Holy Stone HS230 Review – A Fast Drone With A Decent Camera

Looking for a good review of the Holy Stone HS230 drone? Well, you have come to the right place.

Holy Stone are a well-known brand in the world of low-cost consumer drones, they have released lots of drones in the past few years and many of them have proven to be very popular.

The Holy Stone HS230 was released around a year ago and has proven to be a huge success with customers with a 4-star rating and lost of positive reviews on Amazon.

It comes with many of the features that have made Holy Stone drones so popular plus it is one of the few drones on the market in which you do not need a smartphone or tablet to make use of its FPV feature.

So, if you are looking for a beginner-friendly drone with some advanced features and a good camera, carry on reading this review, as I believe the Holy Stone HS230 may interest you.

Holy Stone HS230 Review

The first thing you will notice about the Holy Stone HS230 is how light it is, it weighs under 100g, which is super lightweight and it also means that if you live in places like the USA, Canada or UK, you will not need to register the drone to fly it. However, if you live anywhere else, please do check your local aviation rules to see whether or not you can fly this drone without needing to register it.

Since it is so lightweight, it is advised that you never fly this drone in windy conditions, especially if you are a beginner, as it will be difficult to control, and any serious crash will damage the drone.

The drone has powerful brushed motors, it would have been better if they were brushless but these motors are what gives the drone a top speed of 45 km/h which is very fast and why it is classed as a racing drone.

The rotor arms have LED lights underneath which are useful if you want to fly when there is little light and they also help indicate when your drone is fully calibrated. The drone also looks spectacular with LED lights at night time.

The rotor arms also have small extended parts that act as landing legs, they will help you land more smoothly and protect the camera at the same time.

The camera is situated on the nose of the drone, it has a micro SD card slot on the side, but this can only be accessed by detaching the camera from the drone. The camera is one of the best features of this drone and I will expand further on it later on in this review.

The drone is powered by a 3.7v 800 mAh lipo battery which gives it a flight time of around 10 minutes maybe a bit less if you use the FPV features (which you most definitely well). Now, 10 minutes is way too short a time to fly a drone, you will definitely want to fly this drone for longer.

Fortunately, it does come with an extra battery, however, since one battery provides only 10 minutes of flight time and charging them fully takes over an hour, I highly recommend you purchase a couple of extra batteries so that you can get a decent flight time from all four batteries.

One of the best features of this drone is its controller, its not really well-designed but it does come with an integrated LCD screen which means that you will not need a smartphone to make use of its FPV feature.

One of the things that sometimes frustrated me is having to use my smartphone to use the FPV features of a drone. I have always wished there were more drones that had remote controllers with their own screens. I have reviewed a couple of drones that have this feature, the best, in my opinion, the is Upair One drone. The Holy Stone HS230 controller is not as pleasing to the eye as the Upair One controller, however, it works as it should and all the controls are easy to identify. The screen is around 5 inches wide and the video streaming quality is good. It is powered by a 3.7v 380 mAh lipo battery which is rechargeable and can be replaced. The transmission range for the controller is around 100 meters but this is only if fly in good weather conditions and there are no obstructions in the flight path.

Holy Stone HS230 Camera

The drone comes with a decent 720p HD camera that is fixed on the nose of the drone, it has a 120° field of view that will let you capture more details in video footage and images and there is a micro SD card slot on the side of the camera.

It is a decent camera and you will be able to get some good video footage and aerial images. The streaming quality is decent, but the recorded version is of much better quality. The good thing is that the camera comes with a 4GB micro SD card and a small USB stick in which you can transfer your files to another device.

Unfortunately, the camera angle cannot be adjusted which is a shame and there it doe not come with any kind of gimbal for image stabilisation. So, you will see some jello effect in your videos and images may have a little distortion, however, this really shouldn’t matter as the quality is good for a drone that costs a little over $100.

Other Features

The Holy Stone HS230 comes with several other features that will enhance your flying experience.

They include the following:

Headless Mode – Good for beginners and make it easier to fly

Altitude Hold – The first version of this drone did not have altitude hold, however, they have added this feature and it will allow the drone to have better stability when it is hovering and this will allow people to take better quality images and videos.

3 Speed Modes – The drone is classed as a racing drone and it has 3-speed modes to highlight this. The first two modes are alright for beginners, but the third mode is the fasted and its top speed reaches 45 km/h. This mode should only be used by people who have experience flying fast drones.

VR Headset – If you want a more immersive flying experience, you can do so by using a VR headset to fly the drone. Another cool feature that will give you a lot of fun flying this drone.

Flight Performance

As you can see from the video below, the drone’s flight performance is good, its stable, hovers pretty well and video streaming quality is decent. As it is a very light drone, it is difficult to fly in windy conditions and if you are an experienced drone pilot, it is highly advised that you never fly in bad weather.

Final Thoughts

The drone is not Holy Stone’s best, but it is a decent drone and does come with some good features. The camera quality might not be the best, but for its price, it’s alright. However, if you want a drone with better features and a high-quality camera, I would recommend the DJI Tello, which costs under $100 and in my opinion is a better choice than the Holy Stone HS230.