Eachine EX4 (JJRC X12) Aurora Review 2022
GPS Drone with 4K Camera 5G WiFi FPV RC Quadcopter for Adults Auto Return Home Function Follow Me with Portable Carry Case 2 Batteries Foldable Drones for Beginners
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The Eachine EX4 is a low-priced mid-size foldable drone that is ideal for new pilots wanting to learn flying skills. It features an HD camera and a 3-axis gimbal which do pretty good job stabilizing your shots and videos. Video recordings can be filmed in HD and it also offers 3 smart flight modes which is pretty good for a drone in this price segment, around $200 or even below with some sellers. Finally, flight time is more than decent with 25 minutes of flight in one go.
Eachine EX4 vs JJRC X12
There is no difference – it is the same machine that is sold under two different brands which is quite often in this lower price zone.
This drone is also sold under the name JJRC X12 Aurora and the C-fly Faith who actually makes this drone and they’re the original manufacturers while the other two are rebranded version, a pretty common among Chinese products.
Eachine EX4 Specs
- 4K Camera
- 3 Axis Motorised Gimbal
- Smart Flight Modes
- GPS
- Automatic Home Return
- 25 Minute Flight Time
Today we’re gonna be taking a closer look at the new Eachine Ex4 Aurora, brushless, 3-axis gimbal quadcopter.
It is a decent drone and it justifies its pretty acceptable price range at around $200.
If you are looking for some advanced features (foldable, 3 axis gimbal, smart flight modes etc) in a cheaper drone, stay tunded as this review will show you why Eachine EX4 might be a good fit for you.
Eachine EX4 Review/JJRC X12 Review
The Eachine EX4 is a good looking foldable drone with all the modern features you would expect in a drone.
Size
The EX4 is a not a big drone with 17.7*19.6*7 cm dimensions with expanded arms and 17.7*9*5.5 cm when folded.
Design-wise, Eachine usually tries to copy DJI’s premium models and they did that with EX4 as well, as it looks a bit like Mavic Pro.
The drone also has landing feet that can be extended from the arms – these legs are not too high, though, so it won’t be able to takeoff from high grass or similar terrain.
Eachine EX4 Weight
At 430g, the Eachine EX4 is much heavier than Mavic Mini but still not too heavy, just about what you would expect for a drone of its size. With its foldable design and medium weight, Eachine EX4 is very portable and suited well for travelers.
Build quality
The drone is fairly rugged, it is built from durable plastic and doesn’t have cheap feel to it when you touch it.
Eachine EX4 Battery and Flight time
It comes with batteries of 11.4 V and 2400 mA. Unfortunately it is a very slow charge in its proprietary charging tech so you are stuck at least 4.5h while the battery charges. You get 25 minutes of flight time with this battery – just about what you would expect.
Speed
EX4 can develop decent speed with 40kmh at maximum thanks to its brushless motors.
Memory
The drone has no internal memory but it supports microSD cards up to 32GB of capacity. You don’t need fast microSD, a regular 10:1 is enough since the drone can’t film high rate videos anyways.
Sensors
On the bottom, there is a pinhole with an ocular camera optical flow that looks down at the ground and helps the drone hold position along with the GPS. It is supposed to make it hold better position especially if you’re flying it indoors and you don’t have a GPS lock at all.
There are also ultrasonic sensors that are like little speakers as they put out a little sound wave and this helps a drone hold better altitudes.
Remote controller
Eachine EX4 has a fairly big controller, that feels good in your hand because of its rubber-like texture. The controller has a range of over 1000 meters for FPV mode, while its officially specified transmission range is 1200m which can be achieved if you are flying in optimum conditions: good weather, fully charged battery and little transmission noise (isolated places with little or no other devices).
You mount the smartphone on the back while the controller has a prominent buttons for automatic take-off and landing and a return home taster. There is also a separate button for taking videos and aerial images and dial at the back to control the pitch of the gimbal.
