Contixo F36 GPS Drone with 4K Camera, 3-Axis Gimbal Stabilizer, 2 Miles Long Range, 25 Min Flight, Optical Flow, Brushless Motors, Follow Me, One Key Return FPV Drones, No FAA Registration Needed

The Contixo F18 is my first drone, which I received as a Christmas gift. After reading the manual times, I found the assembly of the props easy. You do have to pay attention to the "A" prop and "B" prop positions on the drone as well as the particular screws for each. Paying attention to the direction to tighten the props, i.e., clockwise and counter clockwise is important in order to avoid stripping the screws/prop post. After the assembly, the start up is pretty straight forward. Charge the drone battery for approximately 5 hours and install four new AA batteries in the controller. The next step was a little confusing at first but after watching several videos on YouTube from other F 18 users, it all became clear. I recommend that any new users take the time to watch these videos! Starting the drone was a easy as was the first flight. I do recommend that the new user become familiar with the controller before the inital flight. I also recommend getting in multiple practice flights before pushing limits. The wifi signal on my unit has been exceptional each time out. You do have to wait a couple minutes for what ever number of satellites there are to connect to the remote/F18 before flying. I've had my unit up as high as 395 and never lost a bar of the 5 bars of signal strength. The RTH (Return Home) has worked well each time out with my unit. The unit will rise after pushing the RTH button as it hovers above the landing site. This is for GPS positioning. My landings have consistently been within 6 feet of the take off point. I have not yet tested the low battery return home function. I recommend caution when flying in wind speeds of 7 plus mph as the drone will tend to drift. While it does test piloting skills, it can cause a little anxiety. Making sure the GPS mode is on will greatly help prevent drift. I also recommend that when piloting, remember that as the orientation of the drone changes, i.e., north to south, east to west, the control joystick will change. Not paying attention to this could be a problem if the user needs to avoid obstacles quickly. For example, if the drone camera is facing away from you the joystick will work as described, i.e., up is north, down is south, left is east, right is west. If the camera is facing the user, the controls would work in opposite. Sounds a little complicated but not so much as long as the user is paying attention to drone orientation.The headless mode can be helpful with this issue but read the warning about using this mode before turning it on. I read a few concerns about some danger the F18 can pose. I can say from first hand knowledge that you should be aware that the propellers are turning at a very high rpm and can cause serious damage to a finger, or any other part of the body it may come into contact with. The F18 is small but I would not classify it as a child's toy. For this reason, proceed with caution with small children and pets nearby. First time users would be better to gain skills in an wide open area. If not in the countryside, then a high school football field, etc. when few people are around. The 1080p camera does a better job than I expected. The range is great and for basic photography from above, the quality is fairly good. The camera does okay in low light photography, much better in daylight. The examples are from 300 to approximately 375 ft. The drone holds altitude very well and can hover at any altitude for photography. The camera does well with video photography as well given it is only 1080p. If you want a high resolution camera or at least 16mp, expect to pay $500 or more. For a starter, the camera in the F18 is better than expected. The F18 is a great starter drone especially with its features and for the price. I cannot compare this drone to any other but I have no problem recommending it to someone looking to get started.

I am 12 years old and I love to fly drones. I have a bunch of cheap ones in my closet and a few that are around 50 dollars that I like to fly, but after a while I decided that I needed an upgrade. I was searching for weeks for one that had a good camera, GPS, and a low cost. Once I came across the Contixo f24 pro I knew that it was the drone to buy, and a few days later after checking with my dad I ordered it. It arrived a lot earlier than expected and as soon as it came I started charging it. It took around 2 hours to charge because it was already at half when it came, and when it was charged I took it out for my first flight. Now I have flown a lot of drones and even some DJI's, but all of that was nothing compared to this. I hit the one key takeoff button and expected it to drift with the wind ( there were up to 20 mph wind gusts that day), but it stayed perfectly still. For my first flight I stayed with the main controls to get used to how it handled, and it was incredibly smooth. The next day I tried out the flight modes (Orbit mode, follow me, follow object, return to home, one key takeoff and landing, headless mode, waypoints, hand gestures) and also tried the VR addition on the app which went very well. The video quality is amazing and you will not be able to find another drone with such good quality, features, and handling at such a good price. The drone takes about 5 hours to charge, and you get about 30 minutes of flight time. It is easy for beginners, and I had mastered flying it in just 2 days. So far this is my favorite drone of all time and I would definitely recommend buying it.

I edited: please stay away from this product. I thought it was a great drone but the battery started smelling bad and turns out it’s damaged. The drone dropped from mid air and almost damaged our car. Be aware —— I have many drones and I got this one as a back up to my fleet. I was very careful in selecting this drone because I have been disappointed by so many toy-grade drones. Few things I am very impressed about is - the controller has built in battery that is rechargeable - controller feel very solid and has good weight to it that makes it feel less like a toy - as you can see in the video, flight stability is very good even though I tried flying it inside - I don’t have an extra sd card and I was delighted when I found an SD card included. So far, read write speed seems to be top notch and no issue for 4k - overall, all the parts feel high quality and premium I don’t have much complaints yet. I’ll be using this drone almost weekly as a back up. I’ll come back to update the review if I find something I don’t like, but from what I’ve seen so far, I think I am going to keep loving this drone.

