P3 standard vs competition

msinger · Apr 14, 2017

macoman said:
I am talking about the Phantom 3 standard, the Autel X-Star compete with the Phantom 3 advanced or Professional.

Autel is now only offering the Premium version of the X-Star. It's still the closest thing available to a P3S. It seems they really go out of their way to duplicate what DJI is doing.

p3s_noob · Apr 14, 2017

macoman said:
I am talking about the Phantom 3 standard, the Autel X-Star compete with the Phantom 3 advanced or Professional.

The up air 2k compares, and comes with its own monitor.Check that quad out.

macoman · Apr 14, 2017

p3s_noob said:
The up air 2k compares, and comes with its own monitor.Check that quad out.

I had the 2.7k upair one and was a piece of crap. First flight I took, it shut down in mid air and crashed.

120CCPM · Apr 14, 2017

In my opinion, the P3S - especially if you buy refurbished in the $320-360 range - is an unbeatable deal. And even if you find another model that comes close in features/price, I would still go with DJI: you are buying into a family of drones that can grow with your needs, with plenty of information (guides, tutorials, forums), spare parts, upgrades, 3rd party apps, independent repair shops...
Some might not like the dominant position DJI is in, but there are definitely advantages.

robca · Apr 14, 2017

The now discontinued 3DR Solo is the closest thing. Even after adding a GoPro camera, the price is close to the P3S (the 3DR Solo can be found for $199, the gimbal for ~$30). Of all the drones mentioned here, only the Solo has a gimbal as good as the P3S. The Autel is good, but in a completely different price point. So is the Karma

Every other cheap Chinese toy drone mentioned here can fly, but in no way compares to a P3S when it comes to the gimbal/video quality

Chrislaf · Apr 14, 2017

I agree that the P3S is an unbeatable deal when you consider what you are getting for the price. I bought mine new from Amazon on boxing day at a CAN$150 discount off the retail price. Before I bought my P3S, I was considering the Cheerson CX-20. But when you work out that you have to add a gimbal and camera plus an FPV kit if you want to come close to what the P3S has then the price climbs up close to or over what the P3S cost. As a complete package I don't think the P3S can be beat. That said, I do wish the camera on the P3S was modular so that if or when I crash and the camera/gimbal gets damaged, I could just order another one or find a generic one that worked. That is the only advantage I could think of for the Cheerson.

nwcove · Apr 14, 2017

jmo, if dji stepped it up in the customer service dept, all the others would be just that....the others.

macoman · Apr 14, 2017

nwcove said:
jmo, if dji stepped it up in the customer service dept, all the others would be just that....the others.

I have been with the phantom 3 for a few months but it is true that DJI customer service sucks or is not true?

pe9999 · Apr 15, 2017

macoman said:
I am talking about the Phantom 3 standard, the Autel X-Star compete with the Phantom 3 advanced or Professional.

X-star has the P3P spec at P3S price. Got it?

macoman · Apr 15, 2017

pe9999 said:
X-star has the P3P spec at P3S price. Got it?

$700 dollars is not P3S price. I have not see the Autel drone for $399.

Deleted member 62848 · Apr 15, 2017

Kunjaba007 said:
View attachment 80492
Xiro

Wow xiro I like all drones but this was a 800 dollar peice of plastic..I should have taken it back,,makes good orniment

120CCPM · Apr 15, 2017

Not to contradict my previous post, but this looks like a nice alternative to the P3S: X-Star Wi-Fi

Chrislaf · Apr 15, 2017

120CCPM said:
Not to contradict my previous post, but this looks like a nice alternative to the P3S: X-Star Wi-Fi

That does look like a good alternative. Compared to the Standard you get a better camera, plus a modular (removeable camera) all for a bit less than a P3S. The only downside I could think off is the X-Star ecosystem would be much smaller than the DJI one and it may be more difficult to find parts if needed.

Smallz · Apr 16, 2017

Traxxas has a large drone with a gimbal, flys great and super fast. That said I own all of the DJI drones because I fricken love this stuff!!!

DanMan32 · Apr 16, 2017

solentlife said:
But therein lies the compromise .....

For neat and tidy look - you have no balance lead / main leads to connect to with better charger to look after your battery. That neat and tidy look has brought about the so-called intelligent battery board that in fact does not quite meet what people think it does. But its good enough for the job and 'hold the hand' of the less informed.

