Cheerwing CW4 RC Drone with 720P HD Camera for Kids and Adults RC Quadcopter with Auto Hovering

It went up and kept going and never came back. Customer service at cheer wing replaced it and no problems.

The CW4 was my first drone and I’m really glad it was, for several reasons:

1. It has altitude hold, which means that you can fly it to a certain height and it will hold that height (more or less). Drones without altitude hold are much harder to fly.

2. It’s very sturdy. Face it, you’re going to crash your first drone a LOT. I crashed this thing probably 10x every time I’d take it out but it took it like a champ. Even the blades, after many flights, had little more than surface scuffs and scratches on them.

3. The controller will feel familiar to anyone who’s played video games in the last 30 years. Many other drones have big bulks controls that are made to look like R/C airplane controllers and they just don’t fit the hand as well. The CW4 has a nice medium sized controller that will fit both small and large hands.

4. Flight time is pretty good and wind resistance is okay. Flight time could be better, of course, but with brushed motors this is pretty average. Likewise for a lightweight drone wind is going to be an issue, period, but this one at least has the power to fight it to some extent.

5. Power. For such a cheap drone this thing has enough power to lift and fly a GoPro camera attached to the bottom of it. Now mind you battery life will be cut in half (if not more, so expect 2-4 minute flights) but nevertheless it CAN lift one.

6. Comes with two batteries, many drones only come with one

7. Has a camera, not a great one, but not a totally abysmal one either. It’s usable.

Cons:

Like any product there are some cons. It’s far from a perfect drone, but you shouldn’t be expecting that for $50. Even at $250 most drones are still fairly cheaply built.

1. Range, it’s not abysmal but it’s not fantastic either. You won’t be hitting 500ft in altitude (nor should you for safety reasons!)

2. Camera takes okay 720p video…but the problem is that it is not a very wide angle at all. It’s a 50mm equivalent so provides a fairly narrow field of view. Also, in stock form, it points down at like a 30 degree angle meaning you have to get some altitude to shoot anything. A little tinkering can fix this though, as I did on mine.

Thoughts

1. Remove the blade guards. The provided props are very durable and all they prop guards do is add wind resistance (cut down on flying time) and provide a convenient spot for branches to catch if it goes near a tree.

2. Take apart the little camera and modify the plastic inside to allow the little circuit board to slide forward a few millimeters, this will allow the camera to face forward, making it much more useful.

3. I can not stress this one enough, PAINT THE REAR OF THE COPTER A BRIGHT COLOR! If you can’t tell what the front is and what the back is you will have a hard time flying it. I sprayed some red on the rear pylons and landing gear. Made a world of difference in me being able to tell from a distance what my orientation is.

I have it for two weeks now and have flown it over 30 times. For the price, it is absolutely fabulous, I don’t know how they do it. Although I’ve flown RC for 20 years I’m fairly new to drones and have had a few but this one is the easiest to fly without a doubt. The altitude hold is amazing. The camera is as expected and can be a bit jumpy at times but does produce nice photos and videos on windless days. I can get between 7 and 7 1/2 minutes of flight time before the transmitter starts beeping warning that the battery is low. It appears that you have about 30 seconds or less to land before it lands itself which I wouldn’t recommend on low battery at high altitude. When you hear the beep, start bringing it back. Another nice feature, which I don’t believe is in the instructions, is that the transmitter also beeps if you get out of range. Always fly upwind so that the breeze blows it back towards you if you plan on flying high. Another caveat is to make sure you use headless mode in daylight when flying at higher altitudes because it is very easy to loose orientation up there and you stand a good chance of loosing the drone. Two things I’d like to see is better range and a better angle on the camera, but hey, for the money, you can’t go wrong.

11/10/17 Very upstanding seller. Replaced free of charge after I had an issue 5 weeks and dozens of flights later. Customer service doesn’t get much better than that! Folks need to keep it reasonably close and if ascending, always go UPWIND so it drifts back towards you. It you climb high downwind, there’s a good chance you’ll loose it. And don’t fly if it’s windy!