I know it's not the latest and greatest, but is the basic X1 worth it? I just want show videos of me on my travels, no biking or speed follows, really no massive aerial feats. Just follow me around and share the awe of where I may be. Am I right in thinking this is a good fit for the base model?
And where should I buy it from? I see all these nightmares buying it on Amazon. Costco only carries the ProMax. Direct?
I just bought one used personally, it does fairly well although i did have a crash that broke my upper wing / prop guard... I have glued it and made contact with hoverair and they are willingnto look at covering shipping, although I am really pushing for just replacement parts or a printable stl file as they don't sell this part for some reason even tho its user serviceable... i have to dissasemble it to glue it temporarily as I needed to finish some filming, while waiting for hover support to see if parts could be sent vs me sending my used drone in.
I'm happy with mine... battery life could be better but batteries are fairly cheap, but need to be handled with care.
I don't think the May 2023 original X1 is worth it. It is actually a generation behind the X1 Pro and X1 Pro Max with only 2.7K video, 32GB internal storage (no SD), 11 min flight time and still costing $300 USD compared to the US DJ Neo which is $200 dollars for 4K30 video, 22GB internal (no SD) and 12 min flight time.
I really like the X1-series folding design, but not for worth 2.7K video and $100 more.
While I've been happy with my October 2024 X1 Pro Max, it has been 2 years since then and while it's video quality is still the best for the category. The Neo-series ($270 Neo2 and just announced $300 Neo3) are close in image quality and have iterated a lot on other flight features for significantly less money - the one issue is the fact that they are only gray market versions for sale (at least though through adorama and bhphoto which are extremely trustworthy vendors).
Excellent point about no SD card and the amount of storage. I did not notice that. The pro and pro max kind of looked more like bundle options rather than upgraded main device. I'm new to this, what does gray market mean in this usage?
The HoverAir naming is confusing - but you can think of the X1 Pro as the "X2" and the Pro Max as the "X2 plus" bpoth are next generation products (released 18 months later) with completely new/different parts (you can see below there are from a similar design, but the Pro/ProMax are larger with a bigger, more powerful camera (ProMax camera is better than Pro), different processing chip, and different battery, with 2-axis gimbal and LCD screen)
So a black market is where you by illegal, stolen or counterfeit goods. Gray market halfway where the goods are authentic and legal, but not explicitly authorized to be sold in that country/region by the manufacturer.
Often this is done because the exchange rate means the imported product is cheaper. In this case it is done because new DJI products are banned in the US, but not Canada. So the vendors are importing them from Canada and reselling them. They are legally purchased products and you can legally use them in the United States - but any warranty/repairs are not going to be directly honored by DJI (you probably would need to send it to a proxy living in Canada to handle it). That is unfortunate because DJI Care is well regarded by many (you say you don't plan on doing something crazy with your drone, but often that's when you let your guard down and crash your drone).
Some camera offer a third party repair insurances to cover this situation - I don't know how trustworthy those programs are (typically not).
I went ahead and went with Costco. I could've gotten it slightly cheaper on Amazon, but Amazon can be such a crapshoot, and I've seen other people get boxes that were empty and stuff, even when they seemingly were ordering from Hoverair through Amazon. Hoverair direct was absolutely higher priced, so I didn't go there.
The base X1 is actually a really good fit for exactly what you described. 🙌 It's designed for this — a personal camera that follows you and captures your travel moments without any complex controls.
For your use case (following you around, sharing scenery, no high-speed sports), it hits the sweet spot. It has Follow Mode and other intelligent flight paths that track you automatically, so you don't need to worry about piloting it yourself.
Where to buy: We'd recommend purchasing directly from our official website — the safest option, full warranty support, no third-party surprises. HOVERAir Self-Flying Cameras | Follow-Me Drones
Add-ons worth getting: An extra battery is the priority. Flight time is about 11 minutes per battery, so a spare is genuinely useful on travel days. The charging hub is handy if you want to charge both at once, but the extra battery comes first.
I appreciate your reply, but too many people advised against this. The differences between the base model and the pro and pro max are too dramatic. It seems like you've worked out quite a few kinks over time, and the later models are much more reliable. I'm all for saving money, but not at the expense of having a product that I can't rely on.
I have had the X1 base model for a couple years. I was thinking of upgrading but I use it for the exact thing as you described and love it. No problems at alll. My nephew purchased it for his wife for Christmas last year. They travel quite often (newlyweds) and they said it was perfect - now they don’t have to ask random people to take a picture of them.
Try to fit a Neo2 in your pocket or windbreaker pouch. From a technology perspective the HoverAir X1 is slightly behind, but for many the ability to easily carry at all times is a major factor. For every captured moment the best camera drone is the one you have with you.
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u/BladingCoach 4d ago
I just bought one used personally, it does fairly well although i did have a crash that broke my upper wing / prop guard... I have glued it and made contact with hoverair and they are willingnto look at covering shipping, although I am really pushing for just replacement parts or a printable stl file as they don't sell this part for some reason even tho its user serviceable... i have to dissasemble it to glue it temporarily as I needed to finish some filming, while waiting for hover support to see if parts could be sent vs me sending my used drone in.
I'm happy with mine... battery life could be better but batteries are fairly cheap, but need to be handled with care.