AA300 Drone Review: Giant Electric Hell Hornet

Hell is a drone and that drone is an AA300 by Altair Aerial. Not only did this drone try to take off IN MY BEDROOM but it also tried to sacrifice me.

Okay, not really, but I have known very little fear as acute as trying to shut off a drone that’s taking off in your house. Or getting your hand caught in between the propeller blades. Yes, it hurt and yes, it drew blood. In conclusion, if the AA300‏ drone wants to catapult itself into your ceiling, you should probably just let it go.

I usually try to infuse humor into my reviews, but I genuinely had a difficult time with this drone.

In theory, having access to a drone is cool. I mean, our Amazon Overlords and the military both use drones. The AA300 drone boasts GPS compatibility and the ability to follow you as you move (yikes). It also has a phone grip for you to hold your phone while it’s connected so you can see and record from the ground.

Unboxing and assembly: It does not come pre-assembled but it only takes a few minutes to snap on the landing legs and insert the battery into the drone. The remote does require four AA batteries that are not included. The user guide is completely useless, you might as well throw it away as soon as you assemble it and turn it on.

Start up: Lights flash on the bottom of the drone: red, green, and yellow. The user guide enclosed with the drone didn’t help me at all. I relegated myself to watching a video online. So. Many. Rotations. In order to calibrate the drone, it must be spun in a multitude of directions before it’s able to fly. There was no standard operating procedure for turning the drone on. Even after reading the manual and watching several tutorials, I couldn’t get it to work. There’s some kind of weird hokey pokey puzzle to pressing the buttons on the remote in order to get it to turn on and even then it’s never the same buttons.

Flight: The remote is too big and clunky to be able to steer the drone. I was able to achieve liftoff and it sounded like a giant, angry bee. It doesn’t hover while you’re trying to get used to it but instead wobbles side to side like it’s trying to decide whether or not to attack you. This drone is definitely not for beginners such as myself. I had it airborne for maybe two minutes before the remote stopped connecting to the drone and it crashed into our Japanese Maple.

Battery life: The drone’s battery literally died just from trying to calibrate it and get it working. It advertises a 12 minute flying time, or, if you’re me, 30 minutes of cursing and one split second of propeller chaos. Not to mention the drone battery overheats.

In short, this drone isn’t worth the $200. It’s possessed, it’s difficult to navigate, and it’s dangerous. The drone also stole my identity and ordered ten Will Ferrell movies with my debit card on Google Play. (Okay not really, but still.)

Would I recommend this product? No. No, I absolutely would not.

I received this product for free from Altair Aerial in exchange for an honest review. The AA300 Drone is currently available for purchase, but I warned you.

Author: Bekah

Bekah has a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from Anderson University and is the Executive Assistant at Saga Event Planning. She is a frequent convention attendee and cosplayer and co-hosts The Geekiary webcast “The Bitching Dead”.

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