Disclaimer (inspired from SP) Product specifications and quality may vary at the manufacturer's discretion, and are beyond my influence. I cannot guarantee you will get a product that performs exactly the same as seen and described in this review. Please, no savage affiliate links! By the way, in contracdiction with some other reviewers, I open a new mini-review thread ONLY when I have the machine in hand ....

INTRODUCTION

The Hubsan H507A is nothing else than the successor of the H502S, a compact brushed quadcopter with a GPS module and a 720p camera able to offer stabilized and assisted flights and shoot basic videos without EIS. With the H507A powerstar X4, no more 2.4G controller but an advanced app (iOS & Android) with new advanced flight modes: Orbit, follow me and a waypoint planner. The other electronic ingredients are more or less the same, i.e. a brushed machine with a builtin GPS and 720p camera and the EIS is still missing.


BOX CONTENT



+ 1 x Hubsan H507A (with a 2S 550mAh LiPo)
+ 1 x USB charging cable
+ 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 4 x Prop guards
+ 1 x Screwdriver

OVERVIEW

Visually, the changed the design but the general dimensions remain tje same, a 250mm machine with 8520 coreless brushed motors.



Same props, same brushed motors, same gear system. Notice as for many hubsan products, the motor's rotation layout is inverted versus the standard choice. Probably not too boost stability but more to reduce potential dust projection on the lens.



No more rounded front shape but a more peaky one... maybe 1cm more front.

-Front view



-Side view



The right side welcomes the microUSB port to update the firmware. Via the App, you can identify the version installed on your machine.



-Rear view

The battery tray have changed. No more JST connector but now at the background, a 3 pins connector.





-Bottom view

Now the microSD card is insalled more in the central part. Still no click during the microSD card insertion.



Notice than only class10 and more can be used.




-Weight



More than 160g so basically 8g more heavier than H502E & H502S. It will impact even more durability of the motors already known to be weak.





Motors and props

Basically, exactly the same motors ....and it's strongly advise to stock some spare ones



To boost flight duration, super long props are given ... if their efficiency is great, they are stressing a lot motors. I also strongly advice to add drop of silicon oïl on ballbearings. Check also that no extra friction are present for each motors.





LiPo

Hubsan is now introducing a proprietary battery.... No more the 610mAh 2S LiPo with JST connector, but a 550mAh only and more heavy...



Probably they want to sell more spare battery. This choice of battery impacts negatively the flight duration, now minored of 2-3min versus the former model. At least, there is a good news, the battery is easy to insert/remove.











Camera module



The lens have been upgraded and less blurring can be observed. That's a good news. The sensor remain the same with a lbasic ight sensitivy.

UNBOXING, ANALYSIS AND TESTINGS

Hubsan H507A unboxing analysis and demo flight (Courtesy Banggood) (36 min 22 sec)

In term of video, without stabilization, no miracle, videos are most of the time shacky. The frame rate IMHO is not truly 30fps and the light sensitivy can be better. At least, videos are not blurred. Clearly, a better camera could be expected and more a 1080p model than a 720p. Bad news, unlike the H501A, the H507A can't be controlled with any Hubsan 2.4G radio. The control is 100% app based.
The app is just great .... no bug or crash for android have been reported. I really like the GUI. The waypoints defintion is super easy, very beginner friendly. The orbit mode requires a distance of 3m minimum between your position and the drone. The FPV link is relatively stable up to 100-120m. As soon as you loose the link, the machine engages a RTH (except is a mission is actually played). If you need more range, you can use the Hubsan Range extender for a 300-400m connexion. But since in practice, you have around 10-11min of flight duration, such long distances is not strongly advised. In the first attempt, as you can see in this video, the position of the quadcopter (blue Arrow in the app) was shifted by at least several hundreds of meter and all mission plannings were receiving logically a warning saying that I was exceeding the max allowed distance. In practice, there is is a way to calibrate the GPS position given by yhe H507A. You need to long press the map to the true's position.

Hubsan H507A advanced testings (Courtesy Banggood) (15 min 40 sec)

As you can see, all the three Advanced flight modes work fine .... except the follow-me lacking of heading ajustement to target the pilot. We can also regret the absence of a selfie-flight mode as included in the Zerotech Dobby. But this option can be added in a futur APP/firmware release.


CONCLUSIONS

For a 100USD machine, you have probably the smarter drone in the market with three Advanced flight modes. The H507A is a machine super stable with a lot of flight assistance so ideal for being more concentrated on the current scene to shoot. The application is great and intuitive. The FPV feedback is ok up to 100-120m. We can regret maybe the absence of a 2.4G control and of course by the basic 720p camera without EIS. Flight duration have been reduced by the introduction of a proprietary battery module, it's a pity. You can expect 10-11min maximum. Don't expect miracle and super stabilized videos in general, but in calm wind conditions and after a post-stabilization process, results can be pretty good.


