so my nephew keeps asking me about drones and i thought maybe id get one for both of us to mess around with, nothing serious. saw some on amazon for like 60-80 bucks and also saw the DJI ones which are obviously way more. im not sure if hes even gonna stick with it so i dont want to spend a ton but i also dont want to buy garbage that frustrates him and puts him off the whole thing. hes 14 so he picks stuff up fast probably but still.

anyone have experience with the cheaper end stuff, is there anything decent in that range or is it basically all junk

the honest answer is most of the cheap amazon stuff is pretty bad but not for the reason you think. its not that it breaks immediately necessarily, its that they fly terribly, the controls are laggy, and the camera is basically useless. if your nephew gets frustrated because the thing wont go where he wants it to or drifts all over the place thats going to kill his interest way faster than just not having one at all.

the sweet spot ive found is the Holy Stone HS720 or something in that range, around 150-180, its not amazing but its a real GPS drone that actually holds position and doesnt require you to be constantly correcting it. or honestly just save for the DJI mini SE which is around 250 refurbished sometimes. for a 14 year old who might stick with it that investment makes more sense

got my kid one of those cheap ones thinking same thing and yeah it lasted about three flights before something in the motor gave out. returned it and just got a mini 2 and he hasnt looked back. sometimes spending less costs more in the end i guess, though i hate saying that because it sounds like cope for buying expensive stuff lol