Axis Vidius Drone Review - Tom's Guide

Our Verdict

The Vidius is a elementary and cute drone to fly. Plus, it can shoot low-res video.

For

Small and cute blueprint
Flies fast
Smallest video drone available
Tin can be controlled from a controller or smartphone

Against

Video is low-res and noisy in low calorie-free
Finicky to wing
App is too basic

Tom'south Guide Verdict

The Vidius is a simple and beautiful drone to wing. Plus, it can shoot low-res video.

Pros

+
Small and cute pattern
+
Flies fast
+
Smallest video drone available
+
Tin be controlled from a controller or smartphone

Cons

-
Video is low-res and noisy in low light
-
Choosy to fly
-
App is too bones

Axis claims the Vidius is the world'due south smallest drone to offer a first-person view. The Vidius gives y'all a drone'south-eye view by packing both a camera and a Wi-Fi connection into its tiny torso. That ways y'all get a fun little drone that can record video while still weighing less than 0.half dozen ounces. And, at $95 (or $75, if y'all preorder information technology earlier January. 29), it is a cheap intro to the globe of video drones.

Blueprint

The Vidius is a cute, little drone, measuring merely 2.5 x two.5 inches broad/long (from rotor blade tip to tip) and 1 inch loftier. Information technology is very light, weighing merely 0.57 ounces, meaning yous won't have to register it with the Federal Aviation Assistants. It'south a petty bigger and heavier than the tiny Axis Aerius (one.2 10 1.2 x 0.eight inches, 0.25 ounces), which lacks the video characteristic but is much cheaper ($35).

The frame is fabricated of shiny black plastic, giving it a rather stealthy expect. That otherwise covert appearance is spoiled past the bright LED lights on the artillery beneath the rotors, with bright-green LEDs on the front and red ones on the back. These tin can't be turned off, just they do blink to indicate a low battery or a loss of signal.

The 1-megapixel camera is located on the trunk of the drone, with the minute lens (smaller than a cellphone camera) poking out from the front end of the body. This provides an unimpeded view: Y'all don't see the rotors or the drone itself in the captured video or photos.

Specs

Rotors: 4 (2 blades per rotor) replaceable, i.2-inch bore
Battery Size: 150-mAh Li-ion, non-removable
Battery Life: 5/5 minutes (claimed/tested)
Flying Time: v minutes
Camera: 480p video, 1-megapixel stills
Smartphone Controlled: Aye, over Wi-Fi with free app
FAA Registration: No
Size: two.5 by 2.5 by 1 inch
Weight: 0.57 ounces

Controller

There are two means to command the Vidius: from the included remote or the free app. The app is the easier selection, because you lot get the video preview and access to more controls. Information technology is available for both Android and iOS devices, and allows the user full control. The drone connects to the app via a shared Wi-Fi network that the drone creates (called Centrality Vidius Drone). We wish the app were a fiddling more robust, offering social media connectivity and automated sharing of the incoming video.

When you press the Go Wing! button on the app, the Vidius shows a feed of the video coming from the drone's camera. Overlaid on this are the controls: ii virtual command sticks and a number of buttons. These buttons (from left to right) exercise the following: return y'all to the outset screen, have a photo, start capturing video, show captured video and photos, prepare gyroscope control, switch to the controller, and reverse the screen.

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The left virtual stick controls throttle and rotation, making the drone rising when you pull up and spin when y'all move it left and right. The right virtual stick controls forward/back and left/right movement. Around these are trim controls that can kickoff the center point of the sticks if the drone is unbalanced.

The remote command that comes with the Vidius is a very small-scale device, only about twice the size of the drone itself. It fits into my palm, making information technology feel rather like a behemothic using a doll's tea ready. The remote is controllable, though, if you don't mind your thumbs falling over the 2 control sticks.

There are minimal controls and switches on the remote unit: 2 control sticks, a ability switch and two trim switches for adjusting the center betoken of the sticks. You tin't control the video features from the controller.

You can, still, alter the flight mode via the remote by pressing in the left stick until information technology clicks, or put the drone into flim-flam mode by pressing in the right stick. Both of these commands are accompanied by a series of rather loud beeps to allow you know that the manner has been changed properly.

A single LED shows when the controller is on and blinks if the connection to the drone is lost or if the batteries on the controller run low. Ii AAA batteries that fit under a console on the rear of the controller power the device. You'll have to bring your ain; the Vidius doesn't come with any.

Both the controller and the app connect to the drone over a 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi connection, and this worked out to a distance of near 25 to 35 anxiety. That'due south acceptable for a small drone like this, merely it would be rather easy to wing it out of range outdoors or in a large room. When this happens, the drone will carry on, flying in any direction information technology was going; information technology won't stop or render home.

Flying

Like most small drones, the Vidius is a fiddling difficult to fly. Its light weight makes information technology very piece of cake to lose command of information technology. Flight requires a lite affect, considering even a slight movement of either the real or virtual command sticks can send the Vidius spinning away. The arrangement does have a congenital-in gyroscope that helps to keep the Vidius level, merely the drone's small size and low-cal weight get in very prone to tilting or flipping out of command. With some do, though, information technology is quite flyable.

