Holy Stone HS600 Review 2023 (All You Should Know)

Hello, drone enthusiasts! Welcome to my Holy Stone HS600 review.

The Holy Stone HS600 is one of the lesser-known drones of the Holy Stone brand. You’d think it’s because it’s not all that good, but you’d be dead wrong. I have seen this drone, and I must say the HS600 flies like a bird in the sky.

Holy Stone is a Chinese drone manufacturer known for selling consumer drones at low prices to the general public. The Holy Stone brand is known for its excellent customer service. If any part of your drone is damaged or in need of replacement, do not fail to contact the company.

The Holy Stone HS600 has one of the best flight capabilities of any Holy Stone drone, with a range of over 3 kilometers and one of the best cameras I’ve seen on any Holy Stone drone.

There are few advanced Holy Stone drones that compete with or surpass the HS600. It is a great budget drone for people who do not want to break the bank when buying their first drone.

In this Holy Stone HS600 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 HS600

Holy Stone HS600 Review

The Holy Stone HS600 4K camera is capable of taking pictures with crisp, clear quality. The camera sports a 2-axis gimbal with electronic image stabilization. The GPS and optical flow sensor help with flight stability, flight orbit, automatic landing, return to home, and altitude holding. With its “return to home” button, the chances of you losing your drone are almost non-existent unless you are actively trying.

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As I wrote earlier, the Holy Stone HS600 blurs the line between toy-grade drones and professional drones. However, this drone is perfect for professionals and beginners because of its easy user interface.

If you are in the market for a drone that you can practice with before moving on to a more professional drone, then the HS600 is the drone for you.

If you are in the market for a drone that you can practice with before moving on to a more professional drone, then the HS600 is the drone for you.

What’s Inside The Holy Stone HS600 Box

• 1 x Drone and Transmitter
• 2 x Drone Batteries;
• 4 x Extra Propellers;
• 2 x USB Charging Cables;
• 1 x Gimbal Cover;
• 1 x Tool for fixing propellers;
• 1 x Instructions for Use

Holy Stone HS600 Specifications

• Weight: 541 g / 19.08 oz
• Dimension:202*95*80 mm (Folded);377*260*80 mm(Unfolded)
• Flight Time:28 minutes per battery
• FPV Distance:6500~9800 feet / 2000~3000 m
• Flight Distance:6500~9800 feet / 2000~3000 m
• Camera Frequency:  5.15-5.35 Ghz, 5.725~5.825 Ghz
• Camera Angle:Tilt: -80° to 0°, 100°FOV
• Photo Resolution: 4K (3840x2160p) stored in TF card; HD3840x2160P (stored on a mobile phone)
• Video Resolution: Video: 4K(3840×2160P) stored in TF card; HD1280×720P (stored on a mobile phone)
• Live View Quality: [email protected]
• Charging Time:2 Hours
• Max Expansion: 128GB TF Card (Not Included)

Features and Benefits of the Holy Stone HS600

Let’s go over the features of the Holy Stone HS600 and its benefits to users.

Design and Build

The Holy Stone HS600 has a very compact and sturdy design. The HS600 camera is lodged underneath with a vibration-damping system that helps camera stability. This drone can be classified as a medium-sized drone with a measurement of 377 x 260 x 80 mm.

Just like most advanced Holy Stone drones, this one weighs more than 250 grams; this weight can be an advantage when flying in windy conditions, and even with its weight, the HS600 is pretty fast. Given that it weighs more than 250 grams, you will have to register it with the FAA before flying.

In the spirit of honesty, most drones are going to be difficult to fly in windy conditions. The HS600 does not fall into this category; with its level 5 wind resistance and powerful brushless motors, you can be assured of a stable and balanced flight.     

Battery Flight Time

The Holy Stone HS600 is powered by an 11.1V, 2500mAh Li-Po battery, which gives it a flight time of 23 minutes, rather than the advertised 26-minute flight time.

After testing, the Holy Stone HS600 battery takes around 2–3 hours to charge completely, which is one of the few cons of purchasing an HS600. However, the H720 comes with two batteries.

You can always purchase an extra battery; that way, you have three batteries on hand. You get up to 46 minutes of flight time with two batteries, so purchasing extra batteries may be the way to go. The HS600 batteries have cool lights to indicate the battery power level. 

Camera

The Holy Stone HS600 is equipped with a 4K camera with an operational frequency of 5 GHz that is sure to take decent shots and record video in ultra-clear 1080p. In all honesty, because there are phones with quality cameras nowadays, the drone footage may not be up to par.

The wide-angle lens has a 120-degree field of view that can capture maximum details in your shot, while the 80-degree adjustable camera lens can capture photos and videos from different perspectives.

The HS600 camera is equipped with a vibration-damping system to give some camera stability and help with overhead shots.

Remote Control

The Holy Stone HS600 remote controller is great to handle; it is pretty unique but shares some similarities with that of the HS360.

The remote control is not difficult to figure out; it’s pretty straightforward, like the return home button, power button, take off button, and speed 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 back of the remote controller holds the camera and video buttons. The left button is for the camera, and the right button is for video. Still, on the back, the zoom dial is located beneath the camera button, and the gimbal tilt button is located beneath the video button.

