When looking for information about JJRC drones on the internet, one of the most frequently asked questions that you will come across is: Are JJRC drones good? Well, going by the popularity of their quadcopters, they give good value for money.
When we look at the design and build quality of the JJRC X17 drone, you will see why this is a good brand name to invest in.
But this does not mean that the JJRC X17 is excellent in every aspect. Everything has a flipside and this one is not any different. We shall look at its cons later.
To get the best out of any quadcopter, you need to know its features, automated functions and build quality. We shall look at all of these in the respective sections in this post.
JJRC X17 Features & Technical Detail
Some of the things that you can look forward to in this quadcopter include smart flight modes, high quality, distortion-free camera, good flight performance and sound battery time.
Let us look into these things in more detail:
Design and Build Quality
We must agree that JJRC has excelled in the way that they build their quadcopters. The X17 aircraft comes with high quality ABS, explosion-proof plastic material. It does a good job of protecting the electronic components contained inside.
While many quadcopters come in gray or black colors only, this one comes in either orange or green color. In addition to flying well, the quad also looks very stylish, which is a good thing.
You get brushless motors with this drone. They do not overheat, have a lower noise level and the most important thing is that they give better flight performance.
By design, this is a foldable quadcopter. When unfolded, it measures 17 by 17 by 2.6 inches. This is a large size and it enables you to see the quadcopter from afar.
When it is folded, the size reduces considerably to 6.7 by 4.3 by 2.6 inches, which is small enough to carry in your backpack or pocket. In addition, it folds with everything intact, including the blades.
The flying weight of the JJRC X17 is 500g. You will have to register it with the aviation authorities in your country.
Camera Quality
The main one is a true 6K camera, but then it only takes 6K photos and more like 2.7K videos. If you use this camera in broad daylight, you can be able to capture high quality footage that you can use on your YouTube channel, blog or even for events such as Thanksgiving, weddings and others. If you love to record your outdoor activities, this drone is going to capture you, your friends and family in action.
The camera has a panning angle/field of view of 120° and can also be adjusted vertically by 90°, from the remote controller. The photo resolution is 5700 x 4275P while the video resolution is 2688 x 1512P.
You can rely on this camera to take distortion-free videos and photos, thanks to the 2 axis gimbal. Even when the aircraft shakes or slants, the camera aligns itself to maintain proper orientation. It also filters the shaking out of your footage.
There is a second smaller belly camera. Its function is to show you the belly view of the quad as it flies. It just enhances your FPV experience. You can switch from the nose to the belly camera intermittently.
You will also get a great FPV experience and a long range of 800 meters.
Battery and Flight Time
You will get this quadcopter with one 11.1V 2850mAh battery, which can give you a flight time of 30 minutes. In future, more spare batteries will be available for sale to people who would like to enjoy more flight time.
Since this is a modular battery, it charges outside the drone. The charging time is 4 hours and we recommend that you only use the charging cable included in the package.
This is a smart battery. You can see its stats on the small LCD screen on the remote controller. You will always know about the remaining voltage.
Remote controller
In the package, you are going to find a nimble, lightweight remote controller that uses 3 AA batteries, which you have to buy separately.
We would have preferred that the remote comes with a rechargeable battery such as we saw in the KF107 drone, but even these alkaline batteries are readily available and they do last a long time.
In the center of the JJRC X17 transmitter, there is a small LCD screen that displays important data about the quadcopter. This includes things such as height, distance, speed, remaining battery voltage and others.
One thing to note though, the remote controller does not come in the green or orange color of the drone. It is black in color. It has keys and buttons for all the functions that the aircraft can achieve.
Smart Flight Functions
JJRC have packed this quadcopter with many flight functions. These make it simple to fly for beginners. They also make it fun to use and since some of them are hands-free, you can concentrate on posing in photos while the camera shoots your footage.
Here are some of the most outstanding of the smart functions:
GPS Positioning
This function always helps you to know where the X17 drone is all the time. It is hard to lose your drone and when it gets out of control, when the battery drains, the quad comes back home automatically. You could also bring it back home with a press on the return to home key.
Optical Flow Positioning
This function helps with many things but chief among them is stable altitude hold and hovering. In hover mode, the quadcopter will take awesome footage of video and photos.
Smart Follow
In this mode, the drone recognizes your face and locks onto you. It then follows you wherever you go. You can set the follow distance. This is a good way to fly the quadcopter in hands-free mode.
Custom Route
Open the map on the app and design a route that you would like your quadcopter to follow when you launch it. It will go in that direction unerringly when you launch it.
Orbit Flight Mode
This helps a lot when you see an interesting landmark that you would like to shoot from all angles. The drone keeps going around the landmark in the clockwise direction, capturing footage from all angles, until you stop it.
One Key Takeoff and landing
This function is very important especially when a beginner is trying to figure out how to fly the drone or bring it to land. After calibrating it, just press the take off key and the drone launches but hovers at a certain height waiting for your next move.
Headless Mode
When the quadcopter is out of your sight and you are confused whether it still remains oriented in the proper direction, just engage this mode and the drone aligns itself according to the position of the pilot.
JJRC X17 Pros
- It has many smart functions
- Sold with a high quality carry bag
- Long flight time of 30 minutes from one battery
- Simple to fly even for beginners
- High quality material for the hull
- Brushless motors give a powerful performance
- Good flight range of 1000 meters – transmitter and 800 meters – FPV
- Excellent camera with 2-axis gimbal for stability
JJRC X17 Cons
- Small drones, this one not being an exception always behave badly in the wind
- You have to buy 3 AA batteries from time to time
- A bit bulky
Who Should Buy The JJRC X17 Drone?
Because of the affordable price, anyone can get the JJRC X 17 drone and have a great time flying it. It comes with many flight functions such that even an advanced user will never have a boring moment with it.
In addition, this quadcopter has a high quality build with the choicest ABS plastic. When you crash it, the internal electronic parts largely remain unscathed. For more flight time, you can keep checking to know when spare batteries will be available.
Conclusion and Recommendation
This small quadcopter can do a high speed of 30KM/H. Not much, but it can throw a beginner off at first. Therefore, when flying it, make use of all the smart functions such as follow me mode, headless mode and others so that you can enjoy flying the quad more.
As always, we recommend that you do not fly your drone in the wind whether it has wind resistance rating or not. In addition, it is a good idea to not let it fly out of your sight.
Lastly, even with brushless motors, quadcopters are loud enough to spook animals, so fly them away from people, pets and wild animals.
With such common sense precautions, your JJRC X17 drone will live a long time in good condition.