The Hubsan Zino Mini SE drone comes with many impressive features. If you are in a hurry to read, here is a sneak peek into some of them:
- 5 mile/9KM flight range
- 4K camera mounted on 3-axis gimbal
- 2 batteries for 40 minutes of flight time
- Quick Transfer function for fast footage sharing on social media
- Fail-safe features
- Nice carry bag with shoulder strap
- Still manages to keep weight under 250G
Hubsan is the home of different types of drones. For instance, they have affordable drones for beginners and they have advanced drones that you can use for aerial shooting.
For years, this Chinese drone manufacturer has been making drones for all budgets, needs and uses. Sometime back, we wrote a review of the Hubsan Zino 2 drone, which comes with a long transmission and flight distance. It also comes with a 4K camera, which makes it useful for semi-professional video work.
Back to our drone of the moment, could the Hubsan Zino Mini SE be the answer to the Mavic Mini or the DJI Mini 2?
That’s what we are going to find out in the upcoming sections.
Hubsan Zino Mini SE Drone Features and Specifications
Before we jump into the features, you might like to know a couple of things. First, this is an expensive quadcopter, so you probably do not want to buy it as a first-time drone. It is going to set you back $600, perhaps more, depending on where you buy it from.
There have also been complaints that the plastic used to make the body parts of the drone is so cheap. Therefore, you might want to handle it with care. In isolated cases, buyers complained of battery discharging and refusing to charge completely.
Build quality
By weight, Hubsan was able to pack all of their features in this drone and still keep it at a takeoff weight of 249 grams. Therefore, you will not need to register it with the FAA before you can fly it. It is small enough to fit on your palm, and it is light enough to pop into your jacket pocket when you are going to the beach.
By design, this is a foldable drone. It is good for people who want to buy it for traveling. You can fold the propeller arms to reduce the size compactly so that the aircraft is easy to pack in its storage bag. Besides, the blades also come in the split design so they also fold up.
The drone is fitted with brushless motors. These are high quality and they do not overheat even with prolonged use. The motors also have a lower noise level and they are more powerful than brushed ones.
The drone is white in color, and it does not seem to come in other color options.
The manufacturer says they have used ABS plastic to make the drone. However, there have been complaints about the landing gear being too brittle, so you might want to consider that.
This quadcopter has a micro-SD card slot. It is compatible with U3 16 to 64GB cards. You have to buy a card separately because it is not sold with the drone.
Batteries and flight time
This Hubsan Zino Mini SE drone is sold with two batteries. These are high capacity batteries with 3000mAh rating. One battery is going to give you a flight time of 20 minutes, so you can collectively get 40 minutes of flight time.
The package also comes with one USB charging cable and one charging dock. It also has an AC adapter, so charging your batteries should be easy and fast.
You can leave one battery charging while you use the second one. Also, you can check whether Hubsan sells spare batteries for this model if you want a longer flight time.
Camera Quality
This is where the Zino Mini SE stands out. It comes with a high quality 4K camera that can capture stunning photo and video footage. At 30FPS, the camera can capture 4K videos, 2.7K videos at 60FPS and at 90FPS, it captures videos in 1080P resolution.
It also captures photos at 48MP, so they are really good quality. It will save the photos in JPEG format mostly. If you store your footage in your smartphone, the resolution will be lower than when you store it in a microSD card.
The drone is FPV-enabled, which gives you a great first-person view when you are flying it. With a long transmission distance, you are going to enjoy views from far. In fact, since this drone has a 4000-meter flight height, you can deploy it to check on different corners of your farm. Some people also use it to check their roofs and gutters.
The camera has been mounted on a 3-axis gimbal. The footage that you take is going to be free of distortion. The gimbal corrects the yaw, pitch and roll of the camera and it corrects mistakes that come from shaking.
This drone is also equipped with a 3X zoom, which will help you to bring things nearer to take better footage. If you are looking for a drone to shoot footage for your blogs and videos, this one can help you.
Remote controller
The remote controller that the Hubsan Zino Mini SE comes with is quite a piece of work. Not only does it look sleek, with a simple user interface, it also comes with an integrated rechargeable battery. On a full charge, you can use it to fly the drone through two batteries and leave some charge.
Another important feature is the small LCD display in the center. The benefit of this display is to bring you important data such as distance, flight height and remaining voltage of the drone. That way you will always be aware of the status of your quadcopter.
The remote controller also has a foldable smartphone holder that will fit most modern devices. It runs on a 2.4GHz frequency.
