Eachine EX4 Review – One Of Eachines Most Advanced Drones

Hi and welcome to my review of the Eachine EX4 HD camera drone.

This is one of the latest drones from Eachine ( they have released a lot of drones) and my first impressions of this drone are very positive.

It comes with all the features that I love about a drone, especially it’s HD camera that is supported by an advanced gimbal system.

The Eachine EX4 does remind me a lot of another drone that I recently reviewed which is the JJRC X12.

The X12 is a wonderful drone and so is the Eachine EX4, its slightly more expensive than most of the other Eachine drones I have reviewed on this site, and for a good reason. The Eachine EX4 comes with some very advanced features and a high-quality HD camera, it is expensive for an Eachine drone but still one of the best drones under $200.

If you are looking for an advanced drone at a reasonably affordable price, keep reading this review as I think the Eachine EX4 is a drone that may interest you.

Eachine EX4 Review

The Eachine EX4 is a well-designed foldable drone, for anyone who is familiar with my blog, you will know that foldable drones are my favourite kind of drones. They are usually light-weight and very easy to carry around, which also makes them great travel drones.

The EX4 is a medium-sized drone that measures 17.7*19.6*7 cm when its arms are expanded and 17.7*9*5.5 cm in its folded form. It kind of reminds me a little of the DJI Mavic Air and I don’t think that’s by coincidence, a lot of smaller drone companies copy DJI’s drone designs because of how popular they are, in fact, one of Eachines most popular drones, which is the E58, looks like an exact copy of the Mavic Pro.

The drone weighs around 430g, this is important to note because of the many changes to drone laws that have come into effect in many countries. In certain countries like the UK, Canada and the USA, any drone that weighs over 250g will need to be registered before you can fly them. If you reside in any other country please do look up if you need to register your drone, otherwise, you may find yourself in some legal trouble.

At 430g, the Eachine EX4 is not a heavy drone, this makes it a great drone to travel with and when it is in its folded form, it’s very compact and easy to tuck away. As an added bonus, you also get a cool carry case that allows you to pack your drone and any other accessories.

The structure of the drone is firm and it has a very premium feel to it, it’s built from highly-durable plastic so it will not easily fall apart if you crash it. The HD camera is situated on the front and is supported by a 3-axis gimbal, there are two ultrasonic sensors on its belly as well as an optical flow sensor. These will help with flight stabilisation when there is a weak GPS signal.

It’s a pretty fast drone with a maximum speed of 40km/h and this is primarily down to its brushless motors. Brushless motors are more efficient, are quieter and require less maintenance than brushed motors.

Each rotor arm has small extended legs that will help protect the camera when you land the drone. There is also a micro SD card slot on the bottom near where the camera and gimbal are situated, the maximum capacity it can take is a 32GB card which is more than enough to record your videos and images.

The drone is powered by an 11.4 v 2400 mAh lipo battery, these are one the modern modular batteries that keep their charge for longer. This results in a longer flight time, which in the case of the Eachine EX4 is around 25 minutes. This is a pretty good flight time for a drone that costs just over $200. 25 minutes is one the upper end of consumer drone flight times and you will be able to enjoy flying the drone a little longer than most other drones in this price range. However, please be aware that you may not get a full 25 minutes, usually it’s a couple of minutes less than what is officially stated, still, anything over 20 minutes is still good.

Also, Eachine give you an option to purchase an extra two or three batteries with the drone which I highly recommend because it will extend your flight time as you will not have to wait the 5 hours it takes to recharge the battery.

Before I get to the main feature of this drone, which is its camera, I want to go over its remote controller, which I believe is one of the best looking drone controllers I have seen.

It’s a big controller, not so big that it feels uncomfortable in your hands, it actually feels really comfortable and this is partly because the texture of the controller feels like rubber. Which provides better grip and comfort, the range of the controller is over 1000 meters, its official transmission range is 1200 and this can be achieved if you are flying in good weather conditions with a fully charged battery.

