Exo Drones Review

Exo Drones have become one of the main players for drone sales in the USA. They have an extensive range of drones for all levels, from beginners to professionals and from photography and cinematography drones to amateur flying or occasional use. Their customer service is has been ranked as pretty good and they provide multiple tutorials and helpful tips on flying safely and legally. I thought it would be worthwhile writing an Exo Drones review so you can get my input on their products.

Update: The Exo drones July 4th sale has now finished! The next sale expected to be Black Friday so keep your eyes tuned.

I. Introduction to Exo Drones Review

Since Drones Den first started writing about drones in 2016, we witnessed how drones have revolutionized the way we capture images and videos from the sky. One of the latest addition to this exciting technology is Exo drones, a US-based drone company, which are designed to provide a unique flying experience. In this review, we’ll explore the design, features, performance, pros and cons, user experience, and future prospects of Exo drones.

II. Exo Drones Overview

Exo drones are mostly known for their compact and lightweight drones that come with various features to make your flying experience enjoyable. They are compatible with different devices, including all popular smartphones and tablets. Their app is called Fly Exo on Google Play or Fly Ranger on the App Store.

Exo drones come in different sizes, including mini drones and foldable drones, to cater to your own needs.

For example, the Exo Mini drone is an incredible drone packed with some amazing technology that fits in your pocket, can shoot 4K UHD at 200mbps video, and has a 5-mile range or 40-minute flying time. These sort of numbers have been pretty much unheard of a few years ago with a flying time of 20 minutes being celebrated as industry leading.

The Exo mini also only weighs 249g (with the battery) and its full dimensions are 8 x 6 x 2.5in (which will fit into your pocket).

The design of Exo drones is sleek and modern, with high-quality materials that ensure durability. The drones come with a range of features, including GPS, altitude hold, and 3-way obstacle avoidance, to ensure stable and controlled flights.

What also stands out with the Exo Mini is that Exo Drones provides you access to the Part 107 course which is now required before you can freely fly a drone outside.

part 107 course certification

They also provide you with the following benefits for every Exo Mini or Exo Mini Pro purchase:

  • Carry case
  • 1-year EXO Premium Membership
  • Extra propellers, joysticks & sticker pack
  • Lifetime tech support

III. Exo Drones Performance

Here is a table detailing the popular Exo Drones and their specs and performance numbers:

Exo MiniExo Mini PROExo Blackhawk 2 ProExo Cinemaster 2Exo X7 Ranger PLUSExo Scout
Flight TimeUp to 45 minutesUp to 40 mins35 mins28 mins25 mins18 mins
Range6KM10KM7KM10KMAbout 1km400ft
Photography Camera12 Megapixels, 1/2.6in CMOS Sensor48 Megapixels, 1/1.3in CMOS Sensor48 Megapixels, 1/1.3in CMOS 10 Megapixels, 1/2.3in CMOS9 Megapixels, 1/3in Sony Sensor5 Megapixels
Video Resolution4k HDR, 100mbps4k UHD, 200mbps4K UHD, 30FPS4K UHD 50mbps720p1080p
Gimbal StabilizationElectronical 3 axisElectronical 3 axis3 Axis gimbal3 axis gimbal3 axis gimbal1 axis gimbal
Max Speed30 MPH+35 MPH+35MPH+27MPH25MPH+25MPH
Weight w/ battery249g249g543g565g623g245g
Approximate Price$489.00$699.00$849.00$349.00$259.00$117.00

IV. Exo Drones Pros and Cons

Exo drones come with several advantages, such as their compact and trendy design, excellent performance, and ease of use. They are also affordable compared to other drones in the market such as the DJI drones.

However, the Exo drones have a limited payload capacity and are not suitable for heavy-duty tasks. This is of course not required if you are a regular photographer, but they may not be suitable for more industrial tasks such as large cinema rig filming.