Personally give me a normal LiPo setup so I can have better control of my LiPo's and also be able to choose my batterys instead of being dictated to.

Nigel

Can you elaborate? I might agree it is an unnecessary expense to have a charge balancer and monitor in each battery rather than in the charger and bird but what difference electrically where it is?

The Ghost · Apr 20, 2017

I started with a p3standard & realized quickly I wanted more range. I have the p4 now & love it. I liked p3s also & dji is becoming a monopoly on camera drones. I hope someone comes along & makes a quality product to challenge dji. But I love dji drones

Chrislaf · Apr 20, 2017

So far I love everything about my Standard. It is my first GPS drone so I didn't want to spend lots of $$$ in case it wasn't what I expected. Still can't get over how stable it is in the air. When I do eventually upgrade I am hoping there will be more choices/competition in the market for the complete user experience. Portability (e.g., Mavic), and camera quality will be a factor for me. A modular camera design would be a big plus. Range will not be a factor for me as I live in Canada and VLOS is now the law so I can't really see myself purchasing a P4 other than for better camera quality (1 inch sensor) and better connection to the remote (lightbridge).

macoman · Apr 20, 2017

Chrislaf said:
So far I love everything about my Standard. It is my first GPS drone so I didn't want to spend lots of $$$ in case it wasn't what I expected. Still can't get over how stable it is in the air. When I do eventually upgrade I am hoping there will be more choices/competition in the market for the complete user experience. Portability (e.g., Mavic), and camera quality will be a factor for me. A modular camera design would be a big plus. Range will not be a factor for me as I live in Canada and VLOS is now the law so I can't really see myself purchasing a P4 other than for better camera quality (1 inch sensor) and better connection to the remote (lightbridge).

Same here, the standard is my second drone. My first one was the UpairOne... that piece of crap drone died in mid air and crashed with full battery. I returned it and bought the phantom 3. I am so happy now, so far 27 flights and not issues. I bought too a secondary battery for more enjoyable time. I would like to get a phantom 3 advanced, for the distance range but don't have the money for it.

Chrislaf · Apr 20, 2017

macoman said:
Same here, the standard is my second drone. My first one was the UpairOne... that piece of crap drone died in mid air and crashed with full battery. I returned it and bought the phantom 3. I am so happy now, so far 27 flights and not issues. I bought too a secondary battery for more enjoyable time. I would like to get a phantom 3 advanced, for the distance range but don't have the money for it.

My first drone was a Syma X8HG with Altitude hold (I think it's the same as p-att on Phantom). It was a great drone to learn on but the motors suddenly turned off when I was bringing it down from about 50ft and it tumbled to the ground (a known issue). Returned it to Amazon and replaced it with an X8G. Still have it and it flies great but it is completely manual (no GPS, no Altitude hold, etc) so can't take my fingers off the sticks.

I was considering the phantom 3 advanced too when I was shopping for my Phantom, but I found the price a little bit too high considering I had been flying a sub $200 drone. I have not had time to do many flights with my P3S and haven't been very far away from the home point for fear of loosing it. There are so many posts on here about people loosing their drones. Even though I only paid CAN$499 for it, it would be a hard pill to swallow if I lost it or crashed and destroyed it. Eventually I will get more comfortable flying further as I get more confident in what it can do and what I can do when I get in trouble.

macoman · Apr 21, 2017

Chrislaf said:
I was considering the phantom 3 advanced too when I was shopping for my Phantom, but I found the price a little bit too high considering I had been flying a sub $200 drone. I have not had time to do many flights with my P3S and haven't been very far away from the home point for fear of loosing it. There are so many posts on here about people loosing their drones. Even though I only paid CAN$499 for it, it would be a hard pill to swallow if I lost it or crashed and destroyed it. Eventually I will get more comfortable flying further as I get more confident in what it can do and what I can do when I get in trouble.

Make sure you set a high to return home safe without any obstacles like trees, buildings or houses. If they are, set an altitude of 100 meters to RTH. Just to be safe and the phantom will not hit anything in his path to return back. The phantoms are very stables, rock solid in the air. You should not have problem if you take it to a safe area. I was looking in amazon, and they have refurbished phantom 3 advanced for around $630 dollars, it's getting cheaper.