We have a lot of people asking us the question; “What is the best drone for a beginner?” Even though this answer is quite complex, we will try to break it down for you and go over: How to establish a Realistic Budget, What Features to look for, Important Specs to consider, and finally, we’ll offer some Purchasing Suggestions. Whether you are looking for a children’s gift to spark interest in the hobby or you are looking for a low-budget drone that will be a stepping stone into a professional setting, you’ll find some useful information below. At the end of the article, we are also throwing in a SPECIAL BONUS that will highlight some beginner to advanced resources for editing drone photography and videography as well as a link to find a qualified expert to do it for you.

1. Setting a Beginner Budget
2. Features to Look for
   • Camera
   • Flight
   • Distance and Connectivity
   • Weight/Size
3. Other Specifications to Consider
4. Top Suggestions from the Meteor Drone Store
5. Special Bonus: Additional Resources (psst…they are mostly free)

Setting a Beginner Budget

One of the first things to consider when answering “What is the best drone for a beginner (starter)” is your budget. The reason this is at the top of our list is not because you have to be ready to dump a bunch of money into a decent drone, but because, like most things, you do get what you pay for. You simply cannot go in with a budget of $100 and expect to get the best drone on the market. However, $100 is plenty for some of the toys we carry. The good news is you don’t really have to start with a budget of $1000+ if you, or the person you are getting the drone for, are just learning the ropes or looking for a toy to play around with.

For example, if you are just looking for a birthday present for an 8 year old, we have a UFO type drone for $30 and Fighter-Jet type drone for about $100 that would both be huge hits! They don’t have any ‘over the top’ features like a 4K camera or app controlled remote, but they are still really fun Drones for the younger enthusiasts. If those are too ‘childish’ and you are looking for something that looks, feels, and acts like a high-end drone, there are also options like Potensic D58 Quadcopter that is right around $300 but still has awesome features like GPS, 1080P Capture, and is App-Controlled.

Sorry…didn’t mean to start offering store suggestions and feature dropping already, but that is the best way to show that your budget doesn’t have to be really high. That said, we are going to jump straight into the next topic which will discuss certain features to look for and why you need to consider them when looking for the best drone for a beginner.

Features to Look For

Beginner drone features can be broken into a few categories. Some of these features, in no particular order, include camera presence and quality, flight and control(ler) type, flight distance and connectivity, and weight/size of the drone.

A. Camera Presence and Quality

Let’s start with the camera. If you are looking to get some aerial photos or videos after you’ve already practiced your flying skills, you will definitely want to pay attention to the camera. First and foremost, does the drone even have a camera? 

Believe it or not, there are several beginner drones that do not have a camera at all. We actually have a decent selection of those types of drones that have No Camera as an option if you want to check them out! These drones are great for many reasons like practicing flight skills, gaining interest in the hobby, playing around indoors or outdoors, or even for testing out customization skills. It goes without saying that you will want to stay clear of those if you want to take pictures or videos right out of the box.

Now, if stunning drone photography is your goal and you want to start out with something that has a camera, you’ll want to look into camera positioning, movement and range, quality, and even quantity. Typically, recreational drones will have cameras fixed to the bottom front of the frame with a gimbal that extends the lens from the body. Others may have the camera lens embedded into the frame. Both of these are great for capturing what is ahead of and, in the case of the gimbal design, below the drone during flight. 

You’ll want to keep an eye out for how the camera is mounted, even when it is extended from the body itself. Some gimbals (mounts) will allow for north and south movement while others may allow movement in all directions or potentially not permit any movement at all.

In addition to the presence of a camera when selecting a beginner drone, you also want to pay attention to the camera quantity and quality. We’ll get into camera quality in the next section, Specs to Consider, but we will mention the quantity aspect now. You may be thinking: why do we need to talk about quantity when we already told you that you have a no camera option and a mounted/fixed camera option? Yes, there IS another option: Dual Cameras!

