Best drones for sale – professional and consumer grade

Best drones for sale – professional and consumer grade.

 Pat 1

Do you want to fly? We’re talking about drones here folks and please allow us to answer the question, YES! With a fairly large selection of quality consumer grade drones to choose from, most all are of the quadcopter design, where do you start in your search for the best? Another question answered, right here! Join us for our rundown of the best drones for sale today.

Have a budget or specific need? Try these lists instead:Cheap drones guideBest drones under $500Best drones under $1000Best camera dronesBest racing dronesBest drones for kidsBest nano dronesSmall drone or big drone, size guide
We will regularly update this list to reflect new and exciting drones on the market. This month we have removed the Phantom 4, it’s probably still worth buying, but the newer models bump it from the list. There are a few great price changes in the list as well, like the Yuneec Typhoon H down to $999. Finally, we added the DJI Spark to our ‘coming soon’ section – the new compact machine may not end up on our list, but we’re intrigued by the concept and excited to try it out to be sure.RELATED ARTICLES

Pre-flight checklist

If you are a resident of the United States, for drones larger than 0.55 lbs, you are going to need to follow a few rules of the air, including a pre-flight check of your gear. Incidents happen, but accidents are preventable with proper care and judgment. You’ll most likely need to register your drone with the FAA before you operate, and be sure to check your state laws before you fly.Now that I’ve been all doom and gloom, one of the best ways to prevent an accident is to purchase a drone that provides some autonomous flight controls. You do not need a fully self-flying drone, but some collision prevention and hover capabilities will make a world of difference for you. Just some of the items we feel necessary for a great drone, which will be available on most models in our list today.Consider your flight space, weather factors and range capabilities before you head to the skies, but mostly, have fun.

Finally, it makes us sad to have to put a cap on the list of drones we include today. Not like we can only talk about 10 fliers, but, let’s be fair, there are a lot of amazing drones out there, we’re just going to narrow down to a best list that includes a few different categories. Further research should be done if you are looking for best in class for specific ranges of aircraft. We invite you to hit the comments below to recommend your favorite.Related:Do I need to register with the FAA?New drone? Things to know before you flyNew pilot? Don’t make these mistakesCheap drones and first time flyers guide

Drone types

We’ll be mixing together drones with cameras, tough drones for beginners and racing drones today. An argument can be made for creating separate lists, which we hope to do one day, for now, let’s focus on quadcopter or similar multi-rotor unmanned flying craft, regardless their equipment or purpose.Let’s get started.

DJI Mavic Pro

Also seen in our Best camera drones and best drones under $1000 lists

We were so excited for this drone that we used it for our October giveaway. Then again for December. Then we went to LA for a hands-on experience. DJI is a long trusted name in the consumer camera drone space, with popular rigs you’ll see throughout this article, monster professional camera rigs and now one of the smallest and most capable drones we’ve ever seen, the Mavic Pro.Packing a 4K camera, 27 minutes of flight time to go up to 8 miles at a max speed of 40 mph and a 16,404 foot service ceiling, you’ll have no issues violating any number of FAA drone flight regulations. The remote has a range of about 4.3 miles as well, so you should have no problems with connectivity while it is in the legal line-of-sight flight range.

Video capture runs at 30 fps for 4K shooting, up to 96 fps for 1080p capture. Still images are possible as well, 4000 x 3000 pixels of resolution are captured from the 12MP sensor. Stability is the name of the game as well, DJI has top notch gimbals, including this 3-axis stabilizer.Smart features include obstacle avoidance, gesture mode, ActiveTrack, TapFly and of course, you can fire the live view from the camera back to your supported phone or tablet.

Despite offering a similar, if less capable flying experience to the older DJI Phantom 4, the Mavic Pro is much lighter and folds down into one of the most compact drones on the market. If you’ve got big pockets, you’re ready to hit the road.The DJI Mavic Pro may not be the best camera drone around either, nor the best racer or an affordable toy class unit, but in terms of overall usability, convenience and bang for the buck, you’ll be hard pressed to find better at the going price of $999.You can grab the drone itself for about $799, but we recommend at least getting the base pack, including controller, for $999. The optional Fly More combo is well worth it, but will bring you up to $1299.Related reading:DJI Mavic Pro first flightDJI Mavic Pro unboxing and setupDJI Mavic Pro camera reviewDJI Mavic Pro review – our favorite drone

DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro+

Also seen in our Best camera drones and Best professional drones lists

Built on the same iconic quadcopter frame as the reamining DJI Phantom, line, a design emulated by many competitors, the Phantom 4 Pro is a rreceently announced drone that takes putting a camera in the sky very serious. Packing a full 1-inch camera sensor for 4K video capture and 20MP stills, the Phantom 4 Pro packs high speeds, 5-direction collision avoidance and stable flight into a familiar package.In addition to the enhancements over the Phantom 4 previous, there is a new controller available as well, packing it’s own 5.5-inch display in the Phantom 4 Pro+ package. Save your phone battery, fly using this 1000 knit brightness touch panel for up to 30 minutes of air time and collision avoidance up to 31 mph.Check out the DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro+ for $1449 and $1799 today.

Yuneec Typhoon H

Also seen in our Best drones under $1000 list

Another drone with multiple configurations available, the Yuneec Typhoon H 4K is likely the option for you. The Typhoon H Pro is a lot more expensive and packs some intense camera rigging, the 4K is the competitor to the more popular drones on our list today.Breaking our little quad-rotor rule, Yuneec has packed 6 motors on the Typhoon H, making for very stable flight and it even has retractable landing gear. 4K video recording with a 360 degree swivel gimbal and over 20 minutes of flight time make for a drone that compares nicely to the Phantom 4.Check out the Yuneec Typhoon H 4K for $999 on Amazon today.

Autel Robotics X-Star Premium

As seen in our Best commercial drones and Best drones under $1000 lists

Autel Robotics is an interesting company with a different approach to drones. That is, they look to pack the same sort of features and flight capabilities into a much more affordable package than some of the other players on our list today. We would be remiss to say that the X-Star and X-Star Premium do not look and act like a certain competitor, but we will forgive that early start approach for the modularity that they have on the go now.We met with Autel at CES in 2017, we were impressed with their prototype fixed-wing (airplane) style fliers, but perhaps more excited for their new camera modules coming to the X-Star Premium. Large CMOS sensors, Flir infrared and 360 cams are all in the pipeline, turning the X-Star into a toy, commercial drone or camera drone all with a quick replacement of the camera.Check out the Autel Robotics X-Star Premium for $780 on Amazon, and stay tuned for more coverage of the drone.