into the air… and it begins to fly. Genius! This is the best flying feature since Chitty Bang Bag drove off the cliff and sprouted wings! Next we have “8D Flips”. This essentially means that the Tello is able to roll left, right, forwards and backwards, simply by swiping on the screen once you have activated 8D flips mode. Finally “Bounce” mode allows your hand to become the controller of the drone as it ascends and descends in response to your hand lowering or raising.
The charging time for single battery clocks in at around one hour. Given the flight time of around 11-12 minutes I would probably opt for the optional charger and two extra batteries which reports suggest give a charge time of around 2 hours for charging all three of the batteries. We weren’t able to test this but it would certainly be preferable than waiting around one hour between flights.
The Tello has a very impressive speed for its small body frame and size. Top speed is a shade over 17mps/(8m/s)! Not only that but a range of almost 100m distance (with clear line of sight) is impressive for a Wi-Fi controlled drone.
We found the Tello to be completely responsive in flight. The joystick controller (via the app) was responsive with little to no delay, and minimal touch /effort was required over to control direction/rotation and pitch. It wasn’t over-sensitive either. We really liked this because it meant that we felt fully in control of piloting the drone without any sudden/unexpected surprises.
Given the other perks listed for this drone, the price is simply the cherry on the icing. Online it can be found for $99.00 (or less) making it very good value for a drone of this quality, and very cheap generally compared to other ‘prosumer’ drones. Again this makes it a very attractive proposition and perfect for beginners.
