This is an exciting year for aerial drone photography. DJI has owned drone photography for the last several years, but now competitors like Yuneec and 3D Robotics are giving them a run for their money with more feature-rich drones. The most interesting development of 2016 in the drone war will be when heavyweight GoPro announces its upcoming drone.
Oh, and I should say right off the bat that this post is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Yuneec. I don't have any sort of backdoor deal with them. They have no idea who I am. I'm just excited about their new drone, and the price is right (check the current price on Amazon).
360 Degree Shooting
The biggest drawback to the DJI Phantom 3 is that you can only shoot through a tiny window. The landing gear block the camera from about half of the shooting area, so the only way to pan is to physically rotate the drone, which doesn't always work. This severely limits the usability of the drone.
If you want to be able to shoot from all angles, you have to buy the DJI Inspire, which costs three times more but has landing gear that lift up and free the camera. But even then, the Inspire 1 can rotate one and a half times and then stops. The Typhoon can rotate endlessly.
The Yuneec Typhoon H has landing gear that raise up, but costs only half of what the DJI Inspire does similarly equipped.
Included Hardshell Backpack
I spent a couple days trying to rig up a suitable case for my DJI Phantom. The fact that the Typhoon comes with a hard shell backpack that fits everything perfectly is really really nice.
Notice in this post how many “included” accessories come with the Yuneec Typhoon. Backpack, two batteries, touch screen, car adapter, handheld gimbal. I love buying from a company that doesn't nickel and dime me with every accessory.
Built-In 7″ Touchscreen
One of the biggest complaints about the DJI Phantom 3 and Inspire is the bugginess of the software when attempting to connect an iPad or iPhone to the controller. Users report constant errors where the connection can't be made.
Another benefit of the Typhoon H is that it has a built-in touchscreen on the controller which allows the pilot to use the camera. Since I'll be controlling the camera and piloting the aircraft, this is a huge benefit to have everything in one place without requiring multiple controllers or connecting third party screens.
There is a downside to the Typhoon's video link, however. While no one has been able to test the new video controller yet, it's likely that it will have more lag because it uses wifi. DJI's video downlink is buggy, but has very very low lag since it uses a different technology.
DJI Drones are Unreliable (In my experience)
This is a question mark for me. I own a DJI phantom and know how incredibly buggy it is. I remember updating the firmware a week before an important trip and the firmware reversed every movement on the control sticks, which basically made it impossible to fly. DJI does NOT produce a stable drone in my experience, and if you have issues, there is basically zero chance you'll get help from their famously horrible customer service.
Will Yuneec's drone be any more reliable? I don't know. It may be as bad or worse. But knowing that I'm not happy with the stability of DJI's drones, I have nothing to lose by trying someone new.
Folding Arms
The arms of Typhoon are not only retractable to get out of the shot, but they also fold down so when you're done shooting you can easily push down the arms to fold it in a nice little ball and put it in the included carrying case.
This makes the hexcopter much more portable for when I'm out traveling to shoot with you guys on our free photography workshops that we do all around the world.
The Price
The price is right for Yuneec's Typhoon H. It's not cheap, but when compared to similarly equipped drones from other manufacturers, it's a steal at $1,299. You can pre-order your Yuneec Typhoon H from Amazon here (that's an affiliate link). I got my pre-order in and I'm REALLY excited to use this thing! The Typhoon is set to be released in March, 2016. Get your pre-order in fast, because I can't imagine that this thing will be in stock for long.
Comes with Two Batteries
Not only are two batteries included, but it also includes both a wall and a 12 volt DC socket so that you can charge the batteries in your car while you're driving. For me as a travel photographer, that's HUGE! Batteries for a drone usually cost in the $100 range, so including two batteries makes a big difference in the overall price of the drone.
I also like that the batteries on the Yuneec have inclosed connections, so you can just push the battery onto the charging station, instead of connecting the cords coming out of the battery to connectors on the charger. I've lost a few batteries to the cords being worn out, so this will hopefully improve some durability of the drone batteries as well.
Another cool feature is that the controller has a USB port so you can charge the remote with USB instead of needing to carry another cord with you. Excellent!
Hexcopter vs. Quadcopter
It's tough to say what the number one feature is of the Typhoon H, but the six rotors has to be very high on the list. By utilizing six rotors, the drone can land itself even if one or possibly two rotors go out. That gives me some comfort when I'm flying a $2,000 robot in the air above huge waves in high winds.
Six rotors also produces much more power. Many reviewers of Yuneec's previous quadcopter offering complained that it simply was not powerful enough to go fast and fight heavy winds.
The other thing that six rotors gives you is significantly better stability. With only four rotors on a quadcopter, imagine that the drone drifts to the right. The only way to stabilize it is for the two right rotors to spin up faster and tilt the drone down to the left to push it back to its original position. This tilting produces a shaky shot. Now imagine you have six rotors. Only one rotor needs to spin up, producing much less tilt in the shot.
Improved Stability
I have not yet flown a Yuneec drone, so I can't comment on this one personally, but everyone I hear from says that the Yuneec drones drift much less in the air than the DJI drones do. That's a huge benefit for photographers who want to push the limits of a slow shutter speed and still get a sharp photo.
This has been reported to be true even with Yuneec's previous quadcopters, so I am hoping that the stability is dramatically better with this hexcopter offering.
