Drone enthusiasts are living in weird times. DJI utterly dominates the market worldwide, and yet the U.S. government has banned DJI from introducing new models to the American market, even though you can still buy new DJI units of existing models. Even though the US’ ban applies to all non-American-made drones—which is practically all of them—DJI has received the brunt of American politicians’ ire.
Given all that, it’d be only wise to begin considering which other options exist out there among drones that aren’t DJI. Take the Holy Stone HS360S GPS 4K Drone. It’s from a brand name drone manufacturer, even if it’s not as familiar to you as DJI or Antigravity, and it’s selling for only $180.
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a 4k video drone for under $200
HS360S GPS 4K Drone (opens in a new window)
The HS360S shoots photos and videos in up to 4K resolution through a 1/3” CMOS GalaxyCore Sensor. Being a small drone, it has enough battery for about 20 minutes of flight time at up to a 10,000 foot distance, although like any drone that’ll depend upon a clear line of sight.
If the drone loses its connection while in flight or runs low on battery, it’ll use that onboard GPS to automatically pilot itself back to you, so you don’t have to worry about sending it far and then having it crash out in an unreachable, unknown spot from running out of juice.
For reasons I can’t fathom, the gray version is $50 more at $230. Save the cash, choose the black one. It’s going to be high up in the sky where nobody can see it during flight, anyway. May as well keep the 50 in your wallet.
more drones worth the buzz
HoverAir makes a compact, foldable drone that shoots up to 8K video, as long as you don’t mind forking over $699 for it. The HoverAir X1 Promax 8K Action Flying Camera shoots at up to 8K resolution is deeply impressive, but you can also use it to film raw video at 8K, and then zoom or crop during editing and still output sharp 4K video.
For some, only a DJI drone will do. The DJI Neo 2 is a compact, easy-to-fly 4K drone that you can still buy, since DJI is only banned from introducing new models into the US, not continuing to sell existing ones.
The JoyStone 4K HD FPV Camera Drone is one of a pair of JoyStone drones on sale this week. Alongside HoverAir and Holy Stone, JoyStone is another brand that’s making inroads against DJI in the brand-name-drone space.



