Drones Globe's Blog: FQ11 Review – Pocket size portable drone with 0.3MP WiFi camera.

Have you heard about mini, portable drones? They tend to be ideal solution for casual flyers who don’t want to be limited by (large) size of drone. Recently, we tested one drone from “portable” category. In the text below you can read more about our observations.

FQ11-drone-and-controller

FQ11 Specifications:
– Wi-Fi FPV with 0.3MP camera
– Inverted Flight, 3D Flip
– Headless flight mode
– One key return to home
– 6-axis gyroscope
– LED lights for night flights
– 3.7v 220mAh Li-Po battery
– Longer Flight time: around 7-10 minutes
– Available colors: black, gold, slivery and rose

– Foldable size: 4.5 x 4.5 x 2.9cm
– Unfoldable size: 5.3 x 5.3 x 2.9cm
Check price here

FQ11 comes in two different versions, with and without WiFi camera. We have tested model with 0.3MP WiFi camera. When they first came out, I was little pessimistic about mini/nano drones. Let’s be serious, how can something that small provide you great flying experience. But, I was wrong, really wrong.

Box and unboxing

It comes in relatively small and compact box, and everything you need is included in the package. Phone holder, screwdriver, screws and charging cable. Plus, of course, drone and controller. Screwdriver is used only for battery cover on controller, so don’t be worried about it. You don’t have to assemble anything on drone, it comes 100% ready to fly.

Design and durability

Innovative and cool, that’s simplest way to describe FQ11s design concept. Its wings are foldable, when folded, drone is significantly smaller and can fit into stand on controller. That’s probably main feature of this drone. When you put it into controller, it’s very portable. You can carry it around, wherever you go. I was holding it in pocket of my Nike tracksuit.

Now, it doesn’t come with standard “legs” I saw on other nano drones. Problem is, when legs (landing gear) on nano drones are 100% made of plastic, drone can easily flip over when you land it roughly. FQ11 doesn’t have that problem, they put some extra landing gear made of rubber. When you land it roughly, that rubber absorbs shot and drone won’t flip over. FQ11 comes with LED lights. That makes it great fit for night flights. Visibility is great and you shouldn’t have problems determining drones position or direction during night flights.

Flight time and control range

Another thing I was worried about when it comes to nano drones – flight time. Luckily, I was wrong, again. FQ11 3.7V 220mAh LiPo battery that should provide you with 7-8 minutes of flight time. Solid results for drone of this size. Battery is “built-in”, which means you can’t take it out as you probably used to if you owned some large drone. Drone has charging port on the left side, that’s where you plug in charger. It takes around 60-80 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%.

Control range is not impressive, it’s somewhere around 15-20 meters on open field. I believe this is average result for drone in this category. 15 meters may sound little, but when you take in consideration that drone is very small and it would be really hard to see it on larger distances.. 15 meters looks solid. I believe this is easily improvable with some simple antenna mods. I’ll test it out and update this review once I do it.

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fq11-controller-functions

Flight performance

FQ11 is vers responsive. You have to be easy on controls if you want to fly it precisely. It has great power/weight ratio. For an example, you can easily do “air jumps” with this drone. Flying in circle is easy too. It took me few minutes to adapt on this drone. Before, I was flying mostly large drones. Large drones I’m flying are not that responsive, that makes them somehow boring compared to FQ11. This drone perfectly fits my indoor needs. I believe you’ll be happy with it too.

Conclusion

A lot of fun packed in a small drone. That’s probably the best was to describe FQ11 drone. If you’re looking for a compact, pocket size portable drone that has good flying characteristics, you’re on the right place. It’s my personal favorite for indoor flights.