Last year, I reviewed the Parrot Bebop drone along with the Skycontroller which allowed greater range and at the time, the combo at $1100 was kind of pricey. But it worked well. Parrot has gone back and improved on the original Bebop drone by bringing out the Parrot Bebop 2 drone:
While it looks like the original Bebop drone, there are improvements. It delivers more than 20 minutes of flight time on a single charge (and unlike the Bebop, the battery locks into place rather than being held down by a velcro strap), boasts a 14-megapixel camera that can capture 1080p video, and is rated for a maximum range of 300 meters. You control it from your smartphone using the Free Flight 3 app available for Android or iOS and controlling it is extremely easy. It only takes a few minutes to figure out how to fly it. It has 8GB of non-expandable memory for photos and video which is where this drone shines. Video images were clear and stable as evidenced by this video of a bunch of fire trucks responding to an emergency at an apartment building near the field I was testing the drone in:
If I were to criticize something, it’s the fact that the 8GB of memory is non-expandable. Thus you can run out of space if you don’t download video frequently (which can be done via the Free Flight 3 app over WiFi or via connecting the drone to your computer via USB). But other than that, there are no complaints on the video front.
Now the Bebop 2 connects to your phone via WiFi, but the range is limited. Once it passed about 100 meters, the live video feed that was being broadcast back to my iPhone 6 began to get choppy and would freeze up and pixelate. At 150 meters or more I frequently lost connection. If I walked to within 50 meters of the drone, I could sometimes reconnect. Most of the time it hovered in place for 60 seconds before rising to 30 meters and returning to the place where I launched it from. Thus this isn’t a fatal flaw as clearly Parrot has built in some safeguards to keep you from crashing the drone if you lose connection. Now, if you think about it, all those numbers are approaching the maximum range of WiFi transmissions which explains all of this. Thus if you want longer range, you need the Skycontroller which allows you to fly up to 2KM away.
So, what does the Parrot Bebop 2 drone go for? You can pick it up $549 in your choice of white or red, and it’s all you need if you’re getting started in the world or drones. If you want to really take advantage of what the Bebop 2 is capable of, I’d recommend getting the Skycontroller as well which is another $299 (down from $499 at the time of publishing this review). Either way, I think you’ll find it to be something that you’ll have a lot of fun with.
This entry was posted on April 12, 2016 at 7:26 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Parrot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Review: Parrot Bebop 2 Drone
Last year, I reviewed the Parrot Bebop drone along with the Skycontroller which allowed greater range and at the time, the combo at $1100 was kind of pricey. But it worked well. Parrot has gone back and improved on the original Bebop drone by bringing out the Parrot Bebop 2 drone:
While it looks like the original Bebop drone, there are improvements. It delivers more than 20 minutes of flight time on a single charge (and unlike the Bebop, the battery locks into place rather than being held down by a velcro strap), boasts a 14-megapixel camera that can capture 1080p video, and is rated for a maximum range of 300 meters. You control it from your smartphone using the Free Flight 3 app available for Android or iOS and controlling it is extremely easy. It only takes a few minutes to figure out how to fly it. It has 8GB of non-expandable memory for photos and video which is where this drone shines. Video images were clear and stable as evidenced by this video of a bunch of fire trucks responding to an emergency at an apartment building near the field I was testing the drone in:
If I were to criticize something, it’s the fact that the 8GB of memory is non-expandable. Thus you can run out of space if you don’t download video frequently (which can be done via the Free Flight 3 app over WiFi or via connecting the drone to your computer via USB). But other than that, there are no complaints on the video front.
Now the Bebop 2 connects to your phone via WiFi, but the range is limited. Once it passed about 100 meters, the live video feed that was being broadcast back to my iPhone 6 began to get choppy and would freeze up and pixelate. At 150 meters or more I frequently lost connection. If I walked to within 50 meters of the drone, I could sometimes reconnect. Most of the time it hovered in place for 60 seconds before rising to 30 meters and returning to the place where I launched it from. Thus this isn’t a fatal flaw as clearly Parrot has built in some safeguards to keep you from crashing the drone if you lose connection. Now, if you think about it, all those numbers are approaching the maximum range of WiFi transmissions which explains all of this. Thus if you want longer range, you need the Skycontroller which allows you to fly up to 2KM away.
So, what does the Parrot Bebop 2 drone go for? You can pick it up $549 in your choice of white or red, and it’s all you need if you’re getting started in the world or drones. If you want to really take advantage of what the Bebop 2 is capable of, I’d recommend getting the Skycontroller as well which is another $299 (down from $499 at the time of publishing this review). Either way, I think you’ll find it to be something that you’ll have a lot of fun with.
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This entry was posted on April 12, 2016 at 7:26 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Parrot. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.