I’ve owned 12 drones to date and slowly worked my way from the cheapest toy drones all the way up to prosumer level drones. I hope to help you avoid wasting time and money on some of the flops I’ve had and get you the best drone for your budget that you’ll be happy using for a long time.
First off, don’t bother buying cheap (relatively speaking) toy drones. Their batteries often don’t allow you to fly for more than 5 minutes at a time, are hard to fly and crash a lot. This covers most drones in the $20 to $80 range. I’ve owned an embarrassing 5 drones in this category and can honestly say they were a waste of money. Having to charge a cheap drone’s battery for 30 minutes in order to fly it for 5 minutes and spend most of that time trying not to crash (in vain) ends up not being very fun for very long.
Beginners learning to flying drones, start here!
Best Entry Level Budget Drone Under $100:
Ryze Tello
The Ryze Tello is pretty much the only drone I’d recommend for someone that wants to spend less than $100. It was made with a partnership with DJI, who are currently the market leader for consumer and professional photography drones as well as Intel, the same company that makes computer chips for just about every computer on the market right now.
I bought a Tello for my daughter when she wanted to get her own drone after flying my DJI Spark Camera drone.
Tello is SUPER easy to fly. It’s also quite durable, so when you do crash, it keeps right on going. It comes with propeller guards and the props and the propellers can be easily replaced.
It has a flight time of 13 minutes, which is REALLY long compared to just about all drones in this price point. It has a swappable battery, so you can charge up a few batteries and fly all afternoon if you like.
You can use your smart phone or tablet as a controller for Tello. The Tello has a 720p HD video camera that sends REAL TIME video to your smart phone so you can actually fly it using the screen for first person view (as if you’re sitting on the drone looking forward).
Tello is super stable. When you take off, the drone happily hovers in place waiting for you to tell it what to do next. Regular toy drones often don’t do this and require constant control inputs to not crash. It even has collision detection, so when you hit something or crash, it automatically shuts off the motors for safety.
You can record 720p HD video onto your smart phone as well as take pictures. It’s also a fun drone as it can do flips and other fun tricks.
Tello is also a great educational device. If you know a kid (or grown up) that wants to learn how to code, you can control it via wifi from your computer or smart phone. You can use blocks of code to maneuver, do tricks, take off and land with Mobile Scratch Programming developed by MIT.
If you want the absolute best control, it’s worth buying the Tello with controller combo for a bit more, which comes with a Bluetooth controller that you attach your phone to rather than using the virtual control sticks on your phone or tablet screen.
The Downside
The downsides of Tello are mostly a matter of it’s low price:
It doesn’t deal well with wind, so you have to keep your flying indoors unless it’s a calm day outside. Tello’s motors aren’t powerful enough to fight much more than a gentle breeze.
It doesn’t have a camera gimbal, so the camera only points forward. This is standard for drones in this price range, but more expensive drones allow you to tilt the camera up / down, etc.
Somewhat short range. The Tello is limited to standard wifi range, which is about 300 feet. If you’re in a congested area with a lot of wifi traffic, that range will be shorter.
Tello Summary:
For the budget conscious who don’t want to spend much on a first drone, Tello is the absolute best value with the most features for under $100 but along with the low price comes some reasonable limitations.
Shopping List:
If you’ve decided to get the Tello, here are the accessories you may also want: