I had a HS720 for some time which eventually was downed by a bird (camera was not yet engaged) and was a total loss. This was the drone I learned to fly on and as such it bore the brunt of my "education." I went through numerous crashes and even successfully replaced two of the wings. Therefore I am accustomed to and thus favor many of the features found on the 720 and measure the 720E off this datum.
The strengths I found in the 720 was the variable speeds, the Tap Fly, RTH, Find My Drone, and One Button Landing.
Variable speed makes it possible to tailor the speed and maneuverability to the task at hand. The slow speed is very useful in learning to maneuver the drone without getting too much momentum going. Medium speed is very good for moving the drone efficiently without over expending the battery. High speed is of course useful for maneuvering in weather conditions on the edge or perhaps even over the appropriate operating range and expediently maneuvering from point to point.
Tap Fly is a very nice feature. Users can select from path or point. I find path to be a bit jerky with the drone stopping at computer defined waypoints instead of smoothly navigating along. I grew to use point and creating passes over points of interest for the best camera stability and video resolution.
Return To Home is absolutely wonderful and very helpful for recovery when the connection is lost to the controller. With the HS720 one could lose video feed and continue until the controller for some six seconds continuously which was sometimes 1000m+. When the RTH button is pressed by the user the drone returns in headless flight at good speed and a predetermined altitude. Whether automatic or user initiated the RTH is very helpful and I'd mark it as a must have feature.
The battery level emergency RTH, which has four notable functions, is something which the user must absolutely be aware of. The first function to be encountered is the return of the drone to 32m max altitude and 100m max distance from the home point(takeoff point) which occurs at 2 bars of battery remaining. When the battery level reaches 1 bar, distance from home and altitude dictate the actions the drone will automatically complete regardless of user control inputs. If the drone is less than 16m from home, it will land on that spot. If the drone is less than 16m in altitude and greater than 16m distance from home, it will automatically ascend to 16m altitude and proceed in a straight line to the home point. If the drone is greater than 16m in altitude and greater than 16m distance from home it will hold altitude and return home in a straight line. I am of the opinion that the first alarm is as far as one need venture before changing batteries. If you choose to go beyond that the best course is to fly high and further than 16m always the drone will have the safest landing.
Find My Drone is a feature I have thankfully only ever used once and it was very helpful in locating the drone that toilette-bowled away in a stiff breeze. I was not savvy enough to disable GPS once the controls were overloaded and did an emergency climb to avoid being treed. The drone was carried downwind some 500m before losing altitude and striking a tree which downed it. The Find My Drone feature lead me to the last known location and from there a successful search was mounted to find both drone and battery which had dislodged.
One button landing is quite useful in ending one's flight leaving the pilot free to guide the drone to safe landing. The throttles are scaled back much more effectively upon the first touchdown with the one button landing as compared to the pilot landing independently. With ground effect of the rotor down wash causing multiple hops upon landing and improving chances of accident. The low altitude crash was my leading cause for propellor replacement until I switched to catching the drone by hand after pressing the land button. With a bit of practise this becomes quite easy and much safer for the drone.
The HS720E I can offer only initial impressions and noted differences between as I do not have sufficient time to give complete review. The notable differences lie in the variable speeds, flight time, automatic RTH protocols, and video clarity. The speeds offered in the HS720E are Sport Mode which is high speed and the much slower and steadier Tripod Mode. The necessity of using the Sport Mode to navigate as the Tripod Mode is impractically slow is the likely source of the lesser flight time of the E model over the HS720. With respect to the automatic RTH I am noticing that sometimes the loss of the WiFi connection will cause a RTH and this controller hand set is not as reliable at distance as I recall the HS720 being. I have not yet made a point to test the battery level emergency RTH protocols, but I did note that the manual does not mention the <16m home distance instant landing.
Hopefully you may find something useful from this.
The strengths I found in the 720 was the variable speeds, the Tap Fly, RTH, Find My Drone, and One Button Landing.
Variable speed makes it possible to tailor the speed and maneuverability to the task at hand. The slow speed is very useful in learning to maneuver the drone without getting too much momentum going. Medium speed is very good for moving the drone efficiently without over expending the battery. High speed is of course useful for maneuvering in weather conditions on the edge or perhaps even over the appropriate operating range and expediently maneuvering from point to point.
Tap Fly is a very nice feature. Users can select from path or point. I find path to be a bit jerky with the drone stopping at computer defined waypoints instead of smoothly navigating along. I grew to use point and creating passes over points of interest for the best camera stability and video resolution.
Return To Home is absolutely wonderful and very helpful for recovery when the connection is lost to the controller. With the HS720 one could lose video feed and continue until the controller for some six seconds continuously which was sometimes 1000m+. When the RTH button is pressed by the user the drone returns in headless flight at good speed and a predetermined altitude. Whether automatic or user initiated the RTH is very helpful and I'd mark it as a must have feature.
The battery level emergency RTH, which has four notable functions, is something which the user must absolutely be aware of. The first function to be encountered is the return of the drone to 32m max altitude and 100m max distance from the home point(takeoff point) which occurs at 2 bars of battery remaining. When the battery level reaches 1 bar, distance from home and altitude dictate the actions the drone will automatically complete regardless of user control inputs. If the drone is less than 16m from home, it will land on that spot. If the drone is less than 16m in altitude and greater than 16m distance from home, it will automatically ascend to 16m altitude and proceed in a straight line to the home point. If the drone is greater than 16m in altitude and greater than 16m distance from home it will hold altitude and return home in a straight line. I am of the opinion that the first alarm is as far as one need venture before changing batteries. If you choose to go beyond that the best course is to fly high and further than 16m always the drone will have the safest landing.
Find My Drone is a feature I have thankfully only ever used once and it was very helpful in locating the drone that toilette-bowled away in a stiff breeze. I was not savvy enough to disable GPS once the controls were overloaded and did an emergency climb to avoid being treed. The drone was carried downwind some 500m before losing altitude and striking a tree which downed it. The Find My Drone feature lead me to the last known location and from there a successful search was mounted to find both drone and battery which had dislodged.
One button landing is quite useful in ending one's flight leaving the pilot free to guide the drone to safe landing. The throttles are scaled back much more effectively upon the first touchdown with the one button landing as compared to the pilot landing independently. With ground effect of the rotor down wash causing multiple hops upon landing and improving chances of accident. The low altitude crash was my leading cause for propellor replacement until I switched to catching the drone by hand after pressing the land button. With a bit of practise this becomes quite easy and much safer for the drone.
The HS720E I can offer only initial impressions and noted differences between as I do not have sufficient time to give complete review. The notable differences lie in the variable speeds, flight time, automatic RTH protocols, and video clarity. The speeds offered in the HS720E are Sport Mode which is high speed and the much slower and steadier Tripod Mode. The necessity of using the Sport Mode to navigate as the Tripod Mode is impractically slow is the likely source of the lesser flight time of the E model over the HS720. With respect to the automatic RTH I am noticing that sometimes the loss of the WiFi connection will cause a RTH and this controller hand set is not as reliable at distance as I recall the HS720 being. I have not yet made a point to test the battery level emergency RTH protocols, but I did note that the manual does not mention the <16m home distance instant landing.
Hopefully you may find something useful from this.
