Parrot Mambo Test

The Parrot Mambo is a true classic in the field of mini/fun drones.

Gripping arms, Lego man, mini camera and mini cannon make the Mambo a nice toy, which is
also suitable for inexperienced drone pilots
.

Parrot Mambo Test – Overview & Summary

Fortunately Parrot has a good ultrasonic sensor and a sophisticated gyro built in
.

So the drone is always perfectly in the air and you can hunt with it carefree through your home or over the field.

A bargain in price: You can usually get the Parrot Mambo for under 100€, for
example here on Amazon.

Scope of delivery

Here you have the following in the scope of delivery:

• Parrot Mambo Drone
• USB cable with MiniUSB connector
• Various attachments (mini cannon and grab arms)
• Instruction manual
• 550mAh battery

To our astonishment there is unfortunately no spare propeller set available.

But the Mambo is very stable, so if something does break, you can easily order a propeller set for a few Euros.

Steering & Flight characteristics of the Parrot Mambo

The Parrot Mambo can be controlled from your smartphone by simply
downloading
the FreeFlight Mini
app, switching on Bluetooth and connecting to the mini drone
.

The operation via the touch field might take some getting used to, but after a while you get the hang of it.

Alternatively you can order a “FlyPad” for about 30-35€ to get a better feeling of control in flight.

The Mambo flies very stable, if you accelerate strongly and release the throttle abruptly, the mini-drone automatically steers against it and comes to a halt immediately.

It accepts control commands almost without delay.

Take care not to get sweaty fingers when flying, otherwise some control commands will not be recognized correctly or misinterpreted, depending on the quality of your touch field.

==> It is easier to fly with this FlyPad (view it on Amazon)

Quality & Processing

All in all, this mini-drone is really very well made.

The used plastic is quite elastic and flexible. The base structure, rotor protection and the propellers themselves are made of this material, which makes the Parrot Mambo quite resistant.

She is very forgiving! In the test, the Mambo flew against us several times due to carelessness indoors. It registers a crash immediately and brings all rotors to a standstill so that the engines and rotor blades are not damaged.

Special features of the Parrot Mambo

It is quite fun to have the possibility to equip the Parrot Mambo with different “Lego bricks”. If you have small Lego bricks at home, you can for example build a small tower on the drone. But pay attention to the weight ;-).

The corresponding plugs have contacts, which are necessary for the Mini Cannon and grab arms.

Mini-gun

If you plug in the mini-gun, the app recognizes this.

Now just put a few more balls in, tap once on the corresponding touch field in the app, then the mini-gun cocks a spring and the drone fires a ball.

The power of the mini-gun is sufficient to shoot balloons.

Gripping arms

In the app you can also open and close the grab arms.

They pack neatly and you can use them to transport a few small, light things from A to B.

But be careful not to overload the drone!

The grapple arms can be mounted above or below the drone.

Somersaults & stunts

Common to many Parrot drones are the pre-programmed stunts & somersaults. Similar to the Parrot Airborne Night, you can choose between forward, backward and sideways flips.

Just double-tap on the Touch Screen and the drone performs the appropriate stunt and then stabilizes itself.

However, the tricks only work if the drone is not equipped with the gripping arms or the mini-gun.

Test conclusion on the Parrot Mambo

What we noticed in the test, when the small mini drone flies on a flat surface, it always maintains its height.

However, if there are abrupt differences in height, for example at a table, the Mambo might fly up a little bit, because the sound sensor might get confused.

This is also clear when you wave your hand under the drone, then it starts to “dance”.

Otherwise it stands really stable in the air.

What could have been done better?

The only thing that disturbed us at the Parrot Mambo was the flight time of about 7 minutes (in our test). Unfortunately there is only a 550mAh battery installed and Parrot could develop much more powerful batteries for this type of drones in the future.

After about 25-30 minutes of charging time the Parrot Mambo is fully charged and ready for use again.

But all in all, you get a very good mini drone for your money, which is really impressive compared to other fun quadrocopters.