Six reasons to not buy a Skydio 2 drone.
Skydio has been very successful with encouraging rave reviews about their autonomous drone.
We want to balance this with a critical review.
However we will cover the things we like later.
Skyio is currently the best autonomous drone, but it it definitely not great yet.
We learned quickly that it often gets stuck behind trees even when there are large gaps.
Sometimes it eventually finds a way through, but you need to make sure you aren't out of
range by then.
We found this very disappointing as Skydio's early promotions showed the Skydio smoothly
swinging its way through big gaps between trees.
I know two other vloggers who bought the Skydio for filming motorbikes.
One is very disappointed at its frequent inability to fly along a wide road lined with trees.
The other vlogger has had numerous crashes into trees which thankfully haven't broken
the drone yet, but the propellors need frequent replacement.
Mike Zed is a Skydio user who put it well.
He said "I think the problem is all those "tech reviews" where the "influencer" receives
a free drone "to test"...
They fly it in a forest, get lucky, posts a glorious review, collect likes and never
uses the drone again....
But if you consistently using a drone in the environment where you should not - you are
asking for trouble."
I agree with Mike.
The Skydio works best in open spaces with only the occasional obstacle to navigate.
Or just fly well above the trees.
Obviously if you are walking, the Skyio will work better.
But even mountain bike riders report issues with the drone keeping up through trees.
Another Skydio user, Adam, asked why Skydio's promotional vids showed the drone flying so
well through a forest when he couldn't get the same results.
He says Skydio deleted his comment.
Adam says' "Sure it follow you, but it has a hard time keeping up and finding you.
VERY jerky movements.
Yet all the marketing videos make it seem so smooth and automated when it's obviously
not".
Personally I am frustrated by the autonomous flight problems as I was hoping to use this
drone to film our enduro motorbikes in the forest.
I certainly won't be when the Skydio has trouble navigating a tree-lined road very well.
Keep an eye on the drone too!
Sometimes it just does crazy things.
Mine has automatically gone to land just after taking off.
Other times it just starts flying off into the distance for no reason at all.
I tend to fly with it in front where I can watch it.
I dread the thought of searching a forest all day to find a lost drone.
I highly recommend putting your name, address and phone number on the drone!
Next?
Make sure your phone works with the drone!
My phone exceeded all the specifications but I could not get it to connect.
Eventually the Skydio support department said "Oh, that phone doesn't work with the Skydio!"
I asked why they don't publish a list of compatible
phones.
Their response?
So I had to spend an extra $300 on a compatible phone.
Aperture changes.
The video footage keeps going dark to light too quickly, similar to an old Gopro camera.
This won't be a problem for tracking slow objects, but it's very annoying for faster
movements.
It either needs a lot of editing to fix, or you just give up on long video shots.
Lack of support is a common complaint.
I'm not sure to what extent this is Skydio's fault.
Demand has been incredibly high.
But the number of complaints is high enough to wonder if they aren't putting enough resources
into support services.
There are certainly disgrunted customers if you look through Facebook posts.
What else?
It is not a very good drone to fly manually.
The controller is cheap and nasty.
There is no telemetry.
Personally, I don't see this as a big problem.
The focus is on autonomous flight, so its abilities for manual flight are very limited.
Just buy another drone if you want good manual flight technology.
There are plenty of good vids that compare the Skydio with other drones.
These are worth watching.
The Skydio doesn't fly at night.
Be careful in low light conditions.
Some owners have crashed or lost the drone flying at dusk.
Okay, enough negativity!
Lets look at some positive features.
It's made in the USA.
Personally, I avoid buying Chinese products as much as possible.
Some parts may be made in China, but it is essentially a non-Chinese drone...
very rare nowadays.
If you avoid obstacles as much as possible, the Skydio does get some great footage.
Its autonomous flight is well ahead of any other drone at the moment.
If you film in very open areas this drone really does deliver great results.
Learning to fly a manual drone and get good video footage is a steep learning curve.
The Skydio does make this process much simpler, and I do appreciate this.
It's just a shame the collision advoidance isn't as good as the claims from their marketing
department.
Do you own a Skydio 2 drone?
What are your impressions?
Let us know in the comments!