Potensic Atom SE | $250 Beginner 4k Drone | Worth A Second Look?

[@evelynchan-EC]

The video footage looks still shaky and hardly satisfying. I would recommend DJI mini 2 se and FIMI x8 mini v2 for beginners.

[@JayMichael05]

I have the dji as well as the atom se while the dji is obviously better due to having a gimbal and some additional features, the atom se is still a fantastic drone. You’re trying to compare a sub $300 drone to $700 plus drones. To get the 4K you must have a proper sd card. Although it does lack a gimbal the video is great. I’m definitely calling user error on the glitching, I’ve have the atom se 1,200 feet out and roughly 250 feet up and had zero issues with it. It’s nice and steady and does everything it claims to do. Each battery gives you roughly 30-35min flight time and takes roughly a hour and a half to charge 3 of them at the same time if you have the charging dock. Sure this drone is not “professional grade” but build quality is great, the app interface is very very similar to the dji and performs great. This is a beginner drone for BEGINNERS not someone flying $700-3,000 drones. Someone who is wanting a great quality, reliable GPS drone without breaking the bank. You’re trying to compare a corvette to a Bugatti. Both are amazing in their own class but compared between the two obviously the other will win. Please show me another gps drone that comes with two batteries (total of 60min. flight time), a padded carrying case, spare blades, shoots 4K, has great build quality and the range the atom se has, also beginner friendly that’s sub $300 did I mention in sport mode the atom se can reach 30-35mph? Before you knock a product because it’s not “expensive” do a little research on it and compare it appropriately. Price should have nothing to do with what you think about the product. If I have more money than you does that make me a better person? No it don’t and the same applies here.

[@readysetdrone]

Hi Jay. Thanks for your comment. We took a second look at this drone because of comments like yours in our first video. You're right about what Potensic provides for $300. Quite amazing! We can only speak from personal experience with our unit -- maybe it was user error as you mentioned, but the flying experience was not worth $300. I wasn't looking for professional-grade quality -- in fact, I mentioned in the video that I need to keep the price in mind for a fair perspective on my opinion. And I believe my assessment was very reasonable and fair. Having said that, you mentioned in your comment, "price should have nothing to do with what you think about the product." So, from that perspective, if I were a beginner, I notice that the footage is very shaky, even though they advertise "shake vanish," and although the range is actually better than the DJI Mini 1, the lag in the video wasn't a great thing to see while flying one's first drone. So, I do think it's important to keep price in mind, so that I'm not comparing it to a $700 drone. The conclusion of this video is basically showing that buying a $300 camera drone (at least this one) is not worth that price tag. Either buy a $50 drone, and learn on it, or for $40 more, but the Mini 2 SE. No, it doesn't have more than one battery, or any extras, but the value is better, even though the Atom is 4k and the DJI is 2.7k, the 3 axis gimbal is really a game changer. I actually have seen that Potensic has a 3 axis gimbal on their new Atom. This could change everything! Potensic seemed to have fixed the GPS problems we had in our first video, so with my only issue being the lag on the app, maybe they also updated the app. If that's the case, then the 3 axis version (for $300) sounds like a great deal! I just wanted to be honest with viewers, since Potensic actually sent the SE to us for free to review, we never let that influence our commitment to you, the viewers, to providing straightforward info from our experience.

[@MrMann703]

Very well said, the SE is my first drone, and when I was comparing multiple brands and models the SE gave the best bang for the buck.

[@JayMichael05]

@MrMann703 it really is a fantastic beginner drone. I have quite a few other expensive dji drones but still enjoy my potensic atom. In my opinion I feel they are just biased towards DJI just based on other videos. Anything that's not DJI they claim is not worth it.

[@wisetub3r]

I understand fully what you guys are saying, but what can you buy at that price that gets you better? And don't tell me the Mini 2 SE because its not the same price guys.

[@readysetdrone]

Thanks for the comment. I hear you. The main thing is that at this price, you can't get the results that have been advertised. Either a used DJI Mini, save up for a new Mini 2 SE (about $80 more), even buy a cheaper camera drone, like the Tello, for under $100, to get the feel for the experience.

[@trevorjenkins2553]

I like my Potensic Atom Se drone

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

I've heard mixed opinions about it. What's your main purpose for buying it? Have you experienced any of the issues shown in this video?

[@trevorjenkins2553]

@@SunriseWaterMedia I brought it because it's easy to fly. A nice starter drone for me til I switch to a dji down the road. I've experienced some of the issues he mentioned. I also watched other people videos on this drone before I brought it.

