Hello, drone enthusiasts! Welcome to my Holy Stone HS120D review.
There are a lot of drones out there with lofty claims, but I hope that through my honest review, you can make an informed decision on whether to purchase the particular drone of interest.
The Holy Stone HS120D was originally released in 2019 with a 1080P camera for capturing your moments and scenery. It was famous for its easy user interface, which is incredible for beginners and teenagers.
The Holy Stone drones are great for people who do not want to break the bank when buying their first one. This drone has a lot of great features that are present in more expensive drones.
In this Holy Stone HS120D review, I will go over the features and benefits of this beginner drone to show you if the drone is the right choice for you before you go ahead and purchase it.
Quick Overview of the Holy Stone HS120D
The Holy Stone HS170 comes equipped with an amazing 2K HD camera; For a drone’s price, it has a “Return Home Feature” in case you eventually lose sight of your drone.
The Holy Stone HS120D may not be sophisticated enough for professionals. Still, it is perfect for beginners who are new to the drone space.
It has a lot of decent features that would make flight an exciting experience
The Holy Stone HS120D is one of the best beginner drones you can find in the UAV market. It has a ton of special features that would give you a pleasurable flight, all at a decent price.
It can be flown by drone pilots of all skill levels, but it’s best suited for beginners intending to fly for recreational use.
What’s Inside the Holy Stone HS120D Box
- 1 x HS120D Drone and Transmitter
- 1 x Carrying Backpack
- 3 x 7.4V 1200mAH Batteries
- 2 x Extra Landing Gears
- 4 x Propellers
- 1 x USB Battery Charger
- 1 x User Manual
Holy Stone HS120D Specifications
- Weight: 221 g / 7.8oz
- Dimension: 270*270*120 mm
- Flight Time: 18 minutes x3
- Charging Time: 120 minutes
- FPV Distance: 328~492 feet
- Flight Distance: 984 feet
- Camera Lens: 120°FOV/2.0
- Camera Angle: -75° to 0°
- Video/photo Resolution: HD2048×1152P (stored in TF card); HD1920×1080P (stored on a mobile phone)
- Max Expansion: 128GB TF Card (Not Included)
Features and Benefits of the Holy Stone HS120D
Let’s go over the features of the Holy Stone HS120D and its benefits to the users.
Design and Build
The Holy Stone HS120D has a similar design and dimensions to other HS100 models, particularly the Holy Stone 110D. This drone can be classified as a small drone with a measurement of 270*270*120 mm.
Its size can be an advantage because the Holy Stone HS 120D weighs less than 250 grams, so you do not need to register with the FAA before flying your drone. That’s a major plus if you ask me.
Since we are being honest, the size can also be a drawback, as flying this drone on a particularly windy day can be a bit of a challenge.
So, while you should avoid flying on a windy day, that doesn’t mean the drone can’t fly on a windy day; it just means it will be difficult and might stress the propellers.
The detachable battery fits in a hole that can be found on the side of the drone, while the camera is fixed underneath the drone to give it enough clearance to capture footage from different angles.
Battery Flight Time
The Holy Stone HS120D is powered by a 7.4V 1200mAh Li-Po battery that gives it a 16-minute flight time, which is different from the 16-minute flight time that’s advertised on the sales page.
After testing, the Holy Stone HS120D battery takes around 2 hours to charge completely, which is impressive compared with other drones of similar size and battery that usually take 5 hours to charge completely.
You can always have two batteries on hand; that way, you get up to 32 minutes of flight time, so purchasing extra batteries may be the way to go.
Camera
The Holy Stone HS120D is equipped with a 2K camera that can take pretty decent shots, and the video quality is 1080p.
In all honesty, due to the fact that there are phones with quality cameras nowadays, the drone footage may not be up to par. The camera also streams video but can also record, which can be stored on its SD card.
The wide-angle lens has a 120-degree field of view that can capture maximum details in your shot. While the 90-degree adjustable camera lens can capture photos and videos from different perspectives,
The photos can be saved on your phone, while videos can be stored on your SD card. Your smartphone prevents losing the picture in the event of a lost signal or low battery.
