Eachine EX5: Initial Reaction

[Ching-Kuang Shene]

I have had this 3-battery, 1000m 5G 4K version of Eachine EX5 for a couple of months, but did not have much time to fly it. Here is a list of my findings:

• EX5 is light with a weight less than 250g. As a result, no registration is required.
• EX5 DOES NOT have a micro SD card slots. This means videos and images must be streamed back to your phone. This proved to be very inconvenient.
• The app for EX5 is very poorly written because it can crash very frequently and unexpectedly. The most common situation to get a crash is entering the campus calibration. One brings the app and after some steps he app asks whether calibration was done. If for some reason you click NO, meaning you need a calibration, the app crashes bring you back to the home screen of your phone. Then, you have to reenter the app to finish the calibration process. Occasionally, the connection between the phone and the drone could be broken even though you can still fly the drone using the controller. Should this happen, the video streaming is disrupted and the video is not recorded. This can happen in an open environment within the distance of 100m.
• EX5 does not have a stabilized 1-axis (tilt) gimbal. Moreover, it is also difficult to fly the drone in a stable way. Therefore, videos shot with EX5 are not smooth.
• The build quality is not very good. the battery chamber cover was broken and flew away when my EX5 hit a tree branch, although the drone landed properly. Note that the EX5 has no obstacle avoidance mechanism.
• The 4K video shot with EX5 are not good. It looks like an interpolation from a low resolution image. Color rendition is washed out and inaccurate.
• The good point is that it costs much less than that of a Mavic Mini. I guess usually one can get a 1-battery version of EX5 slightly more than $100.
• It flies really well although not very stable and can be drifting in any possible direction. Therefore, don't expect that EX5 can hover just like a Mavic Mini.
• The Waypoint, Follow and Orbit features all work well. However, I have to complain about the Orbit feature. EX's manual fails to tell its user how to change the radius of the orbiting circle. If you tap the Orbit option at certain height, the drone seems to fly and point to north. Then, it starts circling at its minimal radius. How to increase or decrease this radius is still a mystery to me. Sometimes, the use of the right stick by pushing to the left or right seems to work. But, some other time, there is no effect.
• For Waypoint, a circle on the map is shown so that all points must be inside of the circle. Tis is perhaps good to beginners.
• Battery life is rather decent, but I do not have exact data. What I can say that a fully charge batter can last for close to 20 minutes or at least 16-18 minutes, which is good enough.
• The controllable range is claimed to be 1m. IMO, in the environment as shown in the clip below, 200m to 300m is the maximum. Either the control signal could become too weak or the WiFi connection with the phone for video streaming is lost. I will try to use a range extender. But, this could be a challenge because of the way of mounting the phone.

All in all, this is a rather capable but not very refined mini drone. There is no way for the EX5 to compete against the Mavic Mini.


CK

 

[Jon M1]

Interesting comments, but having owned an EX5 for 3 months I would like to reply.

i) It is $100 in the toy drone category. It should be considered as such, not as a professional video / photo quality drone.

ii) At this price point, you will not find a 3D gimbal, so the photos / video quality are limited. But I have plenty of good photos, but accept they are not professional quality.

iii) Unless strong gusts, the drone IS stable. I question if you calibrated both compass and gyro. You don’t say. The biggest issue is it is very lightweight, but then doesn’t need registration. You want a stable drone, go expensive, register with all the challenges involved. Again you want stable go expensive.

iv) Do not compare it to a Mavic Mini (2). The MM2 is far better for photo quality. But FIVE x more expensive. So you get what you pay for.

v) Disappointing build quality as battery cover broke off when you hit a tree? You blame the drone?

vi) You state it has no collision avoidance. True. BUT $100. If you want collision avoidance pay $1000+

The Eachine EX5 is what it is. An excellent beginner drone, cheap, great flight time (I get 23mins), full of control options (I get ALL of them, and gesture photos to work) , a good stable flyer.
What it isn’t is a professional quality camera drone capable of publishable photos and videos.

But if you are learning droning, and don’t want to cry if you destroy it, this is a brilliant purchase.

 

[Ching-Kuang Shene]

Interesting comments, but having owned an EX5 for 3 months I would like to reply.

i) It is $100 in the toy drone category. It should be considered as such, not as a professional video / photo quality drone.

Agree. But, in my post I did not even compare the EX5 with a more expensive drone. Well, I have other similar drones, ZLRC SG108, with a better 1080p video quality. In fact, the SG108 did not even claim it is 4K capable. I have some other 100+ drones such as JJRC X9PS Heron and Holy Stone HS510. Both have better video quality than that of the EX5. Therefore, my comment regarding EX5's video quality is still valid.

ii) At this price point, you will not find a 3D gimbal, so the photos / video quality are limited. But I have plenty of good photos, but accept they are not professional quality.

Stabilized Gimbal and video quality are two different things. The above mentioned 100+ drones all have better video and image quality.

iii) Unless strong gusts, the drone IS stable. I question if you calibrated both compass and gyro. You don’t say. The biggest issue is it is very lightweight, but then doesn’t need registration. You want a stable drone, go expensive, register with all the challenges involved. Again you want stable go expensive.

For these 100+ drones, gyro and compass calibrations must be done before taking off. These two have no relationship with respect to image/video quality. Furthermore, if you read my post carefully, "stable" is part of flying characteristics rather than a stabilized Gimbal.

iv) Do not compare it to a Mavic Mini (2). The MM2 is far better for photo quality. But FIVE x more expensive. So you get what you pay for.

I never compare the EX5 with the Mavic Mini or Mini 2. As mentioned earlier, it does mot need to compare the EX5 with the Mini or Mini 2!

v) Disappointing build quality as battery cover broke off when you hit a tree? You blame the drone?

You failed to get the point. The GPS accuracy of the EX5 was not very good. The tail part of the EX5 hit a tree trunk during a RTH landing and the battery door broke off. All drone players sooner or later will have some accidents. If a part can easily break off, what the quality of this drone is?

vi) You state it has no collision avoidance. True. BUT $100. If you want collision avoidance pay $1000+

Of course, when reviewing a drone, we'd better state what the drone has or does not have. How about a Mavic Air or Air 2? Both are sub 1000!

The Eachine EX5 is what it is. An excellent beginner drone, cheap, great flight time (I get 23mins), full of control options (I get ALL of them, and gesture photos to work) , a good stable flyer.

Then, try the ZLRC SG108. It is definitely better for beginners. The 1-battery version of the ZLL SG906 Pro MAX has front obstacle obstruction (using laser) with a 200- price. It has a 3-axis stabilized Gimbal too!

I hope you have chances to fly more low cost and high cost drones.

What it isn’t is a professional quality camera drone capable of publishable photos and videos.

But if you are learning droning, and don’t want to cry if you destroy it, this is a brilliant purchase.

I never claim that the EX5 is a professional drone. I fly many low cost drones, as mentioned above the SG108 is a better choice. Moreover, if a person does not mind to register his/her over 250g drone, the low cost SG906 Pro MAX is even a better choice.

BTW, many EX5 reviews suggested that the EX5 is an alternative to Mini. My last comment says no. It is not a competition at all. If there is a competitive point, it is its price. Recently, many sub-200 drones are so good, making the EX5 not very impressive.

CK