Everyone has to start somewhere, and drones are no exception. Sure, even high-end models can be incredibly beginner-friendly, drone technology is amazing, but it’s true beginner models that deliver a wealth of accessible advantages. Moreover, there’s something suitable for every budget so almost everyone can enjoy the best beginner drones.
While beginner drones can be versatile, you may require something more specialist, advanced, powerful and feature-packed. So, if you’re looking for something slightly different, check out our best camera drones, best beginner drones, and best FPV drone guides, where you'll find many alternatives that will undoubtedly suit your requirements.
Moving back to beginner models, one of the most common features you’ll find is that many fall within the popular and regulator-friendly sub-250 g category. So, not only are these types of drones small, lightweight, and less restricted than larger models, but they can, in some cases, come packed with features that also help to elevate some of the best beginner drones to the coveted best drones category.
The Quick List
Best entry-level drone overall
The DJI Mini 3 offers the best image quality available in a beginner model, with the ability to rotate the camera 90° for portrait format shooting.
Best premium entry-level drone
Sitting between the DJI Mini 4 Pro and the DJI Mavic 3 Pro in all areas, the DJI Air 3 offers an incredibly versatile camera alongside great all-round performance.
Best cheap entry-level drone
If you're looking for the best entry-level drone on a budget, the Potensic Atom SE is exactly what you need with up to 4K video and great build quality.
Best cheap 3-axis gimbal drone
The Potensic Atom is an inexpensive sub-250g model capable of capturing up to 4K video and photos in both Raw and JPEG while rivalling the DJI Mini 3.
Best FPV drone for beginners
The BetaFPV Cetus Pro Kit comes with everything you need to get started with FPV flight including FPV goggles, a controller, drone, batteries and accessories.
Best FPV drone for video
The DJI Avata may be a professional-level FPV drone, but it’s also incredibly easy to fly and capture immersive 4K video when controlled with the DJI Motion Controller.
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Best affordable lightweight drone
The DJI Mini 4K is DJI's first entry-level model to offer 4K video capture. Image quality is impressive for the lowest cost DJI model available, with commendable performance thrown in for good measure.
Best indoor entry-level drone
The Potensic A20 may not have a camera, but robust flight controls and flight speeds ideal for indoor flight make this a great option for children and beginners.
Best drone for children
The DJI Ryze Tello is an extremely basic indoor drone that comes with propeller guards and can be controlled using a smartphone. Plus, it's inexpensive.
Best powerful entry-level drone
The Holy Stone HS900 is Holy Stone's best drone to date and marks a significant improvement in image quality, features and flight performance to provide a drone that's a great option for beginners.
Best entry-level drones we recommend in 2024
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Best entry-level drone overall
✅ You're a social media content creator: It has excellent image and video quality, plus it can shoot vertically, which is ideal for social media content.
✅ You don't want to register it: It's in the sub-250g category, so no registration needed!
❌ You're on a tight budget: While it's certainly very affordable for a drone of its caliber, anyone working with a tight budget might need to consider something slightly cheaper.
🔎 With identical image quality to the Mini 3 Pro, the DJI Mini 3 comes with a more beginner-friendly price at the cost of a handful of missing features. ★★★★
The DJI Mini 3 is an incredibly easy to use drone and is capable of capturing high-quality landscape and portrait format photos and videos. What's more, its foldable design makes it easy to carry around and the sub-250 g weight make it much less restricted than larger drones, which is perfect for beginner pilots just getting started.
The Mini 3 uses the same camera as the more advanced Mini 3 Pro, albeit with some reduced functionality. But the key point here is that image quality and the main features the camera has to offer are identical, as we found in our DJI Mini 3 review. The camera offers a 24mm equivalent focal length, a fixed f/1.7 aperture, a 1/1.3-inch 12MP sensor and the ability to rotate the camera 90° to shoot photos and videos in both landscape and portrait orientations.
You can take photos in both RAW and JPEG formats with this camera, and it can record video at up to 4K resolution at 30 frames per second using the Normal color profile. However, it doesn't support the flat D-Cinelike profile for video.
The Mini 3 is an outstanding drone in many ways for beginners, but with the low cost it naturally doesn't feature collision avoidance which is an extremely beginner-friendly feature. It does, however, offer Quickshots automated flight patterns for professional looking video capture at the touch of a button.
- Read our full DJI Mini 3 review
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Small and lightweight folding design. |
| Performance | Easy to set up and fly. |
| Functionality | Up to 4K 30fps video. |
Best premium entry-level drone
✅ You need multiple focal lengths: This versatile drone is equipped with dual cameras offering 24mm and 70mm equivalent focal lengths, making it suitable for photography and video.
✅ You need more power: Sub-250g drones are great for beginners, but they can't handle winds as strong as more powerful drones such as this.
❌ You need a small and lightweight drone: At 25.4oz / 720g, it's not the lightest option out there.
❌ You'd like the best image quality: The Air 3's image quality is excellent, but it's not as good as that of the Mavic 3 series drones.
🔎 With dual cameras, a mid-size folding design and enough power to handle windier conditions than smaller and lighter mini drones, the DJI Air 3 is an excellent and, indeed, versatile drone for beginners and more experienced drone pilots alike. ★★★★½
The DJI Air 3 is an impressive mid-sized model featuring a dual camera offering focal lengths equivalent to 24mm and 70mm. These two cameras have their own 1/1.3-inch sensor, which is the same sensor used in the DJI Mini 3 and Mini 4 Pro, meaning image quality is fantastic. So, as well as being able to capture more distant subjects, the Air 3 can also shoot vertically, record 4K footage in slow motion and capture photos at 48MP resolution.
