Eachine is one of the top manufacturers of toy-class drones, and the E019 Paraglider is a fun entry in the stunt drone segment. Simple controls and a few different flight modes offer a skateboarding stance and a parachute, of sorts, for the included action figure. Simple button clicks for flipping round out the functionality. A fun little toy.

The Eachine E019 Paraglider runs for about $30.

Before we started globally referring to RC aircraft as drones, Air Hogs had a rich catalog of flying machines. They focus almost exclusively on light-weight, foam and plastic built toy machines. They do not conform to the quadcopter style of most modern drones, instead offering planes, helicopters and fun designs such as boomerangs. That is where the Air Hogs 360 Hoverblade comes in. This is a three-spoke boomerang that has a small motor to keep it on the move. Basically, this is a self-propelled boomerang, satisfying a dream I had as a child.

Check out the Air Hogs 360 Hoverblade for around $30 today.

DJI found great success with the Mavic Pro, they followed that up with the far less expensive Spark. The Mavic Air bridges the gap between these two, offering all the fun features from the smaller Spark as well as all the pro flight features of the Mavic Pro. Better yet, the Mavic Air introduced a 100Mbps data rate for video capture on a DJI drone under $1500. That sounds like a mouthful, suffice to say that the Mavic Air instantly took the crown for the best video at the lowest price of any drone on the market.

As with many DJI drones, the Mavic Air comes in two main purchasing options, you can buy the drone alone or upgrade to the Fly More bundle to get extra batteries, a carry case and more.

After the launch of the Mavic 2 series of drones, we had to recommend the newer Mavic line as the best camera on a compact drone, but the Mavic Air still remains our top pick if ultimate portability is your concern. The Mavic Air manages to pack down to almost fit comfortably in your pocket.

The Yuneec Mantis Q is an easy drone to get excited about, it packs a slim, folding form-factor, it flies for longer than most drones on the market, it has DJI Mavic Air level specifications and it has a cool trick, voice commands. We must admit, the long list of flight features and modes exceeded our needs of a drone, but the things we asked it to do, it did very well. 33 minutes of flight time allows for a lot of action in the air, the voice control features make for a good time as well.

We understand that this is a first generation of the product, we really like it, but the camera is not stabilized. It's obvious that this drone was made for pilots, not for photographers. That about sums up our opinion of the machine: if you are looking for a fun drone to fly, the Mantis Q is fantastic, if you are looking for a flying camera, this isn't the drone you're looking for.

• Yuneec Mantis Q review

Check out the Yuneec Mantis Q for about $450 on Amazon, down from its original $499 price at launch.

The Yuneec Mantis G is everything we had hoped for in the original Mantis Q. We can't see the difference between these drones, save for the new stabilized camera Gimbal. Superb flight time, easy controls, voice activated features, a compact design that folds small for transport and a 4K camera all sound good to us.

Yuneec understands they have stiff competition in this portion of the drone market. They build mostly for the commercial space, but fun drones like the Mantis line and larger Typhoon hexacopters have a tough battle. The Mantis G is a leap forward for the company. We had a hard time recommending the Mantis Q to users that cared about shooting video, now we can put the DJI Mavic 2 drones and this new Mantis G in the same sentence.

Based on price and camera sensor size, the Yuneec Mantis G best competes with the DJI Mavic Air, which is to say it is a viable option for hobby pilots looking for a reliable drone to fly.

The Yuneec Mantis G is $699 today.

Skydio 2 is the follow up to the impressive Skydio R1, a powerful drone with unheard of autonomy for its time. The power of both Skydio drones is in the Nvidia Jetson on-board computer and an array of obstacle avoidance sensors. The Skydio 2 uses six cameras, with a total of 48MP of resolution, for obstacle avoidance purposes, making it one of the safest drones around, in terms of avoiding a crash. They believe in this tech so much that they offer free repair or replacement if your machine happens to crash.

Skydio is not the only company that has drones powered by the Nvidia Jetson computer system, but at the time of launch, we know of no other Jetson powered drone that is designed for consumer use with a price tag less than a thousand dollars. Of course, the Skydio 2 integrates with DroneDeploy, for those looking to perform inspection or mapping tasks.

For the consumer side, the Skydio 2 offers a fairly standard 4K camera, that shoots at up to 60 fps. It is a class-leader in follow-me modes and finally offers additional control options. You can control Skydio 2 via your smartphone, just like the earlier models, or you can opt for the new remote control or the Skydio Beacon, which gives you some control of the drone, but mostly acts as a wireless tether, to ensure the drone follow you even when it cant see you.

Launch price for the Skydio 2 is $999 with pre-orders in October 2019, first shipments due in November 2019.

Purchase links coming soon!

It’s a bird? It’s a plane…. I’ll stop there, this is the Identified Flying Object from UVify, a business class drone ready to put you to work. You read that right, the UVify IFO is a powerful, if simple, drone by itself, but when you put 20 or more of them together, light shows are soon to follow. Advanced connectivity and as much battery life as they could manage is packed on top of a huge led light, then you stack the drones together when charging to reduce travel woes.

UVify will sell you an IFO drone, but that’s not the idea. Instead, take advantage of their business package, for a monthly fee, you get a minimum of twenty IFO drones and a no-nonsense replacement program. One simple fee puts a full drone entertainment business in your hands. Now you just need to find customers, make sure you abide by all the laws, acquire the proper waivers, and put those drone into the sky.

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UVify has a rich history in drone racing. They understand that the future racers need to start somewhere, developing the UVify OOri as a fantastic beginner's race drone. Slow and stable for practicing in your living room, this machine can open up to over 50MPH when you want to win a race. Agile, light-weight and fast, the UVify OOri is great for beginners on a budget.

• UVify OOri hands-on

There may be less expensive beginner drones out there, but if quality is of concern to you, the UVify OOri for $295 is hard to beat in the segment.