Yuneec Breeze 4K Quadcopter drone review

Yuneec launched the Breeze 4K Quadcopter drone last year, an intelligent and rather small quadcopter.

The Yuneec Breeze 4K Quadcopter drone is lightweight and designed to fit in a backpack, though at 13 ounces, it still needs to be registered with the FAA. The plastic body feels a little more fragile than that of the GDU Byrd, which I happened to be testing at the same time. The good news is that pretty much every part you’re liable to break is for sale individually, making it easy, if perhaps costly, to get your drone back in the air should you crash or otherwise break it. Also, it comes in a little suitcase that keeps it protected from drops while you’re carrying it.

The Breeze comes with a 4K-capable camera (30fps) on board, though there are several important caveats to bear in mind. First, there is no stabilizing gimbal, so the steadiness of your video is directly proportional to your skills as a pilot. Recognizing that the newcomer won’t have those piloting skills yet, the Yuneec Breeze includes a host of preprogrammed auto-flying modes that go a long way toward improving stability and therefore video quality. There’s also some built-in digital stabilization, but, and here’s the second caveat: digital stabilization only works with 1080p video, not 4K footage. While the Breeze clearly wants to tout its 4K capabilities, they’re of limited usefulness without stabilization.

The bottom line for the Yuneec Breeze is that it flies well enough for light hobby and aerial photo use while being badly limited for any sort of serious airborne shooting of a professional sort. Its maximum flight speed of just over 10mph and maximum vertical ascent speed of a measly 2mph are both very slow but this itself doesn’t matter all that much since the Breeze can’t exceed a range of a little over 300 feet horizontally or vertically.

On the other hand, the manual flight controls that Yuneec gave the Breeze through the control app are remarkably flexible and user-friendly by the standards of a smartphone-operated drone. Furthermore, while the UAV’s selection of autonomous flight options is pretty basic, it’s more than enough for a drone that has to stay within 330 feet of its operator at all times. We should mention here that Yuneec has not included or even built a manual controller device for the Breeze. Since the focus here is on portability and compactness, this little drone can only be flown via smartphone/tablet app. Quite frankly, the app is good at what it delivers, so for the price the Breeze is selling at, our complaints are small on this front.

The overall flight experience of using the Yuneec Breeze is quite good in our view. Despite the range limitations imposed upon this little drone, it delivers some great highly localized aerial shooting and flight control experience. Furthermore, if you simply activate its automated Follow-Me, Orbit or Selfie options, the UAV will do a great job as an airborne photographer even if it’s not particularly useful as a manually flown exploration and aerial video survey drone.

In terms of drone security, we also love how well the Yuneec Breeze manages to keep itself safe during unforeseen losses of flight control. Thus, if the signal between drone and smartphone is lost, the Breeze will simply hover in place for about a minute before returning to the place it took off from and landing by itself. The hover and land mechanism also kicks in if your phone dies suddenly or if you happen to get a call whole you’re busy using the Breeze.

On the other hand, onboard obstacle avoidance is outside the price range of the Yuneec Breeze, so if you’re flying the little UAV, make sure to keep an eye on where it goes and more importantly, setting it to performs automated functions in a crowded bit of sky can easily cause the drone to hit something while it obeys its instructions. The absence of this last feature is a definite limitation if you’re thinking of having this little drone zip along behind you while you move through forested areas or urban environments with lots of vertical obstacles. In any case, thanks to the above-mentioned speed limitations of the Breeze drone, you’re definitely not going to use it to follow you as you move along quickly on a bike, skis or a snowboard.

Yuneec Breeze now sells for no more than $390 with two batteries, a carry case and a couple of rotor guards included.

 

The post Yuneec Breeze 4K Quadcopter drone review appeared first on Drone Inner.

Back to the future with Yuneec Breeze 4k

Yuneec China 12-minute flying selfie stick not what the world needs.

