Hello drone enthusiasts! Welcome to my Ruko F11 review.
I know that feeling when you come across a drone that promises awesome features and benefits that can be found in premium drones at a fraction of that amount.
For someone new to flying drones, it can be a little confusing wondering if you should get it or not.
Ruko is a Chinese drone manufacturer that’s rapidly gaining popularity for retailing sleek consumer drones at a fraction of the cost of premium drones to the public.
The Ruko F11 is one of the drones that has been gaining attention in drone-related forums.
The Ruko F11 is an intermediate-level drone that promises beginner and recreational drone pilots a drone with a modern look, and a ton of exciting features without paying thousands of dollars.
In this Ruko F11 review, I will go over the features of this beginner drone like its design and build, range, camera quality, battery flight time, remote control, and more. I will also show you if the drone is the right choice for you or just a marketing hype before you go ahead to purchase it.
Quick Overview of the Ruko F11
The Ruko F11 is a foldable drone that weighs above 250 grams that has to be registered with the FAA. It has a 4K camera for capturing important scenes and moments, a rechargeable remote control that saves you money from replacing AA batteries, and intelligent flight modes that makes it fun and easy to fly.
It has a flight time of 30 minutes and a transmission range of 4000 feet which gives you enough time and distance to hone your flying skills and explore your environment without worrying about crashing.
The Ruko F11 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.
What’s Inside The Ruko F11 Box
Inside the Ruko F11 package, you should expect to get the following items:
- 1 x Ruko F11 Drone
- 2 x 11.1V 2500mAH Battery (in the drone)
- 1 x Carrying Case
- 1 x Remote Control
- 1 x Screwdriver
- 1 x USB Cable
- 4 x Extra Propeller Blades
- 1 x User Manual
- 1 x Extra Battery (If Purchased from Amazon)
Ruko F11 Specifications
- Weight: 520 g / 18.34 oz
- Max Flight Time: 30×2=60 Min (Charging Time: 3.5 Hours/Battery, 5V=3A adapter)
- Dimension: 6.9*4.1*3.15 inch (Folding)/ 17.51*15.94*3.15 inch (Unfolding)
- Camera: 4K camera (90° adjustable angle 120°FOV lens)
- Maximum Height: 120M/393ft (Depends on phone device and environment)
- Max Control Range: 1219M/4000ft (Depends on phone device and environment)
- Max FPV Range: 500M/1640ft (Depends on phone device and environment)
- Max SD/TF Card: 32GB (Not included)
- Battery Capacity: 2500 Milliamp Hours
- Control Type: App Control
- Wireless Communication Technology: Wi-Fi
- Battery Cell Composition: Lithium Ion
Features and Benefits of the Ruko F11
Let’s go over the features of the Ruko F11 and its benefits to users.
Design and Build
The Ruko F11 is a foldable drone that comes in a rectangular, compact case made of EVA plastic that protects it from crashes. It’s painted in a black coating that gives it a professional appearance and makes it look and feel more expensive than its current price tag.
Well, I love the black coating. Besides it giving it an expensive look, the color makes it less difficult to spot in the sky during the day unlike the white/ silver color of drones in the DJI series.
The Ruko F11 is also portable, which makes it fit easily inside your backpack or travel luggage. It is a big-sized drone and measures 17.51 x 15.94 x 3.15 inches when it is unfolded.
It measures 6.9 x 4.1 x 3.15 inches when folded, which reduces the space it would take when packing it inside your backpack. Plus, the propellers are also folded, making them perfect for traveling in style.
The drone is heavy and may not sit well with drone pilots who prefer lighter drones. Also, you have 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 Ruko F11 has dual LED lights located on the front and back of the drone. The LED light helps you calibrate the drone and indicates its position, so you can spot it from afar.
This feature only works optimally during the night and gives the drone a lovely look from afar.
The Ruko F11 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 modular Li-Po battery is located at the top of the drone.
The 4K UHD camera is attached to the front of the drone and can also be adjusted for an angle of up to 90 degrees to provide wide-angle footage that is clear and sharp.
The Ruko F11 also includes a micro SD card slot that can accommodate cards up to 32 GB in size.
However, no TF memory card is included when you buy the drone. Although the quality will be lesser than on a microSD card, you can choose to record images and movies directly to your phone’s memory.
Ruko F11 offers a well-made drone controller with user-friendly controls that is rechargeable, unlike other drone controllers that use AA batteries. To fly this drone, you’ll also need to download the HS GPS V1 app, which is available for both iOS and Android.
Battery Flight Time
The Ruko F11 comes with 2500 mAh Lithium Ion battery, which will give you an average flight time of around 30 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 modular battery that is easy to insert and remove and also comes with LED lights that indicate its battery and charge level. The Ruko F11 consumes less power thanks to its brushless motors, which give you a relatively quiet flight.
Another good thing about the Ruko F11 is that you get extra batteries in the package when you order the drone from Amazon. This adds up to an extra 30 minutes of fun time to practice and explore your neighborhood with your drone.
It has an average charging time of 3 hours, which is okay for a drone with its price tag when compared to some drones in the Holy Stone series, which have an average charging time of 5 hours. You can always increase the flight time of the drone by purchasing more batteries.
Camera
The Ruko F11 comes equipped with a 4K Ultra HD camera with a 120-degree wide field of view. It’s capable of taking crystal-clear and sharp photographs at 4K resolution and can shoot 4K videos at 16 fps when stored on the SD card or 2.7K videos at 25 fps when stored on your mobile phone.
The single-axis gimbal stabilization on the camera comes with shock absorption. As a result, the videos will probably be less shaky than those from drones without a gimbal due to shock absorption. The camera angle may be tilted by up to 90 degrees from the remote control to capture footage from different angles.
