So do you need to drop hundreds of dollars on a quadcopter to have fun? The answer is a resounding NO! The Syma X1 brings quadcopter fun down to a price you just can’t resist. I found this little gem one day when I heard it flying outside of my office. My co-worker had bought it because he liked my Vulcan 900 Hexacopter and wanted to get into multi-rotors. When I heard he had gotten it for just over $30.00 I had a slight chuckle and just imagined how awful it would be to fly, I mean nothing that cheap could possible fly well…right? After I saw how stable he was flying I had a moment of pause, then I saw him hit a button and do a flip, indoors without hitting anything. Then I really took notice and begged him for the sticks. After flying it for 5 minutes I went back to my office and ordered three, one for myself and two for my brother-in-laws.
The Syma X1 comes in three body types, Spacecraft, UFO and Bumble Bee. The 2.4GHz TX is fairly basic, plastic with a backlit LCD monitor and requires 4 AA batteries. In addition to the control sticks are the expected 4 trim buttons for each of the channels. There are two additional buttons of the top shoulders, one on each side. The left shoulder button controls the dual rates; it toggles between low and high, defaults to the low setting when the TX is turned on. The right shoulder button is for flips, also known as “Eversion”. To use hold down the flip button and use the right cyclic stick to initiate the flip in one of four directions (left, right, forward or backward). The TX is switchable between Mode 1 and Mode 2. I have read and been told that it can be bound to a Turnigy 9X but I haven’t tried myself.
The X1 uses a 7mm motor with 9-t pinions made of plastic/nylon type material. The included battery is a 350mAh Lipo with the JST connector molded into the cap which makes the whole thing rigid. The stock battery has an Over-Charge Protection (OCP) circuit hidden under the cap. Flight time with the stock battery is over 7 minutes. The X1 can handle just about any 1S cell in the 350-600 mAh range but the included battery provides plenty of flight time. The X1 comes with a USB charging cable, the light inside the USB connector will go out when it is done charging. Charge times can be upward of 60 minutes, I suggest buying multiple spare batteries to keep flying. Be careful, the included USB charging cable does not have the OCP, so it does not know when to stop, only charge the included battery with it.
My second flight with the X1 was with my own; I got into a hands-free hover in seconds. The gyro keeps it extremely stable and easy to control. The motors are fairly quiet and both low and high rates were suitable for indoor flying. Outside in calm winds it was still stable and has nice climb performance. So nice that my bother-in-law got his stuck in the top of a tall tree within seconds of liftoff (some monkey-like climbing got it down shortly thereafter). Fast flight and flips were easy to do indoors and outdoors, just be sure you have enough altitude to recover before you start the flip.
The X1 is very stable, controllable, and fun to fly. I found the stock radio has relatively short range, approximately 30 meters or 100 feet, but you probably don’t want to go much further with a small quad anyway. This is also a tough little bird, after several hard crashes nothing has broken and it still flies great. But if I do ever break anything it comes with 4 spare props and parts are readily available for very reasonable prices.
My overall impression of the X1 is very good. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in getting a quad, especially if this is a first quad. For the money and availability it is a real steal.
PROS:
Low price
Stable flight characteristics
Good flight time (7+ minutes on stock battery)
Fail-Safe throttle kill
Durable
Affordable replacement parts
CONS:
Limited Range
No LED lights for night flying
Long charging times
Specifications
Manufacturer: Syma
Distributor: Amazon.com
Price: $30 – $33
Battery: 3.7V/350mAh Lipo
Charging time: 40-60 minutes
Flying time: 7-8 minutes
Controlling distance: 30-40 meters
Frequency: 2.4GHz
Channel: 4 channels
By: Kyle Matthew
Photos: Kyle Matthew
Pilots in photos & video: Donn Rushing & Shane Walton
