Drone Pilots Are Cooked… | HoverAir X1 Pro Max

This is the Hover Air X1 Pro Max, a

self-flying pocket camera built for

action. In this video, I test out the X1

Pro Max to see what it's all about and

who this drone is perfect for. I push it

to its limits and take on adventure to

get the most out of this 8K pocket

drone. If you're looking for a new drone

in 2026, you'll know if this one is the

right one for you by the end of this

video. Let's get into it. [music]

This video is [music] sponsored by Hover

Air. A few weeks ago, HoverAir sent me

their X1 Pro Max, an 8K self-flying

pocket camera. I was surprised with how

small and compact the Hover Air X1 Pro

Max was. As soon as I took it out of the

box, the drone was packaged nicely, and

the branding and quality of everything

felt really, really premium. Along with

the Hover Air X1 Pro Max combo with the

batteries, the other part of the combo

had the beacon and joystick accessory,

which allows you to manually control

your drone. Setting up the drone was

super super straightforward. Activating

the batteries, activating the drone, and

following a quick tutorial. I took out

the drone for the first time, tested the

different modes to get familiar before

taking it out to shoot and capture some

upcoming adventures that I had planned.

The drone was able to track me with no

problem, and I tried every flying mode

to figure out what each one does. Having

the small compact side bag was a nice

touch in the combo, as it allows you to

carry all the accessories you need with

a lightweight and durable bag. Once I

felt comfortable with the X1 Pro Max, I

got ready for the first adventure with

the drone.

[music]

Today we're going to be testing out the

Hover Air X1 Pro Max drone. This is a

pocket-sized self-flying 8K camera

drone. For this first part, we're at

this BMX bike park and I'm going to be

testing this drone's tracking modes and

seeing everything that it can do. So,

let's dive into it. For the first

adventure, I wanted to see how this

drone would track at a day out at the

BMX park. Lifting off with the drone and

starting to record is incredibly easy.

One click of a button and the drone

counts down before lifting off from the

palm of my hand. The mode that you

select on your drone is the action that

it takes right away and it starts

recording for you. You can get the drone

to follow you and track you as well as

get more stylized shots that establish

your location and subject. This is all

incredibly easy to switch between either

on the drone or through the app if you

want to make any instant changes. I

could see why this drone is made for

action sports like skiing, snowboarding,

hiking, and biking. This drone tracks

really well and it keeps up with your

speed as well as maintaining that

distance that you set. So, this drone is

perfect if you want to capture outdoor

sports from a thirderson perspective

instead of having to strap an action

camera onto your helmet and only get the

POV shot. This drone allows you to

capture yourself. So, it's basically

like having a drone operator standing by

and flying the drone for you, except the

drone flies itself. The battery time was

between 10 to 11 minutes on a full

charge, and it felt like it was enough

for me to get good tracking shots and

try other modes to establish the area

and subject. There's some cool features

on this drone that other self-flying

drones don't have, like angle track,

where the drone follows you sideways as

it's flying, which is super super cool.

Gets some really, really unique shots.

And there's a ton of different flying

modes that you can choose from that will

help you capture whatever activity

you're doing in the way that you want to

film it. There's different flying modes

like hover, zoom out, follow, orbit,

spiral, bird's eyee, dolly track, ski

mode, cycling mode, indoor follow, angle

track, dolly zoom, and 360° spin. Having

a portable drone like the Hover Air

makes it super super easy to go between

different modes and activities and

moving around. and just having the drone

simply folded and inside of my pocket.

After trying some shots at the BMX Park,

I looked for some other ways to test out

the Hover Air X1 Pro Max. And I found

some cool stuff.

There's a skate park just up ahead. So,

I'm going to try to go see if we can get

some cool shots of some skateboarders.

So, let's see what goes down. What's

your name, sir?

>> No, no, no.

>> [music]

>> Trying out the Hover Air X1 Pro Max at

the skate park was a super fun

experience. It was so cool to see the

drone just track the skaters using the

tracking mode. The drone just became the

center of attention and for good reason.

I think that everyone is always looking

for a way to capture whatever they're

doing and post it online. So having a

self-flying camera that does all the

heavy lifting and all the work for you

just piqued everyone's interest. The

palm landing is a really fun feature and

the sensors on the bottom do a great job

of detecting when to land. There was

never a moment where the drone landed on

its own. It always had a safe descent

and I was never nervous landing it on my

hand or handcatching it because of the

protective cage over the propellers.

After having some fun with the tracking

modes, I switched to manual mode to get

some establishing shots of the area.

Using the beacon and controller

attachment made it easy to get shots the

way that you want to capture them. I was

able to get establishing shots of the

skatepark within just a few minutes. One

of the features I was so surprised by

was the 8K camera. I had heard that

previous versions gave no options to

shoot in log modes for color grading,

but going through the hover app, I had

the ability to choose between a ton of

different video profiles, HLG, log, and

HDR. And all of these modes were

supported with 4K recording. It's just

that the 8K records in just regular, but

it still makes out for some beautiful

shots with ultra crisp quality. For most

beginner creators, this is not going to

matter so much. But for more

professional creators who are looking

for that log and HLG profiles, this is a

huge feature. So, I was really glad to

see it inside of the camera. We just ran

into a couple of amazing guys and they

helped us shoot some awesome

skateboarding stuff at the skate park

behind me. The Hover Air was so

interesting to use in this situation

because I saw some of the things where

it kind of had a little bit of a

limitation. When the drone was really

close and there were certain movements

where things change directions, the

drone would lose connection. Overall, it

was really really awesome experience. It

was so fun for everyone to fly. This is

such a great drone for people who want

to capture like everyday activities or

sports that they're into. I think this

is a really sweet drone to have to be

able to capture everything in a way

where you don't have to worry about

controlling it all the time. This drone

had a few bumpins to different columns

and like obstacles around the way. The

protection over the propellers allowed

it to stay safe and not damage the drone

and not break it. Cycling through the

different modes on the drone makes it

super super easy to capture whatever you

want. Whether you want the drone to

follow you or sidetrack you or orbit

around you to do more establishing

shots. If you want something like super

inspecific, you can just do manual mode

and use a really really easy to setup

controller to just get the shots that

you really need without any sort of

tracking and just having full control

over the drone, which is pretty sweet.