my buddy saw my footage from when i was out last month and now he wants to get into it. problem is he has like no patience for learning stuff and i know hes going to get frustrated if it crashes a lot or is hard to set up. he mentioned maybe $200-250 range. i was going to just say get what i have but mine was a gift and im not even sure what the current price is on it anymore. is the holy stone stuff worth recommending or is that just junk. i feel like i see those at walmart and they always look kind of cheap but maybe im wrong

holy stone is fine for messing around in the backyard but if he actually wants to do anything with footage or go somewhere interesting its going to frustrate him pretty fast. the GPS hold on those cheaper ones is not great and wind above like 10mph turns into a whole thing. if he can stretch to $300 the mini 2 SE is genuinely easy to fly, the return to home works well, and DJI's app is pretty straightforward. i've seen people with zero RC background pick it up in an afternoon. the stabilization alone makes a huge difference for someone who doesnt want to think too hard about it

honestly the no patience thing is the real issue here, not the budget. even the best beginner drone requires some setup and reading the manual and doing the compass calibration and stuff. if he skips all that and just tries to fly right out of the box hes going to have a bad time regardless of what you get him. maybe send him a youtube video of what the whole unboxing and first flight process actually looks like so he knows what hes getting into before he buys anything