Holy Stone HS700 Review – a decent flagship drone

We finally received the newly released Ophelia HS700 drone. This company is not well known in drone manufacturing but I was quite fascinated with the first impression that it gave me. Personally, I think that this product is perfect for beginners but professionals who love the height and distance will also find this drone useful. In this review, we will discuss the salient details and here are all you need to know.

Ophelia HS700 Drone – Tech Specs

Motor	2204 1500KV Brushless Motor
Camera	12 MP 1080p FHD
Flight Time	15 Minutes
Flight Height/Distance	150m high and 1000m distance
Battery	2800 mAh Li-Polymer battery
App	Ophelia GPS on Google Play Store
Controller	1km distance @ 2.4GHz
Physical Dimensions	220 x 220 x 155 mm, about 608g

Ophelia HS700 – What’s In The Box

The box of the Ophelia HS700 is quite rich and has multiple accessories that you will need to assemble before you get a working drone. The box itself looks quite matured and the unit I received has a black box with “HS700” and some specs written on sides of the box. The box is about the shape of a portable backpack and it is convenient to hold. Inside the box, we can find the following

• 1 x Drone HS700 Ophelia
• 1 x Remote Controller
• 1 x Drone Battery
• 8 x Propellers
• 2 x Landing Gears
• 1 x Camera
• 1 x Camera Mat
• 1 x Phone Holder
• 1 x Balance Charger
• 1 x Charge Transfer Box
• 1 x USB Cable
• 1 x Screwdriver
• 1 x Propeller Spanner
• 1 x Explosion-Proof Bag
• 1 x Manual
• 1 x 8GB TF Card (installed in the camera)

Ophelia HS700 – Design & Appearance

The Holy Stone Ophelia HS700 comes with a sleek design. This drone is not foldable like the DJI Mavic Air and other expensive drones out there but it is portable enough to fit in a very small space thus it will not give you any storage problems. The unit I received comes in black colour with a silver lining which gives it a premium appearance. The body of this device is molded with a top-notch plastic material and only the propeller holder is forged from metal (its 98% covered with plastic). I was particularly impressed with the quality of the plastic build. Even after a few accidents and flying it against a concrete wall (I needed those accidents to confirm the strength of the build material), the drone stayed solid with no scratch and only the propellers sustained very minor scratches.

Installation, Flight and Functions

Honestly, you dont need a “professor” to help you install the components of this drone. The Ophelia HS700 comes with a detailed manual with a simple glance, you will certainly install this drone without problems. Before the flight, please ensure that you have paired the transmitter, calibrate the Gyro and compass. These processes are quite easy and are well outlined in the user manual. The take-off of the Ophelia HS700 and the movements are faster than I anticipated but the controls are cool and steady. After the calibrations, you have to press the power button and the propellers will start spinning. Once the spinning start, you got 10 seconds to take off else the propellers will stop spinning.

Although it is listed that the maximum flight height is 120m, it was more like 150m to me and the flight distance hit 800m. The aerodynamic structure of this drone, lightweight body, and slick design significantly increase its flight stability. The Ophelia HS700 reaches a speed of 25 km/h, and up to 60 km/h when flying downwind.

It was quite interesting that I was able to fly this drone for about 15 minutes (drones hardly exceed 10 minutes) but the uninteresting part of this is the battery charging time. It took almost 270 minutes for a full charge and there is no spare battery. So you should have it in mind that after 15-18 minutes of fun, you will need to wait for about 300 minutes before you catch some fun again.

Camera

This drone comes with a 12 MP 1080p camera with a 120° Wide-angle lens and it can be adjusted up to 90° manually. It produces FHD images at 1920 x 1080 resolution. It also gives 1080P resolution videos @25fps.

Although this drone comes with a FHD camera, the video at a higher height seems shaky and the images got some noise as you can see above. Nevertheless, with a little tweak on the video, it is acceptable.

APP Compatibility

The APP is Ophelia GPS and it weighs only 78MB. It is quite easy to use if you choose to use APP control. However, note that you can fly this drone with or without the app. After downloading the app, launch a search of the available Wi-Fi networks and select HolyStoneFPV_*****.Then wait for your phone to connect to the Wi-Fi network. When the connection is established, you will see a Wi-Fi logo on your smartphone display. You can then go to the Ophelia GPS app and proceed.

The app is quite simple to use although it packs some advanced features such as Follow Me Mode – can lock target automatically to capture the best moments, Point Fly and Track Radius – can automatically move the drone using the GPS system. You can also make the drone follow a preset route automatically or use 3D VR glasses to see the world through the eyes of a bird.

You’ll find the image captured by the drone to be stable and fluid due to the 2204 1500KV brushless motors which provide more power and a smoother flying experience while making less noise. The Ophelia HS700 also uses the new enhanced 5G WiFi HD video transmission system for a higher distance so that you can fly farther in a safe way.

Below is a video to help you set up this drone if the manual is “too complicated”

Tips For Amateur Flyers

• The left joystick on the Gimbal is for directions, it should be handled with care. Ensure that you use SHORT TAPS to go to your desired direction. A long hold on the direction joystick will move the drone so fast that as an amateur, you will certainly get scared and lose TOTAL control.
• On the right side of the Gimbal, there is a small button labeled A – B. Ensure that the button is aligned to B. This will make the drone hover at any point it find itself (except there is excess wind). If you leave that button at A, the drone will CERTAINLY drift with respect to the wind direction.

Conclusion

The Holy Stone Ophelia HS700 comes with an ergonomic design and uses a highly durable plastic material. No doubt, its non-foldable design coupled with its manually adjusted single axis camera is a minus but for its price, it is just what we would expect. If you need more than 15 minutes of flight time and a high flying drone (150 meters), then you also got the perfect product right in front of you. If you are a beginner but need a flagship drone to play around with, the Ophelia HS700 is your guy.

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