With plenty of drones on the market, it can be quite challenging to find a drone that brings a lot of awesome features and strong performance at a reasonable price. We’re here to help you narrow down your choices by taking a look at the latest Xiaomi MITU drone. This is a mini-sized quadcopter that is packed with a lot of cool features for all users. So, will this drone suit your flying needs? Stick with us to find out in our Xiaomi MITU drone review!
The Xiaomi MITU drone is an apparent competitor to the popular DJI Ryze Tello. This quadcopter is packed with nifty features from a built-in 720P HD camera that records at 30 frames per second to integrated sensors that detect objects and avoid them accordingly. The brand new MITU drone is sure to roll out a lot of fun things to do while downtime or during your leisure time.
This drone can be commanded using a Wi-Fi signal on your mobile device and works with Bluetooth game controllers. The Xiaomi MITU drone has 4 built-in internal core processor that handles all features smoothly without any lag. Several other Xiaomi drones such as the MI 4K and FIMI X8 SE comes with altitude hold function for steady photography as well the ability to perform 360-degree aerial stunts.
Furthermore, the Xiaomi MITU drone includes a removable battery which is the orange disc as seen on the top of the drone. This battery provides 10 minutes of flight time which is the average time for a quadcopter at its size. Speaking of the size, the Xiaomi MITU drone is compact with a body dimension of 170 x 170 x 38 mm.
Reasons to Buy Xiaomi MITU Drone
There are several good reasons why you probably want to buy Xiaomi MITU drone. First of all, this is a mini-sized quadcopter that’s ideal to use at social gatherings or hanging out with friends. The fact that it can easily provide entertainment that makes the social experience much better. It’s a great drone to have both indoors and outdoors. Especially when the Xiaomi MITU drone functions very well and is incredibly stable thanks to its sensor suite.
The controls are simple, yet intuitive enough for a complete beginner to use. Furthermore, the Xiaomi MITU drone is packed neatly in an organized box. Inside the box content, it comes with the drone, guards, battery, charging cable, and propeller set. It also includes extra accessories like the replacement propellers for clockwise and counterclockwise motors.
This drone is carefully crafted with the highest detail level and sturdy enough that can withstand the impact. It has already been proven by the ability to survive a 1-meter fall after hitting an object head-on without sustaining any damage. Furthermore, it’s integrated with all safety features which perform well. The quality of the camera is great, but it’s slightly shaky which is a common issue for toy-grade drones under $100.
Regardless, it’s a great smart camera drone for beginners. So, ask yourself this question: is it worth buying the Xiaomi MITU drone for less than $100? For many beginners who want to have a simple smart drone to capture beautiful aerial shots or to take selfies, this is the perfect drone. For hobbyists and professionals, we highly recommended that you check out these drones under $500 or see one of these professional-grade camera drones.
Tons of Features
We’ve grouped these features into three categories: Performance, Safety, and Extras. First, the performance features impact the overall flight quality and experience such as stability, responsiveness, and ease of use. Secondly, the safety features act to protect the drone from damage. Finally, the extra features that have no impact on the drone, but merely to enhance the user’s overall flight experience. Here is a brief overview:
Performance Features:
- 6-axis Gyro – for stability even without other sensors
- Ultrasonic Sensor – for low-altitude hold
- Barometer – for high-altitude hold
- Optical Sensor – used for position hold and stability
- 720p 30fps Camera – for photo and video
- 4-core 1.2ghz processor – to run all of the systems smoothly
- 4 Gb Internal Memory – for storing firmware, photos and videos
- 920 mAh Li-Ion battery – prone to heart problems, max. 10 minute flight time
- Sturdy Polycarbonate Frame – Can withstand large amounts of abuse before breaking.
Safety Features:
- Low-Battery Warning – Will alert in case of low battery, can land if necessary
- Overheat Warning – Will alert if the drone is overheating, can land if necessary
- Crash Protection – Automatically cuts power to rotors in event of a crash to prevent damage
- Blade Guards – Primarily for indoor use, helps prevent excess damage during collisions.
Extras:
- IR Diode and Receiver – for “Battle Mode”
- Auto Take-off and Landing – takes the hassle out of flying a drone
- Tilt-Control Mode – control by tilting the device instead of using “joysticks”
- Headless Mode – for beginners, to ease the flying experience
- 360° Flip – can perform a flip in 4 different directions
- FPV Video Streaming – See what the drone sees, right on-screen
Xiaomi MITU Drone Review
To kick start the Xiaomi MITU drone review, we’re going to talk more about it in-depth. The majority of its performance feature is implemented to work with each other. Such as the optics, barometer, and ultrasonic sensor work together with the gyroscope to help stabilize the drone. This keeps the drone in a steady hovering positioning, even in light to moderate wind speed.
