Roku U11 Drone Review – A Decent GPS Drone For Under $200

Hi and welcome to my review of the Ruko U11 FPV GPS drone.

This is a relatively new drone and it can be classed as a toy drone, although it does come with some advanced features and costs just under $200.

This is my first time reviewing a drone from Ruko, although they do have a couple of popular drones on Amazon including the immensely popular Roku F11 Pro.

If you are looking for a fun drone to fly or maybe even as a gift for someone, the Roku U11 drone may be a good choice, although I believe there are better choices at a similar price.

Carry on reading the full review of the Roku U11 GPS drone to find what you get and if it is worth the money.

Roku U11 Drone Review

This is a small and lightweight drone, it weighs just under 300g and it has a nice foldable design, this makes it very compact and a good drone to travel with.

Although its lightweight, since it weighs over 250g, you will need to register the drone if you live in the UK, Canada or the USA. Most other countries do not have any weight restrictions to fly drones for recreational purposes, however, I still advise you to check what the rules are wherever you live just to makes sure you are complying with the law.

Like a lot of drones, it has a couple of LED lights on the bottom of the rotor arms and one on the front. However, these are not bright enough to allow you to fly the drone at night, however, they do have a purpose and that is to indicate when the drone compass has been fully calibrated. Also, they help you to identify when a problem occurs by flashing in certain ways.

One thing I was disappointed to find out was that this drone comes with brushed motors, now, most drones under $200, do come with brushed motors, but there are quite a few that are installed with the more powerful brushless motors like the new MJX B20 and Snaptain SP700.

The drone still fly’s well, however, brushed motor drones do not hold up well in any kind of windy conditions, so I would advise you against flying this drone if the weather condition is less than perfect.

One of the plus points of this drone is that it comes with a GPS system and an optical flow sensor. These will allow the drone to hover more accurately and with the GPS system, you will be able to track the drone via the drone app.

The other advantage of a GPS system is that it also allows you to fly the drone autonomously via its intelligent flight modes, although the GPS signal needs to be strong, otherwise, these flight modes will not work.

The optical flow sensor will allow you to fly the drone when you are in an area where the GPS signal is weak, this means you can fly it indoors, although only fly indoors in a spacious room with no obstacles around.

The drone has a flight time of around 18-20 minutes which is pretty decent for a drone that costs under $200. One reason for its decent flight time is because the drone is powered by a 7.4v 1200 mAh lithium polymer battery, this is one the newer modular batteries that last longer and hence the better than usual flight time.

Another plus point is that you get an extra battery so you can extend your flight time without having to wait a few hours for the battery to fully recharge before being able to fly again.

Something else I want to mention is that this drone has a micro SD card slot on its belly, this will allow you to record your videos and photos locally instead of over WiFi. Ideally, for best results, you should purchase a fast recording memory card, so that your videos and photos will be of better quality.

One of the best parts of this drone is its remote controller which has a minimalist design and comes with an internal rechargeable battery. There is a separate smartphone holder that you can attach to the back the RC and the control range is around 300 meters, however, for streaming live video feed to your smartphone, the range is around 150 meters.

Something else you will have to keep in mind is that to use the FPV feature, you will need a smartphone that is compatible with 5G technology. You can also fly the drone via its app, which is available on both Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. The app is compatible with iOs 9 or later and Android 4.4 or later. It’s a decent app and simple to use and the FPV feed is transmitted in 720p resolution.

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Ruko U11 Camera

Now, first of all, this is not a professional camera, despite what it may suggest on the product description page, it is technically a 4K drone, but it only takes 4K images.

The photo quality is decent, but I have seen better quality photos produced by other camera drones at a similar price range. One such drone is the MJX B20 EIS, which I highly recommend you check out if you want a good camera drone for under $200.

The camera is supported by a uniaxial gimbal and some shock absorbers, these will help to make your videos and photos are smooth and crystal clear. Although, as it is not an advanced gimbal system, you will still notice some distortion. However, since you will not be using this drone for any kind of professional use, this should not really matter.

The drone can record video footage in 2K and to get the best video resolution, you will need to record the footage on a micro SD card. However, this is not provided with the drone package, so you will need to purchase one separately.

The video quality isn’t the greatest, but it is not bad either, for its price, I suppose it’s good enough.

Other Features

The drone comes with several cool features that will make it more fun to fly. These include a few autonomous flying modes thanks to its GPS system and a couple of speed modes that will test your flying skills.

The autonomous flight modes include the following:

Tap fly – Allows you to draw a flight path on the drone app and the drone will fly along it automatically.

Circle fly – In this mode, you can lock the drone on a point of interest and it will orbit that position.

Follow me – This is pretty self-explanatory, in this flight mode, the drone will lock on to your smartphone and follow you from behind.

The drone also comes with an automatic return to home feature, this feature is automatically activated if you lose connection or if the drone battery is low on charge. This is a cool feature that will minimise the risks of losing the drone in mid-flight.

Flight Performance

Initial tests have shown the drone to fly well and most of the features do work as described. You may have some problems with the app, as sometimes the FPV seems to freeze up, although this is a relatively new app and hopefully they fix any bugs that may show up. It’s an easy drone to fly and the autonomous flight seem to work, however, if you are flying in areas with a weak GPS signal, you may encounter problems with the smart flight modes. On the whole, it does what it says on the box, although I do think there are better options at a similar price range.

Final Thoughts

This is a decent overall drone, it comes with some nice features and an okay camera, the drone operates as it should and is pretty easy to fly. Click on the button below to find out more or click here to check out some of the best drones for under $200.