What’s The Best Drone For Beginners? – My Picks for 2019

People are always asking me “What’s the Best Drone for Beginners?”. Every time I have to turn to them and ask for more information. The best is very subjective. What’s best for one person, maybe terrible for another.

In this post, I’m going to provide you with three drone options. These will be based on my personal experiences as well as what I believe will be “best” choices for the majority of drone beginner drone pilots out there.

This post is not intended for the professional photographer or videographer looking to find the best drone for their profession. This is strictly aimed at the beginner drone pilot. Now, if you are a professional photographer or videographer, but have no drone experience, please continue to read this post. I believe that one of these drones will work decently for you and you can consider it a temporary or interim drone until you have the skills and knowledge to drops a lot of money on that perfect professional model.

Let’s begin…

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS. PLEASE SEE MY AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Define Your True Needs

As I said previously, what’s best for one may not be best for someone else. Let’s define your needs and intent to help weigh the options and narrow them down…

What do you want to do with your drone? This is the big question. Are you looking to simply have fun? Do you need to be able to take photos or videos at a specific frame rate and resolution? Is there a minimum flight time requirement you may have?

All of these and more play an important role in picking the right drone. That said, this post is about the best beginner drone so there are a few assumptions I’m going to make…

• First and foremost, you probably don’t know what you want or need other than a drone itself. That’s OK. By the time you’re done reading this post, you’ll probably have a good idea of what direction you’re heading and what drone will fit the bill.
• As a beginner pilot, your budget may not be all that high. Again, that’s OK. I’ll be listing drones starting at just under $100 and going up to a little over $1000. One will probably fit your immediate needs.
• You’re probably not familiar with the laws that apply to drones in the US. Even hobbyist pilots must follow certain rules or risk violating the law and dealing with whatever repercussions that entails.

I’m going to break down the next section by relative price. The first drone I list will be the most affordable option and I’ll go up from there.

Let’s go ahead and see my recommendations…

The Best Drones for the Average Beginner Pilot

This section will list the best drones in various price ranges for the beginner drone pilot. I’ll give you the make and model, a little about why I think it’s a great beginner drone and then a link to a more detailed review of it (if I have one), where you can get a lot more detail and even make a purchase if you so desire.

DJI/Ryze Tello

This is a great little drone. It offers decent flight time, stable hovering, live video feed and more. I particularly like the toss and fly feature where you select the mode click go and throw the drone. It even integrates with a programming environment that can be loads of fun for those learning to program.

I haven’t written a full review for the Tello on MavicManiacs.com but you can find out a little more about it here. What’s impressive is, you get a lot of drone for under $100!

DJI Mavic Pro

So, this is my go-to drone. I’ve had it for over two years now and I love it. I was very close to buying the Mavic 2 Pro to replace this one but decided against it, opting to wait to buy a new drone until next year, and continue to fly my trusty Mavic Pro.

In terms of features, it’s leaps and bounds beyond the Tello. That said, would you believe it doesn’t off the toss and fly option? It doesn’t have a programming interface either. Still, even though it lacks those two features, it more than makes up for it in flight time, camera settings and image quality, distance and more.

Check out my full review here. This bird pops in at just around $1000.

Autel Evo

Although I favor DJI drones, the Autel Evo boasts some impressive specs, some that beat out the Mavic Pro. It’s worth checking out my review here and seeing if it’s a better match for your situation.

The only thing that makes me hesitate at all is the fact that DJI is king and Autel is relatively the new kid on the block. This one is also around the $1000 mark and, some say, it falls more in between the Mavic Pro and the Mavic 2 Zoom models.

I know I said I was going to offer three options but I’ve decided to add a fourth. I didn’t feel right, after looking at my suggestions, about jumping from $100 to $1000. That said, here’s my middle of the road recommendation:

DJI Mavic Air

This is another great bird. It’s a little smaller than the Mavic Pro but boasts better throughput on the SD card and some would argue offers better recording quality because of it. Check out my full review here. This one hovers around $800.

It’s not half-way (aka $500), for that you might look at the DJI Spark (but it’s not one of my recommendations) but it is a little cheaper than the Mavic Pro or Evo.

