Potensic D85 Review – A Good Drone With An HD Camera

Hi and welcome to my review of the Potensic D85 dual GPS drone.

Potensic is a well-established drone brand, most of their drones are decent beginner-friendly drones that are fun to fly. They are also low-cost drones that are usually under $200 and this is the case with the Potensic D85 drone, which is one of their more advanced drones but still relatively cheap.

I have reviewed several Potensic drones on my site, all of them are good drones that you will have a lot of fun flying.

If you are looking for a fun drone that is easy to fly and some advanced features, carry on reading this review of the Potensic D85 drone as it may be the drone that you are searching for.

Potensic D85 Review

All of the Potesic drones I have reviewed are relatively well-built and this includes this Potensic D85.

I like the overall design of this drone, it’s well built and has a very solid feel to it, it is made from plastic as you would expect from a low-cost drone but it doesn’t feel cheap.

It’s not a huge drone but isn’t tiny either, so it’s not very travel-friendly because you cant fold it up and tuck it away easily in your luggage (that is if you are thinking of buying a drone to travel with).

You can purchase a carry case but unfortunately, unlike the other Potensic drones I have reviewed, the D85 does not come with its own carry case.

It weighs just under 600g, this is important to note if you live in the UK, Canada or the USA as you will need to register the drone before you are able to operate it. This is because by law if a drone weighs over 250g, it needs to be registered in the aforementioned countries.

Most other countries do not require you to register a drone if you are just going to fly for recreational purposes. However, I still advise you to check what the rules and regulations are wherever you live just be safe.

Out of the box, it doesn’t come completely ready to fly, you will need to attach the pretty long landing legs (long when compared to other drones), you do get an instruction manual for this and it not hard.

One of the main reasons for these landing legs is to protect the camera when the drone lands. The camera is something else that you will need to attach to the drone, I speak a little more on the camera further down as it is one of the main features of this drone.

Something I like about this drone is that it is fitted with brushless motors, not only are brushless motors a little quieter than brushed motors but they are also more efficient and powerful. These rotors have a 1500kv which is one of the reasons it is such a fast drone with a top speed of 36 km/h which is fast considering its not a racing drone.

One other advantage of brushless motors is that they do not as much maintenance as a brushed motor would and they also last longer, so you will not need to worry about replacing them anytime soon.

Like most drones, the Potensic D85 has some nice LED lights underneath each rotor, these make a nice aesthetic addition to the drone and make for a nice spectacle if you fly in areas with low light.

The LED lights also serve another purpose and that is to let you know when the drone compass has been fully calibrated, which is something you will need to do before you fly the drone.

The official flight time for this drone is 20 minutes, but usually, it’s a little less, so expect something around 18 minutes. If you fly in windy conditions, it may be reduced, even more,18 minutes is a decent time for a drone of this quality.

However, most people would like a fly a little more than 18 minutes and as it takes a couple of hours to fully recharge the battery, its best to purchase at least one more battery to extend your flight time.

Talking of the battery, the drone is powered by a 7.4v 2800 mAh lipo battery, it fits in neatly into the back of the drone and its one those modern looking batteries that have no wired connector, so it’s easy to install.

Another aspect of the drone that I like is it’s remote controller, there are some ugly controllers but this one is not one of them.

It has a nice curved design which makes it comfortable to hold, the controls are easy to operate and the buttons have clear icons that indicate what they each do. There is a smartphone holder attached on the top, it can hold a large phone but not a tablet.

There is a nice LCD screen on the bottom that will display important telemetry details about the drone, like battery level, height, distance and GPS status. The controller is powered by 4 AA batteries which are unfortunately not included with the package.

The official transmission range is around 1500 meters, which is decent but usually, it’s a little less but you will know when you get near to the transmission limit because the controller will start beeping, which is another nice feature.

For FPV and video recording purposes, the transmission range is even less, I would personally keep well within 500 meters for the best quality, however, the official range is around 800 meters.

To make use of its FPV features, you will need to download the official Potensic M2 app which is available on both Google Play and the Apple App Store.

It’s a decent app but does have its issues, it sometimes stops working and you lose the FPV feed and it hasn’t been updated in while, which I always find a bit troubling.

Potensic D85 Camera

Now, one of the best features of this drone (or any drone for that matter) is its camera. Cameras are the main reason I love drones, they let you see the world from a different perspective which is always nice.

The Potensic D85 comes with a 2k camera, it has a 130° wide angle view that will allow you to take some nice panoramic videos and images.

The videos and images are pretty decent and for what you pay for the drone, I think it’s worth the money. However, as there is no stabilisation feature like a gimbal, you will notice some shakiness and jello effect in your videos.

I really don’t think this is too much of a problem because the video footage is otherwise pretty clear and you will not be using them for any sort of professional reasons.

Also, be aware that the 2K video quality can only be viewed if you record the footage on a micro SD card, otherwise the live streaming quality is only in 720p, which is still decent but obviously not as good as the 2K video footage.

This is a detachable camera, so if you want to change it to something like GoPro or any other type of small action camera, you can (just make sure it’s compatible before you purchase a different camera).

Overall, this is a decent quality camera and you will be able to take nice videos and images, however, if you are looking for something a bit more professional but do not want to pay around a grand for something like DJI drone, check out my list of the best drones under $500.

Other Features.

Like most modern drones, the Potensic D85 comes with some advanced features that will help you fly the drone easily and have more fun with it.

These features include the following;

Headless Mode – Great for beginners as the drone is easier to operate in this flight mode as you will not need to differentiate between the head or tail.

Dual GPS – With both GLONASS and GPS enabled, this drone can lock on to more satellites resulting in better positioning and smoother flying and hovering capability.

Smart Flight Modes – It has a few smart flight modes, for instance, you can draw a flight path on the app and the drone will fly along the route automatically. Other smart flight modes will make the drone orbit a point of interest which is called orbit mode and another called follow me mode which is self-explanatory.

Automatic Return Home – This is a very useful feature and a lot of new drones have it, with the automatic return home, it does exactly as it sounds. The drone will come home automatically if you lose connection or if the battery level gets too low.

This feature can also be manually activated via the remote controller or the app, it’s a great feature as it minimises any risks of losing the drone.

Flight Performance

This drone flies exceptionally well, it’s steady and hovers accurately thanks to its dual GPS module. There a few speed settings, at its fastest it goes up t 36 km/h, this is fast, especially when you see ti in action. I would advise beginners not to fly in the fastest setting until they have gained a bit more experience.

The smart flight modes sometimes have issues, this is mainly because of the app, as sometimes doesn’t work as it should. Hope they rectify it soon because otherwise, this drone does what it says on the box.

Final Thoughts

This is a good drone, it’s well-designed and comes with some cool features and a good camera. However, it does cost around $200 which is on the upper-end for these types of drones, if you want some better choices, especially in the camera department, check out my article on the best drones for under $500.