This drone was purchased for my father for Christmas after debating between this and the Altair Outlaw SE. I decided on this one due to the panning camera ability. Overall, it is relatively easy for an absolute novice to understand, but he did have a few issues with getting the drone to connect to the app on a cell phone. Since he could not easily get it to connect, he tried flying it without the phone, became confused about which way was forward without the FPV feed, and crashed it into the side of their house. It was fairly badly scratched up from this collision (actually from the 10' fall that was the result of the collision) and the propellers were gouged, but otherwise it appears to be unharmed. I was able to straighten out the cell issue for him and I believe everything is working well now. However, I am dinging it by one star for several issues. First is the truly terrible directions that are included both in the instruction book and on the app. The app itself could use some updates to make it less clunky, and this could be pushed out to existing users for free. One other complaint is the "kill" switch in a rather prominent place on the remote. In my opinion, this is just a little too easy to accidentally press. I have warned him about it and told him what would happen if he presses and holds it. In summary, this is a good drone for the price, but there is definitely room for improvement. A major overhaul of the app would be a good starting point. I do not think this drone will prove to be as sturdy as some beginner drones, and, in retrospect, I wish I had gone with the Altair Outlaw SE instead. However, with all that said, I think he will be fairly happy with it.

I could NOT be more satisfied with Contixo. As a first-time drone buyer, I was nervous about finding the right product for a Christmas gift, but Jerry at Contixo went above and beyond to help me find the right product. I ended up getting both the F17+ and F18 for recipients with different needs. At this point, I've spent a couple months researching drones, and both the F17+ and F18 are the only two drones with all the following features: - Under $500 (I broadened my search to up to $500, but Contixo was still the best for what I was looking for) - Compatible travel/storage case - High quality camera: 4k camera (F17+) or 1080p camera (F18) - Extended battery life (nearly ~20 min. ea) - Brushless motors - Lights for night flying/general awesomeness - Attractive design - Excellent reviews (Although both models have many more awesome features, I was looking for this specific combination) Since these are Christmas presents, I haven’t been able to play with them yet. However! I want to give a specific and well-deserved shout out to Contixo’s business model and customer service. There are so many companies that produce drones; I knew there was a spectrum of customer service quality that went along with the many options the internet has to offer. But simply due to the extraordinary experience I had with Contixo over the past two months, I have complete confidence in their products going forward. Responsive – Per the suggestion from another Contixo customer review, I reached out via messenger on their Facebook page. I didn’t expect a response, but heard back in an hour! Every time I messaged, I heard back in an hour or much sooner. Accessible – No red tape. Hit up their Facebook page or give them a ring and you’ll get to speak to a real live human ASAP. No robots. No holding music. Above and beyond helpful – I had a lot of questions for Jerry and he answered every single one with much more info than expected. He even gave me his direct line so he could hear out my concerns. Turns out, Jerry isn’t even in the Customer Service department—he just wanted to help me! To top it off, I decided I wanted to swap out one of the F17+’s I bought for an F18, but it was past the return window. I asked Jerry if he had any suggestions, and he is having Contixo issue me a full refund! No hassle, just a 5 minute phone call. Now if that isn’t a culture of customer service, I don’t know what is. ________ Update: Both the F17 and F18 have been fantastic hits with their recipients. The features, power, and control are all awesome. Set up and usage for both have been very user friendly thus far. Unfortunately, after a week of successful flying, the F18 malfunctioned and plummeted into a river despite full battery, 15 satellites connected, and less than a 100 foot range. We were devastated when we were unable to retrieve it, but Contixo again came to the rescue with their fantastic customer service. I was able to speak with Jerry about our malfunction and how to prevent something similar in the future. After asking detailed questions about our experience, he assured us that this should have not happened. He also pointed out that although it seemed to be an issue with the drone itself, it may have been an error on the remote side. Thanks to Jerry and Contixo's outstanding customer service, Contixo will be sending us a replacement drone and remote. We could not be happier and look forward to many more flights with our Contixo F18!

**UPDATE** So no amount of tinkering I've done has helped this and I'm returning it. I'm lucky if the video feed to the phone lasts until the drone is about 30 feet away. The video often freezes before it ever even leaves the ground. The drone will record video and save photos to the SD card if you have one installed though and the quality isn't all the bad if you're good enough at flying it so that you can keep it stable for video recording. The battery life isn't bad at all. It still has issues going off and doing it's own thing though like I previously mentioned which has damaged one of the blades. I'm returning this and getting a DJI because I want a drone to get photos and videos from a birds eye view of the areas we go hiking so if this decides to go off on it's own then that's a waste of $300 since I won't be able to get it back in many of the areas we go to. The only reason this gets 3 stars is because the camera works great as saving footage to the SD card and I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt that maybe I got a bad one out of the bunch even though others have commented with the same issues I'm having. Good for first time flyers since it's so easy to fly but if you specifically want it for video footage, you might wanna get a better one. Original- I’m going to hold out on final judgment for the time being but here’s what I know so far. It was delivered this morning and after charging the controller and battery I took it to a nearby park. For the most part it’s pretty simple to control but it has some major issues. First of, it will occasionally go off on its own completely ignoring any input from the controller. It decided to plow straight into some large shrubs at the edge of said park at full speed. Thankfully nothing broke but it could’ve been worse. Also the video coming through to the phone is flaky. Once it gets to about 25-30 meters away at most the video cuts out completely. The app still responds but the drone itself will no longer respond to anything in the app. I’m going to try tinkering with it but at this rate it’s going to be returned. No sense in spending this much money on something that won’t work properly.

