Potensic Elfin – Cheap mini drone with camera for beginners
The Potensic Elfin is an affordable mini drone with camera for beginners and kids. It can take photos in 2K and videos in HD and comes with two batteries at once for up to 20 minutes of flight time.
Design and weight
The Potensic Elfin is a foldable drone whose arms can be collapsed for transport. It features a white chassis and black arms and propellers.
The dimensions of the small drone are just 10.5 x 10.5 x 4.5 cm. For safe transport, it can be stored in the handy black transport case, which is included.
Weighing just 95 grams, the Potensic Elfin is made of high-quality ABS plastic, which makes it extremely robust and durable. Together with the optionally attachable propeller guards, it almost always survives collisions with obstacles completely unscathed.
The rotor guards also increase safety for bystanders, who are thus protected from the fast-spinning propellers.
The copter is therefore also suitable as a drone for kids from about 10 years old, but they should only fly with the drone under adult supervision until the age of 14.
Operation and flight characteristics
The Potensic Elfin mini drone can be flown both indoors and outdoors. However, outdoors, due to the drone’s light weight, you should preferably only take off when there is no wind or little wind, otherwise the drone can easily drift.
To stabilize the drone near the ground, an optical flow camera on the bottom is used to permanently scan the ground to accurately determine the drone’s position. This works quite well in most cases. However, the camera has problems with reflective surfaces like water.
Takeoff and landing work smoothly at the push of a button. After takeoff, the mini quadcopter climbs about one meter into the air and then dwells in hovering flight. Should the Potensic Elfin drift in one direction, this can be corrected by pressing the trim buttons on the controller.
During flight, you have three different speeds to choose from, so you can slowly get used to handling the drone. The quadcopter responds to control commands very directly and can be navigated easily and precisely.
The shape of the remote control is very reminiscent of a gamepad and fits well in the hand. It has a fold-out holder for attaching a smartphone, and in addition to the two control joysticks, it also has various other buttons for triggering the drone’s various functions.
Photos and videos are triggered via separate shoulder buttons, and headless mode and speed selection can also be conveniently selected via index finger.
On a positive note, the 3 AAA batteries are already included – this is not the case with almost all other drones.
By the way, if you want, you can control the Potensic Elfin without a controller, only with your smartphone (G-sensor mode). However, you first have to download the “Potensic Toy” app for this. The app is available for free download in the respective app store for both iOS and Android devices and is also required for viewing the drone’s live FPV image.
It is easy to use, clearly designed and offers the possibility to control the drone solely by tilting the smartphone.
Flight time and range
The flight time of the Potensic Elfin is about 10 minutes per battery. Since two batteries are included with the drone, you can enjoy up to 20 minutes of flight time before both 3.7 V, 1100 mAh batteries (lithium-ion) need to be re-powered via the included USB charging cable.
To prevent you from accidentally flying the battery completely flat, a low-battery warning tone sounds to alert you to land the drone as soon as possible.
For charging, simply connect the USB cable to the power adapter of your smartphone or connect it directly to a PC, laptop or power bank. The charging time is approximately 60 minutes. During the charging process, a small LED on the USB cable indicates the charging progress. If it lights up red, the battery is charging, if it lights up green, it is fully charged.
The control range is about 55 yards (50 meters), which is an average value for a cheap mini drone. At about 33 yards (30 meters) away, a range alarm sounds to warn you not to move further away. If you get out of range, it will land on its own.
The camera of the Potensic Elfin
The Potensic Elfin’s 2K camera captures video in HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels) and photos in 2K (2048 x 1080 pixels). The field of view (FOV) is 60°. More and more manufacturers of inexpensive quadcopters nowadays advertise a 2K or 4K camera, although this often only refers to the resolution of the photos. Therefore, always pay attention to the exact specifications when buying.
To be able to capture different perspectives, the camera can be manually adjusted vertically by a few degrees before the flight.
By the way, your photos (JPEG) and videos (MP4 (AVC/H.264)) are stored directly on the smartphone. Unfortunately, the Potensic Elfin does not have a slot for a memory card. This means that any jerks in the signal transmission will also be seen in the recorded videos.
In general, the quality of the photos and videos is quite okay for this price range, but you should not expect too much here. If you want to create really good photos and videos, you will have to reach for a much more expensive drone with a camera.
If you connect your smartphone to the drone, you can view the live FPV image of the drone camera in real time on your smartphone. The signal transmission of the video feed is on the 2.4 GHz frequency and reaches about 33 to 55 yards (30 to 50 meters). However, the transmission is often characterized by minor dropouts and a brief freezing of the image, so that control exclusively via camera is hardly possible. It should be mentioned, however, that this is not only a weakness of the Potensic Elfin, but affects almost all inexpensive camera drones.
Flight Modes
Since the Potensic Elfin does not have a GPS module, it does not have a Follow Me mode or other sophisticated flight modes for video creation.
Although there is a trajectory creation mode to choose from (Trajectory Flight), it only works in a very limited way. The mode offers the possibility to draw a flight path in the app, which is then flown independently by the drone. However, this should rather be understood as a gimmick.
However, especially beginners will be happy about the so-called headless mode, in which a simplified control of the drone is available. When changing direction in headless mode, it does not matter how the drone is currently oriented in the air. The copter will always fly in the desired direction, no matter which way the front is pointing at the moment.
However, we recommend that you don’t fly in headless mode for too long and also learn the normal controls, as not all drones have such a mode by far.
Another nice extra is the Potensic Elfin’s gesture control, which allows you to trigger photos and videos using hand gestures. To take a photo, form your fingers into a “Victory sign” and hold them in front of the camera at a distance of about 2 to 3 meters. To start a video, simply extend your outstretched palm towards the drone.
Scope of delivery
- 1 x Potensic Elfin Drone
- 2 x 3.7 V, 1100 mAh battery (Li-Ion)
- 1 x remote control
- 1 x 3 AAA batteries (for remote control)
- 4 x propellers (2 pairs)
- 1 x USB charging cable
- 4 x propeller guards
- 1 x transport bag
- 1 x screwdriver
- 1 x instruction manual
Conclusion
The Potensic Elfin is a solid drone for beginners and children from about 10 years old. It is ideally suited for gaining first flight experiences and getting into the experience of FPV flying.
The quality of the photos and videos is perfectly fine for this price range and the flight time of about 10 minutes per battery is also a good value. Since the multicopter comes with two batteries from the factory, you can enjoy up to 20 minutes of flight time before both batteries need to be recharged.
The controls work flawlessly and thanks to good workmanship and propeller guards, the small copter is also extremely robust and durable.
All in all, the Potensic Elfin is a well designed entry-level drone at a fair price. We wish you a lot of fun flying it already!