Holy Stone HS720E Drone with 4K Camera for Adults

Hi all. As a drone flyer beginner, the Holy Stone HS720 Foldable GPS Drone with 4K UHD Camera was a joy to get into the drone recreational and semi-sports recording bug. I have always been my son’s football team photographer from when he was little. Now that he’s getting higher up in the league going in to Jr. Varsity I had to step up my game. They started 7 on 7 games an found the game is getting faster and taking pictures and video from the ground is not enough to help the coaches study the players and the game. I decided let’s try using a drone. The Holy Stone HS720 Foldable GPS Drone with 4K UHD Camera was so easy to setup when I opened the box and even easier to fly. The easiest was to ability to find online training videos. In less then 30 minutes I can say I was almost a pro. I removed the beginner restrictions and started to fly higher, further, and faster. The return home button was a life saver, the moment I saw I was losing control and orientation I hit the home button and the drone came right just like when I call my dog. Within one day I had enough flying time, about 2hrs with extra batteries I was ready to record my first game. Being a photographer hobbyist for over 10 years with over 100,000 pictures taken I hate myself for not buying a drone 10 years ago. Wow was the first think that came to mind when I started editing the videos. The image quality, stability, zoom and 90-degree downward angle was the best. I was able to see my son’s football game from an angle never seen before. The video was good I was getting calls from other teams to record their games. Unfortunately, I do this as a hobby and only for my son’s team. I referred them all to Holy Stone HS720 Foldable GPS Drone with 4K UHD Camera and so should you. At first, I was concerned flying a drone at a football game with so man people around I did not want the drone to fall on someone. When I started flying over the field, I was able to position myself at a perfect angle and left the drone hover at the exact same spot for the life of the battery. The only drawback was the battery life which was really 20 minutes as the drone returns home when the battery gets to 20 mins. Every time you change the battery you must resync the controller, compass, and phone which you lose time precious time during a football game. I solved this issue by purchasing two drones since the price is so slow for what you get out of the unit and 10 extra batteries for a total of $1,300 which is what a video recorded would charge for a season but from the ground. Drone recorded it was $3,500. Talk about a return on investment and I also use the drone for personal use. It helps me notice that I had some shingles missing on my roof which could have caused water damage many times over the cost of this drone. In short this is the best investment I have ever done in video photography ever. I would give Holystone 10 stars. This is not a self promotion for Holystone I am a real customer with real-life use case and story. Take the plug you will not regret it. The only caveat, if you are in the Dallas areas and we meet at a football, I get airspace priority over the game.

First the BAD: I didn’t notice it at first but the seals on the Holy Stone box had been taped over with clear tape. When unboxing the actual drone I noticed a couple of things that caused concern. There was damage to some of the propellers, scratches on the drone body, the main drone batteries were already charged and there were already batteries in the transmitter. This unit had definitely been returned and never checked out properly before reselling. The spare battery, charger and misc. extras had also been opened. I had just purchased a used drone and paid for new. Because I initially thought the Holy Stone box still had its clear seals I contacted Holy Stone support first. They quickly got back to me with how to proceed to get a new replacement from Amazon. As always there was “no questions asked” from Amazon. They immediately sent out a replacement and I don’t even have to box and ship the first one back. I just drop it off at the nearest Kohl’s store. The GOOD: This is my first drone and I did a lot of research before buying the Holy Stone HS720E. Price was of course a concern but this drone had many features that were available in much higher priced drones. A big plus for me was that there are many HS720E specific YouTube videos available for setup, calibration, and flying. Also there are videos for use of the various transmitter functions and the Ophelia Go App. I’ve only been able to fly it a few times since receiving it because of bad weather in the area but so far I love it. It's an easy drone to fly. It's remarkably stable, the GPS works well, and the video is great. The manual is very well written and easy to understand. The drone and the provided case have a quality feel. Many reviews and research indicated Holy Stone has the best customer service and I’ve only had this limited experience, but so far I would agree. It is nice to know they stand behind their products. I really like this drone and think it is an awesome buy, especially for the price. I will be doing more business with this company for sure! Amazon! You need to pay attention to returns and not ship them out again as new.

