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Crowd-funded drone takes flight Hexo+
Speedy storage, haute headphones, and more
£699 from Squadrone System, hexoplus.com Features 10–15 minutes flight time, 5,000mAh 3S Li-Po battery, 40mph max speed, 1.15kg (without gimbal, battery or camera)
This is no ordinary drone – it’s autonomous, meaning it’ll follow your every move, hands-free. On paper, the Hexo+ is the most powerful drone of its kind, but how does it measure up in terms of quality, performance and price?
Despite its ample size, it’s light enough to be transported to filming locations, even with the gimbal attached and a battery installed. Assembly is a cinch, but once complete the gimbal’s power cable is left exposed. Built-in safety features should ensure that every landing is soft, but we’d expect a slicker, more integrated design given the cost.
Additional batteries cost £90 each; that’s cheaper than other brands, but still steep considering the average 15 minutes of flight time per battery (dependent on conditions and which camera movements are selected).
The Hexo+ uses a phone’s GPS position, via the free Hexo+ app, along with four other sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, magnetometer) to pinpoint where the subject is and how it’s moving to ensure optimum tracking and framing. It takes just 21 seconds from switching the drone on to it syncing with GPS, and connecting your iPhone to the drone via Bluetooth is a simple affair.
When you select one of the 12 available camera movements, the drone takes off and makes four 90-degree turns to calibrate before flying into position, where it hovers, ready to execute the camera movement. We can’t emphasise enough how quickly this process happens, and if space is limited, the drone will crash.
Follow Me fun
Camera movements are selected by a single tap within the app’s menu; the drone flies into position and awaits your command to start shooting. Highlights include Hover High, where the drone sits directly above you, taking in a huge amount of the landscape and moving with you. Shooting with this setting on a snow-capped mountain or golden beach would look incredible. The panoramic 360, Fly In/Out and Slide Sideways modes are also great for perfectly capturing that moment when you conquer your next mountain peak.
Follow Me is the most spectacular mode and the main reason to buy this drone. We tested it by hurtling down a sloping field on a mountain bike. High winds added even more for the Hexo+ to tackle, but it kept pace, its six
propellers working hard to maintain stability. Reaction to sudden bursts of speed or movement is instant, and the gimbal’s 3-axis stabilisation keeps the camera fixed firmly on the subject.
The connection between the drone and a smartphone is consistently strong. Initially, it’s disconcerting being followed by an autonomous drone, and the instinct is to keep looking up for reassurance that it’s there, but the drone’s movements are precise and eventually trust takes over.
Hexo+ doesn’t come with a camera, but its gimbal is GoPro-compatible. With the drone airborne, camera movements can be easily changed via the app, but not camera settings (it’s simply strapped to the gimbal, rather than using any wired connection).
A big problem we’ve had with other drones is that with forward motion the drone tilts, the gimbal angles to accommodate this shift, and the propellers encroach on camera footage. Thankfully, the Hexo+’s props are smaller and positioned deliberately higher than the camera, eradicating this problem. It’s a small but thoughtful touch.
The combination of the stability of the body, the accurate movement of the gimbal and the overall quality of compatible GoPro cameras meant that our footage was superb.
Take control
Autonomy has its place with drones, then, but what if you want to feel a controller in your hands? Well, Hexo+ is also compatible with a number of remote controllers, should you want to fly it manually.
Hexo promises quarterly firmware and app updates, and we’ve already caught wind of a forthcoming function called Magic Wand, which will open the drone up to Minority Report-style gesture control from your smartphone. We’d also love the option to map GPS points within the app (as offered by rival DJI’s Waypoints flight mode). Time will tell how much scope there is for these upgrades.
Kickstarter products are rarely perfect from version 1.0, and it’s still early days for the Hexo+, but this is an impressive start for the fledgling brand. The price may prove too high for some people, but the Hexo+ is an exciting product with bags of potential.