From surveillance right down to stocking fillers, everyone’s using drones! The Tello combines functionality and useful features with pure showmanship in an attempt to make the ultimate drone that’s both tool and toy. Trick stunts, VR capabilities and lessons in coding, the Tello offers an awful lot in a very small package.
Tello’s ad shows it zooming around a packed pool party, which in reality, you would expect to end in it getting tangled in someone’s hair or crash landing in the pool. However, collision detectors, a vision positioning system and precise controller capabilities mean the Tello can handle busy spaces. This is a far cry from those remote-control helicopters we grew up playing with: the Tello is controlled by an easy-to-use phone app, has industry-leading DJI flight tech that makes sure it stays stable, and is even capable of stunts! Simply slide on-screen controls to tell it to do tricks. Even launching and landing the drone is impressive - you can take off or land with a single press of a button, and Tello’s ‘Throw & Go’ capability means, as long as it’s turned on, you can just toss it in the air and it starts flying. It feels risky, but it works!
As well as being able to zoom around with style, the Tello can capture high quality, stabilised photos and footage, as well as sending real-time visuals back to your phone so you can see the world from above as you fly. If you want an even more immersive view, you can even stream the images to a VR headset. Those remote-control helicopters really are starting to look basic in comparison now, aren’t they?
The Tello has a 13-minute flight time and can fly up to 100 metres distance. If it does lose connectivity, it has a built-in failsafe to securely land itself. Alerts go off when its battery is low, so again, there’s no need for a crash landing. Even with all of these safety nets, the Tello is lightweight and durable, so in the unlikely event it does have an accident, it should survive just fine.
The most original aspect of the Tello is its programming capability. The Tello Edu app supports Scratch Students, a coding system developed for kids so they can program movement into the drone and play games, and learn coding as they go! For more advanced users, you can develop software applications for Tello using the Tello SDK.
With advanced flight tech, high-quality images, VR capabilities and lessons in coding, the Tello has all the bells and whistles of a piece of serious kit...but it’s also fun! All in all, this is more than your average toy. RRP £99
5 out of 5
Pros
Sturdy construction
Light and compact
Captures high res, stabilised footage & images
Intuitive and steady flying
Easy to control
Teaches programming
Cons
Some paywalls in the software
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