Halo Board Halo Drone Pro - Review 2022

The Halo Board Halo Drone Pro ($one,497) carries a premium toll, merely its features and video quality are nowhere near pro level. Even if I hadn't been forced to crash land it during my showtime test flight (due to a bug that Halo Lath is aware of, and doesn't accept a prepare for), I found plenty shortcomings to steer pilots with this much cash to spend in a different management. If you want a high-end drone, become for the much more than portable DJI Mavic Pro Platinum or the i-inch-sensor-equipped DJI Phantom 4 Pro instead.

Design

The Halo Drone Pro is very similar to the discontinued GoPro Karma. It has a folding design, simply not i you can slide into a backpack or messenger bag like the tiny Mavic Pro or Mavic Air.

The Pro edition, which is regularly on sale for much less than its MSRP (it sells for $ane,097 at press fourth dimension), includes a fitted backpack for storage and transport. The pack measures 18 past 12 by viii inches (HWD) and is quite sturdy. Just annihilation that requires its own backpack for transport qualifies as bulky in my book. When folded the Halo is nearly the same size as the Karma (roughly 5.5 by 7.5 by fourteen inches), and it weighs 3 pounds.

To get it ready to fly y'all need to unfold its arms and lock them in place with clips. And you lot need to install the rotors, every bit the drone doesn't fit in its backpack with them fastened. The process only takes a couple of minutes, merely it'southward not every bit seamless every bit the DJI Mavic serial, which features folding propellers you can leave on at all times.

The drone ships with a remote control with a prune to concord your smartphone. It works with the Halo Drone app, a free download for Android or iOS. The remote and your smartphone communicate via Wi-Fi, and the app shows some important information, including a live view from the drone's camera and a world map. The video feed is very low resolution, not at all like the 720p feeds we're used to seeing, but it gives you lot a full general idea of what yous're recording. Y'all do go real-fourth dimension telemetry data when flying, but the app doesn't record information technology and save information technology as a flight log, which is a feature yous go with DJI models.

The camera is detachable. It'south similar in build quality to any number of inexpensive action cameras. Information technology looks and feels a lot like the Aukey AC-LC2. Don't expect rugged GoPro quality here.

In add-on to the case, the Pro model includes a wrist tracker, so you lot can have the Halo track your movements. If you want the drone without the tracker and haversack, you can buy the standard edition. Information technology has an $i,197 MSRP, but has been on sale for a while now. At press time it goes for $847.

Automated following is a plus for folks who want a drone to follow them and film them doing things, assuming that activities are taking place in a clear, open up expanse. But the tracker watch is a bit of an antiquated concept. DJI includes field of study tracking in its latest models, which do the same chore without requiring a tracker—its photographic camera organisation is able to perform subject recognition and keep it in frame.

Crash Landing

Nosotros always fly a drone for as long as the battery can handle in testing, to get an idea of what its real-world battery life is like. Afterwards most 15 minutes of flying during my first test flying, I saw that the drone'southward battery was getting low—it estimated four minutes of flight time left—so I started to bring it in closer to home for a landing. But before I was able to land it manually, the drone recognized its battery was low and initiated an automated return-to-dwelling and landing process.

I had been flight pretty low, but because there'southward no obstacle avoidance, the drone is programmed to ascension to a higher altitude before making the beeline to the launch point. I opted to manually override the automated process. Had the drone been farther away I would have let it fly home on its own, just it was only about 30 or forty anxiety away from where I wanted it to land when the automatic sequence kicked in.

But instead of returning control to the remote's joysticks, the drone immediately initiated an automated landing procedure. It was even so in a higher place a muddy cornfield at this point, then I fabricated the decision to cancel the landing, with the intent of bringing the drone nearly xxx feet closer to my location to land on neatly manicured grass.

But that didn't happen. Instead of returning conrols to my sticks, the drone became unrepsonsive and started to fly up and abroad from dwelling. I couldn't intermission its motion, nor could I adjust its distance or heading—stick controls were completely unresponsive. The drone was flying abroad, and I had no reason to believe that it would stop until it ran out of battery. Even with only a couple minutes of life left, it could cover some altitude.

I felt the merely pick to ensure recovery of the shipping was to kill the engines. Thankfully y'all can do so using the remote control, and the Halo did respond to the command to turn off the motors. It savage from the heaven and landed on soft ground, but was damaged to the point where additional flights were not happening. You tin can sentry the sequence in our test footage below, starting at about the three-minute mark.

I reported the consequence to Halo and a representative stated that it is a known result. Halo does not recommend that you cancel landings. What the company describes in its FAQ isn't quite what happened to me, merely very low power to the drone could explain why it stopped responding to controls. Information technology doesn't explain the fly away, nor does it explain why the power was so low when the app was telling me I had four minutes of flying fourth dimension left.

Halo claims the drone is adept for 22 minutes of flight per charge. I establish the figure to exist closer to 15 minutes in reality. That's a big disparity. Especially when yous recall that the svelte DJI Mavic Pro Platinum tin fly for close to 30 minutes.

Operating range is very limited. I started to lose connection with the video feed at a altitude of just 800 feet. Our exam flight was performed in a rural surface area with very fiddling radio interference, and then this result is very disappointing.

Video and Prototype Quality

The included photographic camera records video at up to 4K quality with a potent 50Mbps pinch rate and H.265/HEVC compression. Footage looks clear, although the photographic camera may be guilty of some oversharpening. Merely that's the to the lowest degree of its problems. White residuum is all over the place. Information technology inverse dramatically throughout our examination flying, despite flying over an evenly lit landscape.

You also don't go 24fps capture at any resolution. You tin shoot at faster frame rates at lower resolutions, a plus for slow-motion, but these settings tin can't be changed on the fly. In gild to adjust camera settings yous need to physically brand changes on the camera itself. This is a tricky process. Yous need to remove the camera from its gimbal, remember which buttons to hold down on the side to enable its rear LCD, and navigate through menus using control buttons. Once you've got it gear up, you need to remember to switch the photographic camera back to its manual style (which disables the rear LCD brandish), mountain it in the gimbal, and ensure that the video feed is properly working. Information technology's a pain. Other drones, even those that work with external removable cameras, let y'all change camera settings correct from the remote control.

Halo Board Halo Drone Pro : Sample Image

The camera records nonetheless images as well as video. It can snap 8MP stills at the 16:9 attribute ratio and 12MP images at iv:three. Stills are saved in JPG format. Image quality is nearly what y'all get from whatever budget action camera—crisp, with a wide field of view—but not as skillful as what yous'd snap with a smartphone.

Conclusions

I don't like to be admittedly dismissive of a production, specially one that takes much engineering and design to put together. But there's absolutely no reason to spend your money on the Halo Board Halo Drone Pro. It's non a bargain past any means, its camera isn't that good and makes it difficult to adjust video recording settings, and its battery life is way behind the competition. Even if I hadn't experienced the forced crash landing, in that location isn't enough here to recommend.

If you want a drone, become a DJI Mavic Air or Mavic Pro Platinum for about the same price and relish a truly portable—and extremely safety—shipping. If you prioritize epitome and video quality over size, the Phantom iv Pro and Phantom 4 Advanced employ one-inch image sensor cameras, which volition give you the best aerial video and imaging you can get, short of buying a very loftier-end model with interchangeable lenses.