Reely Folding Drone RtF in practical test: Flight behaviour, battery life, photo and video quality

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Average 0/5
Another aircraft we looked at is the Reely Folding Drone Quadrocopter RtF. With its low price it is very good for people who want to get a taste of drone flight with a beginner drone.

The technical data are quite impressive for this price. Of course you can’t expect too much for not even 80€. Very positive we noticed the great modes like Altitude Hold function, where the drone automatically holds its altitude, headless mode, flip function and Return To Home.

What we did not like was that the transmitter has a maximum range of 40 meters. So if you want to fly even further away, you have to think about how you could amplify the signal.

The design reminds a little bit of the Mavic drone from DJI, but it is not comparable to it in terms of value and it has no gimbal system.

Good news: If you want to fly this quadrocopter, you are not required to mark it, as the take-off weight is less than 250g. So you do not have to write your name and address on the drone. However, please note the general regulations, for example that you are not allowed to fly near airports or over nature reserves and crowds of people. Furthermore a liability insurance is mandatory!

Scope of delivery

Included in delivery is the Reely Folding Quadrocopter, the remote control system, the flight battery, 2 spare propellers, 4 times propeller protection, 2 times landing gear, a smartphone holder, a USB charging cable and a user manual.

Unfortunately there is no complete second propeller set, but only 2 spare propellers included. But this is grumbling on a high level, because often only 1 or 2 propellers are broken in a crash. Since flying the Reely Folding Quadrocopter is very easy, crashes can be avoided quite easily.

Apart from that, the drone is designed to withstand quite a bit 🙂

Further technical details and equipment

Visually the drone makes a very good impression, but what looks nice doesn’t necessarily have to be good. So we took a close look at the technical equipment.

The Reely Folding Drone has 3 different speed levels with which you can throttle the powerful electric motors. If you are a beginner, we recommend that you start with level 1 and then slowly move up to levels 2 and 3.

Furthermore the drone can be folded easily and fits in every backpack. So you can take it with you on holiday and capture your memories from the air. Unfolded the drone has a width of 303 mm, length of 310 mm and a height of 110 mm.

On the remote control, the smartphone holder can be mounted above. Unfortunately a tablet does not fit into the holder. To use the live transmission of the drone, you must have an Android system 4.0 or higher, alternatively an IOS system 6.0 or higher.

Camera

The HD camera has 0.9 megapixels and the video resolution is 1280 x 720 pixels, which doesn’t sound so good at first, but for this price range it is already very good!

Drohnenkamera Frontansicht

The camera image is transmitted live to the smartphone via WLAN, and at the same time the video material recorded at 20 frames per second and photos can be saved on an SD memory card. The micro SD card required for this is unfortunately not included in the scope of delivery.

SD cards up to a size of 32GB are supported. I used these for my photo and video test. Here you can see 1 unedited photo:

Battery charge and flight time

With a weight of 142 g and a battery with a charge of 850 mAh the drone manages a flight time of 8 minutes. Unfortunately the battery needs about 2 hours to recharge. Which is not a very good ratio between flight and charging time. However, one must not forget that this is quite normal in this price range. Since the flight battery is exchangeable, one can extend the flight time with further batteries, of course with some intermediate landings.

The instructions for use state that the battery should never be charged immediately after flying, but at least 5-10 minutes should pass between use and active charging, otherwise it could be damaged.

For the transmitter you need 4 x 1.5 V AA batteries. According to the manual, the use with typical AA batteries is not recommended, as they only have a cell voltage of 1.2 Volt instead of the 1.5 Volt of conventional batteries.

Advantages and disadvantages at a glance

The Reely Folding Drone is a very balanced aircraft. Some things could be better, but for under 80€ you get a very good quadrocopter here.

Advantages:

– Suitable for beginners-
Affordable drone with good price/performance ratio-
Cool design-
Extensive features and modes-
Live image directly to your Smartphone

Disadvantages:

– Flight time of only 8 min with long charging time (120 min
)- 40 meters transmitter range-
rather unsuitable for professionals

Flight characteristics

The weight of this drone is quite low in relation to its size. In strong gusts of wind you may lose control of the aircraft for a short time. However, if the wind is only moderate or even calm, it can be flown precisely.

The agility is okay, of course the angle of inclination is not as strong as on a DJI drone.
The Reely Folding Drone builds up its maximum speed pretty fast even at the maximum speed setting. We therefore recommend that you practice on an open field for the first time.

The Return To Home function and the other modes can be easily activated and work reliably. If you have flown further away, the landing point can deviate 1 to 2 metres from the original starting point when the Return To Home function is activated.

Conclusion

The manufacturer Reely may be unknown to many, but the Reely Folding is not the only aircraft of the manufacturer. Especially popular are the racing drones of this company, such as the Reely Racecopter X250 RtF. Such aircraft are less suitable for beginners as they do not have systems to balance and do not keep themselves in the air.

In summary: You get a good entry-level drone for little money. But for professional photography the camera performance is not sufficient. The design and the possibility to fold the rotors is ingenious and surely unique in this price range. A similar drone for professionals is available from DJI: => Click here for the DJI Mavic Pro

More beginner drones as alternative

As a comparison to the Reely Folding Quadrocopter you could have a look at this Hubsan drone. In addition, the Parrot Mambo and the Parrot Airborne Night also performed very well in our practical test.

For 50-60€ you can also get the Syma X5C (-1) Quadrocopter. However, the Reely Folding gave a much better overall picture than the Syma drone.

=> Buy Reely Folding Quadrocopter here

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