Skydio 2 - drone with the best tracking, first impressions

Skydio 2 - first impressions

As a person who has flown more than one drone, I must admit that it's been a long time since I waited with such excitement for a drone test. I also have to confess here that when the drone arrived I didn't even read the instructions. A quick battery recharge and we leave the office to make the first flight. The weather is not spoiling, so we take our first tests right out of the gate. We are standing between two, five-story blocks of flats, which are about 8 meters from each other. Plus small bushes, shrubs, lanterns and cage canopies by the windows. There is not much space - lekko won't be, but the Skydio 2 drone is said to have amazing sensors, and that's what we're most interested in.

Skydio 2 by the looks of it

The drone looks amazing. It looks different from other competing drones, but very stylish and futuristic. The combination of black and blue gives a brilliant impression, plus there is a blue backlight that enhances the effect. Skydio has a different design compared to drones from, for example, DJI, which are currently the most popular models. This is a quadrocopter that has the rear engines mounted from the top, the front engines from the bottom. Such a solution is used in racing drones, it allows to reduce energy consumption, while maintaining great dynamics.

Other drone manufacturers have accustomed us to foldable drones. Skydio is not like that, but it has a definite explanation. Skydio has 7 (seven!) cameras with 4K resolution. Six cameras, each having a field of view of 200 degrees with a total of 45 megapixels are used for obstacle detection, the seventh for recording - the main camera on the gimbal. The drone is calibrated on a robotic arm that moves the drone when it sees calibration markers from all sides. The cameras work very closely together which means that often an obstacle is seen by all 6 cameras. The use of folding arms would make it appear loose, and with the current configuration there is a lot of rigidity. During the flight in the evening, the drone displayed a message that it was too dark to fly - this means that it will not be possible to fly in the dark at present. There is a chance that the manufacturer in the future will allow flying on its own responsibility in poorer lighting conditions after the update.

• Gabary - the dimensions of the drone are approx. 22 x 27 x 7 centimeters. It's a little bigger than the DJI Spark, smaller than the Mavic 2. Weight over 600 grams , 775 grams to be exact.
• Power - Skydio 2 is powered by a 3S LiPo battery with a capacity of 4280mAh. It provides up to 23 minutes of flight time. The manufacturer states an operating range of -5 to 40 degrees.
• Camera - the sensor used here is Sony IMX577 1/2.3" 12.3MP CMOS with 4K 60fps recording capability (bitrate 100Mbps). The whole thing, of course, on a three-axis gimbal, which is built very unusually - the Yaw axis extends backwards and the whole gimbal is in one line.

Flying a Skydio drone

I pull out my phone, launch the Skydio 2 app, connect to the drone and I'm ready to take off. We'll leave the camera and beacon flights for later. One press and the drone is already in the air. The app is clear and simple, I know I don't have to check any settings. Full confidence. Live viewing via Wifi - there is very nice quality and minimal latency. The drone automatically detects me, so I start the fun - we fire up tracking mode.

I run in the middle of the path, and the drone follows me very closely. We initially experienced a moment of uncertainty when the drone flew up to about 50 centimeters from the window. Every second we allow ourselves to maneuver harder and harder and we are more and more surprised, positively surprised. The drone flies like glued with bravado, moreover, it performs very dynamic maneuvers, sees every surrounding element. Every second convinces us that flying very close to the window and other obstacles is standard for Skydio standard.

From the excitement, I forgot to turn on the recording. And here is another great feature of Skydio, the drone automatically, without my intervention turned on recording in "Auto Recording" mode".

First cats behind the fence. Taking it to the next level. Let's take the bike and go to the forest. I performed the first test on a forest path among the trees very carefully, walking in front of the drone. I also tested the controller, which is identical to the one in Parrotta. I made a few flights with the camera to see how the drone responds to the sticks. The Skydio drone is quite sluggish on the default settings, but this makes it very smooth. 'Braking distance' is relatively long compared to DJI drones. This can be compared to their "Cinematic Mode." It gives very smooth shots.

Skydio's amazing drone tracking feature

Let's keep flying Skydio - Skatepark

With each flight I have more and more confidence in Skydio. I know that I can launch the drone, mark the target and not worry about obstacles. We are located at the Gdynia Skatepark. All around trees, tall poles with lights, ramps at different heights. Skydio is doing amazingly well. Only when a speeding cyclist makes a dynamic turn on a curve does Skydio lose sight of him or her.

Who Skydio 2 is for?

Skydio 2 drone is a drone for the active. The main advantage is the amazing ability to fly autonomously with obstacle avoidance adding to this tracking mode. You let the drone out of your hand and do your thing - drive, fly, swim, while Skydio accompanies you. If you want a drone that can avoid any obstacle then you have just found it. The small number of movie modes makes it not a competitor to the DJI Mavic. This is a completely different product. If you want to get classic drone shots, you can use the optional controller to make manual flights, while if autonomous following is not number 1 on your priority list, this is probably not the drone for you. It is certainly a product that has been missing from the market and will find many takers. And I'll end by adding from myself that I was very much waiting for such a drone, and I'm glad that Skydio finally appeared.

"It does the flying. It does the filming. You do the doing."