Visuo XS816 Short Review

The Visuo XS816 is a small foldable drone that is fun to fly and comes with some very good features. It comes with dual cameras, one its belly acts as an optical flow sensor for a smoother flying experience and the main one on its nose that will allow you to take some decent videos and images. It also comes with altitude hold, smart flight modes and has a flight time of around 18-20 minutes.

Key Features

  • HD camera
  • Optical flow sensor
  • Smart flight modes
  • One-button take-off and return home
  • 18 minutes of flight time

Hello there and welcome to my review of the Visuo XS816.

I have already reviewed a few Visuo drones and for the most part, they are good drones that are suitable for beginners.

The Visuo XS816 is another decent drone, it comes with some great features, a decent camera and is quite cheap.

I have to mention one thing and I will mention it again further down this review and that is the Visuo XS816 does not come with a 4K camera, this is a toy drone, so do not believe the hype on its product description page that you can take professional-quality videos and photos.

I really don’t know why some of these drone companies overhype the capabilities of these cheap drones, there is no need for it, no one will be expecting an amazing camera drone for less than $200!!.

Other than that, this is a decent drone and one that will provide a lot of fun. Carry on reading this review of the Visuo XS816 to see if it something you are looking for.

Visuo XS816 Review

The Visuo XS816 is a foldable drone, it looks great in its expanded form and kind of reminds me a little of the Mavic Pro, which is probably no coincidence as that is the drone that made the foldable design so popular.

visuo xs816 review

As many of my regular readers will know, foldable drones are my favourite type of drones, they usually look great and are very compact and easy to carry around, this also makes them excellent drones to travel with.

While the Visuo XS816 is not very aesthetically pleasing in its folded form (it’s a bit too wide for my taste), it is still compact and would make a good drone to travel with, as long as you are not a professional travel photographer.

visuo xs816 review

The drone is built from plastic and does feel kind of fragile, this is mainly because it is a very lightweight drone. Actually one of the advantages of this drone is that it weighs around 160g which means that if you live in the UK, Canada or the USA you will not need to register the drone if you just want to fly for fun.

Most other countries do not have any kind of weight restriction if you just want to fly drones for recreational purposes. However, I would still advise you to check the rules and regulations are wherever you live just to make sure that you are complying with the law.

Since it is very lightweight, I would advise against flying this drone in any kind of windy conditions, unless you are a very experienced drone pilot.

As this is a cheap drone, it comes with brushed motors, which are not as powerful or efficient as brushless motors. It’s not a huge deal, however, you will need to maintain the motors by cleaning on a more regular basis so that they stay in good condition,

One of the really nice design features of this drone are its LED lights.

It has large bright LED lights underneath each of its rotors, these not only look amazing if you fly the drone at night (again only do this if you are an experienced drone pilot) but they also help to indicate when the drone compass has been fully calibrated.

It also has LED lights on its front that make it look even more futuristic and something that kids will enjoy seeing.

This is not a GPS enabled drone but it does come with a small camera that is situated on its belly, this camera is used as an optical flow sensor which allows for the drone to fly more smoothly.

Along with the main camera, you can use this camera to stream live video footage to your smartphone, however, I have to mention that the quality is awful and it’s not really meant for recording videos.

Speaking of recording videos, unfortunately, the drone does not come with a micro SD card slot, although on the bottom, it looks like there is a slot but it has no DVR.

So, you will have to record your videos and photos on your smartphone via the app.

The drone is powered by a 3.7v 1800 mAh LiPo battery, this one those newer modular batteries that keep their battery charge for longer and this results in a decent flight time.

In this case, you get a flight time of 20 minutes with the Visuo XS816 drone, which is quite exceptional for a toy grade drone.

Now, 20 minutes is the official time, so you will most likely get somewhere in the region of 16-18 minutes which is still very good for this type of drone. If you want to extend the flight time, you can purchase a couple of extra batteries which I highly recommend you do.

One last thing I want to mention before I get to the camera is regarding the drones remote controller, this is a nice looking transmitter and is comfortable to hold.

I have seen some ugly ones and hence the reason I mention how it looks. It sort of looks like a video games controller, the control sticks are easy to manoeuvre and the buttons clearly labelled so you know what each one does. It takes 3 AA batteries which are not included with the drone package, so remember this if you do decide to purchase this drone.

You can also fly this drone with just your smartphone via the XS Visual app, this app is compatible with both Android and iOS devices and is pretty easy to use.

It has a nice interface and using it allows you access to a few more features that I will get to later on in this review.

However, like a lot of these apps that have been developed for cheap drones, it does have some issues, for example, the FPV feed sometimes crashes and your videos may not come out as they should. I have noticed, however, that the newer your smartphone is, the less issue there seems to be with many of these lesser-known drone apps.

Visuo XS816 Camera

visuo xs816 review

One of my favourite features of any kind of drone is its camera, they are fun to play around with and if they have an exceptional camera, you can take some stunning aerial photography.

The Visuo XS816 does come with a decent camera, however, if you take what is said on its product page, you may think that it comes with professional-level camera, but you would be mistaken.

A lot of smaller drone brands exaggerate the capabilities of their drones, which is unfortunate because the camera on the Visuo XS816 is a good camera for what you pay. It’s not a 4K, the photos may be in 4K but that is debatable, the video resolution is probably 2k but not very smooth.

It has a wide-angle lens, so you may see some fisheye effect and you can manually adjust the drone 90° to get better viewing angles.

The video streaming quality is transmitted in 720p resolution, however, it does freeze sometimes, especially if you have an older phone.

Overall, it’s a good camera, just don’t believe the hype you read on its product page, if you do want a cheap professional camera drone, check out this article.

Other Features

visuo xs816 review

The Visuo XS816 drone comes with some advanced features, these features will allow you to fly the drone hands-free and take videos and photos through the mere gesture of your hand.

Now, this is a cheap drone and as I have seen in many other cheap drones, some of these features may not always work, especially if the app is playing up, however, when they do work, they are fun to use and makes the drone more enjoyable to fly.

Some of these features include the following

Smart follow – In this flight mode, the drone will lock onto you and follow you from behind.

Waypoint – This feature will allow you to draw a flight path on the drone app and the drone will automatically fly along that route.

Gesture control – When this feature is activated you will be able to take videos and images through your hand movement.

One-key return home – Bring the drone back to where it launched from at the push of a button, you can also carry out an emergency stop if you lose control, however, this will bring down the drone on the sport where you lost control and not bring it back to you.

The drone also comes with headless mode for easier flying, 3 speed modes that will test your flying skills and can-do 3D flips at the push of a button.

Flight Performance

The overall flight performance of this drone is very good, it’s very easy to control and with its altitude hold function, it can hover pretty well. It is quite a fast drone, so I would not recommend you switch to a higher speed mode unless you are an experienced pilot. The only issues you may face are with things like its smart flight modes and its FPV feature which are not always reliable.

Final Thoughts

The Visuo XS816 is a fun little drone, it comes with a decent camera and is easy to operate. The drone is suitable for most people and costs less than $150, it’s not the best drone in its price range but it may be worth purchasing, click on the button below to find out more and to see its current price. However, if you would like a better option at a similar price point, I highly recommend the DJI Tello drone, this one of best drones for beginners and comes with some amazing features that actually work, click here to find out more.