Hello drone enthusiasts! Welcome to my Holy Stone HS700D review.
Buying your first drone can be intimidating, especially for drone enthusiasts new to unmanned aerial vehicles. There are numerous beginner drones from Holy Stone to choose from, which might make you consider if the Holy Stone HS700D is really worth buying or not.
The Holy Stone HS700D was originally released in 2019 as the HS700 with a detachable 1080P camera but was later upgraded in 2021 to the HS700D which comes with a non-detachable 2K HD camera and anti-jello mount for capturing your moments and scenery.
The Holy Stone HS700 has left some bad experiences on its previous users who complained a lot about the lack of a power button and other features on the drone. The HS700D promises to solve the problems found in the HS700. But the question is “Did the HS700D really solve those problems?”
In this Holy Stone HS700D 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 to purchase it.
Quick Overview of the Holy Stone HS700D
The Holy Stone HS700D is an upgrade to the HS700 that’s non-foldable and has a weight of 630 grams which reduces shaky footage and drifting away during hover mode. It also comes equipped with a 4K camera that can be tilted up to 90 degrees, and an intelligent flight mode, that makes it easy to fly.
It has a flight time of 20 minutes and a transmission range of 900 meters which gives you enough time and distance to hone your flying skills and explore your environment without worrying about crashing.
The Holy Stone HS700D comes with intelligent flight features like Tap to Fly, Point of Interest, Follow Me Mode, and GPS Auto Return that make it easy to fly and provide you with a good flight experience.
Difference Between The Holy Stone HS700D and HS700
The Holy Stone HS700D and the HS700 share almost the same similarities except for a few differences which I will share with you below
- The HS700 has a detachable 1080P camera while the HS700D has a non-detachable 2K HD camera.
- The HS700 doesn’t have a power button while the HS700D has a push power button
- The HS700 camera doesn’t have an anti-jello mount, while the HS700D camera has an anti-jello mount.
What’s Inside the Box of the Holy Stone HS700D
Inside the Holy Stone HS700D package, you should expect to get the following items:
- 1*Drone (with Manual)
- 1*Transmitter (with Phone Holder)
- 1*Drone Battery
- 1*USB Charging Cable
- 1* Dual Balance Charger
- 1*Charge Transfer Box
- 8*Propellers (with Propellers Spanner)
- 2*Landing Gear
- 1*Screwdriver
- 2* Landing Gear
- 1*Pouch
- 1*Logbook
Holy Stone HS700D Specifications
- Weight: 630 g / 22 oz ( FAA Needed)
- Dimension: 434 x 434 x 151 mm (Without protection guards)
- Flight Time: 22 minutes
- Charging Time: 5~7 Hours
- FPV Distance: 984~1640 feet / 300~500 m
- Flight Distance: 3280 feet / 900m
- Camera Frequency: 5Ghz
- Camera Angle: -90° to 0°
- Video/photo Resolution: 3840 x 2160 / 4k (stored in TF card); 1920 x 1080 (stored on mobile phone)
- Live Video Transmission Range: 984~1640 ft
- Max Control Range: 3280ft
- Max Expansion: 32GB TF Card (Not Included)
- Motor: 2204 1400KV Brushless Motor
- Battery Capacity: 2800 mAh 7.4V
Features and Benefits of the Holy Stone HS700D
Design and Build
The Holy Stone HS700D is a non-foldable drone that comes in a compact case made of ABS plastic that protects it from crashes. It has a matte black coating with a silver accent that gives it a modern appearance. Personally, I love the black color, which makes the drone visible in the sky when flying.
The HS700D comes with propeller guards that protect the blades from damage when they come in contact with an obstacle. This feature will save you money from buying extra propellers after a collision.
The Holy Stone HS700D is a non-foldable drone that measures 15.2 x 15.2 x 6.1 inches and weighs 630 g.
Personally, I’m not a fan of non-foldable drones. They aren’t convenient for traveling because they don’t fit easily inside a suitcase or backpack. They’re just too bulky to fit inside something small if you’re someone who loves to travel light.
You’ll have to buy a separate carrying case for the drone if you plan to carry it on your next trip, or purchase something like the Holy Stone 720E that’s foldable and portable.
It also has dual landing gears that make it easy to land your drone anywhere without a landing pad.
The drone is quite heavy, but not as heavy as the DJI Mavic 3. Also, you’ll need to register the drone with the relevant government aviation authority in your country if you reside in the UK, USA, or Canada because it weighs more than the minimum weight of 250 grams.
