been looking at drones and keep seeing holy stone ones pop up on amazon in my price range, they're like 80-150 bucks. some of the reviews look decent but i've also seen people say they're kind of junk. im not sure if those reviews are real or whatever.

basically wondering if anyone has actually used one and whether its worth it as a first thing to learn on or if i should just wait and save another hundred bucks or so for something better. i dont want to drop money on something that wont even fly properly right out of the box

had a holy stone hs720 for about three months before i got a real drone. its fine for learning the very basics ? taking off, landing, getting used to orientation. but the gps hold is kinda janky compared to dji stuff, and the camera footage is pretty bad if you actually care about video quality. it also lost connection on me once and just kind of drifted before i got it back, which was stressful.

so i guess my take is: if youre genuinely just using it to see if flying is even something you enjoy before committing real money, sure. but if you already know you want to do this, the extra hundred bucks for a dji mini 2 SE or even a used mini 2 is absolutely worth it. the flight characteristics are just in a different league and you wont be frustrated trying to fight the aircraft while also learning to fly.

i mean i learned on a holy stone and dont regret it exactly but i also crashed it into a tree within the first week and the gimbal was never right after that so. take that how you will. if i did it again id probably just save up tbh