Following hot on the heels of a quadcopter which also had an X in its name that was pretty remarkable, today we're reviewing another flying
gadget with its own unique brand of awesomeness. If you've ever wished that you
could just tell your RC helicopter to fly and do tricks, you're in luck. We
warmed up our thumbs (and our vocal chords) to test the Flying Gadgets X-Voice
Quadcopter.
In a nutshell, this is a microcopter-sized remote control helicopter, similar to others that we have recently reviewed. Included is a controller, a removable battery, and a USB charging wire to juice up said battery, and on a full charge you'll get between five and seven minutes of flight out of the thing. So pretty average and nothing too remarkable. Yet.
Because also included in that box from Flying Gadgets is a
small ear-piece and microphone that clips over your ear and allows you to TALK
TO YOUR CHOPPER! Yes, this helicopter can take, and understand, voice commands.
You plug in the microphone to the controller, read the instructions which detail
what the chopper will understand, and you're away with one clear mention of
"Take off". Other commands include; go down, go up etc, rotate left,
rotate right, flip backwards, flip forwards, and also initiate a 'show', which
is a preset series of movements like spinning and spiralling.
We can't tell you how weird this is. We're seasoned pros now
when it comes to small quadcopters, but being able to speak commands to it to
make it fly made us feel like nervous newbies. When you first utter that take
off command, a voice repeats it in your ear (or says that the command is not
understood), and immediately the chopper whooshes into life. Fortunately the
controller features all the standard controls allowing you override the spoken
command whenever you need to - something we found very handy.
The Flying Gadgets X-Voice Quadcopter itself is plastic-fantastic.
Even the supporting struts that hold the four motors are plastic, making the
thing very light and flexible. Because of this we found it could easily be
swayed by a light breeze, but also that it responded to touch-controls quickly
and smoothly. In fact, when not messing around with the voice commands and
headset, this is excellent little chopper; nimble, stable, and with a comfortable
and logical controller.
And its only £50. That should be a big deal, because if this
was being sold by a certain German supplier of microcopters (who, say, would 'revel'
in earning your custom - tee hee) you might expect to pay a lot more than that.
Yes, the quad itself is plastic and cheap, but the voice-control system is
actually pretty sophisticated and performs strikingly well.
We'll be honest though, after a few goes with the voice
system we put the microphone back in the box and haven't used it since. The
true beauty of this is flying it normally, just like the microcopter it is,
without gimmicks. Even without the fancy voice thing, it is still worth the £50
you'll pay, and the caged rotors make it ideal for safely perfecting your flying
skills. This is a novelty that you'll actually want to keep for good long
while.
£49.99