Holiday Gift Ideas for Drones in 2018

This holiday season, you’ll be swamped with considerations and requests for the right presents under your tree and in your stocking. Consider a quadcopter or hexacopter drone for your next RC (remote control) present either for your or your loved one. A drone is a perfect step up from kids toys and actually presents interesting challenges to budding pilots and artists.

Drones certainly get a rap for being expensive toys and tools, but overall that’s just not the case. Especially this year, when awareness of drones is at an all-time high, you can expect to see a wide variety of aircraft take to the sky and most at low prices. This holiday season, look to save big on some of the industry’s most popular drones.

Click here to see our beginner’s guide on how to be a drone pilot. As you’ll quickly discover, flying a drone isn’t as easy as video games make it out to be. It requires patience and skill developed over time. For out of holiday shopping, check out our picks for the top camera drones of 2018 and the top racing drones of 2018.

Do Drones Make Great Gifts?

You bet! Drones are simply another category of RC toys similar to the cars, boats, and planes we grew up with. They’re more in tune with RC helicopters due to their low-speed and hovering capabilities. More importantly, they’re becoming more useful outside the house as companies and organizations use them for a variety of useful purposes.

A drone, regardless if it has a camera or not, will be a toy that the whole family can enjoy.

Best Mini Drone

DJI Spark

• The Spark is one of DJI’s newest drones and its first mini-drone at that. One of its unique features is that it can be partially controlled by hand movements, simplifying the flying process when you want it close to you.

Best Beginner Drone

Holy Stone HS170 Predator

• The HS170 Preadator from Holy Stone comes small and equipped with air guards for the ideal beginner’s experience. You won’t have to worry about operating a camera, just the drone itself. Since its battery allows for a short flight time, its best to keep it close to home.

Best Intermediate Drone

Force1 U49W Blue Heron

• The Blue Heron is a moderately sized drone that comes equipped with a 720p camera. It’s not the best quality, but it’s definitely a step up from the lowest resolution of cameras. It comes with advanced trimming and headless modes, giving you greater variability in flight. You can use the dedicated app or remote control to fly it.

Best Hobby Drone

F111 Phoenix

• The F111 has a lot of capabilities for being a hobby drone. It folds up, has a camera, and can perform trick maneuvers. It’s all-around capabilities coupled a price below $100 make it the ideal hobby drone fit for pilots of all experience levels.

Best Professional Drone

DJI Phantom 4 PRO+

• The PRO+ is the latest model of the Phantom series and features the most powerful camera and video capabilities of the series. It will cost you a lot, but as a camera drone, it certainly is the best on the market.

Best Camera Drone

Yuneec Typhoon H

• The Typhoon H is the drone world’s first hexacopter with retractable landing gear. Its camera can actually swivel in flight so you dedicate more focus to photography while flying the drone. With six propellers, it boasts extra flying and stability power.