3DR SOLO Review

I discussed purchasing a 3DR SOLO awhile back, and it’s now been about 4 months I believe since I bought it.  In short I haven’t had any issues, yet, and I enjoy how easy it is to fly.  Although unfortunately it did not meet my original expectations.

The largest factors that contributed to the drones short comings is the flight time and range.  3DR was disgustingly overzealous in defining this drones specs.  Stock with no gimbal or camera the drone could not fly longer than 20 minutes, where as the specs are defined at 25.  Once you attach a gimbal and camera your payload will increase and naturally shorten your flight time.  Well before you attach all that you were already at the time listed for all that extra weight.  The flight time with gimbal and camera is 20 minutes but in reality you’d be lucky to get more than 15 minutes worth of operation time.  Five minutes is a considerable amount of difference when you consider that of those 15

Why I choose 3DR SOLO Drone

I’ve been a fan to RC helis for a while now and when the DJI Phantom became pretty popular a few years back I really wanted to get one at the time.  Though monetary constraints kind of prohibited that and it died out from my mind for awhile.  Now things have turned around and after a year of saving it was time to make my choice. Ultimately it came down to 3DR SOLO or Phantom 3 Pro. And this is what considerations it came down to:

GoPro HERO4 Black info and first use

I ordered a GoPro awhile back with plans to use with my upcoming SOLO. In short it's a nice little camera with hundreds of features; but it's sort of annoying how difficult it is to browse the settings, and it takes some getting used to not being able to see what you're recording.


I have never had a GoPro prior to this one, as I've learned so far being around folks that have had others many of my complaints is my lack of interaction with prior versions. As a casual user I do suspect that the Black version is likely overkill for my use based on it's various specs. Which if you're interested GoPro has a terrific break down of all the features and specs on their site (here). I found an incredible deal and opted to go with this version.

Solo Drone footage test post

The following is footage from the first flight with my GoPro4. The recording is set at 720P and 30 frames.


So far I’m fairly impressed with the SOLO I get decent range with stock setup; although nothing close to the advertised 2km range. I’m way out the the country there is a group of houses along the road but I only get to about 50% of that range. Companies seriously need to reevaluate their claims.