The Potensic Atom SE is an ultra-light, foldable, pocket-sized drone, modeled within the fashion of a DJI Mini 2 or Mini 3. Nonetheless, at a fraction of the price of the big-name rival, it’s a really fascinating entry-level drone .
Droneblog Verdict
The Potensic Atom SE is a wonderful entry-level drone with clever flight options and ease of use that make this an interesting drone for rookies.
The comparatively low value level makes it accessible, with the trade-off of restricted digital camera stabilization and management, and no impediment avoidance.
✅ Professionals
- Top quality for the value
- Sub-250g drone
- Straightforward to make use of for rookies
- Clever flight modes for ease of use
❌ Cons
- Overly delicate controls
- Restricted digital camera controls and efficiency
- Hover stability is unreliable, particularly in windy situations
- No collision avoidance sensors
Atom SE design and performance
The Atom SE has folded dimensions of simply 3.5 x 5.6 x 2.3 inches / 88 x 143 x 58mm (w x l x h), sufficiently small to simply slide right into a jacket pocket.
The unfolded dimensions are 8.3 x 6 x 2.3 inches / 210 x 152 x 58mm, excluding propellers.
The load of 8.8oz / 0.55lbs / 245g, together with every little thing you want to have on board to fly (propellers, a battery and a microSD card) means this drone is beneath the burden required for hobbyist registration.
Batteries weigh 3.6oz / 0.22lbs / 103g and supply as much as 31 minutes of flight in ultimate situations. I acquired a snug 25 minutes of flight out of the drone earlier than it initiated a return to house with 13% of battery energy remaining.
The drone is surprisingly well-built for its value, providing nice worth for cash. Not solely that, the flight options are straightforward to make use of and the drone itself may be very straightforward to fly, even for zero-experience rookies.
It feels nicely made and sturdy to the contact, and even after touching down in some tall grass, the propellers appeared unphased.
No crashes thus far, but it surely appears this drone may stand as much as a bit of damage and tear.
The digital camera is what you may name primary. Whereas it’s able to taking first rate photographs (in each JPEG and RAW), the gimbal controls are restricted and the stabilization isn’t stellar.
For these causes, you’re going to be restricted by way of high-quality video.
The controller is a novel design that extends to carry a wise machine in between the 2 joysticks. A notch makes area for the twine plug to hook up with the machine.
My solely grievance with this structure is that I needed to let go of the controller with one hand to succeed in to the touch controls on the display – it was too distant to stretch a thumb over whereas nonetheless holding on.
The equipment comes with a wide range of cords designed to hook up with any good machine on the market, whether or not Apple or Android.
The controller feels stable and cozy to carry and holds a cost nicely, even when charging the cellphone whereas related.
A small factor actually, but it surely made me really feel much less in management than I wished to be.
The Fly extra combo, which I acquired to check out, contains an additional battery and a carrying case. The additional battery is helpful in fact to increase flying time.
The batteries themselves are small and light-weight and simple to cost with the included USB-C cable. It’s good to not want a devoted charger for anyplace, on-the-go charging.
The carrying case is water-repellent and durable, with an adjustable, padded shoulder strap and sufficient pockets and compartments to maintain every little thing neatly tucked away.
The way to arrange the Atom SE earlier than the primary flight
- Earlier than my first flight, I made certain to have every little thing charged up: the controller and each batteries.
- The subsequent step was to obtain and set up the PotensicPro app (obtainable on the App Retailer and Google Play retailer).
- Discover the proper cable to attach your good machine to the controller.
- Activate the controller. The app will then information you thru all the downloads, updates and calibrations that have to be carried out.
Observe: It’s useful to do all these items at house earlier than going out to fly to be sure to have web sign for the downloads, and so on.
Familiarize your self with the app interface and modify settings as wanted.
Verify RTH altitude, and limits on flight top and distance. These are robotically restricted to 98 ft. in newbie mode.
If it’s your first flight, it’s a good suggestion to maintain these as they’re. You’ll be able to all the time flip off newbie mode when you’ve gotten the cling of issues.
Flight efficiency
Launching the drone makes use of the usual process of pulling each sticks down and middle concurrently to arm the propellers. Then push the throttle as much as take off.
The primary time I put the drone up, I used to be shocked at the way it bobbed round for a minute or two, apparently attempting to determine its location.
It didn’t go straight to a gradual hover, however rocked round throughout the area of a number of ft earlier than locking right into a considerably steadier stance.
I used to be additionally shocked by the responsiveness of the sticks; I might even say over-responsiveness. The drone appeared to jerk round at least enter, though this may be adjusted barely within the settings.
Extra in regards to the hover.
Not like a DJI Mini 2 or 3 that can hover nearly completely nonetheless, the Atom SE wandered round inside a foot or two of its place. It additionally drifted within the yaw (heading) orientation a technique or one other.
Just a few very gentle gusts of wind blew it about much more than that. This isn’t a drone that may get up in opposition to windy situations.
And though it is a newbie drone, that lack of rock-steady hover could possibly be slightly bit disconcerting.
To not say that it’s a foul factor for a newbie drone pilot to wish to develop the talent of fine-tuning the controls to remain in place!
