Where is Hubsan Based?
Hubsan is a drone manufacturer based in China, by its official name Shenzhen Hubsan Technology, established in 2010 and started by creating performant toy drones and recently moved towards creating professional and hobbyist camera drones.
In this article, we'll focus on comparing the best camera drones in the Hubsan lineup with the help of my hands-on experience as a reviewer, creating data tables, charts comparing battery life, range, camera specs, and more.
Hubsan is one of the most popular companies, and their offer of quadcopters is quite competitive, but are their drones any good?
Hubsan drones are some of the best drones on the market, and one of the main reasons they are so competitive is the excellent price value and permanently updated products.
In my experience as a drone reviewer, I have seen software errors being fixed by fast updates and their ability to listen to user feedback and improve the drones by a lot in the newer generation.
I think Hubsan products have reached a maturity level that makes them ultra-competitive with the likes of DJI in the drone camera market.
Hubsan has released many new camera drones targeted more towards intermediate and advanced drone users, and recently they have released a very shocking drone concept.
The latest released Hubsan drone is the Hubsan Zino Mini Pro, a drone under 250 grams with a 1/1.3 inch sensor, 48MP, and 40-minute battery, a direct competitor to the DJI Mini 2.
You can check out my complete review of the Zino Mini Pro over here.
If you're in a hurry, choose one of these 3 hubsan camera drones that I think are the best in their specific category.
Hubsan drones are recently trying to compete with DJI in the middle range price segment, but which one is better for the price?
DJI is a more mature company with more money to fund it. However, Hubsan managed to beat DJI with some great specs for a meager price (and recently improved manufacturing process). Therefore, Hubsan Drones are the perfect choice for people looking for a DJI alternative with better specs, lower costs but sometimes less advanced software and tracking.
In this section, we'll look at the best Hubsan drones judging by specific specs like battery life, range, and camera and compare them in both tables and charts.
While I haven't added the lower end Hubsan drones (made for beginners), here's a more in-depth comparison of the best Hubsan camera drones:
| Mini Pro | Mini SE | Zino 2 Plus | Zino Pro + | Zino Pro | H501s | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cam | 4k 60p | 4k | 4k 60p | 4k | 4k | 1080p |
| Battery | 40 min | 45 min | 35 min | 43 min | 23 min | 20 min |
| Range | 10 km | 6 km | 9 km | 8 km | 4 km | 300m |
| Sensor | 1 /1.3 | 1/ 2.6 | 1/ 2.3 | 1/3 | 1/3 | - |
| Mp | 48MP | 12Mp | 12MP | 12 mp | 12 mp | 3 mp |
| Tracking | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Mbps | 200 | 100 | 100 | 60 | 60 | - |
| Sensors | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| Aperture | f1/85 | f/2.2 | f/ 2.2 | f/ 2.2 | f/ 2.2 | - |
| GPS | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Return Home | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Hubsan recently has excelled as one of the best brands producing drones with long battery life for relatively cheap.
I have also added a measure of how much you should expect them to fly in real-life conditions.
These are the longest flying drones from Hubsan:
The recent releases from Hubsan tend more towards the professional drones sector, and therefore the cameras have to be compared at a whole new level.
One of the best specs to find out how much light can get in and how good a drone camera has to be is the sensor size.
A larger sensor means more photosites (pixels) or bigger pixels (more light) meaning either more details in the picture or better low light capability (or a mix of both).
As you can see, there's a considerable total area difference between the Zino Mini Pro sensor and some of the others.
Here's a graphic showing the differences in size between the different sensor sizes of the Hubsan Camera drones.
This section will look a bit more in detail at the drones mentioned in the previous table and few others. We'll also see which one is better for different purposes.
The Zino Mini Pro is the newest and best Hubsan drone, at least in terms of specs.
The camera it comes with has an impressive 1/1.3 inch sensor which makes it able to pack quite many megapixels and have some solid low light footage.
It even comes with some 6x hybrid zoom (digital and optical) and a 37 minute hovering time.
