HOVERAir X1 Pro Max - So Much MORE Than Just a Selfie Drone!

I bought the Hover Air X1 Pro Max back

in June of last year because someone

told me that it could track just about

anything as long as it can see a person.

Now, all of my DJI drones are great at

tracking people, cars, boats, and bikes,

but I am an avid ATV user, and none of

my drones can track me when I'm riding

on my four-wheeler. Now, the other

reason that I thought this drone would

be great is because I wanted a drone

that I could be less careful with,

something that was lightweight and

durable enough to just be confidently

shoved in a pocket or thrown in the

console without worrying about it being

broken. So, after 7 months of using this

drone, I can say that this little thing

has exceeded both of those expectations.

Now, that being said, there are some

things that I hope 00 Robotics improves

with their next version of this drone,

and we'll talk about those things as

well. Hi everyone, welcome back to the

channel. And if you're here for the

first time, my name is Russ, and when

you're done watching this video, it's my

hope that you walk away more

knowledgeable about the Hover Air X1 Pro

Max so you can decide if it's a drone

for you. Now, although I did purchase

this drone myself, 00 Robotics did offer

to sponsor this video and they requested

that I share my honest thoughts with all

of you. So, this video is just going to

be a high-level review after using the

Pro Max for the past 7 months. I'll put

links in the video description for all

of the Hover Air packages if you want to

learn more or get one for yourself. And

if this video gets good interest, I'll

dive deeper into all of the settings and

even more about what this drone is

capable of. Now, when I first unboxed

the X1 Pro Max, which by the way, I'm

going to refer to as the Pro Max for the

rest of this video because it just takes

too long to say Hover Air X1 Pro Max, I

can honestly say that I was genuinely

impressed with not only the packaging,

but also the build quality of this

drone. You can tell that the materials

used for the drone and all of the

components were designed with longevity

in mind. This drone, as well as the

beacon, the control sticks, like

everything is meant to tolerate less

than gentle care. And I think the only

thing that could actually harm this is

water. So, yes, this drone is not

waterproof. I'm going to put that out

there. Be very careful if you're going

to fly this drone around water. So, on

day one, I just did a simple follow me

test as I walked around. I wanted to see

if the drone stayed steady when it's

following a slowmoving subject or if it

would kind of sway back and forth, which

is very common with many tracking

drones. Now, there were a few times

where the flight path varied, but

overall it followed me in a pretty

straight line, so I was happy to see

that. And then also, I had my Mavic 4

Pro follow me at the same time cuz I

wanted to see how the Pro Max behaved as

it was following me. Now, the other

reason I did that is because I kind of

wanted to compare how they did against

each other while tracking me. Now, I do

want to mention that I did not use the

beacon for these first few flights

because I wanted to see how it did

without the extra help. Now, I'm going

to talk about the beacon here in just a

minute, but in case you don't know, the

beacon has a feature called hover link,

and that allows the hover air drones to

maintain tracking. if you go beyond the

visual tracking ability of the drone. It

basically enhances your tracking

experience. So, the next tracking test

that I did was with my ATV because

honestly, that is the main reason that I

bought this drone. I wanted to be able

to capture some moments when I was

riding. Again, I left the Beacon at home

because I wasn't planning on going

really fast. I wasn't going to go

anywhere real challenging. And the Pro

Max performed wonderfully. I was really

excited that I finally, after all of

these years, had a drone that could

track me when I'm on my four-wheeler.

So, for the rest of the summer and all

of the fall, this drone either lived in

my ATV or on my boat. I really didn't do

much more as far as testing it because

it was doing what I bought it for. I was

just enjoying the drone for what it was,

which begs the question, did I really

need to spend $1,100 for the full combo?

I'll dive deeper into that here in just

a minute. Another great selling point

for the Pro Max is all of the different

flight modes. Now, this drone is

designed to document the human

experience, and the various flight modes

allow the user to do that creatively.

So, first of all, there's hover mode,

where the drone just sits in place, and

then you can set it to track you or not

track you while it hovers there. There's

zoom out, which is basically a droney.

There's follow, of course, which is what

most people are going to use on this

drone. There's orbit where the drone

circles around you. There's spiral mode,

which is just like orbit except it

climbs as it circles around you. There's

bird's eye. There's dolly track which

follows you from the front. There's ski

mode, cycling mode, indoor follow mode,

which has advanced path replication for

slow speed turns and tight corners. Now,

one thing that I'm going to say about

this, when I tested it, it's pretty

jerky and it's kind of inconsistent. I

actually think regular follow mode works

a little better than indoor follow mode.

But honestly, I think the best way to

fly this indoors is manually and in

cinematic mode. And then the last two

modes are 360 spin, where it just hovers

in place, but it spins around. And then

angle track, which was recently added.

That's where the drone follows you from

the side. So, all of these settings can

be fine-tuned by holding down on the

left or the right outer circle buttons

and then confirming with the center

button. You can see the current settings

on this little tiny display on top of

the drone. Now, speaking of this

display, although it's very small, it's

very simple and easy to understand. It

shows you what mode it's in. It shows

you the secondary settings below that.

And then at the very top, you'll see the

omni terrain indicator, which you should

really make sure is enabled before you

launch, especially if you're going to be

flying this drone over any water or

snow. Omni terrain is it's kind of best

understood as like a special operating

mode that helps the drone handle bad

ground reference environments where pure

vision navigation would be less stable.

So we're talking about water or snow

covered ground. And really all you have

to do to make sure that omni is enabled

is just wait like a minute before you

launch. You'll see it light up and then

you know you're going to have that extra

security. But I digress. Also on the

display is the amount of space left on

the SD card. And then on the upper right

of the display is the remaining battery

level of the drone. So that's all of the

automated modes on this drone. Honestly,

I don't use many of them. I just use

follow mode, the dolly track, and angle

track. The other modes really aren't

that useful for me, but I can see for

like travel enthusiasts who want to

capture their environment in more

creative ways, they all really serve a

purpose. Another huge selling point with

the X1 Pro Max is the many ways that you

can fly it. Now, yes, it is meant to be

a selfie drone, which means that you can

open it up, turn it on, you push a

button, and it's going to fly and record

however you want it to. There's no extra

parts, there's no setup, there's nothing

to attach, there's nothing to wait for.

It's fast, it's convenient, and it's

fun. And it's the biggest reason to get

this drone. Now, you can get by with

just buying the drone and then maybe a