Choosing a first drone can be tricky. You want something cheap but also easy to fly and with enough features and functionality to keep you entertained longer term. Today I’m looking at a great option, which for me ticks all the boxes for a first drone. Read on for my full DM95 Visitor Foldable WiFi FPV RC Drone Review.

I’ll start with an overview of the features, pros and cons, but if you want to understand more about what this all means and my thoughts, skip down to read my review.

You can buy the DM95 Visitor now at Gearbest.

DM95 Visitor Features and Specifications

The DM95 Visitor comes with:

Controller, which comes with a handy mobile phone mount and a lanyard (4x AA batteries required)
Drone LiPo battery – 900mAh 1S (3.7V)
USB battery charging cable (you will need a USB charger)
Spare propellers (x4)
Prop protectors (x4)
Manual

If you can’t find the accessories, check under the plastic tray, as they are hidden away.

What you get in the box.

Main Features:

Foldable arms increase the portability and make it fit into your bag
WiFi camera provides real-time FPV, accessed through the app
Altitude Hold keeps DM95 at a certain height, facilitating smooth shots and making things easier for beginners
G-sensor Mode / Waypoints make it follow your phone or the flight path
Headless Mode allows you to fly based on your location, regardless of the orientation of the drone
One Key Return makes it effortless to recall the quadcopter whenever you want
360-degree Flips carried out autonomously

Specifications:

Size: 21.5 x 21.5 x 5.7cm ( unfolded, not including propellers ), 13 x 17.5 x 5.7cm ( folded )
Control distance: 100 – 500m
App name: THWiFi FPV
Download: App Store, Google Play or QR code on user manual
System requirement: iOS 6.0 or later, Android 4.0 or later

The Visitor has a specification that fits the bill perfectly for a beginner. If you are looking for a drone with a camera for kids, it should also keep them entertained thanks to the live video link between the drone and your phone.

The drone comes with basic, but easy to understand instructions.

DM95 Visitor – Initial impressions

First thing to do was charge the battery, this was easy and just involved plugging the battery in.

The charger seems to charge battery to about 3.9V, which results in a lower flying time than if the battery was charged fully to 4.2V.

Once charged, the battery slots nicely into the back of the drone. The battery has a case with connections that allow it to just slot into the back of the drone. No more fiddling with delicate power connections, pushing two cables together.

The DM95 Visitor battery slots in nicely.

Upon opening the battery, you can see that this is a standard LiPo cell, with a custom case and wiring, to connect it up to the USB port and power connections.

Custom DM95 Visitor battery.

The transmitter sticks need to be attached before you can fly. They come separately so just need to be pushed down securely. The phone holder was easy to add by using the screw connection on the top of the transmitter.

Transmitter with phone mount attached.

Props and arms are clearly labelled, so you can’t mix up which prop is supposed to go on each arm. Props are labelled “A” and “B”, as are the corresponding arms that each prop goes on. Under each prop/motor/gear mechanism is an LED illuminated cover, which is great for orientation. There is also a rubberised foot, to make landings a bit gentler.

Arm detail showing rubberised foot, LED for orientation and “A” marking on arm.

The underside of the Visitor has a micro SD card slot, but this is just a symbol. On the model received here, there was no card slot on the drone, just an empty space. This is likely so that the same frame can be used for versions with a higher specification. Unfortunately this means that the images and video are only captured on your mobile device and not directly on the drone. This potentially results in a lower quality image/video because the file is transmitted.

Underside of drone showing power switch, antenna and micro SD card slot.

Also on the underside of the drone is the power switch. This is somewhat unusual, as most basic drones simply power on when the battery is inserted. This is a nice touch as it means you can leave the battery in the drone and flick the switch when ready to fly. The antenna pokes out of a small hole rather than being contained within the body of the quadcopter. This is good as it means the Visitor should get better signal and range than some of its competitors.

Being foldable, this is one compact quadcopter. It’s very easy to fit into a bag or a large coat pocket, even with the propellers left on!

DM95 Visitor folded and unfolded.

As mentioned, there are LEDs under each arm. There are also two at the front and the front/back are different colours. This makes flying at a distance much easier, as without lights like this determining the orientation of the drone can be difficult.

LED lights for orientation.

A must for beginners, the Visitor comes with prop guards which are very easy to fit. At the end of each arm is a small cut-out with an insert. Once removed, the prop protectors can be slotted in and click into position. This is quick and easy, unlike most other basic drones the props don’t have to be taken off first, which is a nice touch. They are reasonably lightweight, so won’t affect the handling or flight time significantly. Although they aren’t particularly strong, they will protect against normal light bumps, which would otherwise cause the drone to crash.

Installing the prop protectors is quick and easy.

The camera mounting has an adjustable angle, which provides great flexibility and options for unique shots. The camera can face forwards for normal flying, slightly down for a group photo, or straight down for a new perspective! The angle is manually adjusted and the camera mounting is fixed, not on a stabilising gimbal, but this is to be expected for a drone in this price range.

DM95 Visitor camera angles.

Overall the Visitor is light weight, which provides both positives and negatives. Longer flight times are possible but because of the light weight and fairly low power motors, the drone gets easily caught in a breeze. Flying should be restricted to calm days to avoid any problems.

Forward motion appears to be much stronger than side, resulting in uneven flight characteristics. This was evident when flying in a breeze, as the drone could maintain position flying directly into the wind, but not side on. This may be because of some roll limiting built into the drone and would make sense. With a fixed camera, this minimises the angle (from horizontal) that photos and videos are captured at, ultimately making them more usable.

DM95 Visitor – Flight test

As mentioned above, the Visitor was tested on a bit of a windy day, so flight footage is a bit bumpy! However, on a calm day I would expect to get very reasonable footage and pictures.

Flight video

Flight Photos

DM95 Visitor – Pros

Incredibly cheap for the feature set
Well lit up with LEDs front and back
Adjustable camera angle
Altitude hold – Control of a drone’s altitude can be one of the most difficult things to master when starting out and can make flying bit much fun. Thanks to its altitude hold, the DM95 Visitor is a drone that even complete beginners can pick up and be comfortable flying. Once in the air, all you have to worry about is which direction you are flying in. You still have control over whether the drone increases or decreases height, but the drone will maintain the height set reasonably well without assistance.

DM95 Visitor – Cons

Feels cheap – but then it is!
Stability in wind isn’t great, so flying on calm days is best

DM95 Visitor Review – Verdict

This is a great starter drone for the money. It’s very cheap for the feature set. My first drone (the Hubsan X4) a few years ago cost about £30, the same as the DM95 Visitor. For this I got a basic drone. Although it had a camera, you had to manually start and stop video recording before and after each flight. Video quality was significantly lower and there was no live preview. Having an FPV feed to your phone gives the DM95 real longevity as both a beginner drone or a great present for enthusiastic techies.

You can buy the DM95 Visitor now at Gearbest.