Potensic ATOM SE – Affordable GPS drone with 4K camera & image stabilisation
The Potensic ATOM SE is a high-quality drone with a 4K camera and electronic image stabilisation (ShakeVanish technology). The compact quadcopter has two rechargeable batteries with up to 31 minutes of flight time each, a GPS/GLONASS module for positioning and a flight speed of up to 35.8 mph (57.6 km/h).
Design and weight
The light grey mini drone has an excellent finish and looks very solid. With the arms folded in, it measures just 3.5 x 5.6 x 3.3 in (8.8 x 14.3 x 5.8 cm). When unfolded, it measures 11.8 x 9.5 x 3.3 in (30 x 24.2 x 5.8 cm), with propellers.
For transport, the drone, batteries, controller and accessories can be conveniently stored in the carrying bag supplied.
As the copter does not have propeller guards, we cannot fully recommend the model as a children’s drone. In our opinion, they should only fly drones with rotor guards to protect them from the rapidly rotating propellers.
Weighing less than 249 grams, the Multicopter does not require a drone pilot’s licence.
Features and flight characteristics
The Potensic ATOM SE is equipped with a number of functions that make it easier to use, especially for beginners, and is easy and safe to control and fun to fly from the very first second.
The first time it is launched, a kind of “beginner mode” is activated in which the drone flies at a maximum distance of 100 ft (30 metres) and a maximum speed of 17.9 mph (28.8 km/h). This allows you to take your time getting to grips with the controls during your first flight, and to try out the many individual functions of the copter.
Take-off and landing can be performed either at the touch of a button or manually. Of course, the quadcopter has an altitude hold function, so it will always maintain its current altitude.
There are three different flight modes to choose from, depending on whether you want to take photos, record video or simply perform high-speed manoeuvres: Video, Normal and Sport.
In video mode, the Potensic ATOM SE reaches speeds of up to 17.9 mph (28.8 km/h). This mode is ideal for video recording. In normal mode, speeds of up to 26.8 mph (43.2 km/h) are possible, and in sport mode the drone can even reach speeds of up to 35.8 mph (57.6 km/h) – the same as the DJI Mini 3 Pro, for example.
Acceleration is also impressive. The ATOM SE accelerates to 35.8 mph in 2.8 seconds.
To make sure it always knows where it is in the sky, it has a GPS and GLONASS module to determine its position. This is why this drone also has a Return to Home (RTH) mode, which allows you to return the Potensic ATOM SE to its take-off position or the drone’s landing pad at the touch of a button. The RTH mode is also activated automatically if the battery level drops below a critical level or if the signal between the drone and the controller is interrupted.
There is also an emergency stop function, which allows you to shut down the drone’s motors immediately. This should only be used in extreme emergencies, however, as the drone will immediately drop out of the sky.
Thanks to its powerful motors, the Potensic ATOM SE can withstand gusts of wind up to force 5.
An optical flow system is available for indoor flights where there is no GPS reception. The system consists of a barometer, a ground camera and a ToF sensor. ToF stands for Time of Flight and describes the time between sending and receiving the transmitted infrared signal to determine the current distance between the drone and the ground.
The Optical Flow system works at altitudes of between 1 and 100 ft (0.3 and 30 metres), but only really stabilises at altitudes of around 16 ft (5 metres). It is therefore perfectly adequate for indoor flights with normal high ceilings, with the GPS taking care of positioning outdoors.
The drone switches automatically between GPS and optical flow mode.
If you wish, you can fly the Potensic ATOM SE without any technical support. All you have to do is select the Attitude mode, which allows you to fly completely manually. This mode can be activated in the app.
In all control modes, the small quadcopter can be controlled extremely precisely and flies very agilely thanks to the powerful motors.
Remote control and Potensic Pro app
The remote control of the Potensic ATOM SE is ergonomically designed and has a built-in rechargeable battery (2.200 mAh). This means there is no need to buy batteries – very good.
There are two fold-out antennas on the top of the controller. Unlike most drones, you clamp your smartphone in the middle of the remote control. As with DJI drones, the joysticks can be screwed on and off. They can be stored directly inside the controller.
When the controller’s battery level drops below 10%, a warning tone sounds to remind you to charge the remote.
The ‘Potensic Pro‘ app is available to download free of charge for iOS and Android devices from their respective app stores. During the flight, the display shows various information about the current flight. Telemetry data includes current altitude, distance, speed and the number of satellites currently connected.