This system runs exceptionally well and is quite predictable. However, there’s one downside to this steadiness is that the speed is impacted. This means the drone isn’t that fast at its size. But it isn’t that important because the camera isn’t up to the racing specifications either.
The quality of photos and videos taken by Xiaomi MITU drone isn’t that stellar. But it isn’t that worse either. It’s decent for sharing with your close circle and on social media. Likewise, the camera is still good enough to capture crisp images with high resolution. This makes this drone work like a selfie on a flying stick compared to professional photography.
As I mentioned previously in the Xiaomi MITU drone review, this quadcopter is incredibly tough. It’s crafted of a polycarbonate frame that can withstand a beating. In our several flight attempts, we crashed the drone and noticed no visible damage. Everything appears to run as normal and the motors are well-situated. These rotors are marked in correspondence that makes it easy to tell what replacement blade to use.
Batteries & LED Lights
Recharging the battery takes approximately two hours with a USB charger. However, you can purchase a charging block that lets you charge both batteries at the same time. Before you charge these batteries, it’s always a good idea to let them cool down first. It’s done for good reasons to avoid potential damage. At least 15 minutes cooling-off period should be sufficient.
We had a minor issue with the Xiaomi MITU drone that the battery overheats pretty quickly. It has no built-in flight systems to keep cooling the battery down. That’s because it’s sandwiched right next to the control board, processor, and sensor without any airflow to let the heat out. As a result, the heat will reach a critical point that can be quite damaging. Fortunately, this drone has an onboard temperature monitor that will automatically land it safely.
Another minor issue is the lack of navigation lights. There’s only two status indicator on the Xiaomi MITU drone which isn’t enough to make night flights possible. The nice part about this is that if you accidentally crash the drone, the safety features will take action. It will land the drone automatically to protect from further damage. In our limited experience, these safety features work exceptionally well which we give it a big thumb up.
Nifty Features
Aside from the problems and safety, the extra features are well-implemented. The automatic takeoff and landing include a safety prompt that requires you to acknowledge before launching the drone. This is done on purpose to ensure that nobody will get hurt by mistake. Plus, the headless mode functions well and 360-degree flips make amazing aerial stunts.
The Tilt-Control mode is very entertaining, but a little bit annoying because you need to hold down the button on the screen for it to work. From our experience, this model works better when the headless mode is activated so as to ensure there’s no confusion.
And did I forget to mention that this drone comes with FPV mode? It’s an awesome feature that lets you fly the drone and see through its “eyes.” You also can battle with other friendly remote pilots using “Battle Mode” that shows the targeting system. We tried it and we loved it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t involve burning wreckage falling from the skies.
Hackability
If you’re a beginner looking for a smart camera drone to start with, you’ll find out that the Xiaomi MITU drone has built-in 4GB internal storage. This makes all the storing photos and videos much easier to transfer on your social media. Which comes across as a big plus since the quality of these files is better than what you see on the mobile devices.
One thing we all will love to do is upgrading our things. In the Xiaomi MITU drone review, we took a look at what we call “hackability.” This is the ability to modify, add, and upgrade the components on the drone. Although, it’s said that this drone is a closed-source that makes it hard to modify in any functional way. Since the electronics are contained within the single board with no expansion ports. Thus, only brand-name batteries can be used.
However, the only things that can be modified are the blades and guards. You can buy your 3D printer (they are fairly cheap) and custom makes your own that will fit on the drone. But, what sort of upgrades will they have an impact on the Xiaomi MITU drone, we don’t know the answer to that. Another way you can also craft custom shells that makes it easy to tell which players during the “Battle Mode.” It’s simple, easy to use, and doesn’t require any wiring.
Final Thoughts
Before I conclude the Xiaomi MITU drone review, I think this quadcopter comes across as a strong competitor for beginners who want to be able to enjoy flying around their house. Moreover, the ability to capture stills and videos of their cats escaping the drone. This quadcopter is incredibly stable and the features are super easy to use with the assist of prompts on-screen. Everything runs well aside from the fact that it has a battery issue.
So, the question is are we going to recommend this drone? Of course, if you don’t mind switching the batteries when they get overheat or to live in cold places. The Xiaomi MITU drone is a great and fun little bird that will make your day go by fast. Perfect for beginners looking for an inexpensive camera drone to start with. So why don’t you give the Xiaomi MITU drone a spin? Order one on Amazon today.