Good ideas catch on and are quickly imitated, as the selfie stick shows. But it is unlikely that UAV drone manufacturers will look to copy a drone “selfie” like the Yuneec Breeze 4k that gets easily buffeted by the wind with a battery life counted optimistically at 12 minutes.

Indeed, unlike the Yuneec Breeze 4k, if a selfie stick is damaged or lost it can be easily replaced. But the beetle-shaped 1-pound Yuneec drone at US$500 makes the prospect of damage or flyaways a bit costlier.

On damages, the Yuneec Breeze 4K does come with fold-in propellers, but not a dedicated carrier offering foam or other protection. The landing gear in the Breeze is made of plastic that can easily chip or break if carried in a backpack unprotected and hand guards for the propellers are missing-in-action.

Just that R&D effort alone raises question about the commitment of Yuneec to quality and reliable usage as it targets first-time drone buyers in a push that UAV drone manufacturers just starting out appear to have already won with prices as low as $99 for versatile models that can add 4K cameras from other manufacturers.

In fact, even the 4K in the Yuneec Breeze 4K name should be taken with a grain of salt as many early reviewers suggest using 1080P to get a more stable and ready-to-use video because of the patchy connection via an APP to smartphone WiFi and limited range of 80 meters–and then hopefully post it to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Instagram or WhatsApp.

At that price and for far better camera features at a 2.7K video feed and a 3-axis gimbal and reliability the DJI Phantom 3 Standard is true value for money, especially for first-time drone buyers, and time tested for GPS reliability and under $500. There is really no comparison that the Yuneec Breeze 4K can stand up to.

In fact, unlike the Yuneec drone, the DJI Phantom 3 returns to the user at the press of a button and does the same if the control signal is ever lost and the stability of the drone in flight and hover brings back razor-sharp images.

However, the Yuneec Breeze 4k camera is not mechanically stabilized when filming in 4K, though images are electronically stabilized at 1080p–showing that 4K is not always 4K.

All of this has caught the attention of initial reviews of the Breeze with comparisons not at the nimbler and reliable models like the DJI series, but at newer drones that have flying times more than double the Yuneec Breeze 4K.

And the inevitable comparison of the Yuneec Breeze 4K is to the Yuneec Q500 4K, which has struggled as a bulky product beset by internal WiFi card issues and GPS reliability. Yuneec has attempted to move on from the Q500 4K with the Typhoon H class-but the legacy problems have reportedly impacted production and engineering fixes for the hexacopter.

In fact, some drone pilots suggest Yuneec risks getting lost in the crowd of low-end drone manufacturers that for now are not in the long-term game of innovation to gain customer loyalty like DJI.

 

The post Back to the future with Yuneec Breeze 4k appeared first on Drone Inner.

Yuneec Breeze is for the selfies generation

A new “flying camera” Yuneec Breeze 4K from Yuneec is proper for the selfies generation and affordable to mass market.

It’s aimed primarily at social media users who want to easily capture aerial photos or videos of their exploits then share them quickly with their circle of real (and virtual) mates.

To that end, the Yuneec Breeze 4K is small and lightweight (385g), making it easy to carry around with you, and doesn’t have a dedicated controller. This isn’t some acrobatic wonder, or a drone you’re going to send half a mile away – it’s designed for close, simple, largely automated (it has GPS and optical sensors to keep it steady) flight, and it’s all controlled by a smartphone app.

Like I said, this isn’t designed to be a fun flying machine, just an affordable, easy-to-use aerial camera platform. The app control extends to about 100m, and gives you a live feed from the drone’s front-mounted camera, all the better to frame those majestic selfies.

But while the lack of a dedicated controller might limit your ability for fine-tuned control, the Yuneec Breeze 4K can be piloted directly using touchscreen controls, as well as made to fly in a variety of special modes – there’s auto take-off and landing, return-to-home, plus modes that’ll have the drone circle your position, training the camera on you at all times, or focus on a point-of-interest.

The battery gives you about 12 minutes of air-time per charge, during which you can capture footage at up to 4K quality or 13MP stills. And the app (which is available for Android and iOS from launch) then allows you to share photos directly via Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and more.

