Autel Robotics X-Star Premium: The Next 4K Brilliance

The X-Star Premium by Autel Robotics is the newest 4K resolution drone that is taking flight and stealing the hearts of the masses. It’s a new take on the original X-Star, but with better features, capabilities, and standards all around.

To see a best review of this drone, watch this video.

Be Aware: The X-Star Premium is a ready-to-fly drone, so you can start having fun straight out of the box. No extensive building required on your part! However, the mobile device that is needed will have to be supplied by you.

Product specifications:

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Build Specifications

Packaging

When you open up your X-Star Premium you should find the following listed below in the box:

• The X-Star Premium quadcopter
• Premium hard case
• Controller
• Charging cable
• Intelligent battery
• 1-hour fast battery charger
• 64GB Micro SD card
• Spare propellers
• Small parts

To see a video on the process of unboxing your new drone, watch this video.

Design & Durability

 

The X-Star Premium is a drone that is designed for ultimate aerial imagery and flight simplicity. It has been designed to be very easy to fly, which is great if you’re a beginner who wants a drone that can capture great images from the air, with crystal clear resolution qualities.

While there are a lot of aerial photography drones currently on the market, this one is very different. It has features incorporated into its design in order to give the quadcopter additional functions and a better flight control system, which is pretty neat.

It’s a very decent size, not too big or too small, with a wingspan of approximately 352 mm. You can even select the color you want, from either white or orange, and the main material used is plastic. Where durability is concerned, this thing can take a beating. To see some great footage that highlights both the durability and the video footage of this quadcopter, watch this video.

Camera

The X-Star Premium brings some pretty awesome specs to the table when it comes to the camera. It can cover a 108-degree FOV and is ultra HD with 4K resolution. You are able to take videos at 720p 240fps, 1080p 120fps, 4K 40fps, or 2.7K 60fps, which is a great range of options for users. You can also take 12MP still shots, too.

The camera is fully built into the drone so you don’t have to install it yourself. The drone is not compatible with any external cameras, such as a GoPro, however, which is fine because the camera you are getting is better than any other external camera you probably had in mind.

The 3-axis gimbal stabilization system allows for crystal clear, stable photos and videos, which is great to have if you are flying and trying to get some shots in the wind, but unless the wind is minor, don’t expect to have spectacular images. The included Micro SD card stores all of your videos and still photos to save and be uploaded onto your PC later on. In total it can hold up to 64GB of videos and images.

To see for yourself what the footage looks like during flight, watch this video.

Battery & Flight Time

The intelligent battery that comes with the quadcopter offers up to 25 minutes of flight time, which is pretty good for a drone of its size. Not too many larger drones are able to stay up this long, such as the Phantom 3 which only as 23 minutes of flight time, so it’s pretty impressive.

The charger that is included is something else that is pretty neat. It guarantees to take an hour to charge, no more or less, even if the percentage it was charged at is different each time.

This is something that is great, because a lot of drone users generally have to estimate how long their drone is going to charge based on the percentage it was at when it was put on the charger, but this way you will know each time and can plan around it.

Controller

The controller has an operating range of up to 2,000 meters and a frequency of 2.4GHz. The drone is controlled through the controller with a smartphone or capable device as an attachment, as well as the Starlink application, which can be found through any application store. You must have either Android 4.2 or iOS 8.0 for minimum operating system compatibility, however.

The joysticks are made of material that makes them incredibly easy to control and manipulate, and are great for agile maneuvers each time. The function keys are very easy to hold onto, which is great for beginners or those who are just starting out with aerial photography.

The LCD display, which is acted out by your smartphone, tablet, or whatever the case may be, provides all of the necessary information you will need to see, including the charge percentage, for example. You will be able to set this up through the application.

To see more on the controller, such as how it is set up and how it works overall, watch the video below.

Flight Performance

If you choose to go with the orange model, then you will notice that the flight performance becomes more visible. This is because you’re pretty much flying a traffic cone. All in all, the flight performance is a decent one.

However, users have found that taking off and landing can feel somewhat stable and uneasy, mainly because they have found that the sides bob up and down on occasion.

This is definitely a drone that should be flown high in the sky, because certain problems have occurred during low flight situations. Once the quadcopter hits below 20 feet in altitude the system gets somewhat confused and can gain and low altitude by at least 5 feet. Therefore, newer fliers beware, but all ranges of fliers should be careful with drones regardless.

The X-Star Premium can reach up to 36 miles per hour, which is pretty decent. The maximum altitude is undetermined mostly because it depends on the range of weather and certain conditions. For example, it’s a windy day, especially higher in the sky, it’s recommended that you stay low to a certain degree. The ascent speed is 6 m/s, while the descent speed is 3 m/s.

To see some footage on the flight performance, watch this video.

Value for Money & Guarantee

At this time of writing the X-Star Premium quadcopter is priced at around $800.00 on Autel Robotic’s store, but you can find it elsewhere such as Amazon, who has it priced at some $1,200.00. Therefore, buying straight from Autel Robotics is definitely the better buy value for money wise.

They do have a warranty available, but keep in mind it is very thorough and extensive.

Unique Features

Where unique features are concerned, the X-Star Premium is definitely full of them. For one, the Starpoint Positioning System is great for measuring the altitude and tracking the position of both you and the drone.

This allows for accurate flying even when a GPS signal is not available. There are both GLONASS and GPS navigation systems present, which will help you to position the drone, or it will do it on its own, is an environment with a low signal.

Waypoints, Orbit, and Follow are all included features that are seen in many other drones that are capable of smart features. Either way, these features aid in controlling the drone’s camera and shooting the best scenes possible.

You can even enable Beginner Mode if you are new to drones, which will help you create somewhat of a geo-fence to ensure that the speed and the range are both limited to a certain degree. This will help you not to lose your drone.

The Starlight app is practically a feature in itself. You can check each aspect of the aircraft to ensure that it’s safe and ready to go before you fly. You can also have a live HD stream of the feed from the 4K camera on board, even if you can barely see the drone at all.

To see some of the features, flight footage, and the drone just doing its thing, watch the video below.

Similar Models

X-Star

Before the Premium there was the first X-Star of the line from Autel Robotics, which is a slightly less good version than the Premium. They both have the same wingspan and flight times, which is expected, but the Premium is a version that is basically revamped based on previous problems from the first X-Star.

However, the operating range has improved drastically, with the first having a range of only 800 meters, while the Premium has a range of up to 2,000 meters.

DJI Phantom 3 4K

One of them main competitors of the X-Star Premium is the DJI manufacturer. They produce mostly aerial photography drones that are quite similar, such as the Phantom 3 4K, which is also a film and photography drone.

The flight times are both the same, sitting at 25 minutes each, but, once again, the Premium is superior where range is concerned. The Phantom 3 4K has a range of only 1,200 meters, while the Premium has the 2,000-meter range. However, both have 12MP camera capabilities.

Yuneec Breeze

The Breeze by Yuneec is a very similar drone, but it’s also recommended for those who want something like the Premium, but on a much better budget.

The Yuneec Breeze is superior to the Premium where camera resolution is concerned, with the Breeze winning against 12MP with 13MP, and both have 4K resolution.

Overview

The X-Star Premium is a great drone with unique features, a decent flight performance, and has capabilities that are perfect for beginners. With a manufacturer price that simply cannot be beat, it’s one heck of a drone.

Now let’s see Pros and Cons of X-Star Premium.

Let’s see review of X-Star Premium.

Even though there are a few cons that may be a bit of a red flag, the pros definitely outweigh the bad here. The X-Star Premium is an $800 dream.