Since I'm not writing a review on the Ophelia GO app, I will only let its poor quality reflect a little bit on this review. However, since the app is crucial for operating the drone to its fullest, I think it's important to mention it here. The drone The HS720E is a pretty good drone, basically at the upper end of the budget drone market. You can easily find much better drones for about $50-100 more. But for the price, it's pretty good value. Plus, when you factor in getting two batteries and the case, controller, etc, it seems like a good deal. That said, I do not recommend this for beginners. I know this for sure, since I've got two daughters, 7 and 10, and they are beginners. They can't fly this thing, not without my close supervision. They can, however, fly the HS210 and the DeeRC D20. Those two are beginner drones. What does that mean? Well, it means if they loose control and fly it into a house or car, it won't cause that much damage. The HS720E, on the other hand, weighs in at more than 500g with the battery. This means if you loose control, this could cause some serious problems. That along with the slight lack of responsiveness (eg, there is some latency when changing directions, speeds, etc and this takes getting used to) makes this a drone that requires some better eye hand coordination and sharper reflexes. You can fly this drone without the mobile app and it's quite fun. In fact, I recommend this, in order to get the hang of it and get a feel for how it flies. Then, after you are comfortable with flying, then try the mobile app. You can more fully enjoy the video and photos after you are comfortable with the drone and its controls. The camera The video and photos are pretty nice. I really like getting way up there and taking aerial shots and collecting cool video. This part of the drone is pretty nice. Can't complain, good quality. The only minor issue is that the camera control is not that smooth. If you activate a change in rotation is seems to move in increments rather than smoothly changing direction. This gives a step-wise feel to things. On to the app IMO, the app is pretty bad. Or the connection between the app and the controller and the drone is pretty bad. I'm running a nice modern mobile device, with Android 10, so I'm pretty sure it's fine. I've flown this drone about a half dozen times, and I have experience three MAJOR problems that cause me some concern: 1. The follow me and orbit me functions don't work consistently. I had to keep trying over and over to get them to kinda work. And one time, the follow me function malfunctioned and the drone took off across a field without my control. The drone went down about 100 yards away but I thought it was going to fly off and get lost. The Wi-Fi and GPS were strong throughout this process and the emergency shut-off didn't work. 2. The app continuously looses Wi-Fi despite having clear line of sight and only being no more than 100 yards out. I've been flying this in a large park field, so it's possible that surrounding area homes' Wi-Fi are interfering. But then again, I'd imagine HS should have considered this and built in precautions... 3. The app defaults to beginner mode over zealously. It seems like every time the drone is unlocked the app resets to beginner mode, despite me changing it and saving the setting. Often, out of the blue, the drone will just stop responding (at about 20 yards out), and I look to the settings and the beginner mode is on again! Why!? I understand this is a safety precaution, but it's actually more dangerous when the app or devices changes without the user knowing it. One time this happened to me, and I almost lost control of the drone. I'm hoping that the app update fixes some of this. I'll keep troubleshooting and hopefully my HS720E experience improves. If I run into too much more trouble, I may have to bite the bullet and try another brand (eg, like DJI).

UPDATE: After more stick time with the 720E I am not so much a fan. I live in Portland, Oregon and there are very few winter days I can fly. When it’s dry but very cloudy, the drone has difficulty finding satellites. So, GPS flying is out of the question. When it’s a clear day I get about 8 satellites and can use GPS…. well, kinda. We also have lots of very tall trees and I will lose GPS frequently. Not good. But GPS flying is a bit better in an open athletic field; but kinda boring. Also, the 720E tends to have a mind of its own, and frequently drifts as much as 10 feet even when there is no wind. I think this is due to GPS issues. Also, return to home is not accurate (again, GPS). It is also slow to respond to stick movements, which is kinda scary. But not sure why this is. Yes, I am in Fast Mode. Beginner mode is almost useless. My brother lives in a high desert location. No trees, no heavy clouds; big sky country. He get 12 or more satellites and his HS720 flies great. Hmmm. I bought a DJI Mini 3 and had one learning flight with it. It has good GPS (8-10 satellites) and is very stable and responsive to the sticks. The DJI Fly app is in a different league than the Ophelia Go app. The DJI It was more than double the price of the HS720E. As they say, you get what you pay for. UPDATE: I bought an HS720 for my grandson and it is unable to connect the Ophelia Go app to the drone. Spent several hours on the phone with Holy Stone support but was not able to resolve the problem. The HS720E works fine, but the HS720 does not. Very disappointed. Now I am gun shy about buying another Holy Stone. This is my first drone, and I did a lot of research before deciding to buy the HS720E. Final decision was based on price, camera, GPS and related features, and online YouTube reviews. Plus, a friend of mine who has been flying drones for years gave the HS720E two thumbs up. The HS720E looks and feels sturdy and well made. The battery fits well, and the arms swing into place easily. I really like the small screen on the remote and the folding handles. I used an old cell phone with a 6.1” screen and it fit nicely into the phone holder at the top of the remote and stays in place. Be sure to fold down the foot pad at bottom of phone holder or the phone will not mount properly. Downloading the Ophelia Go App was also easy as was pairing the remote and the phone to the HS720E. Setup was easy and straight forward, but there is no detailed information how to use the App and it is different than what I found online. As a first-time flyer, I found the HS720E to be stable and reasonably responsive. The Take Off and Return to Home function worked extremely well. But it takes some practice getting used to the joy sticks. All in all, my first flight experience went reasonably well. I did have a few low level crashes but there was absolutely no damage. I do have one complaint, the two port battery charger apparently charges one battery at a time. It would be nice if Holy Stone included a two port battery charger that charged both batteries at the same time. But they can be purchased on Amazon for $13-$15. Otherwise, as a first time drone owner, I am very impressed with this drone!