This quad-copter has pretty much everything one need for an easy flying and videography. Here is my thought on different aspect of this quad-copter: GPS: The first and most important thing that I like about it is the fact that it has a builtin GPS. This means the quad-copter can hover at one exact spot even if that day is windy. The GPS also allows for in the Return to Home function which is super important. Return To Home [Manual & Auto]: When the GPS is enabled it will record the precise location of take off so the quad-copter can return to it (1) when you want it to [manually], (2) when the battery is low [automatically], and (3) when for whatever reason the quad-copter doesn't get signal from the controller [This can be due to low battery of the controller or when you accidentally fly it too far where it go out of range of the controller]. Camera & FPV: The camera on this quad-copter is HD and provides a very sharp image/footage both when viewing it on the app as FPV (first person view) and as recorded. The also allows for you to even wear the phone in a VR headset so you get an immersive FPV. The pictures and the videos can be saved to the quad-copter SD card or saved on the internal cellphone storage. Battery: It lasts about 15min of flying and charges in about 2-3 hours. Bag: The bag is super useful as it's a huge hassle to take the quad-copter anywhere without it. I had other cheaper quad-copeters that didn't have bag with them and I had to try to fit in in my bag packs if I didn't want to take them on the go with their boxes. But with this bag which is not that big everything that I need for the quad-copter will be in one place and easy to take to anywhere specially since a lot of the shots I want to get are at places that require long hike or walk so I can always just wear it and hit the spot I want to take video. Headless Mode: This mode if enabled (switch on the controller) allows you to fly the quad-copter in way that forward stick flys it away from you and backward stick brings it close to you regardless of where the camera (the head) is pointed at. Controller/LCD: The controller is very easy to control. It has buttons for taking picture and video, for return to home, and easy take off and landing. You can also enable the GPS and headless mode from the controller with their respective switches. But what I really like about this controller is that it has an LCD that at all times the following information: (1) GPS active channels, (2) Altitude from home point, (3) Distance from home point, (4) Remote control signal strength, (5) Controller modes (left -vs- right hand), (6) Quad-copter's battery indication, (7) Controller battery indication, (8) Photo taking icon, (9) Video taking icon, (10), Headless mode indication, (11) Return home icon The APP: The app works very smoothly. I didn't encounter any crash. Here you can view the quad-copter camera stream live and can also record and view the pictures and video. It also allows for 180 degree flipping the footage and make the stream VR compatible. The setting up: The initial controller pairing was very easy as you can see in my video. And after that every time you want to fly you need to calibrate the compass which requires a vertical and horizontal counter clock rotation. I went over all of these in my video as well.

I bought my Contixo F18 drone less than a week ago and could not be happier with the product. It was easy to assemble and easy to start up. On my first flight the drone got away from me, high and almost out of site over thick brush and cactus. I hit the return button and, after a few tense moments, it landed right where it took off. I flew all weekend over water, buzzed trees, flew in 20 mph wind and pushed the range of the drone as far as I was comfortable. It performed like a champ every time. I have to admit I crashed it once into a metal gate and again into a portable building, both instances were my fault misjudging speed and distances. After performing the start up procedures I was off and flying again...no prop replacement or any other repairs needed. I also carefully flew until the battery was almost drained to see how the auto landing sequence performed. Perfect every time, even over water...which was accidental and something I wouldn't recommend. I did have a bit of trouble getting the drone video to continuously sync with my iPhone 5S, but I was having too much fun flying to figure out why. I will experiment a little more on future flights. I purchased extra batteries which do offer 15 minutes of flight time each. Unfortunately they also take the full 5 hours to recharge, but t's only a minor inconvenience and gives the drone a chance to "rest" anyway. I'll probably buy more batteries once I am more proficient with the flight controls. This was a great choice for a first drone, with sharp video and adequate snapshot quality. Lots of fun ahead. Feb 1 UPDATE: Yesterday, I had an incident where I brought down my drone too fast and damaged the landing gear. I contacted Contixo customer support and they were prompt and amazing with their explanation of what could have gone wrong. I appears that I had given conflicting signals to the drone and was flying with the batteries that were not fully charged. Admittedly, I was in a hurry to fly before dark and rushed the start up procedures. This drone is just too much fun! Since my earlier review, I have flown many times and the results of the video and photos have been amazing. If you're looking for a drone, this is a great one! I confess that, during the flight yesterday when I thought I might lose it, I was planning to run home and order another one. It's that much fun!