PROS

+ Efficient new features added
+ Great app
+ Super easy machine
+ Great beginner machine
+ Slightly improved 720p videos
+ Cheap


CONS

- Proprietary battery
- Shorter flight time vs the H502E
- Not stabilized videos
- Poor durability of brushed motors
- No selfie mode
- Not compatible with H501, H502 2.4G radios

This quadcopter have been courtesy provided by Banggood in order to make a fair and not biased review. I would like to thank them for this attitude.
You can find it actually for 100USD at http://www.banggood.com/Hubsan-X4-STAR-H507A-App-Compatible-Wifi-FPV-With-1080P-HD-Camera-GPS-RC-Quadcopter-RTF-p-1115752.html

reserved1

Neat

Originally Posted by SeByDocKy

You can expect 10-11min maximum.

Interesting, did you get 15 minutes flight time on the 502E? Since you mention 2-3 minutes less flight time due to the smaller battery and higher weight.


Not sure if I like the direction Hubsan is going, with these proprietary batteries. Why not use T-plug or XT30 and balance wire, so you can choose to use the included charger, or different one?

I have one of these as well,pretty neat machine for what it is.I was disjointed to see that it is app only tho,it would have been great if it was compatible with either the H501s or H502E controller.

Meh.

With brushless tech getting cheaper by the day what sense is there in enabling things like mission planner, which is by definition a longer-range technology, into something with unreliable brushed motors and short flight times?

I'm worried that Hubsan are resting on their laurels. They should be worrying about coming out with a true successor to the H501S - perhaps with a small gimbal, to finally give the Mavic something to worry about - rather than wasting time on this outdated toy-grade stuff.

At least the camera has been upgraded from the H501 and its washed-out green videos...

Originally Posted by SoloProFan

Interesting, did you get 15 minutes flight time on the 502E? Since you mention 2-3 minutes less flight time due to the smaller battery and higher weight.


Not sure if I like the direction Hubsan is going, with these proprietary batteries. Why not use T-plug or XT30 and balance wire, so you can choose to use the included charger, or different one?

More around 13-14 min yes with the H502E ... For the proprietary battery nothing to add just to make more money

Originally Posted by Tachikoma

Meh.

With brushless tech getting cheaper by the day what sense is there in enabling things like mission planner, which is by definition a longer-range technology, into something with unreliable brushed motors and short flight times?

I'm worried that Hubsan are resting on their laurels. They should be worrying about coming out with a true successor to the H501S - perhaps with a small gimbal, to finally give the Mavic something to worry about - rather than wasting time on this outdated toy-grade stuff.

At least the camera has been upgraded from the H501 and its washed-out green videos...

For $100, it's got some cool technology. I don't think you can find a better quad for this price.

A new small demo in windfree conditions....

Hubsan H507A windfree video recording (3 min 57 sec)

As you can see, still (a lot) of vibrations .... but acceptable

N.B. I had problem with my class 10 microSD card, no more recognized. In fact, I had to insist several time, try to read the content of the folder than return to the live screen to be allowed to record.

Originally Posted by SeByDocKy

A new small demo in windfree conditions....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqW5v6Fs8kk

As you can see, still (a lot) of vibrations .... but acceptable

N.B. I had problem with my class 10 microSD card, no more recognized. In fact, I had to insist several time, try to read the content of the folder than return to the live screen to be allowed to record.

Nice video SeByDocKy !!

It's pretty good video. I hope you can balance the props to reduce the jello vibrations.

Originally Posted by sylvestor2002

Nice video SeByDocKy !!

It's pretty good video. I hope you can balance the props to reduce the jello vibrations.

I don't expect miracle even with balanced props.... the machine is 160g only...

So am finding that this quadcopter ,at least for me is not so good.I have attempted four flights now which all went bad.First two I could not get a good GPS lock,battery actually died waiting .The next two ended in flyoffs until the quad hit a tree a crashed to the ground,in both times I tried to use the app joysticks but was unresponsive I have a older cell phone but which I could put the blame on but it has worked on other wifi quadcopters fine.This does have a lot more going on with the app of course with the gps and all the features,sadly none of them have worked for me.
In my opinion they never should have eliminated the hand held controller like the H502E uses,at least with that if there is a issue with the app or gps it would still be flyable.

Changed to ball bearing., about 10 min flight time with recording.
Some guy could go over 250M, distance or height.

Originally Posted by willkhlau

Changed to ball bearing., about 10 min flight time with recording.
Some guy could go over 250M, distance or height.

250M is impressive. Was it being used with the wifi extender ? Where did you get the screen shots from ? Can you post a link to the video ?

Originally Posted by aben71

So am finding that this quadcopter ,at least for me is not so good.I have attempted four flights now which all went bad.First two I could not get a good GPS lock,battery actually died waiting .The next two ended in flyoffs until the quad hit a tree a crashed to the ground,in both times I tried to use the app joysticks but was unresponsive I have a older cell phone but which I could put the blame on but it has worked on other wifi quadcopters fine.This does have a lot more going on with the app of course with the gps and all the features,sadly none of them have worked for me.
In my opinion they never should have eliminated the hand held controller like the H502E uses,at least with that if there is a issue with the app or gps it would still be flyable.

did you have flyoffs because you did not have a gps lock ? did you try rebooting your phone ? Do you have a lot of background apps running ? Maybe they are slowing your phone down ?

how much damage did you do to your quad when it hit the tree ? Can you post some videos of the flight crash or photos of your damaged quad ?