Holy Stone HS700E Review 2023 (All You Should Know)

Hello, drone enthusiasts! Welcome to my Holy Stone HS700E review.

Buying your first drone can be intimidating, especially for drone enthusiasts new to unmanned aerial vehicles. There are numerous advanced drones from Holy Stone to choose from, which might leave you wondering if the Holy Stone HS700E is worth buying or not.

The Holy Stone HS700E was originally released in 2019 as the HS700 with a detachable 1080P camera but was later upgraded in 2020 to the Holy Stone HS700D, which comes with a non-detachable 2K HD camera and anti-jello mount for capturing your moments and scenery.

Currently, the Holy HS700E was released in 2021 with a 4K camera and Electronic Image Stabilization that promises to stabilize your footage and remedy the problems that came with the previous version of the HS700D. But the question is “Will the HS700E solve those problems?”

In this Holy Stone HS700E review, I will go over the features and benefits of this advanced drone to show you if the drone is the right choice for you before you go ahead to purchase it.

A Quick Overview of the Holy Stone HS700D

Holy Stone HS700D Review

The Holy Stone HS700E is an upgrade to the HS700D that comes with the same non-foldable design but weighs more than the HS700D. It also comes equipped with a 4K camera with Electronic Image stabilization technology that stabilizes your footage during flight.

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It has a flight time of 20 minutes and a transmission range of 1000 meters, which gives you enough time and distance to hone your flying skills and explore your environment without worrying about crashing.

The Holy Stone HS700E also comes with intelligent flight features like Tap to Fly, Point of Interest, Follow Me Mode, and GPS Auto Return that makes it easy to fly and provide you with a good flight experience.

Differences Between the Holy Stone HS700 and the HS700D

• The HS700E has spring-rolled propeller blades, unlike the HS700D.
• HS700E landing gears are connected to the body of the drone with a screw, unlike the HS700D.
• The HS700E comes with an optical flow sensor, unlike the HS700D.
• The camera of the HS700E is not connected to the drone with a USB cable, unlike the HS700D.
• The HS700E comes with dual intelligent batteries, unlike the HS700D, which comes with a single battery.
• The HS700E comes with EIS technology, unlike the HS700D.
• The HS700 can shoot 4K photos and videos, unlike the HS700D, which only shoots photos and videos in 2K.
• The HS700E has an LED landing light, which is great for flying at night, unlike the HS700D.
• The flight range is 1000 meters, while the FPV range is 500 meters.
• The HS700E has a dual-speed mode, unlike the HS700D, which has a one-speed mode.
• The HS700E comes with a carrying case, unlike the HS700D.
• The HS700E power button is located on the side of the drone, unlike the HS700D, which is located on top of the drone.
• The HS700E RC uses dual AA batteries, unlike the HS700D, which uses four AA batteries.

What’s Inside the Holy Stone HS700E Box?

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 HS700E Specifications

• Weight: 557 g/ 19.65 oz
• Dimension: 380*230*125 mm (Without protection guards)
• Flight Time: 23 minutes per battery
• Charging Time: 5 Hours
• FPV Distance: 1640 feet / 500 meters
• Flight Distance: 2624~3277 Feet / 999 m
• Camera Frequency: 5 Ghz
• Camera Angle:  -90° to 0°
• Video/photo Resolution: 4K (3840×2160P) Store in TF card; 1920*1080P (Store on a mobile phone)
• Live View Quality: [email protected]/ [email protected]
• Live Video Transmission Range: 984~1640 ft
• Max Control Range: 3280 ft
• Max Expansion: 128GB TF Card (Not Included)
• Motor: 2204 1400KV Brushless Motor
• Battery Capacity: 2800 mAh 7.4V

Features and Benefits of the Holy Stone HS700E

Design and Build

The Holy Stone HS700E 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. I love the black color, which makes the drone visible in the sky when flying.

The HS700E 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 HS700E is a non-foldable drone that measures 380*230*125 mm and weighs 557 grams.

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 are attached to the body of the drone with four screws.

The drone is not as heavy as the HS700D, at 557 grams. However, you’ll also 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 HS700E 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 HS700E 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 4K HD camera is attached to the bottom of the drone without any cable connection. The camera can also be adjusted from the remote control for an angle of up to 90 degrees to provide wide-angle footage.

The HS700E includes a microSD card slot that can accommodate cards up to 128 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 bottom of the drone also features dual LED landing lights that are very useful for landing your drone at night. There’s also an optical flow sensor located at the bottom that senses obstacles below it. This feature is useful for flying your drone indoors, as it prevents it from colliding with obstacles.

The Holy Stone HS700D offers a well-made drone controller with user-friendly controls that are powered by double AA batteries, unlike the HS700D, which uses four AA batteries. To fly this drone, you’ll also need to download the Ophelia GO app, which is available for both iOS and Android.

