DJI Tello Drone Review

At the CES 2018, DJI announced the Tello, which is an interesting little drone. I was actually amazed to find DJI entering into the lower-cost brushed quadcopter market, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. DJI and Ryze have teamed up to create this tiny drone. The Tello is a tiny brushed quadcopter, but don’t let the small package fool you, because this little drone has some pretty exciting features, which is something we can expect out of anything DJI puts their hands on.

Today, I am going to be telling you what I already know about the DJI Tello so that you can decide whether or not it is something you want to purchase in the very near future.

The Tello may look similar to the small DJI Spark, but trust me, this is an all-new drone and is very different from the Spark. This is one of the best brushed quadcopters to come out in a very long time.

What is a Brushed Drone?

If you’re not too familiar with the terminology in the drone world, you may be wondering why I keep saying “brushed,” and what it has to do with a drone. Basically, when someone says “brushed drone,” it means it has brushed motors. Okay, so what are brushed motors? They’re motors with brushes. Without getting too technical here, brushed motors, like the ones that you can find on the Tello here, have a tendency to be less expensive and have lower performance that the brushless counterparts. All of the previous DJI drones, this includes the Mavic and Phantom models have brushless motors.

The Tello appears to be the lowest prices quadcopter you’re going to buy from DJI. Ryze developed the Tello with input and components from DJI and Intel. Mind you, this drone doesn’t have the advanced flight modes and GPS that you normally find in a DJI drone, but it does have some interesting features.

In this next bit of the review, I’m going to put the DJI Tello and the Spark side by side and compare them. Keep in mind that the Tello is much cheaper than the $499 spark (about $399 cheaper).

For starters, it only weight 80 grams, so it is definitely tiny. To give you something to compare it to, DJI’s small Spark drone weighed in at 300 grams.

Flight Time on the DJI Tello Drone 

The Tello is capable of flying for a total of 13 minutes at a time. Spark, on the other hand could fly up to 16 minutes.

Taking Pictures With The DJI Tello Drone 

The Tello can take 5-megapixels, while the Spark can take 14-megapixel. The Tello’s camera can shoot 720P video, which is decent. I like the image stabilization, which is helpful when it comes to smoothing out the video.

Flight Modes of the DJI Tello 

Tello is capable of a variety of flight modes that DJI refers to as EZ Shots. EZ Shots on the Tello are similar to the modes that you would find on the Spark. The modes include: 360, Circle and “Up & Away.”

Signal

In order to get the best possible signal, this drone uses two antennas and you’ll get a flight range of up to 100 meters. You can control the drone via a smartphone app or a Bluetooth controller.

Conclusion

The Tello is supposed to be coming out in March of 2018, but it is now available for pre-order if it is something you are interested in.

In all honesty, you probably aren’t going to be able to find a drone on the market that is under $100 and has a camera that is this good with a variety of flight modes. So, if you’re on a budget and you’re looking for a drone that is capable of taking pictures and video, then this drone right here might be a suitable option for you. On an ending note, the fact that you can fly the drone for up to 13 minutes is definitely a bonus compared to some of the other flight times.