[@readysetdrone]

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate that you can disagree in a civil manner. 😎 We've been getting more people calling us "DJI shills" or just generally hating on us for being honest about our experience. DJI doesn't send us free stuff, and hasn't for almost two years. Potensic sent us the Atom SE for review; for the price and the promises that Potensic gives, it just didn't seem worth $250.

[@fedexgroundispazalinc.7187]

3 questions. 1- how to unlock the flying range the way you did? Mine doesn’t fly that far. 2- how to switch the footage from landscape to portrait? 3- how to record videos straight on the app and not in the SD card?

[@Freakeye_RC]

The 3 dots in top left corner of app will take you to settings where you can change max altitude and distance.Don’t know answers 2 or 3 yet I’m still learning mines I did record by using the record button in the app(on my phone not the controller)and was able to export video straight to my phone without ejecting the sd card or anything.

[@MikePianoMan85]

It's the mics and other equipment your using messing with the drone.

[@readysetdrone]

Interesting. You might be right, regarding the video transmission, but mics shouldn't cause the footage on the SD card to be so shaky. I'll try it without recording myself. I'll just go for a flight and see how it looks.

[@HighlandHippie]

Ok, that’s it! I want to move to Austin where the fun is! This is great. 😀 I have one question, Kris. How do you know which laptop is yours? Lol! 💻

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Thanks, Robert! 😆 I just claim Kelly's laptops and somehow, it all works out. Lol

[@johnnymac26]

my old mum used to say "you buy cheap you buy twice".....she was a wise woman.

[@readysetdrone]

Very wise!

[@YellowRoseDrones]

I love these videos that Kris puts together.

[@Falconurbex]

Why is my video playback watery on this drone any info would help me im a novis at this and dont understand why video playback looks watery ie looks like water waves going from bottom of screen going up to the top on playback can u help

[@readysetdrone]

That's no good! Are the videos on your SD card? As you probably saw in our video, the quality is not great and we don't recommend this drone if you want a nice video recording.

[@driewiel]

It sounds like you mean jello? Is there a setting to enable/disable EIS? It could also be an unbalanced propeller. Or some missing dampening rubber? .

[@JohnnieDroneFlyer]

Kris with a K. that was a good flight with a cheaper drone but i have to agree with Kelly. Put it back in the Can.

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Ok, fine, I'll do it just for you, Johnnie Drone Buyer. 😉 Lol thanks. 👊

[@IdahoQuadcopter]

At least you didn't have to eat any crow, Kris!! I agree the color looked good; the low bit rate hurts the camera. It really needs a gimbal!

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Lol agreed! But at 6:36 I ate some humble pie. 🥧 No crow though. 😅 Thanks, Marcus. 👊

[@mikehawk9156]

Theres dozens of other reviews on the Atom on youtube.All good. Plus 4 out of 5 stars on Google. Blatant Shillin for Dji.

[@readysetdrone]

DJI doesn't send us free drones. Potensic sent this to us for free. We must have gotten a bad unit, because we have been nothing but honest.

[@MikeMillerDrones]

"It's bad!"😂😂😂#logical #glitchforthewin

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Well, it WAS bad. 😜 Thanks, Mike. 👊

[@carlosvieira7620]

Great review like always ! You need to look into the walkera t210 mini now that's a good quad to do a review on.,just look into it

[@readysetdrone]

Looks like that has a 3 axis gimbal, which was one of the main issues we had with the Potensic Atom SE's lack of one. 👍

[@DavidLorenzoFlorida]

*The horizon tilt is horrible! Buying budget drones is like buying those sub $300 dollar guitars. You make it many times harder to learn and enjoy oneself. If the goal is to orient oneself with the basics of flying use a simulator and use the $250 towards a good drone. It does serve one good purpose though....flying indoors to disrupt Kelly while he's recording. Humble pie shouldn't be on the dessert menu. Kelly is right!*

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Good points, David. 👍 Lol 🙇‍♂️🥧

[@BAMDrones-MichaelBelshe]

Kris always up to something! I think the better quality drones have spoiled us all! #Logical #Glitchforthewin

[@chriswedgworth]

#Kellywasright

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

I'm stubborn! 😂

[@txarchdroneguy4731]

Another toy drone; you never learn, Wise Kris. #Glitchforthewin

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

I'm stubborn! 😂

[@SJMDronesMedia]

The best thing for that drone, is ? A Big Fat Hammer lol, thanks for trying but sadly it’s a fail, now go get that Hammer, regards, # Glitch For the Win.

