Parrot has been one of the top players in the drone market for quite sometime now. The company announced an update to its Bebop drone a few months ago. The new Bebop 2 drone is available with and without its Skycontroller. The new Bebop 2 features an improved design – the company has re-engineered the frame and body of the drone to make it more resistant to crashes without having to expand its weight and size.
The Parrot Bebop 2 now comes with a built-in 14MP FPV camera, which can record at a resolution of 1080p. The camera comes with a fish-eye lens, which is capable of recording 170-degree view. The Bebop 2 thus can see practically everything before it – from far left and right, to above and underneath.
The battery of the Bebop 2 also gets a boost when compared to the original Bebop drone. The one that comes with the Bebop 2 is rated at 2700mAh and is a Li-Polymer battery that slide locks into the back of the case. The rating of the battery says a lot – it is more than double the capacity of the original Bebop’s battery. Parrot also includes a couple of velcro strips that loop around it for extra security.
The new Bebop 2 delivers more than 20 minutes of flight time on a single charge and is rated for a maximum range of 300 meters. The Bebop 2 is also much faster than its predecessor hitting 37 MPH compared to the 24 MPH of the original Bebop. The Bebop 2 is controlled via the FreeFlight 3 app on your iOS or Android device. Setting up the app is a walk in the park and once it is setup, you can stream images live right on to your smartphone’s screen.
The Bebop 2 drone holds 8GB of recorded content and its range can be further expanded to up to 2-kms via the Parrot Skycontroller (which is sold separately). Like its predecessor, the Bebop 2 can use GPS to cruise in predetermined routes or return home with the press of an on-screen buy cipro 500mg button. In terms of data collection, the Bebop 2 drone uses seven sensors, which includes a vertical stabilization camera that takes an image of the ground every 16 milliseconds, an ultrasound sensor that analyses flight altitude up to 16 feet, and a pressure sensor that measures air pressure and analyzes altitude beyond 5 feet. Image stabilization is done via software image processing.
The Bebop 2 however does not offer a true autonomous mode out of the box. You need to buy an in-app purchase of $19.99 in the FlightPlan app to get this feature. This turns the Bebop 2 into an autonomous drone that can follow a GPS defined flight plan, moving from waypoint to waypoint and doing things like taking photos or video, rotating and tilting to pre-defined angles or pausing.
Flightplans can be saved, named and replayed with a single tap. This adds a new angle to the Bebop 2: you could, for instance, create a very unusual timelapse of a building project from above by creating a flight plan that involves flying to a certain point above the site and taking a photo, then running it once a day.
The quality of the video and images shot using the Bebop 2 was excellent. Video is captured at Full HD (1920 by 1080 pixel) resolution at 30 frames per second and has good colour and smooth movement. The digital stabilisation worked extremely well during our review process.
In terms of pricing, the Bebop 2 drone costs AED 2,499. However, if you want the Skycontroller as well, both the devices will set you back by AED 3,299, which is a bit on the higher side. Having said that however, there’s a lot to like about the Bebop 2 drone. It is super fun to fly the drone, it offers amazing image and video quality and the Skycontroller just works like magic. The Parrot Bebop 2 Drone with Skycontroller is highly recommended and thus walks away with the Arabian Reseller’s Editors’ Choice award.
Price:
Parrot Bebop 2 Drone: AED 2,499
Parrot Bebop 2 Drone + Skycontroller: AED 3,299
