Yuneec Mantis Q

The latest drone out of Chinese company Yuneec is the Mantis Q – and whilst this one has gone somewhat under the radar you can be sure to be hearing plenty about it in drone circles over the coming weeks.

It is set to launch any day now in Europe and is set to be priced at the $400-$500 mark. So in terms of competition it is going to be competing against the DJI Spark as its main rival, but perhaps also the Parrot Anafi and dare we say the DJI Mavic Air!

The marketing of this drone – primarily through YouTube videos and their own website, would suggest that Yuneec are trying to target a very specific niche – that of travel drones. In fact, the primary marketing video that Yuneec put out focuses on a young couple travelling the world with their drone being used to document their travels. Whilst this video is a little sketchy in terms of the finer details of the drone, it does highlight some key benefits and at first glance it does look as if it could be a very good travel drone.

Here is the video in action:

The general tech specs of the Yuneec Mantis Q are yet to be confirmed but we can safely provide you with some pieces of key information.

There are three big selling points as far as we can see. These are:

• Battery life
• Portability
• Voice activation

So, let’s start off with battery life. It is fair to say that battery life is one of the features that most people look for as a priority when buying a new drone. The Mantis Q has a reported 33 minutes of battery life – that is completely astounding and for the price point it is potentially launching at it is a very impressive stat. It remains to be seen how well it stacks up in reality but on the whole Yuneec have a reputation for being pretty accurate with these things.

The drone completely folds up so although it is slightly bigger and heavier than something like a DJI Spark when unfolded, for transportation purposes it completely folds in to make it small and easy to carry around.

Voice activation is the final feature that could be seen as a USP. Being able to take off and take images at the sound of your voice is pretty impressive and will certainly appeal to those drone users who just want to be able to take pictures and video quickly then having to worry about piloting.

The Mantis Q also has facial tracking, 4K video (1080p with electronic image stabilsation) and GPS as well as the ability to instantly post your images and videos on social media.

We are expecting the Mantis Q to be available from September and will have a full review just as soon as we can get our hands on one.