So those are the drones I recommend for beginners. Let’s take a look at the features I consider for these recommendations and which drones meet them…

Basic Features

Each drone model will have certain features that set themselves apart from the others. They’ll also share features, although they may differ slightly. Let’s take a look at a few that these drones have and which ones they have in common…

Flight Time

I know it may sound silly to consider flight time a feature but flight time is a major consideration for many. The drones I’ve listed above range from offering 13 minutes of flight time up to 30 minutes. Here’s each drone and their associated flight time:

• Tello – 13 minutes
• Mavic Air – 21Minutes
• Mavic Pro – 27 Minutes
• Evo – 30 Minutes

GPS

All of the drones offer pretty stable hovering ability but not all of them have built-in GPS. Specifically, this is one feature the Tello lacks.

Gimbal-Stabilized Camera

Getting great images is not just a matter of resolution and bit rate. Physical stability plays a role too. Enter the gimbal. A gimbal’s job is to reduce shudder and vibration to the camera doesn’t have to try to compensate for it on its own. The drones listed in this article range from having no gimbal at all to having a 3-axis gimbal. Here’s where each one stands:

• Tello – None
• Mavic Air – 3-axis
• Mavic Pro – 3-axis
• Evo – 3-axis

For the record, the DJI Spark features a 2-axis gimbal.

Range

This is both a factor of available flight time and transmitter/receiver capabilities. You’ll see quite a difference between models here. That said, in the US, you should always maintain line-of-sight with your drone so most of these distances won’t come into play.

• Tello – Up to 100 meters. This is mainly due to the WiFi connection limitation. There’s also a Bluetooth remote option but I think the range is less.
• Mavic Air – 4000 meters.
• Mavic Pro – 4.3 miles.
• Evo – 4.3 miles.

Object Avoidance

This can save the newbie and professional alike from a costly mistake but, it’s not a requirement for a beginner drone. That said, I wanted to list it here so you can see which drones offer obstacle avoidance and how many directions they offer it in.

Tello – None

Mavic Air – 3 directions.

Mavic Pro – 2 directions.

Evo – 3 directions.

Those are the criteria I used, above and beyond the general assumptions I listed before, when coming up with my What’s the Best Drone for Beginners list. There may be other considerations you have. In such cases, please take a look at my more detailed reviews to determine which of these is truly best for your situation.

Best Use Cases

I’m going to wrap up with a brief synopsis of the best use cases for each drone.

Tello

This is great for your kids or for someone worried about crashing an expensive drone. It’s fun, stable and even does flips. It’s not for those looking for distance or high-quality images.

Mavic Air

The Mavic Air is a capable drone, that’s for sure. If the Mavic Pro is a little hard on the budget, this is a great compromise. Image quality is excellent and the portability really can’t be matched.

Mavic Pro

Think of this as a Mavic Air Plus. It offers just a bit more at a cost that’s just a bit more. As I’ve said before, this is the drone I have. I’ve had it for over two years and it’s still going strong. This is my number one recommendation if it fits your budget.

Evo

Honestly, if we’re talking specs only, this baby beats out the Mavic Pro. The thing is, I’m not just talking specs. I’m talking about experience, market share, community (a place where you can find help and bounce ideas off of), etc. DJI has all of this in spades. That’s my only hangup on this.

Whichever model you end up going with, please do me a favor… Follow my review links listed above and make your purchases from the links provided. It doesn’t cost you any more than if you went direct and made the purchase but it does help support this site.

Conclusion

There you have it. What do you think? I hope you found this article useful.

I know, I’m biased because I have the Mavic Pro. Am I though? I can go buy any other drone out there yet I decided to keep using the one I have, even though newer models are available. I’ve never been one to shy away from something I want. I just don’t see a need, as the new drones don’t offer something I simply must-have. That has to say a lot for the Mavic Pro.

Oh yeah, I touched on the whole “may not know the rules” thing at the beginning. Make sure to check out my post here for information on the latest drone rules for hobbyist pilots in the US!

Do you agree with my recommendations? If not, What’s The Best Drone For Beginners in your opinion? What features are most important to you?

I’d love to hear what you have to say. Please let me know by commenting below.

Thank you,

Scott Hinkle

MavicManiacs.com