Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start this review by saying that I have owned multiple quadcopters, including the Syma x5c-1 and DJI Phantom. The phantom itself is wonderful to fly, however, the ever present fear of flyaways and all the precautions one must take when flying (no interference, no large metal structures, monitor solar activity, calibrate compass, gps satellites, etc) takes a bit of the fun out of regualr flying. As such, I felt the need for a secondary "dumb" bird so to speak. One that I would have control over exclusively, free from autonomous flight. I figured that I would use my phantom for professional videography at select locations and I would use the secondary quad for just casual flying and recording, in all manner of locations. I chose the Syma X8C as that secondary and let me tell you, I was not disappointed! The Syma X8C is a very stable flyer with excellent lifting power for a quad of its class. The headless mode comes in very handy as an impromptu return to home feature, when orientation is lost. Further, the large motors do not seem to get as hot as the Syma x5c-1's and none have burnt out thus far. In any event, the motors are easy to replace as they are plug and play with only a few screws to remove. No soldering required! I have used this quad to lift my Gopro Hero 3 with ease, as well as my Lumia 1020. However, The Runcam proves to be an ideal companion to this quad. The range is advertised as being 100-150m, however, I have found the range to be closer to 200-250m (haven't tried to go farther than that as it is practically out of sight at that point). The lights are bright and easy to see and when the battery is low, it starts flashing whilst leaving you a good 2-3 minutes of flight time left. This is a vast improvement over the Syma X5c-1 which would give practically no warning before blinking and dropping out of the sky. With further regards to flight time, the large 2000mah battery provides about 10-12 minutes of flight (with runcam attached). This is more than enough time to get your shots. The yaw rate is a bit slow, which is ideal for an aerial video platform such as this. However, the quad, especially in high rate, is very wind resistant and stable. Another benefit is that this quad is basically the same exact shape and size as the Phantom 1. As such, almost all of the accessories that fit the Phantom will fit this quad. For example, the extended landing skids and skins for the phantom. All in all, I love this quadcopter. My Phantom is now reserved for special occasions and this is my daily use quad :). The only downside I can see is that the propellers are extremely unbalanced. Previous Syma models had pretty balanced props but this one does not. I suspect that the molded lettering on the blades ("A" and "B") contribute to this. However, after a bit of sanding, the props balance nicely and the quad performs better than ever. BALANCE OUR PROPS PEOPLE! All in all, this is definitely the flagship quad from Syma and it is well worth the money. I have taken the liberty of adding two pictures to thsi review; one of my modded Syma X8c and one showing a size comparison between said Syma X8c and my Phantom.