Yuneec Breeze Review: Everything you should know-Part II

The post is the part II of the Yuneec Breeze In-Depth Review.

Emergency landing with hard exit

The individual flight modes are explained in detail at the last post. If there are still questions during the flight, there is a help button in the upper right corner. This again displays information on the control elements. In the worst case, the drone can be landed – where “land” is the wrong word: if we touch the upper bar of the operating display twice, we can switch off the Yuneec Breeze immediately. It simply falls from the sky, which is why this possibility should only be used in case of emergency.

The partly automated modes require a position determination by GPS; The Yuneec Breeze 4K does not find any satellites, for example in indoor rooms, it can only be flown with the full-man pilot mode. Then the assisted modes would simply not be accurate enough, too dangerous. Even with a GPS connection, however, the user must ensure that he does not fly against obstacles; Sensors for a collision warning does not have the drone as mentioned.

Stable position thanks to GPS and IPS

In addition to GPS positioning, the Yuneec Breeze 4K also offers an Indoor Positioning System (IPS), which is designed to help the drone in interior spaces while holding the position. On the other hand, the drone has installed additional cameras on the underside, which recognize textures on the ground and give the device orientation.

An infrared sensor at the bottom also measures the heights of the copter. This is particularly important when we activate the automatic return function: Here, the user can set before the start, at what height the Yuneec Breeze should fly back. When a connection is lost, the drone will return automatically if no connection can be restored for one minute. Even in the automatic return function, the drone can not detect any obstacles.

13-megapixel camera points to the pilot

By default, the camera is aimed at the pilot, so it does not show forward as usual with copters. This also underlines the purpose of the device as a “self-drive”. If we do not want us, but the landscape filming and photographing and therefore the camera prefer to use forward, the control can be inverted. Then the drone can simply be turned over and flown without having to use it with an inverted control.

The camera of the Yuneec Breeze has 13 megapixels and optionally takes videos in 3,840 x 2,160 pixels at 30 fps, in 1,920 x 1,080 pixels at 30 fps and in 1,280 x 720 pixels at 60 fps. Photos are recorded at 4,160 x 3,120 pixels. The field of view of the camera is 117 degrees, the angle can be set vertically between 0 and 90 degrees. Stabilized recordings are only available in full HD and HD, the 4K videos are correspondingly more blurred. The stabilizer works electronically, there is no optical stabilization or even a gimbal.

Electronic stabilization only with Full-HD

The electronic stabilization works quite reliably, but in some situations it is clearly visible. If the movement of the cop in the air is particularly violent, this can be seen in a kind of flirting in the picture. The image margins and the overall image remain stable, but individual parts of the video image, for example, very high contrast. However, we are still finding this acceptable against the backdrop of the price of the drone.

The 4K recordings we feel only in very calm flight situation as usable – thus with almost wind still. If you are familiar with video editing, however, you can still use a software stabilization.

The quality of the photos is equivalent to a mediocre smartphone camera with 13 megapixels. Details look very thick and blurred, but the quality is sufficient for sharing in social networks. However, large-format prints should not be looked at too closely.

Good video quality

The video quality is good for us, especially from the 4K mode, we were also surprised by the weather conditions in which we recorded. Although very fine structures result in compression artifacts, on the whole the quality is good. Also in full-HD recorded videos – preferred by us because of the stabilization – are qualitatively sufficiently good.

With the camera of a Mavic Pro or an even more expensive drone, the Yuneec Breeze can not keep up, but the drone costs less. Take care, however, of the pilot, but with the backlight: Then it can easily come to blue fringing, as we have seen in trees in a bright, white sky.

The Yuneec Breeze has an internal memory of 16 GB, a slot for a Micro SD card does not exist. Recorded videos and photos can either be loaded onto a smartphone or tablet via the app or played on a PC by cable. In the Breeze cam app, the recorded videos can be cut and split into small movies after the download. This lets you upload photos and movies directly to Facebook, Instagram, or other social networks. The cutting function provides the necessary tools to perform simple machining operations.

The flight time is too short

The Yuneec Breeze 4K uses replaceable batteries with a nominal charge of 1,150 mAh. According to Yuneec, they should allow a flight time of twelve minutes, but with video recordings, we have not gone beyond ten minutes in our tests. Compared to other manufacturers’ drones, this is an under-average value that is too short in everyday life.

The battery takes an hour to fully recharge. In our opinion, pilots need at least three batteries to use the Yuneec Breeze effectively. Luckily, the batteries with currently $50-60 are not too expensive, but buyers must pay attention to these additional costs.

Conclusion

The Yuneec Breeze 4K costs around $500. It includes spare rotors, four plastic rotor protectors, a battery, a charger, a USB cable and a plastic box for the drone.

We like the concept of the Yuneec Breeze 4K very well: The idea to launch a drone on the market, which explicitly addresses even inexperienced users who simply want to make videos and photos, we think it makes sense.

This is “Your Flying Camera” rather than a competitor to the Mavic Pro which is ultraportable and powerful yet, or other entry to mid-level drones.

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