However, do not expect the videos to be of the same quality as those from other, significantly more expensive drones.
Remote Control
The Holy Stone HS120D remote is great to handle; it has a similar design to DJI drone remote controllers.
The remote control is not difficult to figure out; it’s pretty straightforward, like the return home button, power button, take off button, and land button.
First, you have to unfold the controller. At the upper part are the antennae for Wi-Fi, then your phone holder, and at the lower part are the grip handles.
The power button is on the right, which you can press to turn on and long press to turn off, and the “return to home” button is on the left.
Long pressing the button on the upper left side turns off GPS and enters headless mode (allowing you to fly in any direction).
The upper right button also serves as a takeoff and landing button; in an emergency, you can long press this button to land all at once.
At the back, there is a button for taking pictures and another for video recording.
At the back of the remote, there is something like a small wheel; the left-hand side is for speed adjustment, while the right-hand side is for camera angle.
The remote comes with its own battery and USB port for charging; you will not have to charge the controller a lot as they are pretty long-lasting.
You have to download the Holy Stone drone app, which is available for both Android and iOS devices, to connect your smartphone to the drone and also utilize the FPV feature.
Control Range
The Holy Stone HS120D has a maximum range of 300 meters before it loses connection with your smartphone and remote control.
The good thing about this drone is that it will continue to record footage even after it loses connection and save it to the SD card attached to the camera.
Another positive factor about the Holy Stone HS120D is that it saves you money on repairs or replacing it by automatically activating its Return to Home function during low battery, weak signal, or when flying out of range and returning back to its initial launch position so you don’t lose it to crashes and damages
GPS-Assisted Flight Experience
The GPS-assisted flight feature provides you with accurate positioning details for your drone. If the GPS is on, it enables the return home function, just in case you lose sight of the drone.
Speed and Power
The Holy Stone HS120D comes with a 3-speed mode, which can be adjusted from the left-hand side of the controller to vary your speed during flight.
Holy Stone doesn’t give a direct specification of the speed on the sales page but many people who purchased the drone on Amazon testified on how far it can go.
You should be careful about going into full-speed mode because it doesn’t have an obstacle avoidance mode. Plus, you’re more likely to collide with obstacles if you’re a beginner drone pilot.
Durability
Like most other drones, the Holy Stone HS120D is made of plastic. The drone is light and very easy to carry.
The Holy Stone HS120D is fairly durable, despite being made of light and strong plastic; it can even stay together after falling from flight one or two times. However, you should take precautions.
Holy Stone HS120D Pros and Cons
Here, I’ll go over what I like and don’t like about the Holy Stone HS120D
Pros: What I Like About the Holy Stone HS120D
- The take-off is pretty basic.
- The GPS signal is very strong and does not lag
- Its user interface is pretty basic, and novice fliers will quickly catch up.
- Very reliable and fun to use for beginners
- Doesn’t have glitches or problems.
- It comes right out of the box ready to use
- Very super simple to calibrate
- GPS mode enables precise positioning and prevents losing the drone
- Built-in altitude hold function allows the drone to fly while its height locked
- It has amazing specs like GPS, follows-me mode, returns to home, and intelligent batteries.
- Instruction manuals are easy to follow (they did a great job translating from Chinese to English)
- It records and saves your footage in both the SD card on the drone and your phone’s memory.
Cons: What I Don’t Like About The Holy Stone HS120D
- It can be difficult to fly during windy periods
- The drone doesn’t have a gimbal attached to it so your footage can be shaky during windy conditions.
- The follow me button can have a lag response time
- It doesn’t have obstacle avoidance mode. This means you have to fly the drone in open areas without lamp posts, tall buildings, electricity lines, trees, and other obstacles.
Holy Stone HS120D Set Up
I’ll go over some basic setups of the Holy Stone HS120D if you’re a beginner drone pilots who don’t know how to set up the drone. However, you’ll have to exercise patience so you don’t screw things up.
