Holy Stone manufacturing drones since 2014. To know whether you will get value for money, it is best to consider every HS drone on its own merits. In this Holy Stone HS440 drone review, you shall see its features, and its flight functions.
Looking at the physical structure of the HS440, it looks like a small version of the HS720E. But there is a whole load of difference between the two drones, from the camera quality to the size. The HS440 is in the mini drone class.
This is a good drone for beginners. It also packs more features than most of the mini drones in its price range. For instance, it comes with an SD card slot, so you don’t need to store your footage in your smartphone.
Also, there are not many downsides to note with this aircraft. However, you should be aware that when you launch it with the one key take off and landing function, it might drift a little when it hovers at 5 feet. This is understandable for a drone of this size and weight.
HS440 Features & Technical Details
This quadcopter comes ready to fly, assembled. Just need to read the user manual before you can fly it. You will also need to download the drone’s app so that you can unlock more functions and enjoy first person view. In the box, you will find two drone batteries, a transmitter, the drone itself, USB charging cables, 4 extra propellers and a user manual.
Design and Build Quality
This is a foldable drone and it folds with everything, including the split-design blades intact. This reduces its size substantially for easy packing when traveling or storing.
The weight of this drone is a minimal 166 grams, so it is pretty light and you should not attempt to fly it in any sort of wind.
The motors on this drone are brushed, but they are quiet when it is in flight, almost as quiet as brushless motors.
Holy Stone has used a strong polymer material to make the fuselage of this small aircraft. Thus, even after crashing, the interior electronic parts will not be damaged.
You will also appreciate the cloth, padded case that the quadcopter comes with, which makes traveling with the aircraft easier.
When storing your quad, you want to keep everything together, so the case solves that for you. It even has a carry handle to make it easier to move with.
Camera Quality
Despite looking like a smaller version of the HS720E, which comes with a 4K camera, this one comes with a smaller 1080P camera. Also, to get your footage in 1080P, you should get a TF card. Storing the footage in your smartphone lowers the resolution to 720P.
You get a wide field of view with this camera, at 112 degrees. Also, you can adjust the camera vertical angle remotely by up to 90 degrees.
You can position the camera in such a way to get the best shots possible. You can also adjust the vertical angle of the camera from the app.
The overall FPV range of this drone is 328 feet.
Batteries and Flight Time
This drone comes with two batteries and each can give you a flight time of 20 minutes, give or take a little.
These are high capacity batteries at 1900mAh and the charging time for each is 180 minutes. It is recommended that you use the provided cable.
These batteries are also safe to handle and they snap right into place, are easy to take off and insert and they have overcharge protection.
Since they charge out of the drone, you can charge one while you use the other.
Remote Controller
It is small, simplistic and light in weight. You will need to use it to calibrate the drone for every flight. It has a foldable smartphone controller on the top so that you can fly it with the app or with the remote controller alone.
You will also find all the keys that you need to fly the HS440 on the remote controller. For instance, there is the one key landing and takeoff, the low/high speed key, photo/video key and a few others. Even when flying the drone blindly, you will control it easily.
Flight Functions
This drone comes with many functions, which make it both easy and fun to fly for a beginner, even a kid. Here are some of them:
Gesture Shooting
With gesture shooting mode, you just show the drone your palm sign and it starts to take videos. If you show it the victory sign, it starts to take photos. This is a good way to take footage with the whole family in it.
Voice Control
Imagine a quadcopter that is going to obey your voice commands. This means that even without any piloting skills at all, you can fly this quadcopter easily. Just switch it on, calibrate it with the remote controller and then command it to do what you want it to do.
Altitude Hold
With this function, the drone holds a vertical height so the pilot only worries about the horizontal flight. This also ensures that the drone hovers precisely, something you will appreciate when taking selfies.
Emergency Stop
This is one of the most important flight functions in small, beginner drones. If a crash with a tree or building seems imminent, just press the emergency stop key and the drone stops in its tracks immediately and descends.
Gravity Control
With this flight mode engaged on the app, you can fly the drone using your smartphone. If you wave the smartphone to the left, it flies to the left and vice versa.
Custom Flight
To create a custom flight path that you would like the aircraft to follow, just open the map interface on the app and draw a route. You can fly the quadcopter hands-free this way and concentrate on taking footage.
Short Summary of Feedback from Existing Owners
This small quadcopter flies really well. However, do not fly it in any wind at all because it is very light in weight. Warren W.
This quadcopter packs so many flight functions so it is really fun to fly. I learned to fly it using the voice control function and then I taught myself how to fly it blindly. Nick M.
I love Holy Stone drones. However, I find this one too basic, so an experienced user will most probably find it too boring and will want to upgrade sooner than later. Lee N.
The price is good and so is the flight performance. However, I wish the camera was a little bigger in resolution because 1080P is so of the past. Gerard C.
Holy Stone HS440 Pros
- Two high capacity batteries give a long flight time
- It is easy to learn how to fly thanks to voice command
- It is a durable drone
- It supports a TF card of up to 32GB
- The price for this drone is quite affordable
- The brushed motors perform very well
- Nice FPV range for such a small drone
Holy Stone HS440 Cons
- It does not come with propeller guards
- Camera could be better
Who Should Buy The Holy Stone HS440 Drone?
This is a beginner drone that you can use to learn how to fly and then upgrade to a bigger one in future. It comes with some good features such as two batteries, a good camera and a quality case for storage and traveling. With functions such as gesture shooting and voice control, it is still exciting even for an experienced pilot. The flight time of 40 minutes from the two batteries is quite impressive, so you won’t need to buy a third battery.
Conclusion and Recommendation
This is a high quality and lightweight drone. If you buy it, first, study the user manual to see how to calibrate it and fly it. Also, learn how to use the various functions for an excellent flight. Download the app so that you can unlock more fun with FPV.
Do not fly the aircraft in the wind because it is too lightweight, so it can fly away easily. Also, it is best to choose a wide open space without obstacles such as trees and buildings to avoid crashing your Holy Stone HS440 drone.