SEE MY UPDATE AT THE END OF THIS REVIEW -SCROLL TO THE END OF MY REVIEW The Holy Stone 720e is the first drone I've ever owned or flown. As other reviewers have stated, it's an easy drone to fly. It's stable, GPS works well, the return to home function almost always returns it to within a couple of feet of the launch spot. The Learning Mode should be disregarded. Instead, in the menu, set the parameters of distance and height that you want to start out with. Unlike some other users, I found the distance before the return video feed dropped out to be only a few hundred feet. Fortunately, the controller reaches much farther and the Return to Home function will bring the drone back if you lose sight of it. Just be sure to set your Return to Home altitude high enough to clear any obstacles around or on the path. VIDEO Video is one area where I have some expertise. I've worked in broadcast television, produced BluRays, including 4K BlurRays and before retirement I worked for a major audio/video manufacturer. The 720e frequently receives high marks for video. But there are many caveats. If you expect to create professional quality video with this drone you are likely to be disappointed unless you're prepared to spend lots of time in post production trying to clean up the files. Even using DaVinci Resolve, I'm unable to get a decent, realistic color balance. CAMERA CONTROLS Limited, with no manual adjustment of shutter speed or aperture. Rudimentary Brightness and Contrast controls provided in the Ophelia GO app are almost useless. Using the auto ISO setting results in constant changes in levels, particularly if you are shooting in high contrast situations. There is no real exposure control and White or near white elements in the scene are often overexposed or blown out. The dynamic range of the very small sensor is limited and because the files are highly compressed, there is little you can do to recover in post. Shooting in fixed ISO100 results in washed out images. LENS The fixed, wide angle lens borders on a fisheye perspective unless aimed perfectly level. Depending on swivel up or down, horizon lines will be distorted. The internal processing skews the image towards the blue/magenta end of the spectrum, which can be corrected in post. Unfortunately, the lens suffers from severe chromatic aberrations with colored fringes around high contrast areas such as dark tree limbs against the sky. The lens on my drone was decentered with acceptably sharpness in the middle and right side of the frame, but decidedly soft on the left side. Shooting towards the sun or a sky with bright clouds results in loss of contrast, typical of inexpensive lenses. I devised a lens hood using sticky foam tape attached on the top edge of the camera. This reduced loss of contrast dramatically, although the magenta cast in the center of the image still remains when shooting towards the sun early morning or late afternoon. ADDITIONAL TIPS If you want to record 4K, you will need the appropriate Micro SD card inserted in the slot of the 720e. Otherwise, the return video the Ophelia app will record to your phone or pad will be 1080P. Once you've mastered flying to a point of reasonable skill and confidence, you'll be thinking about a drone with a larger sensor and better optics. All said, it's an acceptable first machine and I'm enjoying the learning experience but at this point it's an interim drone that will be passed on to a friend or grandson. If only the video and still images were as good as my iPhone or any number of other smart phones. UPDATE: After approximately a dozen flights over a four month period, the micro SD card socket failed. It refuses to seat the card, rejecting the card. Unfortunately, being one month out of warranty, Holy Stone told me the unit was not repairable but offered to sell me a new drone replacement for 15% off retail. Knowing that dealer margins are higher than 15%, I would have expected a replacement at dealer cost. Additionally, video reception from the drone is poor with limited range, likely due to the antenna design and location. It is a straight wire protruding horizontally from the left rear about 1/2". In as much as it is likely vertically polarized it should be located vertically. I bent the wire down and it improved reception distance dramatically when flying away from the launch point. However on the return the signal is blocked by the battery, resulting in loss of signal. So now I have a drone with very limited video range and because of the failed micro SD card socket, I'm unable to record to the card. I have also experienced a couple of out of control crashes, one resulted in having to replace a broken motor arm. This is not a product I could recommend with any degree of confidence. ADDITIONAL UPDATE: Reviewing the video files recorded on my micro SD card, I found several with the corruption suffix that I noticed before the card mechanism in the drone completely failed. This indicated to me evidence of a pending failure within a week of receipt of the 720e. I documented this and forwarded to Holy Stone. Fiona and Becky in their customer service department reviewed the data and I now have a replacement drone on the way. Thank you. Lesson learned. If you have any indication of failures early on with any purchase, contact the suppliers customer service. Keep all your warranty and purchase information. FOLLOW UP. The replacement 720e arrived and functions as expected. Because of the great customer service I am pleased to recommend the unit and change my review to five stars.