1. Charging the Holy Stone HS120D
The first step is to charge the Holy Stone HS120D remote control and the drone battery with the USB cord. Unfortunately, only one USB cable is provided in the package, so you’ll either have to wait for one of them to get full before charging the other or simply buy another USB cable.
2. Assembling the Holy Stone HS120D
Putting on the propellers: This shouldn’t be too difficult. Holy Stone provided a magnetic screwdriver to help in attaching the screws to prevent them from falling off. They also provided extra screws in case you misplaced some while attaching the propellers to the body of the drone.
Install the propeller guards if you want
Insert the charged battery in the battery slot of the drone
The landing gear comes pre-assembled as with the SD card.
3. Pairing the Holy Stone HS120D With Your Smartphone
The next step is to pair the Holy Stone HS120D drone with your smartphone
1) Download the Holy Stone app on your phone – free
2) Turn on the controller
3) Switch on the drone’s battery. The battery’s lights will show the charge level; four lights indicate a full charge. Before successful pairing and calibration, the drone’s lights will flash white and pink/red.
4) Go to the WIFI section of your phone’s settings and choose the Holy Stone WIFI signal.
5) Click the enter device button in the app’s first page’s center after launching the Holy Stone app.
4. Calibrating the GPS of the Holy Stone HS120D
This is the final step you have to take before you can begin flying the drone.
Step #1: Rotate the drone counterclockwise while it is on the ground by standing above it, looking down at it from above, and rotating it while it is on the ground as if you were turning off a faucet. When this is successful, two of the drone’s lights ought to cease flashing and go blue.
Step #2: Turn the drone 90 degrees so that it is on its side, then spin it so that the propeller guards are perpendicular to the ground and rotating in a plane that is parallel to the ground. The second time you correctly spin the drone, the second pair of lights will cease flashing and turn white. So, the drone’s four lights—two of which are white and two of which are blue—are all solid and not flashing.
NOTE: The GPS button (the one with the image of a compass on it on the controller’s left side) must be turned off if you are inside because you cannot get GPS inside (unless it is a very large space, which I don’t recommend doing).
Simply step outdoors and choose a space free of obstructions like telephone or power wires.
Best Alternatives to the Holy Stone HS120D
In this section, I’ll share with you three alternatives to the Holy Stone HS120D to give you more options:
1. Holy Stone HS710 (Best Alternative Under 250 Grams)
The Holy Stone HS710 came out as my best alternative to the HS120D under 250 grams.
Like the HS120D, the HS710 also saves you from FAA registration, but it also comes with a ton of special features that make it worth buying, like a 4K camera with 5G FPV transmission, intelligent flight modes, and many more.
2. DJI Mavic Mini (Best DJI Alternatives)
The DJI Mavic Mini is my best DJI alternative to the Holy Stone HS120D. What I like about the Mavic Mini is that it has a long flight time of 30 minutes. Not just that, it comes with a triple battery for triple the fun and a 2.7K HD camera attached to a 3-axis gimbal that provides camera stability and smooth footage.
3. Holy Stone HS720G (Best Advanced Alternatives)
The Holy Stone HS720G is my best-advanced alternative to the Holy Stone HS120D. What attracted me to the HS720G is the 4K EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) camera that’s stabilized by a 2-axis motorized gimbal, which provides stunning aerial photography without any blurry or shaky footage.
Final Thoughts on the Holy Stone HS120D
This brings me to the end of the Holy Stone HS120D review.
Overall, the Holy Stone HS120D is a great beginner drone equipped with an advanced GPS system that will give you the perfect start to the world of unmanned aerial vehicles.
It combines several amazing characteristics, including a high-definition camera, a lengthy flight time, and thrilling intelligent flight modes, so that both beginning and experienced pilots may enjoy flying it.
The best part of the Holy Stone HS120D is that it won’t cost you a fortune to own one of them. It retails for less than $200 at the time of writing this article and gives you great value for your money.
You can also check out the best Holy Stone drones to see the reviews of various drones from the Holy Stone series and know the benefits they have in store for you.
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