Both the app and the remote control offer three flight modes; the main difference among them is the speed of the drone. The 30 Percent mode is for beginners, restricting the drone to slow turns and climbs. The 60 Percent and 100 Pct modes take the preparation wheels off, allowing the drone to climb and turn much faster.

The thirty Percent mode is definitely the best identify for a new flier to start, and this is the default manner for both the app and the controller. In our tests, we found that the Vidius is every bit zippy as nigh of the mini drones we have looked at, although the slightly smaller and lighter Centrality Aerius is noticeably faster. It is definitely faster than the TRNDlabs Hexa Drone, another small-scale drone.

Flying requires a light touch because even a slight movement of either the existent or virtual control sticks can send it spinning away

Ane interesting trick is the gyroscopic mode. When you activate this mode, you lot tin can control the Vidius by moving your telephone or tablet. Tip your mobile device forward, and the drone volition wing forwards. Tilt it to the left, and the drone will follow your lead. Information technology's a neat trick, just again, it requires a conscientious touch to continue information technology flying.

The controller as well offers a trick mode: Press and agree the right stick and flip the left stick in any direction, and the drone will do a flip in that direction. Don't endeavour this unless you have the drone at least iv feet off the ground, though; the drone takes a bit of time to recover and ends up a couple of anxiety lower than where it started. Oddly, the app controller doesn't offering this feature.

Photos and Video

The Vidius' inclusion of a camera is one of the big selling points of this new drone, merely the quality of the video is subpar. The bug start with the resolution: The photos are less than i megapixel (1100 ten 880 pixels), and the video is shot at 420 x 330 pixels.

On anything other than a sunny 24-hour interval, the video turns grainy and flat-looking, which reminded me of a poorly compressed cartoon

The smartphone app that receives the video upscales it to a more mutual resolution of 720 x 576 pixels (approximately the aforementioned as standard definition TV). That makes it easier to share and edit the video, but it also gives images a block, glitchy and rather unappealing expect on a college-resolution screen.

The quality of this captured video is non nifty, either. It looks OK in brilliant daylight, merely on anything other than a sunny day, the video turns grainy and flat-looking, reminding me of a poorly compressed cartoon. It is besides very shaky — there is no image stabilization, and so every dip, twist and plow of the drone is captured on video.

Overall, the video and images that this drone captures are much less appealing than those taken by drones such every bit the $500 Parrot Bebop 2 and the $699 DJI Phantom 3, both of which capture full-HD video and 10-megapixel images. However, those drones are much more expensive.

Captured videos are stored on the controlling smartphone or tablet, not on the drone itself. They can be played dorsum through the app. On the Android app, photos show upwards in the Android Photos app and on the photographic camera roll, but videos practise non. Instead, if you want to share or view them outside the app, you have to dig through the files on the device to find them. (They are located in /root/sdcard/fydrone/videos/.) Near Android apps can't access video files outside of the camera roll.

The iOS app is a bit easier to use. Both photos and videos were added to the photographic camera ringlet equally soon as they were captured, making them ready to be uploaded or shared.

Repairability

The only repairable part on the Vidius is the rotor blades, which you tin pop off and replace if they get damaged. They pop off a little too hands, though — I lost a couple of them when the drone crashed onto a hard surface, and the rotor blade popped off and flew away, never to exist seen again. There is cipher protecting the rotating blades, and so when they hit something, that force has to get somewhere. The Vidius comes with a full prepare of four rotor blades, and Axis Drones sells a replacement set for $xv.

Battery Life

The Vidius includes a small 150-mAh bombardment that provides a flying time of almost 6 minutes. That's pretty typical for this type of pocket-size drone; the similar Skeye Hexa and Axis Aerius drones lasted about the same amount of time on a charge. I upside is that information technology seems that the extra load from the camera and Wi-Fi connection have non adversely affected the battery life.

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This battery is non swappable: yous can't remove information technology and supplant it. It is charged from a USB port using the included cablevision — a process that takes about 35 minutes. Information technology tin be charged from a wall USB power adapter, only Axis recommends that you lot use a computer USB port, as it is less probable to deliver also much juice. The USB cable required is a special one: Axis Drones sells a replacement cable for $8.

Lesser Line

The Vidius is a lot of fun, and for $95, y'all tin can't really go wrong — as long every bit you don't expect also much. Yous get just 5 to 6 minutes of flight time, and video that looks more than similar a jerky VHS tape than the smoothen HD video captured past more expensive drones. If you are looking for attractive video, salvage your money and purchase a Bebop 2. But if you are looking for a inexpensive, fun drone that can take short videos, the Vidius is a swell pick. Once you lot get a feel for it, the Vidius is a fun drone to wing, and is capable of a good amount of speed and some sharp turns.

Richard Baguley has been working as a engineering writer and journalist since 1993. As well as contributing to Tom's Guide, he writes for Cnet, T3, Wired and many other publications.