[@readysetdrone]

A hammer would do the trick! 🔨

[@LouisD2023]

Unless these drone would have either a 3 axis gimbal or image stabilisation like a go pro, i have to agree that they are not worth it.

[@readysetdrone]

For sure! Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@user-kazenodrone23]

phantomとはまた絵の感じがちがいますね😉

[@RodneyBellco72]

ROTFL !!!!! Awesome video!

[@readysetdrone]

😉 Thanks, Rodney!

[@JohnCuppi]

Holy sh-t 😂 that drone is super cringe.

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

John Cuppi's review: it's poop. 💩

[@JohnCuppi]

@@SunriseWaterMedia ugh. You know, for $100 this quad probably wouldn't be bad as something for someone to fart around with, but at $250 plus tax... forget it.

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

@@JohnCuppi Agreed, John. I just had to try again 🤣 ...I might be insane.

[@LoneStarUAV]

#Glitchforthewin

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

👊

[@JimBoshart]

A regular Laurel and Hardy 😅❤.... lesson learned = always max out your credit card! 😊

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Haha. Oh goodness, is that our conclusion! 🤔💸

[@JeriellionTheLionGamer]

Give it another try plz!

[@readysetdrone]

Ha ha! The version with a gimbal actually seems like it could be good.

[@gbower1]

Not the drone for me, I'll stick with my DJI drones. Good video Kris. @GlitchForTheWin

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Thanks very much, Gerry! 👊

[@RonaldBrown59]

The Atom is back! Nice try, but Kelly was right about these budget camera drones, LOL Great video Kris, I really enjoyed this one.

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Dang it! 😅 Thanks, Ron. 👊

[@akirasho719]

The return height is 299ft ? The gimbal was probably afraid of being so high if it had to return!!! Friends don't let friends fly Potensic..

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

It was shaking out of fear, Warren. 😅

[@Al-Kwadrone]

I was hired by Netflix for a drone shot scene. Packed up my Atom, got to the set, flew the scene. Received a 17500$ paycheck. End of story. So my conclusion is: user error Sorry Kris, sorry Kelly! You guys simply suck at using budget drones. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Awesome video though…👍🏼👊🏻💪🏼

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

A very likely story, Mathias. 🧐We shall work on our flying skills. 😂

[@Al-Kwadrone]

@@SunriseWaterMedia …got carried away a bit 😎

[@readysetdrone]

We need to hang out with you soon!!!

[@Al-Kwadrone]

@@readysetdrone coming to Germany? Awesome, you guys are welcome at my house anytime !

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

@@Al-Kwadrone I'll be right over. Driving now. 🌊🚗 ... Any tips for helping my car float in the ocean? 😜

[@larryy6467]

Kelly is a rep fir dji

[@readysetdrone]

I'm on DJI's naughty list. They haven't sent me anything for free in at least 2 and a half years.

[@LowryDroneography-Steve]

The drone has been daytime drinking!

[@YellowRoseDrones]

#glitchforthewin

[@vernebetts5034]

You shouldn't bash a decent product and compare it to better expensive ones. Not everyone is rich like you.

[@readysetdrone]

I can't lie about my experience. I heard they made a 3 axis gimbal version, which sound really promising! So, that might be worth looking at. I just can't recommend a cheap drone that doesn't perform well.

[@BlairAir]

The controller modes being reversed from, well from CORRECT, interestingly is more bothersome for experienced pilots than newbies who simply learn it wrong. For the many that say "if only it had a 3 axis gimbal..." something I also thought, but kept to myself - while true, it would also raise the cost of this cute little pup, nipping at the heels 👠 of the great and powerful OZ... er, uh: DJI - almost certainly putting price close to or above say, a MINI SE or Mini 2 SE, making the little tyke's entire raison d'etre moot.

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Great point, John. It's hard to beat DJI! There's no place like home! 👠🌪️

[@BlairAir]

@@SunriseWaterMedia LOL 😆 so true!

[@BMacksAerialVisuals]

Too funny. You guys can act. Or...maybe NOT acting? #Glitchforthewin

[@SunriseWaterMedia]

Lol. Thanks for seeing the hidden hashtag in this video, Brian. I'll add your name to the wheel spin on our next stream.

[@larryy6467]

It's a budget drone lol what do you expect. Of course you can now get a dji mini for 50 bux more

[@Ajtheman1123]

the reason for the range being bad is bc he is using a mic and any device like a 2.4ghz mic will limit the range severely

[@jerrychisholm8565]

Terrible review , seems like you all are negative about this drone , it’s not laggy , it’s your poor reviewing

[@readysetdrone]

We got several comments similar to yours, so that's why we decided to give it a second try. I can't do anything but be honest with our experience. Even if we got this drone for free, which we did, we will share our experience and not try to hide anything. Sorry for being poor at reviewing. I hope to get better each time I make a video.