It has a smartphone attachment at the back and has two LED lights on the front to indicate what mode it is in. It has a button for automatic take-off and landing and a return home button that will bring the drone back to its flight of origin if you ever lose sight of it. There is a button that you can use for taking videos and aerial images and a dial at the back to control the pitch of the gimbal.

One thing to note is that the controller only works with a smartphone that is 5G enabled, if you have purchased a smartphone within the last year or so, you should be fine as most smartphones come with 5G technology, however, just check your phone before you decide to purchase any 5G drone.

Eachine EX4 Camera

Now we come to the best feature of this drone, well the best feature for me, one of the reasons I love drones so much is because of their cameras. You get to see the world from above, which is always cool and with a half-decent camera you can take some decent video footage and images.

Unfortunately, I have to mention this again, the above image from Eachine is a bit misleading, yes technically its a 4k camera but most people will think that it can record videos in 4k, whereas in reality it just takes images in that resolution.

Its still a decent camera, especially for its price, I just don’t like the misleading advertisement

It has a 1/3.2 CMOS sensor that can take images in 4K and it comes with a 50* digital zoom function that will allow you to get better close up images without needing to move your drone. This is a digital zoom so the more you zoom in the the more grainy the image will get, since the camera is not for professional use, I dont think most people will mind.

Video recording is only in 1080p HD, which will still provide you with some high-quality video footage. Video streaming quality is 720p@24fps, which isn’t the greatest quality, but still pretty good for a drone that costs around $200. The transmission range for taking videos and images is slightly less than if you were flying without using the camera, its around 1000 meters in good conditions, however, its well-advised to keep it well-within this range to get the best video and image quality.

As the drone comes with a 3-axis gimbal, your images and videos will have little to no distortion and jello effect will be minimised.

The camera will not win you any photography awards but then its not supposed to, it’s a good quality camera that will allow you to take some amazing images and videos that you can share with family and friends.

However, if you are in the market for a proper 4k drone (the ones that actually record in 4k), check out this article for the best drones under $500, most of these drones come with 4k and are well worth the purchase price.

Other Features

The drone comes with two ultrasonic sensors and an optical flow sensor, these will help the drone maintain a steady altitude and also allow you to fly the drone in areas with a weak GPS signal.

There is also a gesture control mode that will allow you to take videos and images through the mere gesture of your hand, this is cool a feature that will definitely impress family and friends.

Like a lot of advanced drones, the Eachine EX4 has 3 smart flight modes, these modes will allow you to fly the drone handsfree, this means you can concentrate on taking better images and videos.

These smart flight modes are;

WayPoint – In this mode, you can draw a path on the app and the drone will follow that route automatically.

Point Of Interest – Lock the drone on a subject matter of your choosing and it will orbit that position from a set radius and height.

Smart Follow – This is probably my favourite smart flight modes; the drone will lock onto your phone and follow you wherever you go. It can follow from behind or from a parallel angle.

In addition to the above smart modes, the drone also comes with an automatic return home feature. This is a feature that will lessen the chances of losing the drone in mid-flight. You can manually activate this mode via the return home button on the remote controller or app and it will be automatically activated if the drone battery gets low on charge or if you lose connection.

Flight Performance.

As you would expect from an Eachine drone, the EX4 performs very well, it has a stable flight thanks to its GPS, ultra-sonic sensors an its internal barometer. It hovers well, although if it is a little windy, it does tend to drift. Its range is pretty good as well, you can control it over 1km, which is close to what is officially stated by Eachine. The video streaming quality is pretty good, however, it does get a little choppy at times and the app sometimes freezes.

Final Thoughts

This is a pretty solid overall drone, its relatively cheap for a drone that comes with an HD camera and a 3-axis gimbal and it is suitable for everyone. If you are looking for a cheap HD drone with a 3-axis gimbal system, the Eachine EX4 is a good choice. If you want more options, click on the button below for a list of the best drones for beginners.