With low-latency 5G-enabled FPV video transmission, the HS510 enables you to experience the world from a birds-eye perspective—and in real-time, as well. Up to 400–500 meters away, you can see whatever your quadcopter sees.
Overall, the Ruko F11 is a good choice for beginners who want to practice their photography skills while in the air. It also produces a quiet and responsive flight for better video quality. Professional drone pilots can also benefit from the camera quality of the Ruko F11.
Remote Control
The Ruko F11 remote control has an ergonomic and minimalistic design that makes it easy and comfortable to handle. The good thing about the remote control is that it’s rechargeable, which saves you money from buying an endless amount of disposable AA batteries.
The side of the remote control features four buttons: a shutter button to take photos, a record button to record a video, a speed wheel to control the speed of the drone, and a camera wheel to adjust the lens of the camera up to 90 degrees to take pictures from different angles.
The front face of the Ruko F11 remote control features a power button, a right joystick for direction control, a left joystick for throttle or rudder control, and a battery display LED light.
The front face also features a smart Return to Home button, a one-click Take off/ landing button, and a GPS power button that can also be used to activate Headless mode.
The remote control also features a retractable phone holder on the front side that fits standard-sized phones. The HS510 remote control handles are also foldable for your convenience and comfort.
There are also dual mobile device clamps located at the bottom of the remote control so you can easily manipulate the buttons of the remote control without experiencing any inconveniences.
Control Range
The Ruko F11 has a maximum range of 4000 feet 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 positive factor about the Ruko F11 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 return to its initial launch position so you don’t lose it to crashes and damages.
Ruko F11 Performance and Usability
The Ruko F11 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 Ruko F11 drone:
- Tap Fly: This allows you to customize a flight path for the drone in your smartphone and watch it fly and record footage along the defined path hand-free without touching the remote control
- Find The Lost Drone: You can quickly monitor and locate the drone using the app’s map, so don’t worry if it goes missing during the flight due to malfunctions or severe winds. The most recent location will be saved and shown on the app’s map.
- Point of Interest: The drone locks onto a selected point and orbits or hovers around it when you select this feature and input a radius. This enables you to capture your important moments in all directions.
- Follow Me: Just as the name says, the drone will lock onto your remote control and follow you everywhere you around from behind when you activate this feature.
- 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.
- One Button Take off / Landing: This feature makes the drone easy to fly for beginners. You can launch the drone from anywhere with a tap of a button and land it back with a tap of a button.
- Gesture Shooting: The drone can instantly catch your motion and gather your ephemeral but priceless moments even without an app or joystick.
Speed and Power
The Ruko F11 comes with a dual-speed mode, which can be adjusted from the left-hand side of the controller to vary your speed during flight.
Ruko 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.
Durability
Like most other drones, the Ruko F11 is made of plastic (reinforced plastic). The drone is light and very easy to carry.
The Ruko F11 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.
Ruko F11 Pros and Cons
Here, I’ll go over what I like and don’t like about the Ruko F11.
Pros: What I Like About the Ruko F11
- The remote control battery is rechargeable
- Long flight time of 30 minutes
- Flight controls are very responsive and accurate
- The camera quality is not impressive enough for professional photography
- The customer service is fast and very responsive
Cons: What I Don’t Like About The Ruko F11
- The app doesn’t blink or beep when the battery starts running low
- Footage becomes shaky when you tilt the camera
- You have to register it with the FAA because it weighs above 250 grams
Ruko F11 Set Up
I’ll go over some basic setups for the Ruko F11 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 Ruko F11
The first step is to charge the Holy Stone HS270 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 Ruko F11
Putting on the propellers: This shouldn’t be too difficult. Ruko 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 Ruko F11 With Your Smartphone
The next step is to pair the Ruko F11 drone with your smartphone
- Download the Ruko app on your phone – free
- Turn on the controller
- 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 or red.
- Go to the WiFi section of your phone’s settings and choose the Holy Stone WiFi signal.
- 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 Ruko F11
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 green.
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 red.
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 Ruko F11
In this section, I’ll share with you three alternatives to the Ruko F11 to give you more options:
1. Ruko F11 GIM2 (Best Overall Holy Stone Drone)
In my opinion, the Ruko F11 GIM2 is the best Ruko drone. It’s easy to use, has advanced flight mode, & comes with dual batteries for a more fun time and a 4K camera with EIS technology.
2. DJI Air 2S (Best DJI Alternatives)
The DJI Air 2S is my best DJI alternative to the Ruko F11. What I like about the Mavic Mini is that it has a long flight time of 30 minutes. Not just that, it comes with double batteries for double fun and a 4K camera attached to a 3-axis gimbal that provides camera stability and smooth footage.
3. Ruko F11 Mini (Best Budget Holy Stone Drone)
The Ruko F11 Mini is my best-budget Ruko 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.
Ruko F11 Safety Tips
Below are some safety tips you should be aware of before flying your Ruko F11 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 Ruko F11 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 Ruko F11.
- 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 Ruko F11 Worth It?
In conclusion, the Ruko F11 is a great option for both beginner and recreational drone pilots who need a drone that’s easy to use, has a decent camera, has a long flight time, and provides a fun flying experience.
Additionally, having two good batteries and an impressive flight range will allow you to fly the drone for extended periods without having to worry about recharging.
The few minor downsides to flying the Ruko F11 include a lack of obstacle avoidance mode, which might be a hindrance for newbies, and the fact that it takes quite a long time to recharge the batteries.
The best part of the Ruko F11 is that it won’t cost you a fortune to own one of them. It retails for less than $250 at the time of writing this article and gives you great value for your money.
You can also check out the best Ruko 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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