Flight functions
This drone comes with several flight functions. They are as follows:
Auto Return Home
This is a fail-safe function to bring the drone home if certain things happen. First, if the drone loses signal for several seconds, it will turn and come back home, where you launched it.
Secondly, there is the return to home key. If you press the key, the drone comes back home. Thirdly, there is a low battery return to home, where the aircraft comes back automatically if the battery runs low. It will give you a warning on the remote controller and then it will come back.
AI Tracking
This is another function that this drone comes with, that you won’t find in many others. This function enables you to set a target in the center of the camera view. It will track the object/subject in that position there all the time.
This function will also enable the Zino Mini SE to follow you keeping a distance of 5 meters. It will not work if the drone is out of a radius of 15 meters.
Free and circle Time-lapse Photography
To create a time-lapse video, you can use the free time-lapse function on this aircraft. It enables you to take video footage of different lengths, photos at different intervals and videos at different speeds and then create a time-lapse video with them.
You can also use the circle time-lapse mode where you should set the interval, direction of the circle and video length. When you launch the drone, it will fly in a circle, capturing video and photos that you’ll use to create a time lapse video.
Waypoint Mode
On App, you can create the route that you would like the Zino to follow when you launch it. Tap on your screen to create your waypoint and then join the points with a line. The aircraft will fly along that route. Furthermore, this drone is going to retain the memory of that route if you would love to fly on it more often.
Quick transfer
The Quick Transfer function is going to enable you to transfer your footage to your smartphone easily. That way, you can share it with friends and family on social media easily.
Comet mode
This is a flight mode where the aircraft flies around your point of interest shooting footage. It will fly in a comet style and get you your video and photo footage.
360-degree shooting
In this mode, the drone stays in one position – hovering and rotates to shoot footage all around it. Please note that in hovering mode, it is going to consume battery charge faster.
Panorama mode
This is yet another shooting mode where you can get the Zino Mini SE drone to shoot footage in sphere mode, 180 degrees and wide-angle modes. You can then join these photos to create a panoramic effect.
Orbiting mode
In this mode, the drone flies around a certain object keeping to a given radius and getting footage from all angles.
Reviews of Hubsan Zino Mini SE drone owners
Despite the hefty cost of this drone, I think the build quality could improve. The landing gear plastic feels too light and weak. I am sure it would collapse if the drone lands too fast. Apart from that, my Zino works very well, just as advertised. Nick Pentz.
I love everything about this small drone. I have been capturing nice footage with it, but I would not advise beginners to get it. It lacks a GeoFence function and the long flight range might be too tempting. It can fly out of sight fast. Johann Biermen.
This is a good drone for people who do not have the budget for Mavic or DJI. However, you can only order it from China and the model seems to run out too fast. Therefore, you might buy it, only for it to be replaced with a newer, better model soon after. Rico Bacon.
This is the best package for someone looking for a small drone to record their outdoor adventures. It comes with a nice camera, two batteries and has some level of wind resistance. I am using it to record my road bike adventures. Tessa Anderson.
I love the various shooting modes! I am creative by personality, so I am always trying new visual things. This drone is perfect for my needs. Dario Keeman.
Hubsan ZINO Mini SE Drone Pros
- Has a high capacity rechargeable battery – 3350mAh for remote controller
- Has level 5 wind resistance
- Comes with a nice, padded, zipped carry bag with shoulder strap
- Has line fly mode to get it to fly on a predefined angle and straight line
- Good battery life and good of them to include a charging hub
- Many intelligent flight modes, follow and tracking
Hubsan ZINO Mini SE Drone Cons
- The price is high
- Build quality could be better
- Spare parts are hard to get
Who Should Buy The Hubsan ZINO Mini SE Drone?
This is a long distance flight drone with a range of 9KM. Some sources say it is not good for beginners because it does not have a geofence function. However, it has the best fail-safe features, so it is hard to lose. Therefore, we say it is good for anyone, even beginners. The only difference is that beginners will have a longer learning curve as compared to advanced users. There are frequent firmware updates so you can keep the drone for a long time, without the need to upgrade to a newer Hubsan.
Conclusion and Recommendation
There are so many things to look forward to in this mini drone. It has the right camera with 3-axis gimbal for shake-free footage. The batteries, and flight time, are okay.
Using some of the functions might be a bit hard for a first-timer. Therefore, read the user manual carefully. Also, fly it for short distances only and in large open spaces.
Before using the quad, remove the battery that comes installed in the drone, check whether it is charging. Some people have reported getting dead batteries.
