Yuneec Typhoon-H vs DJI Phantom 4

Yuneec Typhoon-H vs DJI Phantom 4

First off, both drones are very well built and both drones are excellent machines for the beginner pilot. They are priced very similarly, yet both have some advantages and disadvantages over the other. Here are a few of them:

Rotors/Motors: The Phantom 4 has four propellers and the Typhoon-H has 6. This means that the Phantom 4 is smaller and less complicated than the Typhoon-H, but it does not offer the redundancy of the Typhoon-H (should a motor or propeller fail mid-flight). If small form factor is important, the Phantom 4 would be a good choice. If increased redundancy is important, the 6 motor setup of the Typhoon-H is probably the way to go. 

Landing Gear: One of the big selling points on the Typhoon-H is the retractable landing gear, which allows you to pan the camera 360 degrees without getting any landing gear in the shot. However, this is more important for a dual operator setup (pilot and gimbal operator), whereas a single operator will probably do just fine turning the Phantom 4 instead of panning the camera separately from the drone. If you plan on doing fairly simple shots where no panning or elaborate camera moves are required, the Phantom 4 is probably your machine. If you plan on doing more complex or dynamic camera moves with a dual operator setup, the Typhoon-H fits the bill.

Controller: The beauty of the Typhoon-H ST-16 controller is that it already has a screen/display built right into the controller. It is actually a fully featured built-in Android tablet with a nice clear display. The controller on the Typhoon-H is much bigger than the one for the Phantom 4, but is packed with great features such as a turtle-to-rabbit slider that makes the drone as docile or as quick as you want simply by sliding a switch. It also has a modular antenna system which allows for quick antenna changes should you want more range. The nice thing about the Phantom 4 controller is how compact it is compared to the Typhoon-H unit, it folds up nicely and does not require a lot of space. It does however require that you have a separate smartphone or tablet to view your live video downlink or adjust any of the drones' parameters, which does add significant cost to the overall package if you do not already have one. 

Third-Party Software: For now (July 2016) the win goes to the Phantom 4, as it supports a wide array of mapping and advanced flying apps, such as Drone Deploy, Maps-Made-Easy, Litchi and much more. However, with the exploding popularity of the Typhoon-H, it will probably not be far behind in supporting these programs. A recent firmware update for the Typhoon-H allows access to all the EXIF and GEOTIFF data attached to the photos taken with the Typhoon-H, which in turn will allow third party apps to use this for mapping and flight planning. 

Obstacle Avoidance: The Phantom 4 uses a visual obstacle avoidance system using two small cameras. Although very effective, this system does not work at night or in very low light. The Typhoon-H uses an ultrasonic system which uses sound waves (similar to sonar that a bat uses), and is not affected by low light. Both have forward obstacle avoidance only. We have to give the edge to the obstacle avoidance system on the Typhoon-H.

 

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