Well, what can I say about this drone. The drone flew great for about fifteen minutes. For about fifteen minutes, I was truly happy with this purchase. It was a birthday gift for me to me😅. Due to heavy winds lately and time constraints work, and all that good stuff. I did not get a chance to actually fly the drone till today. There was a slight sea breeze, nothing out of the ordinary. For my first drone, this was actually a really good drone had good picture quality, really responsive on the controls super simple to fly. Very user of friendly. I had it hovering about thirty to forty meters off the ground.And then it just went straight into the ground. Initially, nothing really popped out at me. Till I really took a really close look, and I noticed that one of the small screws that held the propellers in place was missing. Each propeller is held in place by two small screws. Since one screw fell off, it was easy to determine its sudden nose dive into the sand. Is there a result of the kamakazi dive into the sand I was not turn able to turn off the drone, had to remove th battery and one of the propeller arms broke redering it completely useless on its inaugural flight.... put the battery back in and it will not turn on at all it is utterly useless. Again, This was my first drone, which means it never dawned on me to check every screw to make sure that it was tight. Which leads me to believe that this is just poor quality control by the manufacturer. 1 little screw. In final... good drone, easy to use responsive. Inexpensive, really good Video quality, picture quality is okay, for a beginner, I think it would be worth it. Just make sure you check every single screw before you fly (the manufacturer does not!) Video attached of it's first and final flight (last few seconds anyway)

My husband wanted a drone and so began my search to find the right one for him. He wanted one that takes good pictures/videos, but did not want to spend too much for one when he has never done this before and wanted to make sure he would like it! Spent a lot of hours reading reviews, watching You Tube Videos, and decided Holy Stone was the brand, and went with the HS720E for the Electronic Image Stabilizer because my husband's hands can be a little shaky. Perfect choice! Pictures are amazing, relatively easy for a newbie, and really like the Ophelia GO app that Holy Stone uses. This one comes with 2 batteries (which is a minimal must IMO), case is very nice. We ordered landing gear and prop guards, a landing pad & 128 GB micro SD card (the largest size it takes) and are pleased with all of the purchases. When he went up the first time, seemed to get out a few meters, then hover. After a few minutes and input from both sons, realized we were in beginner mode on the app. Shut that off and everything was great. Brakes well, very responsive, did well in wind, even at higher levels. Every question we had ended up being a new user lesson and not an issue with the drone. Can highly recommend this drone. I see a lot of fun in the future with this drone. Really amazing what they can do. Because this one exceeds the 250g weight, you do need to get the Remote ID Module. But you just call Holy Stone and they take care of that for you, no charge, and we had ours in 3 business days. HOLY STONE customer service is quite impressive. Contacted me after it shipped, made sure we were satisfied, questioned if there was anything else we needed help with. We couldn't be happier with the purchase!