Having a drone with 2 cameras is a high end expensive feature, right? Wrong! In fact, there are quite a few beginner drones that are affordable AND have Dual Cameras like the S62 (Teng 2) and the S135 Mini Pro! Why would you need/want multiple cameras?

This feature is definitely not a necessity. However, drones with dual cameras allow you to seamlessly switch between Frontal and Downward (Bird’s Eye) Views to capture very unique perspectives. Having Dual Cameras is actually a feature even most of the high end drones do not come with!

B. Flight and Controller

In addition to the cameras, or lack thereof, another set of important features to consider when answering the big question, what is the best drone for a beginner, are about the flight itself. What is the type of flight for the drone? How is that flight controlled? These are arguably the two most important questions which we are going to summarize for you. 

First, let’s tackle the flight type. For beginner drones, there are 3 major flight types: encased helicopter, basic airplane, and open quadcopter. Yes, there are additional types of flight, but we consider them more advanced so they won’t be in the “what is the best drone for a beginner” article.

The encased helicopter is known for its durability because there is a built in guard for the propellers. There may only be 1 propeller or multiple depending on the design and other functionalities. These types of drones offer safety for both indoor and outdoor use and are great for toys, like the UFO you may have seen kids playing with on TV or TikTok, for learning the ropes if you don’t have a wide open area to practice, and for adventures where you may see multiple types of unpredictable terrain, like the H94 3-in-1! The encased helicopter model almost eliminates the most common problem we see with other drones: the propellers get damaged during transport or flight.

Another beginner drone type is the basic airplane, like the Raptor V17. This has become more popular over the last few years mainly because of the design appearance. Since the propellers are typically within the wings of the jet, they pose a safer operation than drones with exposed propellers. The materials that airplane drones are typically made of are also light weight and damage resistant, making them excellent beginner drones!

Unfortunately the encased helicopter and airplane designs do have some limitations. For instance, they usually do not have a camera equipped, there is limited speed due to the lower capacity propellers, and there is typically limited range and connectivity during operation. If you’re looking for these types of features, you may want to check out drones under the quadcopter type.

The quadcopter is what most people commonly think of when they hear the word drone. As the name states, they have 4 arms which are most often equipped with two propellers each. Even though this design adds the possibility of mounting a camera, the main advantages you’ll see with beginner drone quadcopters are flight speed, distance, and connectivity. The speed and distance metrics are greatly increased due to the motors/rotors that the wings are equipped with. Airflow is increased and the center of gravity is enhanced due to the distance and size of the arm extensions and the size of the propellers. Also, different types of motors can be mounted on the arms to better increase spin velocity and overall drone lift. Quadcopters also have the ability to individually alter propeller rotation to ultimately increase maneuverability.

C. Flight Distance and Connectivity

Distance and connectivity go hand-in-hand. While some of the toy/practice drones will be controlled using hand gestures, wind direction, and side mounted obstacle sensors, most quadcopters come with the ability to connect to a control center. This control center will either be a controller with Bluetooth and/or WiFi connection or a mobile device that connects to a controller. This allows the drone to fly greater distances without losing control. As a comparison, the Raptor V17 can fly a maximum of 300m (984ft) while the S135 Mini Pro can reach up to 5000m (16404ft). That’s 54 American Football fields in length!

In most cases, the average flight distance and time, and whether the unmanned aircraft (UA) is controlled with or without a controller or mobile device app, will be listed in the item descriptions.

D. Drone Weight and Size

The next, and final, feature we want to highlight for this post is weight/size. Without diving too much into this topic (since this is a what is the best drone for a beginner post) the size and weight of a drone plays an important role in flight, transportation, and even legalities. In the United States, any recreational or commercial drone between 250 and 25,000g (0.55-55lbs) must be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the registration must be carried and displayed at all times. Obviously, this is extremely important to know in order to make sure you aren’t doing anything illegal with your beginner drone!