[@Trevor_Fuss]

Looks like an under cooked cheap camera drone, Out of the box you would expect the firmware to be up to date but compass calibration would be a must. The camera having Glitchie video should have been fixed before release. so I bet #GlitchForTheWin

[@driewiel]

You drone people are all cry babies. Video quality isn't everything. You purely look at video quality and that's it. But there is so much more to a drone. If you can't use it you won't have footage at all. The fact this Potensic Atom SE doesn't have a fragile gimbal is actually the strong point. This said, the guys at Potensic have no clue how to build something the consumer wants. Something a DJI Mini isn't. And that is a hiker/biker drone with working follow-me to film your activities. Unfortunately the follow-me feature on the Atom SE is totally worthless. My $135 L109 Pro is proof it has little to do with the price. It does everything right. If only the video quality was as good on that thing as on this Atom. Of course you are now going to tell me it must have obstacle avoidance and that follow-me won't keep you in frame blah blah. But I know what I'm talking about. Very few people use DJI's active-track. It just isn't reliable enough. Reason why most fly it manually. But with the right type follow-me you can have the drone fly in front or next to you and there it will stay. The shots will also be smoother with more horizon in view. So that is what I think of this Atom SE. It could have been a really nice backpack/bike bag drone. I don't care about the horizon being tilted a bit. I don't need long range. And since you can't see what's on the screen when riding a bike the video lag isn't a real problem either. But it should fly stable and have a correctly programmed follow-me. Now it hasn't it's just a bad alternative to a DJI MIni and nobody is gonna buy it.

[@readysetdrone]

Ha! Thanks for the comment. I guess we are cry babies sometimes, but it's because we have potential customers in mind. The main issue is that when a drone company is advertising something that it can't do, we're not going to be afraid to be honest, even though Potensic did send this drone to us for free. We probably burned our bridge with them, but we'd rather do that than pretend this drone is great and get a few affiliate sales.

[@driewiel]

@@readysetdrone I understand that you people having all the fancy DJI and so on drones want the best video quality. But for most of us mortals it is more important that the drone flies easy and won't suddenly return to China. All I want a drone for is to get some footage of my riding my bike to Switzerland or something. The price of a drone says little about how usable it is for the job. In fact a too expensive drone could mean you're scared to fly it at all in unknown terrain. I rather have a bit less perfect video than no video at all. What would make the Atom SE a great alternative to a DJI Mini is a follow-me feature (yes GPS) that worked in real life. But obviously the Chinese drone people are not the hiking/biking type. If they were they would know this Atom SE sucks.

[@driewiel]

@@readysetdrone And my point is that people here think the lack of a gimbal is the problem.If it had a gimbal then it would be good. But it isn't. The problem is the Atom doesn't do anything a DJI Mini can't. It's a 250$ drone with poor video quality. If the follow-me worked like on my silly L109 Pro everybody would find the Atom SE fantastic. 'Look at that. It follows my on my bike ride. Just what I want'. And it's just a couple of lines code in the app. Nothing more, nothing less. The only other option would be a DJI Mini 3 Pro that uses optical active-track, or a DJI Mini 2 with Litchi or Maven. With extra battery you're paying twice as much as for the Atom SE. See what I mean? DJI has not released the sdk for the Mini 2 SE yet so Litchi or Maven can't add the tracking features. So yes you can throw the Potensic Atom SE in the bin. It's not worth the price. My €120 SG108 Pro is better! Better video, better range, and it never goes into toilet bowl. Budget drones aren't all bad. The ones they send you are bad.

[@readysetdrone]

Agreed, Atom SE is definitely not worth the price.

[@driewiel]

@@readysetdrone A budget drone is 100-200$. There are some nice ones out there if you don't expect DJI quality. We're not all working for National Geographic. Why does the video always have to be so perfect? I am not gonna spend $1000 for 5 minutes video a year. That's the problem with you 'professionals'. You think everybody gets drones for free. Or that we are all drone fanatics and it's our only hobby. But a drone should fly reliable and not toilet bowl! Those budget brands should concentrate on that and not try to beat DJI as for video quality and range. Give it a 1080P camera. That's plenty. And you have to fly it line of sight anyway. Call me wacko, but I truly believe the Chinese deliberately build in flaws in cheap drones to protect DJI.

[@chrishope82666]

#cheap #crap #omg😂😂😂😂 #really #noyoudidnt. #lol