I, too, started off with cheapo drones, the £40-£50 sort, and found them unflyable. They suffered from to insurmountable problems, firstly, they could not be made to hover in a specific location without drifting, even in calm conditions, and secondly, the controls were not graduated, so any input was full power or nothing, so they were often too fast to control properly. I was advised here to buy a DJI drone and have not regretted taking that advice!
To be flown properly (in my opinion) a drone needs to at least have GPS positioning and graduated control sticks. GPS is more accurate the more satellites are ‘visible’ above the horizon, which of course depends on height but the number varies anyway as they are in differnt orbits. It can be predicted, though. GPS satellites can pinpoint your drone’s postion very accurately in 3 dimensions and in real time, and the inertia unit inside the drone uses feedback circuitry to hold the drone in a given position; similar feedback circuitry enables the gimbal to hold the camera very steadily; it’s like having a flying tripod!
Graduated stick controls allow a finesse of movement that means that you can fly the drone very accurately to any desired position, and this can be done at very slow speed if you like. I would reccommend that any drone you buy has these two features at the very least! Avoid drones that have virtual stick control on phone screen; it does not have the required finesse for accurate positioning.
Of course, you get what you pay for. A Mankind Red5 drone with the above features costs as much as an entry level DJI Mini, but I would contend that the DJI is better value even without knowing if it flies better than the Red5 (though I’m willing to bet that it does!). DJI is equalled in value in my view by drones from Potensic and a few other companies that retail at similar prices, but DJI has the advantage of their ‘Care Refresh’ replacement system for crashes caused by faults, and while I usuallly think these sorts of extended warranty deals are a scam, in this case it is good value and worth the extra cost.
Other features which I think are worth having are 3-axis gimbal, which will cope with almost any conditions the drone will fly in and keep the camera level and steady, and RTH (Return To Home point), which on my drone can be triggered by a button on the RC, or automatically if the drone senses that the battery is low before it becomes too low to make the return, and by the drone having lost signal from the RC; it will retrace it’s route using GPS until signal is restored, and hover until you instruct it further.
Also, automatic landing, where the the drone senses the proximity of the ground and slows to a gentle landing even if you have the left stick fully down, and in the case of RTH and other autonomous landings. Most drones use WiFi signal between the RC and the aircraft, which is basically line of sight, subject to interference from other WiFi signals (can be a problem in urban environments) and only effective over a fairly short distance, but DJI use their proprietary ‘Occusync’ system, which is considerably more robust and long-range, well capable of controlling the drone at the full 400’ height allowed by the CAA, and as far as I can see the drone in accordance with the CAA’s requirement that the pilot should have visual line of sight at all times, meaning being able to actually see the drone, not simply having an uninterrupted line of sight to an object too far away to make out!
Learn from my mistake and don’t be tempted to buy cheap drones from Amazon or Temu; trust me, they’re uncontrollable rubbish and, to my mind, dangerous.
, maybe take a look at the DJI Neo, as others have mentioned. Good entry point and lots of fun. Just get an Operator ID if taking it anywhere, that’s very easy to do btw.