However, many beginners’ and kids’ drones are going to be under that weight restriction so *registration legalities are not an issue for recreational pilots. Weight will also have effects on the flight of the drone. Although not a one-size-fits-all, a heavier drone is typically going to consume more battery and therefore have a shorter average flight time. On the contrary, a lighter drone is typically going to have decreased stability when faced with wind and higher air densities. These comparisons are not always the case so make sure to look at the weight and battery capacities and average flight times when choosing your beginner drone.

If you’re planning on taking your drone to various locations, you will want to check out the size of the drone and if it has arms that are foldable. Items will have their folded and unfolded sizes so you know precisely what you’re getting. The unfolded size is also important in planning where you can take the drone. If there are obstacles and tight corners, you definitely want to make sure the drone will fit before taking flight. Thankfully, every drone that we have marked as a beginner drone is fairly small in size and will fit almost anywhere you’d want to fly.

*We are not legal consultants so if you have any questions regarding registration, please reach out to the proper authorities

Other Specifications to Consider

Now that we went over some of the more important features to look for when searching for the best drone for a beginner, let’s dive into some of the specifications to examine. For a beginner this might be more in depth than what you’re interested in so, we will go over the content while keeping it brief.

Since the majority of our fans and followers are looking for drones so they can gain a new perspective on photography, we’ll talk mostly about camera specs to look for. The first thing most enthusiasts will say to consider is the resolution. This resolution, in drone cameras, will typically range from 720P up to 8K. 720P is considered standard High Definition with approximately 720 pixels in width while 8K offers much more definition with about an 8000 pixel width. Most often, a beginner is not going to require 8K resolution right out of the gate so we suggest looking into the area of 4K, potentially 6K if you want a more impressive start.

Along with the pixels themselves, you may want to see whether the quality metrics are Full High Definition (FHD) or Ultra High Definition (UHD). To keep it brief, with UHD you will see more pixels per inch and therefore increased quality over FHD. Other Camera specs to look at include Zoom capabilities (some allow up to 50x zoom), light filtering (important if sunlight intensity changes often in your setting), and image stabilization (wind happens so make sure your drone can accommodate).

Next, for a beginner drone pilot, you’ll absolutely want to look at the average battery life. This is extremely important because you don’t want your drone to die in the middle of your flight because it may get lost or, more devastating, you might have to miss the photo opp or adventure rush that you worked so hard to get to. Now, battery life is affected by many different things, namely the weight or the drone and the size of the battery. To keep it short and simple, a heavy drone will most often require a higher battery capacity because the motors are working harder to increase and/or maintain the drone’s altitude.

That said, if your only goal is to have the longest lasting battery ever you’ll want to get the lightest drone with a battery that has the highest mAh (milliampere hour). Realistically, that probably is not your main goal so just check the battery size and weight to make sure it makes sense for you.

Staying with battery life for a moment, you also want to consider what you’ll be using the drone for. If you’re wanting to take pictures and videos, keep in mind that not only does camera use drain the battery, higher quality pictures and videos will greatly increase consumption as well. So, if you’re trying to take 6K videos with your beginner drone, your battery will drain much faster than if you’re just flying about to enjoy and explore new landscapes.

Again, since this is to answer the question “what is the best drone for beginners” we aren’t going to get into more details about specs at this time. The main goal for a beginner should be learning how to fly and getting familiar with the drone’s controls and features. All things considered, here is a very brief bonus list of other features you might see in those top-notch starter drones:

• App-Controlled
• Auto Return
• Waypoint (autonomous) Flight
• Headless Mode
• Follow Me (or Smart Follow)
• FPV Capability
• Obstacle Avoidance
• Gesture Photo
• Gravity Sensing

Our Top Suggestions

So, up to this point, we have discussed a beginner’s budget, highlighted some important features to consider, and brought up some basic specifications to look for when answering the question: “What is the best drone for a beginner?” Now, as promised, we are going to offer some suggestions directly from our site that would be great for different styles and desires. Additionally, you can check these filtered items out for yourself: Beginners and Kids

