been building my own quads since like 2018 and i remember when a prebuilt was kind of a joke, either the component selection was garbage or the soldering looked like it was done by someone who hated the customer. but lately ive been looking at what iflight and flywoo are shipping and honestly some of this stuff is really solid out of the box. the wiring is clean, the stacks are decent, and the betaflight presets are at least flyable even if theyre not perfect

i still build my own because i like knowing every component and being able to fix things in the field but i honestly cant tell a beginner anymore that building is obviously the better path. used to be you learned so much from the build process and that helped you troubleshoot later, still true to an extent, but the prebuilts have gotten good enough that the argument is weaker than it was

curious if others who have been doing this a while feel the same or if im just getting soft in my old age. also wondering if the brand loyalty thing has changed, like does anybody actually care if their frame is a true x labs or whatever anymore or is everyone just grabbing whatever is in stock

yeah pretty much agree. the emax tinyhawk days where prebuilts were basically disposable toys feel like a different era. current prebuilts from the main brands are genuinely competitive hardware, the difference now is more about personal preference and repairability knowledge than straight up quality. i still build but mostly because i have strong opinions about specific components and i dont want to compromise, not because prebuilts are bad

the frame loyalty thing is interesting though, i do still have preferences there. i think arms matter a lot more than people give credit for and some of the frames in budget prebuilts are still pretty flexy. not dealbreaker flexy but you notice it

tbh i bought a flywoo explorer lr4 prebuilt last year and the thing was dialed. like i barely touched the pids and it flies great for longrange. i think the argument for custom is more valid at the high performance end or if you have very specific needs. for most people flying freestyle or doing cinematic stuff a good prebuilt is just fine and you can always swap components later if something bothers you. ive replaced the motors on mine already and its not a big deal

also on the brand thing, i feel like most people are just buying whatever has good reviews on rotorbuilds and is actually in stock. the days of strong brand loyalty seem kind of over to me, maybe except for the dji ecosystem people who are kind of locked in once they go that route