One thing to add is that the controller only works with phones that are 5G enabled, so it would be good idea to check your phone before you decide to purchase any 5G drone. If you own a newer phone (less than a year old), you should be fine.
Eachine EX4 Camera
The Eachine EX4 comes with a solid camera on paper but there are some issues with it. It shoots 1080p at 24 frames per second, which is awfully low and films are very shuddery when you make any quick movements.
It does shoot 4k, 4 by 3 aspect ratio photos but the highest you can get on your video is 1080p at 24 fps.
It’d be nice if they at least made this 30 frames per second and obviously 60 fps would have been great.
But even so, the gimbal works pretty well and it keeps a pretty nice horizon and does good job of keeping camera stable but there’s still some jello wobble in the recordings.
Overall, for this price – still a solid camera. But if you shell out $20-30 more, you can get Hubsan Zino that is miles ahead in terms of camera quality but also other features.
It has an 80° FOV and the camera can be adjusted 0-90° for better viewing angles.
It has a 1/3.2 CMOS sensor and a 50* digital zoom function that will allow you to get better close up images without needing to move your drone.
Other Features
The drone features a cool (but not so useful) gesture control mode that allows you to take videos and images by gesturing with your hands.
Like a lot of medium-level drones, the Eachine EX4 has smart modes, 3 such modes, that allow you to fly the bird handsfree, this means you can concentrate on taking better images and videos.
These smart flight modes are;
WayPoint – In this mode, you can draw a path on the app and the drone will follow that route automatically.
Point Of Interest – Lock the drone on a subject matter of your choosing and it will orbit that position from a set radius and height.
Smart Follow – This is probably my favourite smart flight modes; the drone will lock onto your phone and follow you wherever you go. It can follow from behind or from a parallel angle.
As mentioned before, the drone also has an automatic return home feature and automatic takeoff and landing options.
Flight Performance.
There is a significant amount of Wi-Fi lag with this drone, the farther out you get the more you’ll notice it. You can even see in the gimbal as you’ll give it a command tilt and it looks jerky because of that distance latency.
You can fly the drone without the controller by connecting your phone directly to drone WiFi. You run the whole operation via the Enjoy Fly phone app.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Eachine EX4 review can be concluded with one word – decent. It is a solid drone, its low cost and comes with 4K camera and 3-axis gimbal making it potential drone choice not only for beginner but also for more seasoned pilots. If you are looking for a cheaper alternative to the DJI Mavic Mini, the Eachine EX4 is a good candidate. You can click here to read more on DJI Mavic Mini alternatives.
Since this is an older drone, we would recommend to check out newer models that are much more powerful, both in terms of flight performance and camera capabilities.
Some of the drones you should look into:
- XIAOMI FIMI X8 SE Review
- Hubsan Zino 2 Review
- Drone X Pro Review
- EMAX TinyHawk 2 Review
- DJI Ryze Tello Review
- Hubsan Zino H117S Review
- Contixo F24 Pro Review
- Ruko F11 Pro Drone Review
- Potensic Dreamer 4k Review
- ZLRC SG906 PRO 2 Review
GPS Drone with 4K Camera 5G WiFi FPV RC Quadcopter for Adults Auto Return Home Function Follow Me with Portable Carry Case 2 Batteries Foldable Drones for Beginners
Features
| Brand | HUKKKYVIT |
| Color | Gray |
| Label | hukkkyvit |
| Manufacturer | hukkkyvit |
| Manufacturer Minimum Age | 168 |
| MPN | drone23 |
| Package Dimensions | Height: 390; Length: 990; Weight: 379; Width: 960 |
| Part Number | drone23 |
| Product Group | Toy |
| Product Type Name | HOBBIES |
| Publisher | hukkkyvit |
| Studio | hukkkyvit |
| Title | GPS Drone with 4K Camera 5G WiFi FPV RC Quadcopter for Adults Auto Return Home Function Follow Me with Portable Carry Case 2 Batteries Foldable Drones for Beginners |
