Space Verdict
Despite having a small sensor, the Holy Stone HS900 produces impressive image quality and sports features and functionality you’d expect in a more expensive drone.
Pros
- +Flies well
- +Some impressive features
- +Solid build quality
Cons
- -Small sensor
- -No obstacle avoidance
- -RAW photos are poor
Why you can trust Space.com
Camera: 48MP 1/2.3-inch CMOS
Video resolution: Up to 4K
Frame rates: 4K 30 FPS / FHD up to 60 FPS
Battery: 2250 mAh up to 30 minutes flight
Charger type: USB-C cable
Video transmission range: 6.2 miles
Dimensions: : Folded 5.63 x 3.26 x 2.44 in / 143 x 82.8 x 62 mm / Unfolded 6.59 x 8.57x2.44 in / 167.4 x 217.8 x 62 mm
Weight: 8.78 oz / 249 g
The sub-250 g drone market shows no signs of reducing competition, with manufacturers racing to offer advanced features at increasingly affordable prices. While DJI maintains its dominance as the market leader, brands such as Holy Stone have been steadily improving their offerings to compete in this popular segment of the drone market.
The Holy Stone HS900 Pro is being sold as the company's most capable consumer drone to date, and is aimed at beginners and enthusiasts looking for premium features without the premium price tag.
In reality, this is much more difficult than it sounds because the beginner market is so competitive that even DJI beginner models are impressively affordable. We’ll have to wait and see if the HS900 Pro is good enough to be one of the __best beginner drones____. __
The HS900 Pro includes a range of intelligent flight modes designed to simplify aerial photography and videography. Features such as Follow Me, Point of Interest, Waypoint Flight and various automated shooting modes make it easy to capture dynamic footage with minimal experience.
At the heart of the drone is a 48MP camera capable of capturing 4K video. While it lacks obstacle avoidance technology found on some competitor models, the HS900 Pro delivers a reasonable blend of performance, image quality and flight features, but it undoubtedly has a handful of shortcomings that will hopefully be ironed out with firmware updates.
Holy Stone HS900 Pro: Design
- Folding design
- Sub-250 g drone
- Folding controller
The Holy Stone HS900 Pro looks like most other sub-250 g drones with its compact folding design and light gray finish. This type of design is great for beginners and more experienced pilots because the folding element makes these drones easy to carry all day on trips out or in a camera bag with other kit.
The drone is just 5.63x3.26x2.44 in / 143x82.8x62 mm when folded, and 6.59x8.57x2.44 in / 167.4x217.8x62 mm unfolded. Most sub-250 g drones are around these dimensions, so there’s nothing out of the ordinary here, and build quality is fantastic - no complaints either. The airframe is made of a lightweight yet strong plastic, which is, once again, in keeping with similar drones.
The controller that comes with the HS900 Pro is the same as that which came with the HS900, but is light rather than dark gray to match the drone.
This is a folding controller where the phone attaches to handles that fold out at the bottom of the controller in a similar way to the old DJI Mavic 2 controller and accommodate smartphones of all sizes. This is nice and compact at 6.0x1.85 x3.23 in / 152.5x47x82 mm when folded. Detachable control sticks that can be stowed away at the bottom of the controller.
The HS900 Pro controller provides all of the controls you need and more for operating the drone and the camera; you have the control sticks, a power button, a Return to Home button (RTH), a speed control button, a gimbal dial, a customisable Fn button with dual functionality, a small joystick for adjusting camera settings and photo and video capture buttons.
The 2250 mAh batteries are claimed to provide up to 30 minutes of flight time, and during testing, flight times were typically coming in around 23 minutes in what you might call normal wind conditions. Return to Home is initiated at 20% battery charge, so at this point the drone will either automatically Return to Home or you can take over and fly it back manually.
Holy Stone HS900 Pro: Functionality
- Stable flight
- Decent subject tracking
- Level 5 wind resistance
Flight performance is impressive, with smooth, responsive controls that make it easy to capture stable video and execute precise manoeuvres. Despite its lightweight design, the HS900 Pro offers Level 5 wind resistance, allowing it to cope with winds of up to 24 mph.
Stable, Normal and Sport modes provide maximum speeds of 11 mph, 22 mph and 31 mph respectively, while safety features include Smart Return-to-Home, Low Battery Return-to-Home and Signal Loss Return-to-Home.
Automated flight patterns include Follow Me, Point of Interest (Orbit), Waypoint Flight, Gesture Control, Spiral Flight and Cruise Control. These features work reasonably well, and subject tracking is more effective than with the older HS900.
The HS900 Pro's AI Subject Tracking keeps the subject centred in the frame. Whether you're capturing a person walking, cycling or taking part in outdoor activities, the drone can follow their movement smoothly without constant manual input. This is a feature that’s becoming much more popular and often makes subject tracking more effective.
There are two tracking modes available: AI Following keeps the drone behind the subject at a set distance and height, making it ideal for recording movement naturally and steadily, while AI Parallel flies alongside the subject, providing a more cinematic side-on perspective. Following works well, but when Parallel was tested, the HS900 Pro vibrated heavily during flight. This is a glitch that will need to be ironed out with a firmware update.
