This drone is controlled with a smartwatch, but is it any good?

In the past two weeks, I’ve crashed two drones, both of them broken beyond repair.

Prior to ruining them, my flying record was impeccable. A DJI Inspire 1 and a Parrot Bebop both survived outings with me. Those two smartwatch-controlled Flypro XEagle drones, however, weren't as lucky.

SEE ALSO: DJI's Phantom 4 is the iPhone of drones and so much fun to fly

The XEagle just missed its $100,000 funding goal on Kickstarter by $2,363. (So close!) I wanted to see if using a smartwatch to pilot a drone was an easier than a standard remote control.

There’s a smartwatch for that

Image: jason cipriani/mashable

Instead of using a traditional joystick-equipped controller or a smartphone app, the XEagle relies on a bundled smartwatch to take flight.

You put on the watch, power it up, turn on the XEagle, wait for a GPS lock, and then press a button for take-off. Quite frankly, it’s really scary the first time you use it. 

How you control the drone:

Image: JASON CIPRIANI/MASHABLE

Image: jason cipriani/mashable

Everything you’ll need to control the XEagle is on the watch itself, which is pretty large. Surrounding the display is a dial for changing the position of the drone. There are six buttons, each one serving a different purpose: activating circle mode, power, take-off, landing, capturing a photo or video recording, and follow. Another dial scrolls up or down to adjust altitude.

Image: JASON CIPRIANI/MASHABLE

The display of the watch shows flight stats, including current altitude, distance (or radius) between you and the XEagle, GPS and signal indicators, current mode, and a battery meter.

Included in the box with the XEagle Sport model I received was the drone, eight propellers, a battery, charger, a smartwatch and its magnetic charger, and a Flypro action camera.

First test flight was full of fail

My initial flight with the XEagle (made with the intention of gaining a basic understanding of how the watch and the drone interact) only lasted a couple of minutes.

I wish I was making up this part of my testing, but unfortunately, what I’m about to tell you actually happened. 

As the XEagle hovered in my backyard during its first flight, waiting for instructions from my watch, a bird hit the drone. 

I have replayed the scenario in my head a hundred times, trying to figure out exactly what led a bird to attack a defenseless drone and cause it to crash to the ground, breaking the camera gimbal, with no luck. 

Making matters even worse, I didn’t have the camera on to capture the incident. One could only imagine the virality of a drone-captured video of a bird attack. Instead, you’re going to just have to take my word for it.

Second flight should be better, right?

Thankfully Flypro sent me a replacement unit the next day.

Flypro positions the XEagle as the perfect drone for sports and outdoor enthusiasts thanks to its auto-follow feature. The XEagle will follow you, or whomever is wearing its linked smartwatch, capturing your journey in 4K video or 16-megapixel photos.

With that in mind, I took the replacement XEagle out to the family ranch. Riding around on four-wheelers with a drone chasing me and my brother-in-law sounded like the perfect test scenario. Sadly, a mere three minutes after our initial ride began, everything came to a screeching halt.

Image: jason cipriani/mashable

I followed the instructions perfectly: I placed the XEagle on the ground facing me, waited for it to pass its self test on power up, then pressed the take-off button on the watch until I felt a vibration. A moment later, the drone was hovering. I rotated the dial on the watch, positioning it behind me, and then I pressed the follow button.

With the XEagle eagerly waiting, ready to chase us down, I hit the gas. To my surprise, the XEagle was able to keep up.

Image: jason cipriani/mashable

As I turned around to go back to our starting point, the XEagle was following me, just as it had before, but then at the last second it got caught. Some 35 feet above the ground, there sat a whirring XEagle, stuck in the branches of a pear tree. 

Full of anxiety about breaking yet another review unit, I stressfully searched the watch for an emergency kill switch. When I didn’t find one, I powered off the watch thinking it would remotely power down the drone that was still going full throttle in an attempt to free itself from the tree’s grasp.

My efforts were for naught. I never did find a kill switch, and the drone ran at full speed until the battery died. The end result was a second review unit busted, with two of the four motors breaking free of their respective housings.

Two broken drones make a working drone

The good news is I was able to piece the two broken units together, creating one working drone. The remainder of my testing was done in far less stressful environments, away from trees and birds.

I eventually got the hang of controlling the Flypro from my wrist, including putting the company’s battery life claim of 22 minutes to the test — a number I would put at a more realistic 17 or 18 minutes of flight time.

One feature I grew to appreciate on the watch was the flight time indicator. As I drained the drone’s battery, the watch would count down the minutes left for the flight. And once I hit the three-minute mark, the watch would repeatedly vibrate until I landed the drone, or until it eventually landed itself.

There’s work to be done

Image: jason cipriani/mashable

When the Flypro begins shipping later this year, voice commands will have been added to the watch making it possible to say things like “Flypro take off” and the drone will respond.

Future updates will also include the ability to control the drone via a smartphone app.

Throughout my testing I noticed the XEagle often had trouble keeping me in the frame of the shot. For example, when using circle mode there were instances where I would drop out of the bottom of the frame only to reappear after the drone repositioned itself.

When having the XEagle follow me on the ATV, it didn’t handle sudden stops well at all. In fact, the first time I stopped, the XEagle flew past me as if it was anticipating where I would be instead of relying on the watch to tell it where I really was.

Granted, my tests were done on preproduction software and hardware, meaning it’s entirely possible, likely even, that all of the kinks will be worked out in the future.

If you look at the Flypro website or Kickstarter page for the XEagle, you’ll notice they company touts obstacle avoidance as a key feature of its lineup. I wasn’t able to test this (obviously, given my experience), as only the company’s Pro model will include the feature.

An inexpensive drone

Image: JASON CIPRIANI/MASHABLE

For someone in the market for an inexpensive drone, the Flypro looks to fit the bill. You will eventually be able to get the complete package—a drone, smartwatch, controller, 4K camera, and obstacle avoidance— for $879. 

Comparatively, DJI’s Phantom 4, which also features obstacle avoidance, currently starts at $1,399.

My only advice for flying the Flypro XEagle is to go out into a big open area void of power lines, trees, or angry birds — at least for the first few flights. 

Flypro XEagle

The Good

Impressive auto-follow • Inexpensive given its features • Hands-free flight means not relying on a second person to film you

The Bad

Obstacle avoidance is only in the top-tier model • Camera doesn't always keep you in the shot

The Bottom Line

The Flypro XEagle is an inexpensive drone for novice pilots or action sports enthusiasts with an impressive auto-follow feature.