Hubsan is well known drone manufacturing brand. Their most successful models are Hubsan X4 / H107L / H107C. Today, we’re here for for something much better, their new model : Hubsan H502S. This model is coming right after very popular H501S model. Basically, it’s shrunken version of H501S drone. Price is significantly decreased but some advanced features are still here. That’s great news for all of us running on a low budget!
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On first sight, you’ll notice it’s very similar to Hubsan H501S model. Truth is, they are similar but H502S is significantly smaller compared to H501S. We’ll get deeper in comparison of these two models bit later, now let’s do quick overview of H502S specs.
Hubsan H502S specifications:
Material: Plastic, Alloy
Battery: Li-Po 7.4V 610mAh
Remote Control Battery: 4*AA Battery (not included)
Flight Time: 12 minutes
Charging Time: 150 minutes
Frequency: 2.4GHz & 5.8GHz
Control range: > 250 meters
Camera: 720p
Check price on Amazon
BEFORE WE START WITH THE ACTUAL Hubsan H502S REVIEW, HERE ARE FEW THINGS YOU GUYS SHOULD KNOW :
- This drone does not require FAA registration. It weighs only about 155 grams.
- H502S has a GPS, which means you’ll have to wait for a few seconds before you launch it to the sky. It takes some time for drone and controller to catch a right GPS position. Don’t worry, it’s very simple. You can see more about this in the video included at the bottom of this review.
Hubsan H502S vs H501S
No doubt H501S model is more professional drone. Hubsan H502S can’t be considered as a H501S model upgrade, instead, I see it as a cheaper version of that amazing and very capable drone.
H501S(left) – H502S(right). – source : rcgroups.com / user : SeByDocKy
While H501S comes with brushless motors and 1080p camera, H502S model comes with brushed motors and 720p camera. Both drones have follow me mode which works pretty good. Since both of them have a GPS, it’s natural that Hubsan implemented Return to home and “anti-signal-loss” features in both of them. Anti-signal-loss means your drone will automatically return back to the position from which he took off.
Controllers looks similar too, but that does not mean you can use the same controller to fly both drones. Since camera resolutions are different, FPV screens are also different. So you’ll have problems with display if you try to use H501S controller (1080p camera) to fly H502S (720p camera). This was my experience, if you have tip how to fix it.. you know where the comment area is 🙂
Packaging
Hubsan H502S is ready-to-fly drone. Okay, that doesn’t mean you can fly it right out of the box but after connecting batteries and checking all screws you’re ready to take it off. One more thing to remember, as I previously mention, this drone requires calibration before first flight. Process is relatively simple and won’t take you longer than a minute or two. Information shown on transmitter will guide you through this process. Check out video embedded on the bottom of this review, guy on the video is showing how to calibrate it. It starts on 3:40 seconds, but I highly recommend watching whole video.
So, what’s included in the package?
- 1 x Hubsan H502S (with a 2S 610 mAh LiPo with JST connector)
- 1 x Transmitter including a 4.3″ FPV monitor (using 4xAA batteries not included)
- 1 x Charger
- 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
- 1 x Screwdriver
- 1 x Instruction manual (English)
Design and durability
Design is modern – “flat”. It’s very minimalistic without many details. In my opinion, Hubsan has done great job with this design. I’m impressed with its light weight from first touch. It weighs only 155 grams which is…..amazing! Build quality is great, comparable to H501S. Hubsan put a lot of attention into modular design, it’s very easy to replace motors if they burn out. Changing propellers is super easy, as on most of drones that are available in the market. I shouldn’t forget transmitter, it’s “modular” too. There are few pre-drilled holes on the top of it, this means it will be super easy to install better 2.4G & 5.8G antennas.
Camera
Hubsan H502S comes equipped with 720p camera and results are not bad at all. 720p video looks pretty good and camera stabilisation system works very well too. It’s almost jello effect free. Compared to other drone cameras in this price range, I think it’s one of the best. FPV quality is on satisfactory level too. Combined with Virtual Reality headset, you can enjoy real FPV experience with this drone. Remember what I mentioned before, transmitter has a pre-drilled holes so antenna mods are super easy (this is not required at all, I’m just saying it in case you’re more experienced flyer). You can see video and photo samples on the video included below.
Controller
Transmitter has a large 4.3” LCD screen of 640px * 480px resolution. A lot of flight crucial information are shown on it, such a : GPS position for both drone and transmitter, battery voltage, local velocity, altitude and heading as well as the current pitch and roll.
This is great and very helpful but it has one cons. You need 4 AA batteries to “feed” this transmitter. Because of it’s large screen, it consumes pretty much power and your batteries will be empty after 3-4 flights in average. To compensate this you have one simple solution : buy some cheap rechargeable AA batteries.
FLIGHT PERFORMANCE
I’m very impressed by stability of Hubsan H502S. Altitude hold mode works very well and when activated you can completely focus on your camera activities. Return to home and follow me functions works well too. I was bit skeptic about Follow me function on such affordable drone but now I’m really impressed by it. I found it works the best on 10 meters distance. When you’re moving very slow it won’t put too much effort to keep you in the camera centre, but when you start moving bit faster (fast walk, running) it will keep you in the focus whole the time. As I mentioned before, Return to home/automatic landing/anti-signal-lost functions works great. I have nothing too important to say about that.
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Flight time and control range
This is my favorite part of every review. I don’t know why but I guess it has something to do with time when I was a kid who was crazy about RC cars. My main questions was : “how far can it go?” 🙂 . Advertised flight time of Hubsan H502S is 12-13 minutes. I can confirm it’s very accurate, in average I got 10-11 minutes of flight time. These were combined flights, not too aggressive but not static either. This drone isn’t ideal for aggressive flights because of it’s brushed motors anyway.
Flight range is good too, I can confirm it has a > 250 meters radio range, while FPV range is somewhere around 130-150 meters. These are metrics I achieved during my review. You can’t even see it at that distances but thanks to GPS you shouldn’t be worried too much about it. This is cool when you’re flying it in the desert areas, but in the city part or something like that – you should keep it in your eye sight. That’s what FAA requires from you, don’t blame me! 🙂
Conclusion
If Hubsan intended to offer affordable follow me drone with good camera and flight characteristics – their mission is fully completed. It’s just amazing how stable and “smart” this 155g piece of technology is. It’s great choice for many groups of flyers : first time flyers, camera guys on tight budget… or anyone who’s looking for small but capable drone that won’t make much damage in case it crashes (but it won’t crash, we all know you’re good flyer 🙂 ).
Amazon.com
Main competitor
Cheerson CX-35
While I’m not sure these drones can be directly compared, I just have to put something in this section. If we exclude H501S model because I talked so much about it in this review, CX-35 looks like the best fit from all drones I’ve tested so far.
While it doesn’t have GPS, it has some other nice features such a : altitude hold, one key return, low voltage landing, remotely adjustable camera, headless mode and so on. It comes with 7.4V 1300 mAh LiPo battery that will provide you with 7 minutes of flight time in average. Not impressive at all :/ Flight range in somewhere around 100 meters. Drone is large enough and it’s visible at that distance. Packed up with LED lights, it’s good for night flights too. CX-35 comes with 2MP FPV camera, which, again, can’t be directly compared to Hubsans camera.
In case you’re interested, you can read full Cheerson CX-35 review here.
His work was featured in a variety of publications including BBC, TechCrunch, DJI Blog, HBR.org, VICE and many more.
Zoran is a hard-worker who never takes "no" for an answer, and thinks it's blasphemy when someone says something negative about Autel Robotics.
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