The Holy Stone HS510 has dual LED lights located on each leg of the motor. I love this feature because the LED light helps you locate the drone from a distance, especially when flying at night.
This feature works optimally during the night and gives the drone a lovely look from afar.
The Holy Stone HS700D also comes with brushless motors that produce less noise than drones with brushed motors. The major benefits of brushless motors are that they consume less power, are more powerful, and do not overheat.
The detachable Li-Po battery is located at the end of the drone and fits inside a compartment.
The 2K HD camera is attached to the bottom of the drone and connected to an end-to-end USB-C cable. The camera can also be adjusted for an angle of up to 90 degrees to provide wide-angle footage
The HS700D includes a microSD card slot that can accommodate cards up to 32 GB in size.
However, no TF memory card is included when you buy the drone. You can choose to record images and movies directly to your phone’s memory, but the quality will be lower than on a microSD card.
The Holy Stone HS700D offers a well-made drone controller with user-friendly controls that is powered by four AA batteries. In order to fly this drone, you’ll also need to download the HS GPS V1 app, which is available for both iOS and Android.
Camera
The Holy Stone HS700D comes equipped with a 2K HD camera with a 120-degree wide field of view. It’s capable of taking crystal-clear and sharp photographs at 2K resolution and can shoot 4K videos at 16 fps when stored on the SD card or 1080P videos when stored on your mobile phone.
The single-axis gimbal stabilization on the camera is less efficient than a three-axis gimbal. As a result, the videos will probably be shakier than you’d like. The camera angle may be manually tilted up to 90 degrees using the remote control.
With low-latency 5G-enabled FPV video transmission, the Holy Stone HS700D enables you to experience the world from a birds-eye perspective—and in real-time, as well. Up to 300 to 500 meters away, you can see whatever your quadcopter sees.
Overall, the Holy Stone HS700D is a good upgrade from the HS700 in terms of camera quality because you’re getting a 2K HD camera instead of the previous 1080P.
The only good thing about the HS700 detachable camera is that you can replace it with a 4K or 8K GoPro camera of superior quality.
Battery Flight Time
The Holy Stone HS510 comes with a 7.6V Li-Po 2800 mAh battery, which will give you an average flight time of around 22 minutes.
Flight time can be influenced by some factors that can increase or decrease it, like flight speed, wind speed, temperature, weather, flight style, and many more.
It is a safe, rectangular, modular battery that is easy to insert and remove. The Holy Stone HS700D also consumes fewer power thanks to its brushless motors, which give you a relatively quiet flight.
However, the Holy Stone HS700D package doesn’t come with extra batteries, even when it comes with a charger that has dual charging ports. Well, you can purchase extra batteries to remedy the situation.
It has an average charging time of 3 hours, which is okay for a drone with its price tag when compared to the HS700, which has an average charging time of 5 hours.
You can always increase the flight time of the drone by purchasing more batteries or using a fast charger to get a 90-minute charge time.
Remote Control
The Holy Stone HS510 remote control has an ergonomic design with a ton of buttons, some of which don’t work. My major issue with the remote control is that it’s powered by four AA batteries, which you’d have to buy separately after the drone.
The side of the remote control features a rotary dial that can be used to adjust the tilt angle of the camera from zero to 90 degrees.
The top of the remote control’s front face features a 1-key take-off and landing button, a lock button, a return to home button, and the camera button, which you can press once to take a photo or hold for long to record a video, and a return to the home button.
The front face also contains the power switch, a right joystick for direction control, a left joystick for throttle or rudder control, a GPS mode activation button, and a helo-smoke button.
The bottom of the remote control’s front face has a small screen with a digital display. The screen displays the battery level of both the drone and the remote control, the drone’s distance from you, its altitude above sea level, and if the GPS is connected or not.
The remote control also features a retractable phone holder on the front side that fits standard-sized phones. The HS700 remote control handles are also foldable for your convenience and comfort.
Control Range
The Holy Stone HS700D has a maximum range of 800 meters before it loses connection with your smartphone and remote control. But the good thing with this drone is that it will keep on recording the footage even after it has lost its connection and save your media on the SD card attached to the camera.
Another good thing about the Holy Stone HS700D is that it saves you money from 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
Holy Stone HS700D Performance and Usability
The Holy Stone HS700D comes with awesome performance and intelligent flight features that make it easy to fly and also provide you with an overall pleasurable flight experience. It also has an excellent 1-key flight feature coupled with an inbuilt GPS module, which grants you stability in windy conditions.
