Choose Parrot swing if…

If you are selecting a New Year gift kind of toy, then the Parrot swing is for you.

Parrot tried something a bit different with its latest small drone. Rather than go with a standard four-arm quadcopter that can only face one way, the Parrot Swing can fly with its propellers pointing upwards or forward. In other words, it can either look like a regular quad-copter, or more like an X-Wing Fighter.

Inside, there’s a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope to measure its speed, tilt, and how hard it’s hit an obstacle. There’s also an ultrasound sensor underneath which can measure how far away the ground is, as long as you don’t fly it above four metres.

As you’d expect, you don’t get the same high-tech obstacle avoidance or wind resistance you’d find in a more professional drone like Mavic Pro, which limits where and how you can fly the Parrot Swing.

While the Parrot Swing is not explicitly designed for exclusive indoor use, its size and weight mean it’s much easier to fly indoors than a “proper” drone. It’s also so small and light that any wind outdoors will easily send it off course, into a tree, shed, or person.

Being so small and light means it’s very responsive though. For the most part, that’s what you want in a drone. You want to know that your joystick control results in a swift, fast movement. But in a confined space, that’s not always a good thing: we crashed into a few windows, door frames and ceilings by generally trying to be a bit too clever.

When the Parrot Swing drone detects impact it tends to shut off the propellers and go in to freefall, which sounds a lot worse than it is. Its size and weight mean that when it does fall, there’s no real damage upon impact with the ground. It’s not really heavy enough to break; it generally just falls like a feather and lands on its side.

The biggest negative about flying the drone is that while you’re getting to grips with the controller and drone response, the battery dies. Fortunately there’s a second spare one in the box, but it’s still not quite enough.

Here are the key features of the Parrot Swing:

• High Performance Sensors For Stability
• Unique X Wing Design
• Vertical Takeoff and Landing
• Remotely Change from Plane Mode to Quadcopter Mode
• Fly Up to 18 MPH
• Pilot with Free iOS or Android App
• Precision Flight Control With The Included Parrot Flypad
• 65 Foot range with Smartphone, 200 Foot range with Flypad
• Battery lasts a few minutes
• Second battery included
• 30-minute recharge time
• 1 Year Support and Assistance Warranty

If you just want something to fly around your house or back yard, the $145 Parrot Swing is a fun option.

 

 

 

 

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