Programmed Flight Paths
Orbit mode will fly a circle around the controller, which I plan to use when I'm standing epically on the side of a mountain with my tripod. Journey mode flies away from the controller to show the entire environment. It also has a follow me mode, as well as the ability to put in waypoints.
Obstacle Avoidance
A third party add-on for the Yuneec Typhoon is Intel's Realsense technology, which will sense objects close to the drone and will fly the drone around them to avoid crashing. That's an incredible ability to add to a drone, but the finer details of the cost of this add-on and exactly how well it will be implemented remain to be seen.
It's Not All Rainbows and Unicorns
I don't pretend that the Yuneec Typhoon H will be an error-free drone that beats the DJI drones in every spec. In fact, I expect a lot of bugs. I also know that there are some serious drawbacks to this drone: reduced range when compared to the DJI offerings, no Glonass, no micro 4/3 camera like the Inspire 1 (the Typhoon H uses the same sensor as a GoPro and the DJI Phantom 3), etc. The Typhoon H is not perfect and I don't expect it to be.
However, the Typhoon H promises a significant upgrade from my DJI Phantom, and I'm anxious to see if Yuneec has outgunned DJI with its latest offering. Time will tell.
What do you guys think? Did Yuneec just announce a DJI killer, or is this a scrappy young company with an inferior product just announcing myriad features and accessories to try and compete?
Get the Yuneec Typhoon H on Amazon
I buy all my quadcopter and photography gear on Amazon. Check the price of the Yuneec Typhoon H on Amazon here. I like buying from Amazon because their return policy is much better than many of the retailers that sell drones online, and the shipping is always better and the price is usually the same or better.
Thanks for the awesome review, I’m interested in purchasing a Yuneec, however at first I was considering a DJI Phantom 4 however their reputation for bad customer care has caused my interest to wonder. Yuneec seem to have a far better reputation in terms of their customer care and I’d rather give my money to a company that takes care of its customers than one that doesn’t. Anyway… I’ve never flown a drone before, however I’m very much into film making and I’m currently interested in getting a Typhoon and attempting to shoot some real estate videos. I read this article – http://www.droneriot.com/best-drones-for-commercial-use/ which recommends the Typhoon H and after reading your article that’s the way I’m going to go.
Is it possible to learn on a Typhoon H, as some one who has literally never flown a drone before? Also, am i correct in saying that the camera quality and smoothness of the shots are good enough to charge a decent amount of money for?
Thanks again for the review, love you passion and outlook!
Dude then go pro drone sucked and was discontinued as of 2018. As for as the drone game gos , INTEL HAS PROVED IT WILL BE THE NEW LEADER OF FLAGSHIP DRONES. Yuneec will be placed second due to its intel tech being combined with there drones.. DJI is falling behind rapidly.. good luck dji fam boys . I never seen a dji fly over 400 ft.. my yuneec flys above 2000 ft with ease.. even the inspire 2 which costs 4 times the yuneec is very fast but it cannot reach my yuneec altitude way above the inspire . If you want a reliable drone with very long range go
With yuneec.. or intels new drone releasing this year..
I’ve owned and flown p1-4 Pro, Q500 and the Typhoon h w real sense along with many others I built. The p1 pro had extremely quirky software that simply stopped working and had to be re booted during flight. This happened no matter which device I used even w the latest firmware. Support finally got back to me with a limited response that did not answer all my concerns. Problem is by the time they got back to me after I got rid of the monstrosity (6/01/18). Also the camera needed to be adjusted on the fly to get decent pics and movies. Stability was twitchy and not smooth. Flight times were closer to 20 minuets not 30!
The “H” on the other had took excellent pics when set to auto, very stable platform both machine and software. Support was great w face to face conversation with a knowledgeable person.
About the only DJI product I use now is NAZA M V2 w telemetry module and that’s on my 960 size Hex’s
We did a shell repair under warranty, it was barely over a week, about 5 business days from initial collection to notification of receipt, to inspection, repair, and 24h UPS delivery, the extra week was how long I took to arrange a UPS collection of the drone, after getting the free collection label sent via email. (You may have to phone UPS to get the collection arranged in the UK)
I think the trick with these large companies is – NEVER phone them! If you use electronic messaging it means the customer service representative cannot lie. There is a reason why some outsourced tech support services (HP) try to call you every time, rather than use email, its to avoid a track record of any incompetence, or any record of the bad apples lying. (telling you your not entitled to warranty replacement part when its already been approved and shipped (but that the part they shipped was incorrect HP)
So if you have a problem with remote support, put down the phone and get a computer.
The cracking issue on DJI sucks, but Yuneec don’t even know EU law, they have a UK web page up saying they offer a 6 month warranty which is illegal in the EU, (2 years) with up to 6 in some locales, if an issue arises due to a design or manufacturing issue.
This lack of basic operating law, combined with even DJI having issues with degraded parts during the warranty period on most of their phantom designs, (camera gimbal and case cracking) – this is a massive red flag, its hard to understate the financial risk, and image of deception or incompetence, given the short lifespan, illegality, and in some cases danger posed by lots of the generic electronics coming from China. And given the difficulties even international brands are having designing, making, and servicing mid to high end consumer drones, or any other electronics – unless they are multi billion pound companies using only the top manufacturers