It's neither a bird nor a plane. It's Parrot's new quadricopter Bebop Drone, and it's coming under your control this December.
I flew the Bebop using an iPad Air with Parrot's Freeflight 3 iOS app, and it was enormous fun, mostly because it was so easy to control using the on-screen virtual joysticks; it immediately reminded me of piloting a helicopter with an Xbox controller in Battlefield 4. A simple tap of the "Takeoff" button woke the drone. It started its battery-powered engines and automatically hovered about 4 feet off the ground, where it showed no difficulty in remaining stable, and awaited my commands.
If you didn't know it was coming, you'd think an approaching Bebop was a swarm of flying insects due to the sound it makes. But even when you realize it's not a swarm of killer bees, a Bebop hurtling towards you at its 30mph top speed is a site to behold. You can capture your reaction with the on-board 14 megapixel, 1080p30 camera with 180-degree field of view.
The Bebop transmits what it sees through its on-board camera via Wi-Fi directly to iOS and Android mobile devices, from which you can control the drone and frame your shots. Parrot wants the Bebop to be a complete solution for your shooting needs, so there's no option to attach your GoPro or other actions cameras. Bebop's camera doesn't swivel or move at all, so you'll need to frame the shot by intuitively pointing and dragging on your tablet's screen to relay where you want your focus.
We'll assess the camera's video quality and whether it can match up to our action cameras when we get a review unit, but for now, the Bebop camera's indoor capabilities appear quite grainy. Seeing as I was in New York City at the time, I wasn't able to try the Bebop and its camera in its intended outdoor environment, where it can surely record sharper and clearer footage.
One thing's for sure, our test footage is extremely stable, and it'll remain stable by using digital 3-axis stabilization, even when you perform the Bebop's flip trick. The Bebop has several shooting modes, including still photos, and you'll be able to change resolutions and other options through the Freeflight app. There's 8GB of flash storage inside the Bebop for your footage and pictures.
Controlling the Bebop with an iPad was fairly easy, but once I got my hands on the Parrot Skycontroller, I could get much more precise with the controls. You'll be able to fit a tablet into the Skycontroller's frame, and connect the device via Wi-Fi. There's a large Wi-Fi antenna that vastly extends the Wi-Fi range, but if you do fly the Bebop out of range, it'll use its on-board GPS to automatically fly back to you. It'll cost you an additional $400 over the Bebop's $400 price tag, so depending on your budget, you may want to see how well you do with the tablet controls, first.
Check back for our full review and our test footage.
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