Relatively, yes. Now the Yuneec Breeze 4K is $380, making it a lot less stressful on the wallet than the more “advanced” drones we’re used to seeing . Compared to other Yuneec series and many rival quadcopters,the Breeze 4K drone is real cheap.

The post Yuneec Breeze is for the selfies generation appeared first on Drone Inner.

Yuneec Breeze 4K review: See what inside

THE CAMERA MARKET has long been segmented into three basic categories: Cameras for professionals, models for the so-called “serious hobbyists,” and models for the newcomer. From DSLRs to action cams and point-and-shoots, most cameras are squarely aimed at one of these three markets. The market for aerial photography (aka drones with real cameras on them) is about 150 years younger, and therefore somewhat less segmented. Up until now, there have been only two categories: Professional drones and hobbyist drones.

With the new Yuneec Breeze which is super light at just 0.81 pounds. The propellers and legs can fold up into about the size of an iPad (though of course slightly thicker). Every Breeze comes with a compact hard case, making it easy to travel with.

It has a 4K camera sensor, that stabilises the footage by cropping the videos down to 1080p. But being small also means its not going to handle much wind. Also I am not a huge fan of using my mobile phone to control the drone on a wifi connection as sometimes the connection is terrible, only giving you 30m range. But as a super transportable and easy to use videography drone it.

Compared to some other drones on the market, Breeze is a bit limited when it comes to flight performance. It has a max horizontal speed of 5 meters per second (roughly 11 miles per hour), can only ascend at a rate of one meter per second (about 2.2 miles per hour), and has a maximum range of just 100 meters (0.06 miles) — but that’s all by design. Yuneec intentionally built these limitations into the drone’s software, presumably to reduce the risk of crashing or losing your drone while you fly. That’s just the way it goes.

Due to the small size, its not rely possible to put a big battery on it, the Yuneec Breeze flight time is not that much, so it only flies for about 12minutes per battery which is nothing like the flight times of something like the phantom 4. However fortunately its possible to add a few extra batteries which can be hot swapped between flights.

So if you want to buy a Yuneec Breeze, you should take the Yuneec Breeze flight time into consideration most.

The post Yuneec Breeze 4K review: See what inside appeared first on Drone Inner.

Yuneec Breeze 4K review

Yuneec‘s first selfies drone Yuneec Breeze 4K is the drone equivalent of a cellphone camera, complete with an over-emphasis on selfies.

Would I bring it to a high-end real estate photo shoot? No, but it’s good at what it does: it’s loads of fun to fly and it produces the kind of images that will look good shared on small screens via Instagram and YouTube.

The Yuneec Breeze 4K is lightweight and designed to fit in a backpack, though at 13 ounces, it still needs to be registered with the FAA. The plastic body feels a little more fragile than that of the GDU Byrd, which I happened to be testing at the same time. The good news is that pretty much every part you’re liable to break is for sale individually, making it easy, if perhaps costly, to get your drone back in the air should you crash or otherwise break it. Also, it comes in a little suitcase that keeps it protected from drops while you’re carrying it.

The Yuneec Breeze 4K comes with a 4K-capable camera (30fps) on board, though there are several important caveats to bear in mind. First, there is no stabilizing gimbal, so the steadiness of your video is directly proportional to your skills as a pilot. Recognizing that the newcomer won’t have those piloting skills yet, the Breeze includes a host of preprogrammed auto-flying modes that go a long way toward improving stability and therefore video quality. There’s also some built in digital stabilization, but, and here’s the second caveat: digital stabilization only works with 1080p video, not 4K footage. While the Yuneec Breeze 4K clearly wants to tout its 4K capabilities, they’re of limited usefulness without stabilization.

