Mini review: The world’s smallest quadcopter is a lot of fun!


The DHD Drone D1, also known as the Floureon FX-10 or the Cheerson CX-Stars, is insanely tiny for something that packs so much tech into it, yet at the same time is a lot of fun as well.

I got my DHD Drone D1 from GeekBuying a week or so back. I’m now a full time technology writer, managing things with Andi and the team on GizChina and running my own quadcopter site, RC Drone Arena.

This means that I spend a lot of time in front of the computer everyday, and despite any number of anti-sedentary reminders being active, I end up in bad postures every now and then.

Drone D1 (1)_result-1

Why am I telling you about this? Because the DHD Drone D1 has proved to be the best reminder for me to get off from my desk and move about a little every now and then!

The quadcopter itself is so tiny that it fits right in its controller. If you didn’t know yet, it is also the current world’s smallest quadcopter, beating the Cheerson CX-10 (review) by a bit. Take a look at the picture below for reference.

Drone D1 (5)_result-5

Gizchina News of the week


Left: DHD Drone D1, Right: Cheerson CX-10A

The Drone D1 is so small that (especially if you haven’t owned a CX-10 before) it’ll be hard for you to imagine that a thing as small as this can actually fly in the air and be controlled.

There’s two sides to the coin, as always. In this case, it means that the Drone D1 has only an 80mAh battery; the other con that I thought the Drone D1 would have is absent. The aircraft is in fact pretty stable in the air (might require a little trimming) and is fairly maneuverable.

Drone D1 (4)_result-4

It also comes with headless mode which should help you if you’re new to quadcopters. Here’s an explanation of what headless mode means should you not be aware.

The 80mAh battery sounds a little too small, but it does manage to give the Drone D1 flight times upwards of 4 minutes in most cases. Charging takes about 25 minutes when plugged on a regular USB port on a computer.

It also does flips, which should be fun if you have young kids or cats in the house. The Drone D1 costs just $16.99 shipped worldwide, and certainly is a good investment if you’re looking to get into the quadcopter hobby or just want to have some fun without spending too much.

Previous Meizu 'NUIX' ME5 leaks, shows 2.5D glass screen, 3/4GB RAM variants
Next 1999 Yuan LeTV Super Helmet is like having a 1000 inch screen in your home

5 Comments

  1. Qidamin
    September 9, 2015

    got the CX10 and I am still unable to get a stable flight…

  2. E8hffff
    September 10, 2015

    Does it have enough torque to carry a project board and solar board? You could make a little spy craft.

    • September 15, 2015

      Even if that were possible (you could do it by removing the existing canopy and fitting a home-hacked tiny solar panel): (a) it wouldn’t have the surface area to generate enough electricity to power the copter and (b) the motors would die within minutes. The reason why these have non-removable batteries is so people don’t just swap them after a flight, thus giving the motors time to cool down.

  3. Francis Sim
    September 13, 2015

    I am considering the X901 hexcopter instead. It should be more stable than quadcopter?

    • September 15, 2015

      Which one’s that? Are you referring to the MJX X901 hexacopter?