Placing the drone by its paces, I did really feel that there have been just a few occasions, particularly simply after launch, that the drone was scooting round by itself, outdoors of my enter.
Apart from these few moments, the drone dealt with just about as I believed it must.
The drone is default set to newbie mode, however this may be switched off once you’re prepared. Different pace settings embrace:
- Video
- Regular
- Sport
Video mode slows every little thing manner down for smoother video, and regular and sport do exactly as you may think.
I loved testing out the clever flight modes, together with follow-me, waypoints, and circle flight.
The circle flight mode carried out fairly nicely and saved the digital camera oriented roughly towards the middle of the circle.
The waypoints mode labored nicely, and it is a good function that comparable degree drones lack.
My solely grievance on this division is that the map was very blurry and onerous to pin-point the areas to drop the waypoints. However this might have been as a result of cellphone sign and never any fault of the drone’s.
The follow-me mode appeared to problem the drone a bit, though I did nothing extra sophisticated than jog round in a big circle. It didn’t appear to take care of a fair distance, and the digital camera didn’t orient as rapidly because it ought to have.
The return-to-home function is enabled by GPS, so make sure you have GPS indicators locked in earlier than taking off if you wish to depend on this to get your drone again.
The return to house will not be tremendous exact. Within the 4-5 occasions I landed the drone within the take a look at flights, the return to house introduced the drone to anyplace from 3 yards to 2 ft of the take-off location.
You even have the choice of manually adjusting the drone’s place with the sticks whereas it’s robotically touchdown, which helps lots in getting a extra exact touchdown.
You’ll nearly definitely have to do that if you wish to land again in your launch pad and keep away from trimming the grass along with your propellers.
One other factor to pay attention to with the Atom SE is the dearth of impediment avoidance sensors. That is commonplace with a drone of this dimension and value, but it surely does imply that rookies particularly ought to make sure you fly in areas with few obstacles.
The flight vary is proscribed to 2.5 miles, and whereas that is a lot lower than you may get than with, say the Mini 3, it’s greater than sufficient to get the drone past your visible line of sight, which is a no-no with FAA drone rules.
For those who’re staying inside line of sight, you possibly can take the Atom SE lots far sufficient away with out shedding reference to the controller.
Digital camera efficiency
The digital camera on the Atom SE is a 12MP Sony CMOS sensor. It supplies a 118-degree subject of view and will be tilted vertically from +20 to -90 levels.
There is no such thing as a lateral gimbal management, and the one approach to flip the digital camera left or proper is thru the yaw management on the drone.
As I famous above the stick controls are fairly sensitive, and this will influence the smoothness of the video because the drone bumps round with the controls.
The picture stabilization is digital, and does a good job of minimizing video shake, however the lack of true gimbal comes into play with the horizon steadiness.
The three flight modes supply some measure of enchancment right here. Particularly, the video mode (cinema mode) slows down the drone’s actions and steadies the responsiveness considerably.
The opposite two modes prioritize pace, so aren’t ultimate for video.
Video will be shot in 4K at 30fps, 2.7K at 30fps and 1080p at as much as 60fps with a most bitrate of 40Mbps. Photographs will be captured in each JPEG and RAW in a 16:9 ratio slightly than 4:3.
There are not any choices to manually set ISO, white stability or shutter pace.
All digital camera settings (besides publicity compensation) are totally computerized.
Whereas that is good for a newbie who could also be extra curious about mastering flight fundamentals than in mastering superior images methods, it’s a severe limiting issue.
The RAW photograph seize is an attention-grabbing possibility that’s not obtainable in a whole lot of comparable degree drones.
It definitely opens up the artistic choices, though if severe drone images is your purpose, this won’t be the drone to land on, contemplating its different digital camera limitations.
SanDisk Excessive 256 GB
Temperature Proof, Water Proof, Shock Proof and X-Ray Proof.
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05/13/2023 03:04 am GMT
Who can purchase this drone?
The Potensic Atom SE is a good selection for rookies on a funds.
At nearly half the value of the DJI Mini 3, it’s not stunning that you simply get a barely underwhelming digital camera and restricted clever flight options, to not point out no impediment avoidance.
For a hobbyist wanting to interrupt into the world of flight, the Potensic Atom SE supplies an incredible various that can present high quality and efficiency that shall be onerous to beat on the value level.
It’s in all probability not for you for those who’re a severe photographer although, even for those who’re a newbie with regards to drones.
The dearth of digital camera settings and the dearth of 3-axis gimbal will significantly restrict your photograph and video high quality.
This is able to even be an incredible selection as a journey drone, for somebody who would love a less expensive various to take alongside in your travels with out having to fret about getting misplaced or broken, as a lot as you may for a costlier drone.
The compact dimension and sub-250 g weight additionally lend themselves to journey, particularly because it falls beneath much less restrictive rules in most international locations.
I actually loved buzzing round with the Potensic Atom SE, and even see it as an incredible starter drone for my older youngsters.
Potensic ATOM SE
ATOM SE drone weighs 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝟐𝟒𝟗𝐠, 𝐧𝐨 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐀𝐀& Distant ID Registration.
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05/13/2023 09:49 am GMT