Flight time and range of the Potensic ATOM SE
The flight time of the Potensic ATOM SE is up to 31 minutes per battery. As the drone comes with two Li-Ion batteries (2S, 7.2V, 2500mAh), you can enjoy a total flight time of up to 62 minutes before both batteries need to be recharged. This is an extremely good value.
Charging time is approximately 90 minutes per battery. The batteries are charged using the included USB charger cable, which you simply plug into your smartphone’s power adapter. You can also connect the charging cable to a PC, laptop, power bank or other suitable power source.
Unfortunately, you cannot see the charge status directly on the battery. However, when you insert the battery into the drone, four small status LEDs on the underside will tell you how much charge is left.
The range is up to 2.5 miles (4.000 metres). Altitude is up to 393 ft (120 metres). Like the flight time, these are very good figures for this price range.
Camera and image stabilization
The camera of the Potensic ATOM SE records 4K (4096 x 2048p) video at 30 fps and 12 MP (4608 x 2592p) still images. Other possible video resolutions are 2.7K at 30 fps, 1080p at 60 fps and 1080p at 30 fps.
The high resolutions are made possible by the built-in 1/3-inch Sony CMOS sensor. The camera lens has a field of view of 118° and a fixed aperture of f/2.2. The camera’s ISO range extends from 100 to 6400, allowing it to be used in low light conditions.
The bit rate (bandwidth of the video signal transmission) is 40 Mbps, which is a very reasonable value and allows for excellent quality of the FPV live image on the display of your smartphone. This is also ensured by the PixSync 2.0 system used for data transmission, which delivers a 720p video stream and has a low latency of around 200 ms.
Photos are stored as JPEGs or as DNG RAW files for later post-processing. The Potensic ATOM SE stores videos as MP4 files (H.264 codec). A microSD card of up to 256GB can be used as a storage medium, although this is not included. Recordings cannot be saved directly to your own smartphone.
The angle of the camera can be continuously adjusted between -90° and +20° during flight. This means that shots can be taken from vertical down to diagonal up.
Although the drone does not have a mechanical gimbal, it does have an electronic image stabilisation system (ShakeVanish). This purely electronic video stabilisation works extremely well and is almost as good as the best camera drones on the market today.
Intelligent flight and recording modes
Thanks to the built-in positioning module, the Potensic ATOM SE also offers the ever-popular Follow Me mode. This works at a distance of approximately 16 to 165 ft (5 to 50 metres) and at a minimum altitude of 16 ft (5 metres). This mode is not available in Sport mode.
Waypoint Flight mode allows you to programme a custom flight path in the app before take-off, and the drone will fly it on its own.
The Circle Flight mode allows the quadcopter to fly a circular path around an object or person while recording video.
Absolute beginners will love the headless mode. Activating this function makes it even easier to control the drone, as it does not matter in which direction the front and back of the copter are pointing when changing direction in this mode. The drone will always fly in the direction you are facing.
However, we recommend that you fly in headless mode for as short a time as possible, and also learn the normal controls, as not all drones have this mode.
Scope of delivery
- 1 x Potensic ATOM SE drone
- 2 x battery
- 1 x remote control
- 1 x USB charging cable
- 3 x data cable (Lightning, microUSB, USB Type-C)
- 1 x Carrying bag
- 4 x spare propellers
- 4 x spare screws
- 1 x screwdriver
- 1 x instruction manual
Conclusion
The Potensic ATOM SE is an excellent camera drone with great value for money. It is a real alternative to DJI’s high-end models and can compete with their mini drones in almost every respect.
The only drawbacks are the lack of a mechanical gimbal and a slightly shorter range. However, as the Potensic ATOM SE has a very good electronic image stabilisation system with ShakeVanish, the lack of a gimbal is hardly noticeable.
The maximum flight time of up to 31 minutes per battery (two batteries included!) can be described as very good, and the presence of a GPS/GLONASS module for positioning enables advanced flight functions such as Return to Home and Follow Me.
The Potensic ATOM SE has nothing to hide when it comes to speed either – at up to 35.8 mph (57.6 km/h), it is just as fast as the DJI Mini 3 Pro, for example.
All in all, the Potensic ATOM SE is a highly successful mini drone with a high-quality camera and features at a fair price. We can therefore highly recommend this model and wish you lots of fun flying and filming!