Below are some intelligent flight features of the Holy Stone HS700D drone:
- Tap Fly: This allows you to customize a flight path for the drone and watch it fly and record footage along the defined path hand-free without touching the remote control
- Point of Interest: The drone locks onto a selected point and orbits or hovers around it.
- Follow Me: Just as the name says, the drone will lock onto your phone and follow you around from behind.
- GPS Auto Return: This feature enables your drone to return to its starting position under emergency conditions like low battery or lost signal, or when you activate the feature with a one-key click.
- Altitude Hold: This feature helps the drone maintain a vertical height when flying forward. This feature is very useful for beginner drone pilots until they become good at flying.
Speed and Power
The only issue with the Holy Stone HS700D speed is that it has only one-speed mode. This means you cannot vary your speed during the flight. This isn’t that bad because the drone still flies fast in the air.
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.
Holy Stone HS700D Pros and Cons
Let’s go over what I like and don’t like about the Holy Stone HS700D
Pros: What I Like About the HS700D
- The drone responds quickly to the remote control
- Has a decent average flight time of 20 minutes
- Easy to set up and fly from the get-go
- It’s compact and can resist multiple crashes
- Has a decent control range and duration
- Low latency FPV
- Quick response to customer support from Holy Stone
- Reliable Return to Home and GPS works great
- Good visibility with nice bright red and green lights under each propeller
- There is no need to cool down between flights because the brushless motors dissipate heat easily.
Cons: What I Don’t Like About The HS700D
- Has a long charging time of 3 hours
- The anti-jello mount is not as stable as a gimbal with a traditional gimbal.
- The recorded video has drop-frame issues.
- Not much configuration about the camera via the App (no shutter, resolution, and customizable settings)
- You can’t adjust the camera angle when flying in mid-air
- No map will be displayed on your smartphone when flying in an area with no data connection
- Photos and videos don’t automatically download to your phone or iPad. You’ve to land the drone, remove the SD card, and insert it in your computer’s card reader
Holy Stone HS700D Setup
I’ll go over some basic setups for the Holy Stone HS700D 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 HS700D
The first step is to charge the Holy Stone HS100 remote control and the drone battery with the USB cord. Fortunately, the drone comes with a Dual-Balance charger, which means you can charge more than one battery at a time if you purchase an extra battery.
2. Assembling the Holy Stone HS700D
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 just like the SD card.
3. Pairing the Holy Stone HS700D With Your Smartphone
The next step is to pair the Holy Stone HS700D 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 HS700D
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 HS700D
In this section, I’ll share with you three alternatives to the Holy Stone HS700D to give you more options:
1. Holy Stone HS440 (Best Budget Alternatives)
The Holy Stone HS440 is my best budget alternative to the Holy Stone HS510. It comes with a 1080p FPV camera that can capture your important moments. It comes with a special function that makes flying fun. Plus, it weighs below 250 grams, like the HS700D, which saves you from FAA registration.
2. DJI Mavic Mini (Best DJI Alternatives)
The DJI Mavic Mini is my best DJI alternative to the Holy Stone HS700D. 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 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 budget alternative to the Holy Stone HS510. 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 shaky footage.
Holy Stone HS700D Safety Tips
- For your safety and that of the drone, avoid flying near or over obstacles, such as high-voltage power lines, crowds, trees, water bodies, and airports.
- The minimum recommended flying age for the HS700D is 16 years.
- You’re advised to fly in open areas where you can maintain a line of sight, preferably below heights of 120 meters.
- Be careful with rotating motors and propellers, and keep a distance to avoid ear damage from the drone’s nose.
- Avoid flying in extreme weather conditions such as rain, fog, snow, and strong winds.
- Avoid flying the drone when tired, under the influence of alcohol or medication, or in any physical discomfort.
- Keep the drone clean and well-maintained.
- Read the user manual thoroughly before flying the HS700D.
- 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: Is The Holy Stone HS700D Worth It?
Overall, the Holy Stone HS700D is a good upgrade from the HS700. It has a power button that was absent in the HS700, as well as a detachable camera that can capture your favorite moments and scenes.
It is also a perfect drone for both beginner and recreational drone pilots ready to make the transition from beginner drones to professional drones because it’s equipped with advanced features that would introduce you to the world of professional drones.
It combines several amazing characteristics, including a 2K HD camera, a decent 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 HS510 is that it won’t cost you a fortune to own one of them. It retails for less than $300 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 the benefits they have in store for you.
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