Camera

The Holy Stone HS700E comes equipped with a 4K Ultra HD camera with a 120-degree wide field of view. It’s capable of taking crystal-clear photos at 4K resolution. It can shoot 4K videos at 30 fps and 1080P videos at 60 fps when stored on an SD card.

However, the footage recorded on your mobile phone is always stored in 1080P resolution.

The camera also comes with Electronic Image Stabilization technology that stabilizes your footage when shooting in the air. But this technology doesn’t make your footage as stable as having a mechanical gimbal attached to the camera.

The camera can be manually tilted to any angle for up to 90 degrees using the remote control.

With low-latency 5G-enabled FPV video transmission, the Holy Stone HS700E 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 HS700E is a good upgrade from the HS700D in terms of camera quality because you’re getting a 4K HD camera instead of the previous 2K camera. Like the HS700D, you also can’t replace the camera of the HS700E with another camera like the HS700.

Battery Flight Time

The Holy Stone HS700E comes with dual intelligent batteries, 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 HS700E also consumes less power thanks to its brushless motors, which give you a relatively quiet flight.

The Holy Stone HS700E package comes with an extra battery (unlike the HS700D, which has one battery), which gives a combined flight time of 40 minutes. This is a big upgrade compared to previous versions.

Another major issue I have with the HS700E is its long charging time of 5 hours. This is too long, in my opinion, and I think Holy Stone can do better. However, 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 HS700E remote control has an ergonomic and minimalistic design that makes it easy and comfortable to handle. My major issue with the remote control is that it’s powered by double AA batteries, which you’d have to buy separately after the drone.

The side of the remote control features a speed switch, a GPS mode activation button, and a camera button, which you can press once to take a photo or hold for a long time to record a video.

The side of the remote control also features a rotary dial that can be used to adjust the tilt angle of the camera from zero to 90 degrees.

The Holy Stone HS700E remote control has a screen with a digital display on the front face. 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 front face also contains the power switch, a right joystick for direction control, a left joystick for throttle or rudder control, a 1-key takeoff and landing, and a return to the home button.

The remote control also features a retractable phone holder on the front side that fits standard-sized phones. The HS700E remote control handles are also foldable for your convenience and comfort.

Control Range

The Holy Stone HS700E has a maximum range of 3280 feet before it loses connection with your smartphone and remote control. While the FPV mode has a live video transmission range of 1640 feet before you stop seeing the footage from the drone camera on your smartphone.

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 HS700E 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 to its initial launch position so you don’t lose it to crashes and damages.

Intelligent Flight Features

The Holy Stone HS700E 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 HS700E 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 Holy Stone HS700E comes with a dual-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 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 HS700E Pros and Cons

Let’s go over what I like and don’t like about the Holy Stone HS700E.

Pros: What I Like About The Holy Stone HS700E

• Quick customer response service.
• The drone and the app are very easy to use.
• It is very easy to set up the drone and assemble it.
• The propellers are semi-quiet due to their brushless motors.
• The image stabilization works well in light, windy conditions.
• It feels like a professional drone with a solid build that doesn’t feel cheap.
• You can always replace the remote control batteries with two AA batteries.
• This non-folding drone eliminates the need to worry about the weak areas at the hinges where the arms unfold, which may not be a bonus to others. 

Cons: What I Don’t Like About The Holy Stone HS700E

• It has a long charging time of 5 hours.
• The recorded video has drop-frame issues.
• You can’t adjust the camera angle when flying.
• Photos and videos don’t automatically download to your smartphone.
• Some users complained about getting a battery life of 15 to 18 minutes.
• It doesn’t have any mechanical image stabilization because it has no gimbal.
• No map will be displayed on your smartphone if you’re flying in a place with no data connection.
• Not much configuration about the camera is available via the app (no shutter, resolution, and/or customizable settings).

Holy Stone HS700E Setup

I’ll go over some basic setups for the Holy Stone HS700E 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 HS700E

The first step is to charge the Holy Stone HS700E 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 HS700E

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 into the battery slot of the drone.

The landing gear comes pre-assembled, just like the SD card.

3. Pairing the Holy Stone HS700E With Your Smartphone

The next step is to pair the Holy Stone HS700E 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.

3. Calibrating the GPS of the Holy Stone HS700E

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 HS700E

In this section, I’ll share with you three alternatives to the Holy Stone HS700E 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 HS700E. 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 Mini 3 Pro (Best DJI Alternatives)

The DJI Mini 3 Pro is my best DJI alternative to the Holy Stone HS700E. What I like about the Mini 3 Pro 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 4K 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 HS700E 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 HS700E 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 HS700E.
• 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 HS700E Worth It?

Overall, the Holy Stone HS700E is a good upgrade from the HS700D. It comes with a 4K camera with EIS technology, dual intelligent batteries for maximum flight time, an LED landing light for nighttime flying, and an optical flow sensor that detects obstacles underneath the drone.

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 4K 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 HS700E 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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