Medium-sized drones such as the Air 3 offer much more power and greater wind resistance than sub-250 g models, topping out an an impressive 27mph. The Air 3 weighs in at 25.4oz / 720g, and thanks to DJI's tried and tested folding design it's highly portable.
Larger capacity batteries provide flight times of around 35 minutes before return to home is automatically initiated when the battery reaches 20%, which we found in our DJI Air 3 review.
You might think all these features are too much for a beginner, but with GPS positioning, collision detection from all sides and advanced return-to-home capability, this drone is incredibly safe and simple to fly. Of course, you still need to be cautious, but it's packed with top-notch safety features.
On top of that, it captures great photos and videos, tracks subjects well and you won't outgrow it as your skills grow.
- Read our full DJI Air 3 review
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Classic DJI folding desgin. |
| Performance | Up to 46 min flight time. |
| Functionality | Quick shots, Hyperlapse, slow motion video, omnidirectional obstacle avoidance sensors. |
Best cheap entry-level drone
✅ You're on a budget: This is one of the more affordable entry-level drones on this list.
✅ You don't want to register it: It's in the sub-250g category, so it doesn't need registering.
❌ You want lots of camera controls: The only camera setting you can control is exposure compensation, everything else is automatic, plus it's FPV style.
❌ You want collision avoidance: This drone doesn't have it, so you'll need to be careful when flying.
🔎 The Potensic Atom SE redefines what inexpensive entry-level drone models are capable of alongside great build quality, but camera control is limited despite producing reasonably sharp images. ★★★★
DJI may be the best-known drone manufacturer dominating the market, but there are some strong contenders out there for beginners and the Potensic Atom SE is one of them. Weighing in at just 245 g and sporting a folding design, this is a highly portable beginner drone is a great alternative for beginners on a budget looking for a small and lightweight drone without obstacle avoidance.
The Atom SE delivers several useful features despite its competitive price including GPS positioning, Return to Home, and some basic automated flight modes for easy video capture. The controller features a unique yet highly functional design that holds smartphones conveniently, although we did find controls were on the sensitive side in our our Potensic Atom SE review.
Considering its price, the camera on this drone is pretty good. It uses a 1/3-inch 12MP Sony CMOS sensor with a wide 118-degree field of view. With this setup, you can record 4K video at up to 30FPS and take still photos in both JPEG and RAW formats. However, if you're a more experienced photographer, you might find the camera's settings somewhat limited, as most of them are automatic.
Despite this, the pictures generally come out well, with only a slight darkening around the edges in photos and none in videos. Overall, we think most beginners would be satisfied with how well the camera performs on this drone.
- Read our full Potensic Atom SE review
| Attributes | Notes |
|---|---|
| Design | Small folding design (similar to DJI). |
| Performance | Image quality ok but not amazing. |
| Functionality | Limited controls and flight patterns. |
Best cheap 3-axis gimbal drone
✅ You're on a budget: This is simply the best inexpensive sub-250g drone available that can capture up to 4K video.
✅ You want a lightweight model: Sub-250g drones that fold for transportation and storage are incredibly comfortable to carry.
❌ You require a flat video profile: Professionals and advanced enthusiasts may want to color grade their video footage, but the Atom doesn’t offer a flat color profile.
❌ You need to fly in strong wind: While every drone has a maximum wind resistance, smaller drones typically have a lower resistance than larger and more powerful models.
🔎The Potensic Atom may not be quite as slick as its DJI Mini counterparts, but it’s the closest inexpensive competitor that blows the other competition out of the water thanks to a 3-axis gimbal, clear 4K video and smooth flight. ★★★★
The Potensic Atom builds on the popularity of the Atom SE to deliver a similar drone but one that features a 3-axis gimbal and greatly improved camera functionality. It set a new benchmark for drones of its type, being one of the first beginner models to offer 4K video capture alongside photos in both JPEG and Raw, all for an affordable price.
Its sleek dimensions of 3.5 x 5.6 x 2.3 inches (88 x 143 x 58mm) when it's folded up and 8.3 x 6.0 x 2.3 inches (210 x 152 x 58mm) when unfolded also make it a great portable option, while it weights under the critical 250g mark. And with a flight time of 25 minutes on a single charge, you will get reasonable purchase from the Potensic Atom. Plus, it has a level 5 wind resistance, meaning it can withstand winds of up to 24mph.
In use, the Atom is easy to set up and fly, with GPS positioning holding the drone in position when hovering and providing a reliable return to home and subject tracking functionality. There’s no collision avoidance, which is unsurprising given the low cost of the drone. But, with careful flying this won’t be a problem — we found it an absolute breeze to fly in our Potensic Atom review.
Video capture is always an important element of drones, and you'll be pleased to hear that the Atom can capture 4K at 30FPS, 2.7K at 30FPS and 1080p at 60FPS. This offers undeniable flexibility for beginners alongside the option of capturing photos in both RAW and JPEG formats. This is an impressive drone that's a competitor of the DJI Mini 3, but at a more affordable price.
- Read our full Potensic Atom review