AirSelfie 2 review

“Airselfie’s fantastic design is largely overshadowed by its finicky, frustrating controls”

Avg

• Solid design

• Good image quality

Against

• Extremely difficult to fly

• Abysmal app

• No autonomous flight

• Overrated

When it comes to selfies, there are generally two ways to achieve the perfect photo. You can use the outstretched hand method or you can ask for the help of a selfie stick. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we now have a third option for taking pictures of ourselves: selfie drones.

Over the past few years, several companies have released flying cameras that let you take selfies from the sky — and the Airselfie 2 is the latest addition to this growing category.

Before we dive into this review, it’s worth mentioning that the AirSelfie 2 isn’t exactly a drone. Since it has no autonomous features, it’s technically just a remote control quadcopter with a camera on it. Company representatives were quick to correct us when we called the device a drone when we first saw it at CES earlier this year.

No matter what you call it, it’s still a flying camera. But does it work? And more importantly, is it worth spending $200? We tried one to find out.

Nuts and bolts

The AirSelfie 2 is well executed from a construction standpoint. The case is made from aeronautical aluminum, and while it’s extremely light, it certainly feels tough and capable of some tough landings (which, as you’ll see, is a much-needed ability). Four turbofan propellers power the AirSelfie 2, and you should be able to fly with a range of about 65 feet from your location according to the specs. We kept him much closer, for reasons we’ll talk about later.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

There are two purchase options, one with the AirSelfie 2 itself for $200 and another bundle that includes the charging case for an additional $50. Given the drone’s maximum flight time of five minutes, we recommend spending the extra $50 so you don’t have to plug it in after every use.

Terrible app experience

To take off, you’ll need to turn on the AirSelfie 2 and connect to its built-in 2.4GHz Wi-Fi hotspot via the AirSelfie app. Despite how simple this sounds, this is where our problems started. Our app didn’t work, but that’s due to a confusing app store experience: there are actually two versions of the AirSelfie app.

The process of even getting things to work through the app was as bad as it gets.

Save yourself the frustration and look for AirSelfie2. Use the app that appears there instead of the original AirSelfie app. Much to our dismay, none of AirSelfie’s documentation mentions the two different apps, and we wasted a lot of time with the old app before we figured out what was going on.

Unfortunately, the AirSelfie 2 app itself isn’t much better than the original. The UI is dated and has a design that looks like it was resurrected from 2010. It’s so bad that it’s actually confusing and counterintuitive — especially if you’re used to modern app design.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

To make matters worse, AirSeflie’s app also doesn’t work with the iPhone XS Max on iOS 12. Parts of the app are completely unresponsive to touch. We had to take out the old iPhone 7 to use the AirSelfie 2, and even then, the UI didn’t always respond properly.

Testing from other devices was hit and miss, and it was just as bad an experience with the app as we had with the drones. Sometimes the app would suddenly lock up (such as allowing access to your photo gallery within the app gallery) forcing us to manually close and restart everything before continuing.

All in all, it really feels like this app is nowhere near ready for premiere. In a second-generation device, these things simply shouldn’t be a problem.

And I’m not the only one having issues with the apps: reviews on the App Store say the same: they’re not much better on Google Play. AirSelfie, what’s going on here?

There is a learning curve, even in “Easy” mode

Once you’ve made your way through the app store and are ready to fly, AirSelfie 2 has three different modes to suit different skill levels. Easy mode gives you basic controls (up and down, back and forward, left or right), while medium gives you the ability to control the tilt of your phone. Finally, Expert mode gives you joystick-like control of the AirSelfie 2, which we don’t recommend for anyone but experienced drone pilots.

After solving the setup issues above, we were hoping to have better luck flying the damn thing. Getting the AirSelfie 2 to fly involves placing the device in your hand, tapping the launch button to start the propellers, and gently tossing it upwards into the air (called a “TossFly”). This takes some practice and you have to keep your arm straight.

As of now, the AirSelfie 2 just isn’t ready for prime time.

Flying in was a challenge. The ceiling in our test area was quite low, and it’s clear that the AirSelfie 2 requires just over 8 feet of clearance for TossFly to work. High ceilings? you’re awesome Just be ready to bounce the drone off the ceiling otherwise.

After several attempts, we finally managed to fly into the air and not hit the ceiling. Flying is a bit of a challenge as you have to manually control the drone almost all the time to avoid crashing. Since the AirSelfie has no environmental sensors (there’s just one on the bottom of the device that detects the ground and your hand), it’s up to you to make sure the device stays in the air and doesn’t fly off into anything.

Alternatives

All things considered, flying the AirSelfie 2 is a bit of a chore. After our problems with piloting and applications, we were quite nervous to take it outside. If you are brave enough to fly in unrestricted space, we recommend keeping it low to the ground and in light winds. We drove it on a day with 5-10 mph winds and were worried the whole time that we would lose control.

Honestly, we didn’t try medium and expert settings because we didn’t feel confident enough to do so.

The AirSelfie 2’s image quality is a (somewhat) bright spot

Despite that fact, we’re happy to report that the AirSelfie 2’s image quality is one of its few saving graces. The pictures are pretty clear and the videos aren’t bad either.

We would equate the image quality with that of a mid-range smartphone. AirSelfie says the camera itself is 12 megapixels, with 1080p at 30fps image quality, however, as you can see from the image, our results definitely weren’t as sharp or clear, and colors looked washed out. It was a cloudy day when the picture was taken, but we would have liked to see a little better picture quality at this price.

Our example

AirSelfie 2 feels like a product that could have been so much more with a little more attention to detail, and the app itself wasn’t released without a lot more beta testing on various devices. Something has gone horribly wrong here in app development, and at this price it’s unacceptable.

Is there a better alternative?

At $200-$250, the AirSelfie 2 really needs to offer some sort of autonomous behavior (not to mention a running app) to beat the competition. Unfortunately, there is no such thing, so there are a few alternatives on the market that you should definitely consider. The DJI Spark, for example, now sells for $399 almost everywhere, and for twice that price you’ll get much, much more. But you don’t even have to spend that much: ZeroTech offers a similar drone for $150, which also includes target tracking and image stabilization — two notable features that the AirSeflie 2 simply doesn’t have.

How long will it last?

Despite the issues with the app, we have no issues with the build quality. The AirSelfie 2 is made of aluminum — not plastic like most cheaper drones. We think you will probably get a lot of use out of this bird before any potential mechanical issues arise. Software? That’s another story. We do not expect continued software support for this product for a few years at most.

Should you buy it?

While we’re big fans of the AirSelfie 2’s build, design, and pocket size — as well as the quality of the pictures/videos it produces — there are too many issues here to recommend this drone. A well-functioning app is an absolute necessity in drones without autonomous capabilities, and the AirSelfie 2 doesn’t have that. Again, two generations, why is that a problem?

There is one piece of good news: most AirSelfie 2 problems are software-related. This means that fixing AirSelfie 2 could be as simple as focusing entirely on app development and pushing out software that actually works and doesn’t look like it was made for the iPhone 3G.

At that point, we’ll be happy to revisit this review and hopefully be able to recommend what might be a promising product. However, as of now, the AirSelfie 2 just isn’t ready for prime time.

Editor’s recommendations

Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn

Links: AirSelfie 2 review – Tekmonk Bio, AirSelfie 2 review – Kungfutv, AirSelfie 2 review – Blogtomoney