Review: HoverAIR X1 ProMax delivers the 8K goods – but one of the extras is iffy
Imagine an 8K-shooting camera drone that fits in a pocket, costs less than $700, and can be used with or without a remote. That's the HoverAIR X1 ProMax, and while the drone itself is great, one of its optional peripherals is still a work in progress.
Manufactured by China's ZeroZero Robotics, the US$699 HoverAir X1 ProMax was introduced this August along with its almost-identical 4K-shooting sibling, the $499 HoverAir X1 Pro. The two are the successors to ZeroZero's 2.7K-shooting $349 Hover Camera X1, which I reviewed last year.
As was the case with that model, the big selling feature of the ProMax is the fact that simply by pressing a control button on the drone, you can set it to autonomously perform multiple flight patterns while keeping its gimbal-stabilized camera trained on you ... recording ultra-high-def video the whole time.
No remote control unit of any kind, not even an app, is required. The drone uses facial and body recognition algorithms to track you, along with motion prediction algorithms to make a reasonable guess at where you're going.
Its basic flight modes consist of Hover (in which it hovers in place, panning back and forth with you as you move from side to side); Follow (flies along behind you as you're running, cycling, etc); Dolly Track (backpedals in front of you as you move towards it); Zoom Out (starts close to you, then flies back to a wider shot); Orbit (flies in a circle around you); and Bird's Eye (looks straight down at you from above).
Boosting the gee-whiz factor even higher, the drone both takes off from and lands on your outstretched hand. Once you've finished using it, you just fold it in half and stick it in a jacket pocket, backpack or whatnot.