The time-lapse feature is easy to use and automatically creates finished videos based on your chosen interval and duration. Unlike DJI drones, however, flight control remains separate from the feature, making it harder to judge the speed and distance needed for hyperlapse shots. Wind can also affect results because the drone may drift in gusty conditions.
As a result, time-lapses are generally smooth but can appear slightly uneven in gusty conditions. Cruise Control, another feature, allows the drone to continue flying after you release the control sticks, making it useful for maintaining a constant speed and direction during long video sequences.
Compared to the original HS900, the HS900 Pro is an extremely similar drone, and the camera quality and functionality appear to be similar, potentially identical. The main differences are in the improvements to subject tracking and the automated flight patterns. This makes the drone feel like more of an incremental update rather than a more significant upgrade.
This isn’t a drone that offers obstacle avoidance either, so there are no sensors for this purpose, although it does have TOF ranging which can help to achieve more stable flight, including improved position holding when GPS is weak.
There is also optical flow positioning that aids positioning indoors. These are useful, but when other beginner drones are beginning to offer obstacle avoidance, the bar has been raised somewhat.
Holy Stone HS900 Pro: Performance
- 1/2.3-inch 48MP CMOS sensor
- Up to 4K 30 FPS video
- Poor RAW photo quality
The Holy Stone HS900 Pro produces reasonable image quality in both photos and videos that will more than meet the needs of beginners and enthusiasts. At launch, this does come with a caveat we’ll discuss in a moment, but first let’s take a look at the camera specs.
The HS900 Pro camera features a 48MP 1/2.3-inch Sony CMOS sensor with an 83-degree field of view, which roughly equates to the equivalent of 24mm in full-frame/35mm terms, with a fixed f/2.6 aperture. Video can be captured in 4K at 30 FPS and FHD up to 60 FPS, which is adequate but not outstanding.
Video quality is good and comparable to the original HS900 with a maximum bitrate of up to 100 Mbps. Photo shooting modes include Single Shot, Burst Shot, Timer Shot, Time-Lapse, Slow Motion, Camera Filter and Panorama. Then there’s Dolly Zoom for video, which works well despite using the camera’s digital zoom.
Photo quality is inconsistent and something of a paradox, but not in the way you might normally expect. The HS900 Pro can capture up to 48MP photos and RAW and JPEG formats, and the JPEGs look good – no major criticisms here. Where things quickly go downhill, however, is when capturing RAW photos in DNG format.
RAW photos have terrible color casts that are so bad that you can’t color correct them using white balance controls in software such as Adobe Lightroom. It’s basically impossible to neutralize the color cast, which makes the RAW files unusable. This is one area where Holy Stone seriously needs to issue a firmware update to resolve the issue.
Please note the footage below was shot in 4K, but our video player only plays in HD.
The camera controls available allow you to take as much control as you need, alongside auto shooting if you prefer. Two features that are still, unfortunately, missing after the HS900 are a histogram to assist with setting exposure correctly and Automatic Exposure Bracketing. These are essential for the drone to compete more effectively in a highly competitive market.
Holy Stone HS900 Pro: Price
In the past, Holy Stone was initially released in the US, with availability expanding to other regions afterwards. The kit includes the drone, a controller, two batteries, cables, spare propellers and a carry bag. This is everything you need to get started in terms of the drone itself.
The kit costs around $389.99 / £369.99, which would have once been attractive for a drone with the features of the HS900 Pro, but you can get a lot more in terms of features and image quality around this price point. This is illustrative of just how the competitiveness of the sub-250 g drone market shows no signs of slowing. In fact, it’s still heating up.
Should you buy the Holy Stone HS900 Pro?
If you're looking for an affordable camera drone that offers more than the basics, the Holy Stone HS900 Pro is a reasonable option, but certainly not the best available. It combines a lightweight sub-250 g design with features often found on more expensive models, while flight performance is impressive, with accurate GPS positioning, stable hovering and dependable Return to Home functionality.
There is no obstacle avoidance, which is a feature we’re now seeing in beginner models and puts the HS900 Pro at a distinct disadvantage in terms of both price and functionality. But the main issue with the drone is that some of the features and functionality feel incomplete. Not in terms of the hardware, but rather that they’re in need of refinement from a firmware update. Whether this will happen is impossible to say, but Holy Stone will probably improve these weaker areas.
If this drone isn't for you
The DJI Mini 5 Pro is the most advanced sub-250 g drone available, offering unrivalled features, functionality and professional image quality in a small and lightweight form factor.
The DJI Lito 1 is DJI’s least expensive drone to feature obstacle avoidance. It offers subject tracking functionality and up to 4K at up to 100 FPS, all in a beginner model. This model is currently unavailable in the USA
The Potensic Atom 2 is one of the best value sub-250 g propositions available. Image quality is great for photos and videos, while flight performance is solid alongside reasonably quiet flight.
James is an award-winning freelance landscape and portrait photographer, as well as a highly experienced photography journalist working with some of the best photography magazines and websites with a worldwide audience. He’s also the author of The Digital Darkroom: The Definitive Guide to Photo Editing. www.jamesaphoto.co.uk