Unlike its main competition from DJI (Mini 2), the Zino Mini Pro comes with forward-facing obstacle avoidance and a follow-me option. I have written a more in-depth comparison between the Mini 2 and the Zino Mini Pro here.
The Zino 2 Plus is definitely one of the most solid drones from Hubsan, and we get a clue about that from the level 6 wind resistance rating it has.
Keep in mind that DJI has a level 5 resistance rating for their drones, so this is pretty impressive. I have compared the wind resistance of some DJI drones on youtube if you're curious.
The Zino 2 plus comes with the option to buy ND filters which makes it quite a complete camera drone.
It shoots in 100 Mbps bitrate which is the standard for camera drones lately and the sony 1/2.3 inch sensor along with the Ambarella H22 Image Chip make it one of the more capable cameras in the Hubsan lineup.
I would recommend this drone for people looking for a really solid quadcopter and not caring about the 250-gram weight limit.
The Hubsan Zino Mini SE is the longest flying Hubsan Drone, and it might be better for most enthusiasts looking simply for a long-flying drone under 250 grams.
It does compromise a bit, coming set up with a smaller camera and a smaller sensor; however, that increases the flight time by quite a bit, making it one of the longest flying drones in this price range (45 minutes).
It doesn't come with forward sensors, resembling the DJI Mini 2 a bit more, but still comes with a 100Mbps and H.264 encoding which is quite top-notch for drones this small.
The Zino Pro Plus is one of the most balanced drones from Hubsan, coming at an affordable price yet benefiting from being the result of Hubsan trying to improve a lot on their original Zino Drone.
The battery packs a serious punch, and it can even be used as a power bank to charge your phone and whatnot.
It comes with a solid Level 5 Wind resistance and many flight modes including, surround mode, panoramas, timelapse, etc.
The Zino Pro Plus can also do active tracking despite the fact that it doesn't come with forward-facing sensors.
In terms of camera, it's pretty good, but not the best of the lineup for sure, yet the lower price compared to the rest might make it a better option.
The original Hubsan Zino is still probably one of the best drones you can buy for under $300 and even though it isn't as capable as its more expensive siblings, it makes for a great beginner 4k camera drone.
The 3 axis gimbal is quite solid and a very rare find in this price range. I have experienced it a bit in the past and I had some issues with the GPS but Hubsan released a software update and fixed its main issues, and now it's quite a capable quadcopter.
It comes with GPS and return to home, and although the flight modes like follow me aren't as precise and well delivered as some newer drones, it still has some very useful flight modes like course lock which I used with almost every flight.
The H501s is a legendary drone from Hubsan thanks to how well made it is, its powerful brushless motors, and the fact that you can get an upgraded controller with an FPV screen and better signal range.
There are also ways to increase this drone's range (and pretty much any other), for that please check out my article on how to increase your drone's range.
The screen receives a 5.8ghz signal from the drone, so it doesn't lag, making it a great FPV drone for beginners who want real-time feedback.
The GPS works pretty well, and it can be upgraded for longer ranges if you prefer.
I'm going to talk mainly about the X4 H107C Plus here, which is one with a better camera and recently released, but all drones from the H107 lineup are excellent little fliers for beginners.
The drones in this category are all quite legendary as some of the best beginner drones of all time and still quite relevant these days, as they are very durable and do their job well.
The H107c Plus comes with an FPV camera, altitude hold, and a very easy to control frame. The LEDs it comes with are also handy and fun to play with at night.
Overall a great drone for kids or beginners.
These are a few more questions answered and details you might want to know about Hubsan drones in general.
If you just got a new Hubsan drone and have a difficult time figuring how to fly it, don't worry as the GPS on it means that you can leave the sticks at any point and it will simply hover.
Here's how you Start a hubsan GPS drone:
Here's how to fly a Hubsan GPS Drone:
Hubsan has replacement parts for their drones on both Amazon as well as banggood and you can replace almost everything from motors, to arms, landing gear and even cameras.
Most Hubsan Drones are brushless quadcopters, with longer endurance and more power compared to a standard brushed drone. There are also exceptions like the beginner series of H107 drones that have brushed motors to make them slightly smaller.
