so my nephew wants a drone for his birthday and i dont really know anything about this stuff. he's 16 and has messed around with RC cars before so hes not totally clueless but ive seen some really cheap drones on amazon that look kind of sketchy and i dont want to buy something thats going to crash into a wall the first day and break. someone told me you basically cant get anything good under 200 but also ive seen people post videos with like 80 dollar drones that look fine? not looking for professional quality just something that wont be a total dissapointment

the under 150 category is rough ngl. most of whats on amazon in that range is rebranded cheap stuff with garbage gyros and plastic that cracks if you look at it wrong. the Holy Stone HS series gets recommended a lot for that budget and its not terrible for flying around the backyard but dont expect it to hold position well in any kind of wind, even a light breeze can push those things around and then theyre harder to fly not easier. if you can stretch to like 180-200 the DJI Mini SE is on sale sometimes and thats a completely different experience. i know thats more than you wanted to spend but a frustrated teenager who cant control a crappy drone is probably worse than spending an extra 40 bucks

yeah i had a cheap one first and honestly i think it actually helped a little because i learned to fight the controls but it also nearly put me off the hobby because it crashed constantly and the camera was basically useless. if hes already got some RC experience he might get bored of a toy drone pretty fast. the Holy Stone ones are fine for learning to not panic when it drifts but hes gonna want something better within a month i guarantee it