The front of the remote controller houses an LCD screen that displays signal strength and power levels. On the left of the controller is the speed/GPS button (you have to tap it to get the 3-speed modes, and you have to press the button for 3 seconds to switch on the GPS).

There is an emergency stop button (in case your drone is about to run into something or have an accident). The right-hand side has the “power” button and the “return to home” button (if your drone has flown outside your view, you use the “return to home” button).

The remote control comes with two double-A batteries. 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 HS600 has a maximum range of 3000 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 advantage of the Holy Stone HS600 is that it saves you money on repairs and replacements by automatically activating its Return to Home function during low battery, weak signal, or when flying out of range and returning to its initial launch position so you don’t lose it due 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 HS600 comes with a 3-speed mode that can be adjusted from the remote 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 have attested to 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. so, avoid places with trees

Durability

Like most other drones, the Holy Stone HS600 is made of plastic (reinforced plastic). The drone is light and very easy to carry.

The Holy Stone HS600 is fairly durable, despite being made of light and strong plastic; it can even stay together after falling one or two times. However, you should take precautions.

Holy Stone HS600 Pros and Cons

Here, I’ll go over what I like and don’t like about the Holy Stone HS600

Pros: What I Like About the Holy Stone HS600

• The drone is pretty easy to fly.
• Its camera is pretty sharp
• 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, a “follows me” mode, a return to home, and intelligent batteries.
• Instruction manuals are easy to follow (they did a great job transmitting from Chinese to English)
• It records and saves your footage on both the SD card on the drone and your phone’s memory.

Cons: What I Don’t Like About The Holy Stone HS600

• The 4K camera drains the battery power faster.
• Might be difficult for beginners
• The landing light does not work properly
• 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 HS600 Set Up

I’ll go over some basic setups for the Holy Stone HS600 if you’re a beginner drone pilot who doesn’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 HS600

The first step is to charge the Holy Stone HS600 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 HS600

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

3. Pairing the Holy Stone HS600 With Your Smartphone

The next step is to pair the Holy Stone HS600 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 HS600

This is the final step you have to take before you can begin flying the drone.

Step #1: Switch on your drone and the remote controller, and flip the joysticks upwards when everything is on.

Step #2: 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 #3: 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.

Step #4: Press the joystick in and flip it down to switch on the propellers. With that, your drone is ready for flight.

Simply step outdoors and choose a space free of obstructions like telephone or power wires.

Best Alternatives to the Holy Stone HS600

In this section, I’ll share with you three alternatives to the Holy Stone HS600 to give you more options:

1. Holy Stone HS720E (Best Overall Holy Stone Drone)

In my opinion, the Holy Stone HS720E is the best holy stone drone. It’s easy to use, has advanced flight mode, & comes with dual batteries for a more fun time and a 4K EIS anti-shake camera with a Sony sensor

2. DJI Mavic Mini (Best DJI Alternatives)

The DJI Mavic Mini is my best DJI alternative to the Holy Stone HS720. 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 HS430 (Best Budget Holy Stone Drone)

The Holy Stone HS430 is my best-budget Holy Stone drone. It’s pocket-sized, easy to use, and comes with all the basic features and functions of premium drones on the market without the expensive price tag.

Holy Stone HS600 Safety Tips

Below are some safety tips you should be aware of before flying your Holy Stone HS600 to ensure a fun and safe flight for you and everyone around you:

• For your safety and that of the drone, avoid flying near or over obstacles, high-voltage power lines, crowds, trees, water bodies, and airports.
• The minimum recommended flying age for the HS600 is 16 years.
• You’re advised to fly in open areas, where you can maintain a line of sight and preferably below heights of 120 meters.
• Be careful with rotating motors and propellers, and keep a distance to avoid ear damage by the drone’s nose.
• Avoid flying in extreme weather conditions such as rain, fog, snow, and strong wind.
• Avoid flying the drone when tired, under the influence of alcohol, under medication, or when in any physical discomfort.
• Keep the drone clean and well-maintained.
• Read the user manual thoroughly before flying the HS600.
• Follow the battery safety rules as outlined in the user manual.
• Fly the drone with a fully charged battery, and perform all the recommended pre-flight procedures before takeoff.
• Follow your local laws on drone flying, and avoid flying in No-Fly zones.
• Always check the drone, controller, and battery for damages and correct installation before a flight.
• The onboard compass can be affected by electromagnetic fields near base stations or power lines.

Final Thoughts on the Holy Stone HS600

The Holy Stone HS600’s thrilling features set it apart from other Holy Stone drones. Overall, the Holy Stone HS600 is one of the top professional/beginner drones on the market, with features found in most professional drones. Its advanced GPS technology makes it easy to handle, and the flight is seamless.

The HS600 is not perfect, but it will surely fulfill your flight needs. Its flight time, flight handle, camera, and several other tweaks make it one of the cutting-edge drones out there

You can also check out the best Holy Stone drones to see the reviews of various drones from the Holy Stone series to see the benefits they have in store for you.

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