Syma X12S Nano 6-Axis Gyro 4CH RC Quadcopter with Protection Guard, Color White

Bought this as a Christmas present for my 8 year old son as an "intro" to flying quad copters. There are so many possible disastrous outcomes with buying an inexpensive toy grade item like this for Christmas. My main fear was a product that may break within 5 minutes, leading to a very upset child. Nearly a week later, and the little X12S is still running like a champ. This thing has taken some rather significant crashes and so far has handled them all.Flying:If you are new to flying RC quads like this, start slow and small. We started with getting familiar with small liftoffs and land. Liftoff and land. Get used to the controls of the throttle. Move your way up to adjusting trim to get stable flight at low altitudes (about 1-3 feet). Then gradually start working your way up to flying around the house. This thing has a nice, slow turn rate so flying indoors is a breeze. But you can bump it up to high speed and really zip around the house. Once my son figured out how to do the flips and tricks, that is about all he does now. Makes it super fun. And finally, the headless mode also is a convenient feature when you start really zipping around in confined spaces.Battery life:I haven't timed it, but we usually get a good 5 minutes (give or take) out of a battery charge. Enough for a decent flight time around the house to practice some skills. The charger cable is kind of a loose feeling connection, but so far works fine. In about 45 minutes or so, it is ready for another run. I've read to let the battery cool before charging to give optimum life. I've noticed no degradation yet. At about the 4 minute point in a session, you can tell it loses some of its oomph. It has a hard time maintaining altitude, especially after a flip. Any downward momentum will really take several feet to regain lift. But it also works as a "2 minute warning" so to speak. You can tell you're about to run out of juice. Finally, it will end up going down and the lights flash telling you to take a break and charge it up.Durability:As I mentioned, this thing has taken some heavy crashes. Straight out drops from 15 feet to the hardwood floor. Hard hits into curtains, house plants, etc. The prop guards really help protect the props, but they are held in by two tiny little plastic tabs that seem to start wearing out but so far are still hanging on. Obviously, the goal is to NOT crash, but this is a beginner's quad copter so that is inevitable. Flying inside, the rotors do pick up hairs and fuzz. Simply slide off a prop, clean the shaft and you are back in business. We did have one motor get a stiff spot and wouldn't turn around. After some fiddling (no other way to explain it) it started loosening up and is finally going again like nothing happened. I do fear that eventually that will just be the end of a motor and due to no real spare parts for this, that will be the end of the whole thing.Overall:It is hard to complain about anything with this quad copter. At this price it has done everything you could ask of it. It performs and handles fantastic... not like some things that you get cheap and don't even do the basic job they are supposed to do. This isn't "cheap" ... it is "inexpensive". There is a lot crammed in a tiny package. If this finally wears out, we will just get another one. But considering that we are getting to be better "pilots" now, the next one will hopefully take a significantly reduced beating. While I DID say it was for my son, I do say "we" a lot. I'm not sure who flies it more, me or him. This is great for young kids but also just plain super fun around the house for the grown up kid too. We are definitely going to be getting more into this hobby and trying out some bigger and different versions now. I can't recommend this toy enough.

I'm very disappointed with the model X12S. I bought two of them and ended up with a third when the red model X12 I ordered turned out to be a model X12S. None of them fly well no matter how many times I try resetting or trimming. I have a green model X12 and it is a dream to fly. The Red model X12S takes one off in one direction and no matter what you do with the right joystick it just keeps going in that same direction. Its like it takes only one directional control input and ignores any after that. The two white X12S cannot be trimmed to be very stable with the right joystick centered and also do not seem to respond well to the remote control. Maybe the problem is with the remote control. I don't really know. If it was only one of the three that had a problem I'd be less disappointed, but it is all three so I think it's just a bad design. I also noticed they now have the red LEDs at the front of the aircraft which really confuses anyone who typically flies other craft that have red at the rear. If you order a model X12 and end up with an X12S, don't open it, just send it back. If you are looking to buy a model X12S be aware.Update (To be fair): One of the two white X12S was able to pair with one of the remotes that came with one of the other X12S models and can be flown with some consistency.

It was easy to use, just not as easy to find once a gust of wind takes it through. Also don't get too far from it or something else can interfere with it and send it down crashing in someone else's backyard which happened to me also..

I first picked up one of these because I wanted to get familiar with quadcopter controls before I moved up to a larger, more powerful model for outdoor flying. I figured that once I had a bigger quad this little Syma wouldn't see very much action, but actually I fly it every day that I fly my larger quads. Usually I fly it first thing as a warm-up just to get my eye-hand coordination and muscle memory reset for quad controls. It's also a terrific indoor flyer on days when it's too windy or rainy to fly outside. I've crashed it countless times and it's still going strong.Pros:1. Super durable. I've flown mine into walls, ceilings, trees, rooftops, grass, sidewalks, furniture...still flies like a champ. The included prop guards help a LOT.2. Nice and stable in the air, and the trim controls work.3. So cheap that buying one is kind of a no-brainer. I have a big circle of family and friends for whom a typical gift is about twenty bucks. This quad is now my standby "Hey, what should I get that guy?" present.4. Easy to fly even for kids. Within just a couple of days, my son was flying as well or better than I can. Go to the dollar store for some tiki poles and hula hoops and make your own race gates.Cons:1. Battery is internal, not swappable. I know that's par for the course for nanos but there are other models with 100 mAh batteries that are swappable. Basically you get to fly for 5-7 minutes, depending on how hard (and how continuously) you push the motors, then not fly for several times longer while it charges. Bottom line, if this is your only quad you'll get bored quickly waiting for it to recharge. Solutions are to buy two of these and fly them back to back, or get some more quads and use this as your warm-up or cool-down quad, or - what I did - do both!2. The charging cable is not great. It still charges the quad, but the red light that is supposed to flash when the quad is charged has gotten wonky. Sometimes it shines continuously, sometimes nothing, sometimes flashing. Whatever it's doing, it usually shows some kind of change in behavior when the quad is fully charged, so there's that. Beyond fixing the innards, one obvious improvement would be to have the top and bottom of both the USB plug and the quad plug more obviously marked. I marked mine with Sharpie, but c'mon, this is an easy fix that should have been implemented at the design stage.3. Requires really still air. Even indoors, it can get into trouble if it flies into a stream of air from the AC or a fan. Outdoors, it's fine on still days but even a negligible breeze will shove it around pretty good. And don't try flying very high if there's any wind at all, that's a good way to lose your quad, as a zillion YouTube videos attest.Main tips for happy flying are, first, don't fly with mangled props. When the props get so beat up that the quad is hard to control, swap them out for a new set. If you've been flying on bent props for a while, it's like getting a whole new quad. Second, don't burn out the motors by trying to spin them when the props are blocked or caught. If your quad's headed for trouble, just chop the throttle and let it fall.This isn't really a con, but I am a bit concerned about longevity. Motors on these little guys don't last forever, and I haven't seen a lot of spare parts or documentation on how to repair this model. Hopefully it is repairable when one of the motors eventually goes down. I'll report back when that happens. Until then, it's happy flying for me, and hopefully for you, too.