Holy Stone HS340 – Mini Drone for Beginners & Kids with 2 Batteries
The Holy Stone HS340 is an excellent mini drone with camera and great features at a great price. It is best suited for absolute beginners and also for children from about 6 years.
The HS340 comes with two batteries for a total of up to 22 minutes of flight time, is very well made and easy to control.
Drone for kids and beginners
If you’re looking for an affordable entry-level drone with a camera, the Holy Stone HS340 might be just the model for you. The ultra-compact quadcopter is very easy to operate, extremely quiet and also extremely stable.
With a weight of just 50 grams and a size of 17.3 x 18 x 3.8 cm, the mini drone is not only extremely lightweight, but also very handy and therefore space-saving to transport.
It is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. However, due to its light weight, you should only fly outside in calm or light winds if possible, otherwise the drone will quickly drift away.
Since the Holy Stone HS340 has a camera on the front, you can take photos and videos from the air and even view them in real time on your smartphone screen.
For a safe flight and stable hovering behavior, you should calibrate the drone briefly before launch. This works by moving the two control sticks of the remote control to the bottom left while the drone is on a flat surface. If the drone drifts in one direction in the air, the flight attitude can still be adjusted (trimmed) afterwards. To do this, simply press the “trim” button and simultaneously move the control joystick in the corresponding direction.
Takeoff and landing work quite simply at the touch of a button. Besides, the drone can also be simply thrown into the air for takeoff.
Once in the air, the Holy Stone HS340 independently maintains the current flight altitude thanks to “Altitude Hold“, without having to permanently operate the thrust controller. You have a total of three different speeds to choose from, which can be selected via the left shoulder button.
The fact that the drone is also suitable for children is shown by the included propeller guards, which can be attached to the four rotors. On the one hand, this protects the quadcopter from damage in the event of collisions with objects or walls, and on the other hand, it also protects the children themselves should the drone get too close to them.
An emergency stop function is also available to bring the rotors to an instant halt.
Flight time and range
One battery charge is enough for about 10 to 12 minutes of flight time, which is a very decent value for such a small drone. Since the Holy Stone HS340 comes with two batteries (3.7 V, 500 mAh LiPos), up to 22 minutes of flight are possible before the two batteries need to be recharged.
Another very practical feature is that a short warning tone alerts you when one battery is almost empty. So you always have enough time to land the copter safely.
The charging time per battery is about 50 to 60 minutes. The scope of delivery includes two USB charging cables for this purpose, which you can simply connect to a standard power adapter (e.g. that of your smartphone), a power bank, a PC or a laptop. An LED on the batteries provides information about the charging status. It lights up red during charging and green when the battery is full.
The control range is about 44 yards (40 meters), although obstacles such as trees or buildings can reduce the range. The transmission of the live image from the camera to the smartphone works up to a distance of about 33 yards (30 meters).
For the operation of the remote control, 3 AAA batteries or rechargeable batteries are still needed, which are not included.
By the way, if you want, you can control the Holy Stone HS340 without a controller, just with your smartphone. For this, the internal gyroscope of your smartphone is used, so you can control the drone by tilting the phone. However, from experience, it is recommended to use the remote control, because you have more control over the drone.
The camera of the Holy Stone HS340
The Holy Stone HS340 has a small HD camera on the front that can take photos and videos in a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The frame rate of the videos is 25 fps. The videos are saved in MP4 or AVI format.
Photos are recorded as JPEGs. Contrary to the Amazon description, the camera is not swiveling, but fixed. The camera’s lens has an angle of view (field of view) of 75°.
Your recordings are stored directly on the smartphone – the HS340 does not have an SD card slot.
To view the live image of the drone, you first need to download the Holy Stone app “HS FPV“. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices. You can then easily clamp your smartphone into the designated holder on the remote control.
The quality of the photos and videos is very good for this price range, even if the recordings cannot compete with those of a much more expensive drone with a camera, of course. However, the quality is completely sufficient for the beginning.
Special flight modes
The Holy Stone HS340 has a number of flight modes, which on the one hand facilitate the operation of the drone and on the other hand provide additional fun.
The so-called Headless mode allows for simplified control of the drone. If you activate this mode, it does not matter in which direction the front or rear of the drone is pointing at the moment for control movements to the front, rear, left or right. Normally, you always have to pay attention to how the drone is currently facing when you want to steer it in a certain direction – in Headless mode, this is different and the mini-drone will always fly in the pressed direction. The Headless mode is started by pressing the right control stick “in”.
The flight modes “Circle Fly“, “High-Speed Rotation” and “3D Flip” also provide acrobatic tricks. With them, you can either have the drone automatically fly a small circle, rotate around its own axis at breakneck speed, or make somersaults in various directions.
The “Tap-Fly” mode allows you to “draw” a flight direction on the smartphone’s display. The Holy Stone HS340 will then fly in the corresponding direction.
Other highlights include gesture and voice control, which allow you to give the drone a few selected commands. For example, shape your fingers into the “Victory sign” to have the HS340 take a selfie of you. You can also start a video by gesture. For this, you need to stick your hand out towards the drone.
The drone also “understands” some control commands. Possible are: “take off”, “landing” “go left” and “go right”.
Unfortunately, the Holy Stone HS340 does not have a Follow Me mode, in which the drone follows you. If you are looking for a drone with this feature, you will have to buy another drone.
Scope of delivery
- 1 x Mini drone
- 1 x 2.4 GHz remote control
- 1 x smartphone mount
- 2 x 3.7 V, 500 mAh rechargeable batteries
- 4 x spare propellers
- 4 x propeller guards
- 2 x USB charging cable
- 1 x screwdriver
- 1 x instruction manual
Conclusion
The Holy Stone HS340 is an excellent mini drone that is best suited for beginners and children. It is well-made, very robust and has excellent features.
The camera takes very decent pictures for this price range and the live image transmission lets you view videos in real time on your smartphone. The two batteries provide a total of up to about 22 minutes of flight time and the different flight modes such as “high-speed rotation” or “3D flips guarantee great fun.
Thanks to the included propeller guard and the simple controls, the HS340 is also suitable for children from about 6 years. All in all, with the Holy Stone HS340 you get a very good mini drone at an extremely fair price. We can therefore highly recommend the small quadcopter and wish you a lot of fun flying it already!