Back to the controller, or rather lack of controller. Yes, the Yuneec Breeze 4K controller is a smartphone app. The controller consists of virtual joysticks that behave just like the real thing, minus all the tactile feedback that can help with your reaction times. But again, the manual controls are almost an afterthought here, the real selling point is the plethora of automated flight modes. You get the usual flight modes that every current drone has (follow me, orbit mode) plus a few others (selfie mode, journey mode, manual pilot mode).Follow me and orbit modes work like they do in Yuneec’s larger, more expensive drones. Selfie mode ditches the control interface entirely and instead offers a slider for controlling the camera. Journey mode was the most impressive—it starts with a fly-away shot and then comes zooming back in. The resulting video is nice and smooth.

In terms of the image quality, video can be a little soft at times, and stills probably won’t look good as 16×20 prints. For online sharing, it’s more than good enough most of the time. The one place I found it just didn’t work well was in follow me mode where too tight of a shot made for jerky camera movements as the drone tried to keep up.

Backing it up a bit in altitude fixed the problem, but highlighted the other big shortcoming: the Yuneec Breeze 4K really only stays aloft for about 10 minutes. Yuneec includes two batteries in the box, which doubles the flight time to 20 minutes if you switch batteries. That should be enough time to get all the selfies you need.

Yuneec Breeze 4K is a nice choice for newcomers, for more selfies drones, please refer here.

(Source)

 

 

 

 

 

The post Yuneec Breeze 4K review appeared first on Drone Inner.

Vanity drone Yuneec Breeze 4K good for sunny, windless days

Limited range Yuneec drone is nothing but an expensive selfie toy.

Fun with the Yuneec Breeze 4K can happen on a windless summer day with perfect conditions from distance to the camera to getting the short-battery life just right for a lifestyle picture.

But the promise that a “follow-me” mode will work to allow first-time drone users to “vogue” as Madonna would say, that may not be enough of an incentive to buy the Yuneec drone. For starters, the 4K camera advertised is not the same as the one on the much more expensive and heavier Yuneec Typhoon Q500 model and certainly pales in comparison to DJI’s built-in 4K cameras.

One review of the Yuneec Breeze 4K said the camera’s video functionality as advertised full-spec at 4K can be misleading as well, because with the WiFi connection it is better to use the 1080P video to get a more stable and ready-to-use video.

The spec has a range of about 80 meters before the phone WiFi signal gets choppy, potentially sending the Yuneec Breeze 4K on its way home, or worse, a flyaway.

The Yuneec Breeze 4K is operated by an app on a smartphone and definitely has no frills in accessories and packaging. Apparently the idea is to fold the propellers and throw the Yuneec Breeze 4K in your own backpack to carry – a mode of transport that anyone who’s ever owned a drone or any sensitive electronic toy knows is bound to result in damage.

But initial reports suggest the oblong shape and weight of about 1lb of the Yuneec drone make it shaky in flight and easily blown off course by even light winds – defeating the idea of a selfie pose.

In fact, the beetle-shaped Yuneec Breeze 4K should be handled carefully if live and held at arms-length to avoid getting a hand caught in one of the unprotected blades. Still, to be fair the unit is compact and is certainly divergent from other Yuneec models such as the Yuneec Q500.

Probably the best feature of the Yuneec Breeze 4K is that once the 12-minute battery life ends, you can take the downloaded stream and post it to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram or WhatsApp from your smartphone.

R&D has not been a Yuneec strongpoint as can be seen in the faulty internal WiFi card and weak GPS connections. So the Yuneec Breeze 4K may be a rush job sent out to fill a market niche, though it has been widely noted that up-and-coming drone makers are offering fairly interesting entry models for as low as $99.

That also draws attention to the comparison of the Yuneec Breeze 4K with the $499 DJI Phantom 3 Standard, which does have lower specs than models such as the DJI Phantom 4, but also comes with more features and a dedicated controller as well as works with most phones.

The price point has also become a test of features and accessories that sees some UAV drone manufacturers looking to allow other types of cameras and tools to the mix, making the Yuneec Breeze 4K appear as a throwback.

 

The post Vanity drone Yuneec Breeze 4K good for sunny, windless days appeared first on Drone Inner.