Another interesting feature of the drones is that the Mini and Mini Pro, for example, come with a live video stream capability so you can stream your flight to Youtube and Twitch I believe. This would be especially attractive for today’s creative economy. All of this of course drains the battery and the flying times, as you can see in the table above, vary significantly.

Exo Drones Battery Life

It is also worth noting that the 40-45 minute flight time for the Exo Mini Pro is pretty impressive. Even the new DJI Mini 3 only has a flight time of 35-38 minutes and that’s around the same price point. In my books, this makes the Exo Mini Pro a clear winner on battery life.

The other Exo models have varying battery life, but they are all significantly less than the Exo Mini Pro. See the table above for more details.

Overall, battery life should not be an issue when flying with Exo drones. They all come with enough flight time to capture beautiful shots and create fantastic videos! Plus, they are also equipped with intelligent battery management that helps you better anticipate the remaining flight time and lets you return home safely. So no worries about running out of juice mid-flight!

Drone Camera

Here’s something pretty cool – Zoom on a drone camera!

Both Exo Drone Mini models have zoom, which allows you to retain the 1080p HD resolution. While the zoom is still digital, this is 3 x on the Mini Standard and 6 x on the Mini Pro. As far as I know, there is no zoom for standard photographs, only for the video filming.

V. Exo Drones Comparison

While Exo Drones are a relatively recent arrival in the competitive drone market, they do offer an impressive range of features and capabilities that can challenge more established brands like DJI.

These drones boast low price points while still delivering reliable performance – making them accessible to budget-conscious consumers. Additionally, even with its smaller share of the market compared to other popular options such as DJI’s drones, Exo offers quality cameras and advanced technologies at often better price points.

The company itself is owned by an LLC based in Wyoming and the main offices are in Salt Lake City, UT so this is essentially an American brand. They do manufacture their products in Hong Kong, however, this is relatively common in today’s day and age. Who knows, maybe if the shipping costs keep going up they might relocate their production to the USA as well.

exo cinemaster 2 drone

VI. Exo Drones Price

Exo drones come at different price ranges, depending on the model and features. There is currently a sale on the website, but the cheapest drone is the Exo Recon, priced at $89 (normally $109). This is mostly aimed at new drone users who want to experience what flying a drone feels like. It comes with only a 10-minute flight time and a 1080p Camera. While the camera and flight time aren’t great, it’s a great price for a starter drone to get a taste of drone flying. It is basically affordable enough to make sure drone flying is for you before committing any more money.

Furthermore, the Exo Recon offers a one click lift off and very easy and straightforward controls. This drone pack also comes with one of the cheapest drone batteries if you want to buy another spare. The drone drone pack comes with one battery, or for an extra $10 you can buy a second battery.

On the other hand, if you want a professional drone that shoots at the higher end of 4k UHD and 200mbps, then you can go for the EXO Blackhawk 2 Pro. This one is priced at $849 and has the features mentioned in the table above.

It also comes with one battery and if you want a second, it will cost you another $150!

Our main recommendation though is the Exo Mini Pro which has also figured in our best drones in 2023 list.  This Exo Mini drone offers some amazing specs that are good enough for any professional video creator. The other best feature about it is the weight. At a measly 249g (yes that’s very accurate), it is very portable so you can easily take it with you om holiday.

VII. Exo Drones User Experience

The user experience and customer support reviews have been generally positive.

exo drones review screenshot

As Exo Drones is based in USA, their call center is US based and therefore open during normal working hours. Their main support can be done either through phone or email and response times to email is about 24-48 hours.

If you value a US based company with a local call center, then that’s another reason to go for an Exo drone.

VII. Conclusion

Although late to the market, Exo Drones have performed surprisingly well and they were able to differentiate themselves from the crowded competition. Ultimately, DJI still owns about 75% of the drone market, however, their products tend to sit at the higher end with common prices of $1000+ for their products.

Exo Drones have therefore hit a sweet spot in trying to fill the gap between the very cheap models that are not reliable, and the expensive DJI drones. As they continue to innovate, we may even see them release higher end drones that may be used by professional filmmakers in the future.