FINAL UPDATE: please keep in mind that this company has replaced the drone multiple times without cost. However my final review of this drone is that it is not something for anyone that intents to use the drone for video or photo for more than a few months. The camera is billed as 4k however the footage is very grainy and at only an average fps of 30. This makes very difficult footage to work with. Also the drone is difficult to control smoothly even when in calm aor so you shots are chaotic at best. After all the replacements, the latch on the battery has trouble staying closed and will slide out if you are not careful. Please make sure that when inserting the battery, even if you hear the click that you verify the battery is truly locked in. I had a catastrophic failure and crash because the battery slide out slightly from the drone in a sharp turn and fell 160 ft. Again I thank the company for all of the help and replacements however, will will not be buying a new one at this time to replace my broken drone because there is a high chance that some defect will be in the new one. I plan on saving up and buying a DJI for my future needs. UPDATE: I have received a total of 3 replacements of this drone. The company has been very accomodating with the issues that I have been having. The last drone I used only 3 times and the SD care slot stopped holding in the SD card. A few things to keep in mind with this drone. 1. Because the WiFi connection is to the drone and not through the controller, you will loose signal if the drone goes more than 500 ft away. 2. Wind is your enemy, if there are any gusts over about 10 mph, it will struggle to stay in the air and stable. 3. Make sure you have plenty of space to land because it doesn't always land where you took off from, it will slide and move close to the ground up to 5 feet before finally setting down and turning off. 4. The controller is alway in meters and can't be changed but the software will show ft if configured. 5. Self repair is almost impossible due to the very tiny wires being soldered direct to the boards with no removable connector. 6. The frame is made of plastic and can't take much force. It will snap very easily. 7. Photography mode is really only useful in a controlled environment. It is too slow to fly in that mode with any wind whatsoever. UPDATE: I contacted the manufacturer and they gave me a full refund for the original drone and sent me a free replacement. I am grateful to them for such actions. However I will mention that the quality of product is poor. The new drone they sent me has a bad SD card slot and my card will not lock into the drone. This makes the drone useless for taking video as there is no way to get 4k video out of it without the SD card. I liked that it was not expensive. It does fly and maneuver fairly well but if I had known how unstable it would be, I probably would have bought DJI. This is my first drone so I have been learning to fly it but I had some basic expectations. 1. Hover - I expected it to stay put when I am not flying it. When I tell it to take off, it should hover over the ground and stay within a narrow range. What it does is drift badly and sometimes go flying off in one direction or another forcing me to take control and bring it back. 2. Landing - I expected it to land on flat ground / pavement without major issue. When it tries to set down it may drift and sway for several feet. 3. Phone connection - WiFi in open area should have a really good connection. What I have found is that it is less than 50 feet from the phone. Would I buy this device again? Probably not. For a kid or teen, yeah it would be a cheap drone that would not be bad.

Ojala y pudieran tener el manual en esañol

This is a quality drone, well made and easy to use. I found it ideal for my first experience with owning a drone. The documentation is good and the software works well. I had no trouble getting it airborne, flying it around and using the camera. I found it to be very good quality for the price - I was quite impressed. The camera, at 4K, isn’t as good as I had hoped for, but it is good enough. All in all - I’m very happy with the purchase.

I’ve had the drone for 2 weeks now and I’m loving it. Easy to use and great value for money. Highly recommended great photos and video.

Incredible value for money considering the features, my main shopping point was the follow me feature. Set up was easy once you get past the 5Hr battery charge cycle, so far this would be my only gripe. HS720E ships with two batteries & while the charger can doc two only 1 charges while the other sits on standby waiting for the first to finish. Unit does not ship with the 5v 2A plug so initially I plugged the charger with supplied lead into the PC – that’s useless, so after 6 Hrs I changed to the IOS or Android plug I have and away we go, at a claimed 26 minutes each - that's amazing. Packaging is impressive too compartments keeping things tight and it’s clear on look alone the carry case can take a few bumps. The supplied Instruction book in multiple languages very well written and presented, font on the light small side for my old eyes but fortunately when unit is connected to your phone there is access to video tutorials; I suggest a combination of reading and videos. Getting up in the air took me 3 minutes to figure out that you first unlock the motors then hit the auto take off & hover, this is a GREAT feature as once landed motors lock to prevent accidental take-off, putting the small remote down last thing you need is this taking off in any direction – more so if you had the high speed engaged! – it can get up an boogie for sure… I’m glad I had it on slow! Of which is a great speed from the two available for learning, yes I hit the fence, TWICE… , arm folded in BUT no damage!! WOW – Unit is well constructed, looks and feels solid, at just under 500g motors are quite and keep this thing stable, I had some wind at 31 Celsius and took it up to 8 Mtrs but it’s like a frozen moment, sits there looking at you… and Sony Image stabilisation incredible… and I love the underside landing light.. I’m yet to hit the park for my big test flight and play with features, Follow me, Orbit and GPS tap way points but so far I’m impressed, it’s clear a lot of people and thought went in to this package, well done Holy Stone – at this price point it’s hard to look past & suggest your hardest decision will be comparing against which HS model you choose! as opposed to another brand!! As a beginner I wanted the Follow me, 4K, & long flight time and while there’s no obstacle avoidance on this model, a DJI was just NOT in my budget for the latter three. At this price & this stage of my life, if I take it up and through beginner error loose or bust it up yes I’ll be pissed for a few weeks BUT, if I did the same on a DJI!!! – I’d be pissed every time I see a drone for the rest of my life… for me the HS720E was an easy choice and no brainer..

Very good quality with a great price just takes a while to learn how to control