| Spaßfaktor | |
| Features | |
| Materialqualität | |
| Flugverhalten | |
| Preis-Leistung | |
| Average 0/5 |
The french manufacturer Parrot is launching a smaller version of the Parrot Disco which should be suitable for children and drone beginners. Not only the price of only 132€ but also the easy control and flight stability make this drone bargain interesting for all newcomers. Find out in this article what the mini drone is really good for and if it is worth its money!
Delivery and material quality
As you are used to from Parrot, the order range for this drone is also very generous and offers the following in addition to the hydride drone:
- Parrot Swing Drone
- Parrot Flypad
- Micro-USB cable to charge the batteries
- 8 propellers
- Smartphone holder
- multilingual operating instructions
The high-gloss carton reliably stows away the extensive drone set. The processing of the housing and the controller is of high quality and fits very well in the hand. If you want to charge the drone, you can simply use your mobile phone charging cable, as this is not included in the delivery.
Flight characteristics and control
Due to its very low weight of only 75g, the quadrocopter is also suitable for indoor use.
However, care should be taken here, as at full speed the Swing Drone can also cause damage to the cabinet wall or shop window. It is better to fly the drone only in rooms that offer an appropriate environment.
Before the first flight we have charged the battery for a short time, otherwise the drone is delivered ready to fly. The battery is simply inserted into the drone and you have to push until a short click sound is heard.
Then the drone battery sits securely and firmly and the drone is ready to fly.
The “eyes” or front LED’s of the drone shine in a light green tone that we already know from the Parrot Mambo.
To fly the drone you have to download the FreeflightMini App from Parrot for free from the Google Play Store or IOS. You don’t have to register like at DJI, but can simply connect the app directly to the drone and start flying.
Place your mobile phone horizontally on the flypad and tighten the upper hinge sufficiently to prevent the phone from falling out of the holder. The remote control as well as the drone itself are made of very high quality material.
The wings are made of resistant foam plastic and can withstand the odd fall. Nevertheless, the construction of the drone is not as stable as e.g. the Parrot Airbourne Night, because bumpers or protectors on each side of the drone can absorb the crash accordingly (these are missing on the Parrot Swing).
We have crashed into a flower bush, against a frontal wall, ceiling and also against our tripod – the drone has only a few slight blisters on the wings, the housing is almost undamaged.
It can happen that you have to remount the wings, but this shouldn’t be too big a problem. How to do this in detail is explained in many youtube videos and in the german manual.
The drone itself is made of scratch-resistant carbon, which guarantees a high level of durability.
The drone starts vertically upwards and can be catapulted into the air by pressing the “lift-off” button. The drone takes over automatically and climbs to a height of 1.20m.
Then the drone positions itself horizontally and stabilizes in the air. When landing it goes back into the vertical position, pretty cool in our opinion!
There is no FPV function (i.e. the drone cannot be flown with virtual glasses, the built-in camera is not designed for that) that can be used with app and FPV glasses.
The battery of the controller lasted almost 5h in our test, a really decent value for a found drone. Charging takes about 120 minutes depending on the power supply you use.
The battery of the drone is sufficient for an effective flight time of almost 7 minutes, whereby it depends here on how much you load the drone, 6 minutes you will get in any case.
If this is too short for you, you can buy a spare battery for only 14€ which you can carry with you. The small size also makes it possible to carry 3 or 4 batteries for the drone flying in a backpack.
Without headwind and with sufficient free flight path the copter reaches a maximum speed of up to 30 km/H and therefore a really strong value! The Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4k for example flies also not faster than 35 km/h and costs with 800€ clearly more!
The drone can be flown by remote control to a range of 60 meters without signal problems and with the smartphone to almost 25 meters. The drone reaches its maximum flight altitude at 25m, although in our test it sometimes ended at 23m.
In the app you can use numerous tricks and flight manoeuvres which are triggered with a simple click. These include loops, flips (180 degrees forward and sideways) and fast turns.
This looks quite spectacular and is guaranteed to impress your friends. There is also an autopilot on board which will fly the drone on its own if you leave your hands off the control sticks for a short time.
On the bottom of the camera is a camera sensor as well as an ultrasonic sensor that keeps the drone stable in the air during flight, take-off and landing. Due to the digital 3-axis stabilisation system the drone flight is very comfortable and smooth.
Although it is a mini drone, the flight characteristics are really good and ideal to enter the world of drones if you do not have any flight experience.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that the Swing should not be flown in stronger winds, as it will start to tumble a little.
Conclusion about the Parrot Swing Drone
We have to say that it is a lot of fun to fly the Swing, especially beginners will get their money’s worth. If the drone crashes once, that is not too bad, because you can just keep flying without getting damaged.
The material used is high quality and incredibly stable. The components that could break in a crash are made of construction materials that can forgive even the heaviest and most hectic landing approach or accident.
The flypad (remote control) makes a very good impression and is almost the same as its big brother (Parrot Bepop 2) and brings a whole lot of functions.
The free app (which you don’t have to register to fly, a big plus from my point of view!) is easy to use and doesn’t crash but runs very reliable and jerk-free.
With 132€ you get a lot of drone for this great price! If you are looking for a drone with HD camera that already has intelligent flight modes and costs a little more (about 250€) then you should not miss our test video of the Hubsan drone.
If you are looking for a drone with a camera, you better have a look at other models that cost much more (DJI Phantom 3 Standard, Phantom 3 Professionel, Mavic Pro etc.).