First, if you’re just looking for a toy we have a couple that would be a great fit. Our Mini Pocket Quadcopter Drones are tiny drones that can be purchased with or without a camera. They can easily be transported because they fit right inside their respective controller. They are made with metal and plastic and are also fairly durable. These drones can be used indoors or outdoors. The main reason we classify them as ‘toys’ is because they do not have a very long flight time (only about 6 minutes) or distance (only about 30m). However, for a beginner type drone between $25.99 and $115.95, these really do pack a punch and are a really cool and fun-looking drone.

Our second suggested drone bridges the gap between toys and intermediate pilot aircraft. Not only does the Raptor V17 RC Jet look awesome, but it has amazing features packed into an $80-$120 budget. It is constructed with highly durable plastic and EPP foam and can be used indoors or outdoors. The propellers are also fairly protected because they are not fully exposed like you would see on a typical quadcopter design. It has a rather impressive 15 minute flight time, 300m distance, and a very simple controller. One of the major downfalls is that it does not have a camera option. If you’re looking for a fun drone with an awesome curb appeal, we highly suggest checking out the Raptor V17!

Now, if you’re looking for something that will get you amazing pictures but not break the bank, we have some great beginner drones that can accomplish just that. In fact, the S135 Mini Pro Series is our top pick in this category. The S135 Pro comes with a ton of features like a long flight range and time, app control, GPS with smart follow and waypoint selection, a 3-axis gimbal camera mount, dual cameras with up to 8K resolution, 360 degree obstacle avoidance, and an overall fire design. The best part is, you get all of that for less than $340! No, it’s not a DJI, but if you are looking for a great beginner drone, this is one you don’t want to pass up on.

A couple more we want to mention, due to their unique versatility, are the JJRC H93 3-in-1 and the Xtrene 2-in-1. With these drones you can conquer the air, land, and sea (air and land with the 2-in-1). The JJRC has propellers for flight, tires for ground mobility, and can motorboat atop the water as well while the Xtrene has propellers and tires. A major upside to the Xtrene 2-in-1, over the JJRC H93, is its available camera option. They could both arguable use an update to their battery capabilities, but outside that, they are extremely fun and durable beginner drones for the adventurist that will truly go wherever you go. These drones are sure to be accompanied by good times for under $100.

BONUS RESOURCES

So, we’ve wrestled with the question, “What is the best drone for a beginner?” We really appreciate you sticking with us. Now we want to highlight a few resources that you have at your disposal to make your experience even better. These resources are specifically aimed toward editing the exhilarating pictures and videos captured with your drone.

1. Photopea – This is a FREE open source software you can use to edit pictures. It’s a great alternative to something like Photoshop if you don’t want to fork out the dough! Just visit www.photopea.com and start editing right away!
2. Davinci Resolve – Another FREE program that you can use for editing (free as long as you don’t make too much money from it). This program, from Blackmagic Designs, allows you to create stunning videos with its very powerful, built-in tools. There is a learning curve, but its definitely worth it if you want to create awesome videos. Blackmagic also has tons of equipment that could be useful as well. Click HERE to download the latest version of Davinci Resolve.
3. Fiverr – Don’t have the time or know-how to make your photos and videos pop? There are professionals out there ready to help you do just that. Use Fiverr to find affordable services from EXPERTS in their fields. We’d greatly appreciate using our links below to do so.
   1. Two Options to select your own freelancer to edit your projects: Option 1 or Option 2
   2. Our Fiverr editor Selection: Schell House Media  
4. Contact us and we can edit for you as well

That’s all we have for now. Hopefully, you are now confident in answering the major question: What is the best drone for a beginner? All that’s left now is to get yourself a drone and start flying! If you have any questions or comments about the post, please feel free to reach out via email or social media at any time.