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Fimi x8 mini drone review
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The Fimi X8 Mini drone is an entry-level drone with some serious capabilities. Despite being relatively affordable, quite compact and light enough to be classified alongside toy quadcopters, it's not a toy for kids: the camera supports 4K video and the battery supports 30 minutes of flight - at a range of up to 8 km , no less than that.

With a simple but effective app and a well-designed remote control, Fimi has created a strong all-in-one package here. This drone can be flown in blast conditions, grabbing crisp, steady footage, and its folding design means it can be tossed into a small backpack or purse every time you go out for the day - in case you stumble across something that deserves to be photographed or filmed from the air. It can also be charged from any USB port, thanks to its battery's USB Type-C port.

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At around R$2083.58, it's a great deal - but in a world where the DJI Mini 2 exists, we're not sure it's the best deal for a sub-250g drone. The Mini 2 is the best entry-level drone and, for our money, it has the X8 Mini beat in every category that matters: build quality, camera performance and flight safety.

It's a good margin, to be fair - the X8 Mini doesn't have any glaring weaknesses, except perhaps the lack of frontal collision detectors - but we think the Mini 2 is just a stronger performance, and that makes it even the best deal even at its slightly higher price.

These are the best drones you can buy right now.

Fimi X8 Mini price and release date
The Fimi X8 Mini is available for purchase now through the official Fimi store for R$2083.58. You can also buy it through importers like Banggood or via eBay, but the price varies a lot depending on where you buy it.

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It is available in a variety of packages, some with memory cards included. It doesn't matter that if you want it to come with less than 250g you'll need to opt for the version with the Pro battery - the standard edition battery comes with just over 250g.

All editions come with the remote controller, four spare propellers, a gimbal cover, three cables for attaching mobile devices to the controller, and a USB Type-C cable for charging.

Project and controller
One of the main selling points of the Fimi X8 Mini is its sub-250g weight. According to our digital scales, it's 244g with a memory card inside - which means that in some regions it won't need to be registered.

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The overall look - four folding rotor arms, removable battery on the back, a gimbal-mounted camera just below the nose - strongly resembles the DJI Mavic Mini and DJI Mini 2, the much-loved sub-250g drones with which the Fimi X8 Mini was clearly designed to compete. The X8 Mini folds out to a 145 x 85 x 56mm finish, compared to the DJI Mini 2's 138 x 81 x 58mm, so it's just as easy to carry around - even if it feels markedly looser and cheaper than its rival robust DJI.

The battery can be charged directly via a USB Type-C cable, and as the USB-C port is located on the battery itself, it will charge whether it's mounted on the drone or not - a nice touch. On the drone itself there is a microSD card slot for storage and a micro USB port (only used to transfer images and videos directly from the drone card to a computer).

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The controller is much sturdier than the drone, looks good in your hands, and has some clever (if not downright original) design touches: the thumb sticks can be removed and stored in small recesses on the bottom edge, while anything can be stretched to accommodate virtually any size smartphone (and even some smaller tablets). It comes with adapters for Lightning, USB-C and micro USB devices, and like the drone it is charged via USB-C. With the thumb sticks and any devices removed, it measures 165 x 89 x 47mm and weighs 260g: pretty portable, we thought.

The controller has a simple control layout. Under the left stick is the power button and a four-LED battery indicator, while under the right stick you'll find a return home button: tap it if you lose sight of the drone or it disconnects from your phone and it will fly back to its takeoff point. On top, your front fingers have easy access to a wheel that adjusts the camera's tilt, a shutter button, and a button that toggles between still image and video capture.

Characteristics and flight
Fimi claims that the X8 Mini has a theoretical transmission range of up to 8 km from the controller. That's a little less than the 10km offered by the DJI Mini 2, but this is all really academic: many countries claim that a drone has to remain visible to the pilot while piloting it, so anything beyond a few hundred meters is violating the law.

All we can say is that during our review process the controller, our iPhone, and the X8 Mini maintained a solid connection approximately 99% of the time, only losing it at one point when the drone was a dozen meters away ( suggesting that this drop had nothing to do with reach). It features real-time GPS tracking to ensure you can return home in the event of a signal drop, and the app uses no-fly zone geofencing to prevent take-off near airports and other restricted areas.

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What it doesn't have are frontal crash sensors. The X8 Mini has down-facing sensors that help it take off and land, but launch it directly into a wall or tree and it won't be able to stop on its own.

However, it offers the same level of wind resistance as the Mini 2: Level 5, which means it can withstand a "fresh breeze" of 8.5-10.5m/sec. In practice, we found it quite stable, even on a windy day at the top of a coastal cliff, where the wind speed definitely exceeded it.

It leaned too far for the camera suspension to fully compensate, but in terms of actual flight stability we had no real problems getting it where we wanted it to go. It's a well-controllable flyer and can move with a tight clip when pushed: up to about 16m/s in fact (or faster with the wind behind it).

With up to 30 minutes of flight time on full charge (this will vary depending on wind speed and other factors), we also have no complaints about battery life. You will receive a warning through the app when the power is decreasing, and the aforementioned home button can be tapped to take your leg (or thumb-) out of the recovery process.

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The Fimi Navi Mini app is an essential part of the flight process, and we're pleased to report that while it's a little rough compared to DJI's imperious Fly app, it does everything you need to in a reasonably tidy way. The UI is clean and simple, doesn't feel laden with weird options and confusing menus, and the app never crashed on us in mid-flight.

It even offers a 5.8GHz Wi-Fi flight mode that lets you ditch the hardware controller and create a direct connection between your phone and the X8 Mini, flying with touchscreen controls. While this is a much less comfortable way to control things (and reduces the range to just 100m), it's useful to have a backup option.

The app includes a handful of automatic flight modes, which let you set a tracking point by dragging a box around an object on the screen (you, for example) and then having the drone fly an automated route while holding the object at the center of its structure. We've included spiral mode in our sample video below (note that we've speeded it up in post-production). What the drone won't do is, say, follow behind you as you ride your bike or jetski, tracking the location of the controller.

Video and Image Quality
The Fimi X8 Mini is not an oversight in the imaging department. Its 12MP Sony CMOS sensor and 3-axis mechanical gimbal form a solid foundation for video and aerial photography, allowing it to capture 4K images at 24/25/30fps, 2.7K at 24/25/30/50/60fps, 1080p at 24/25/30/50/60/90fps and 720p at 100/120fps.

In addition to standard AVC/H.264 encoding, HEVC/H.265 encoding is supported (great for owners with computers with beef), and the option to shoot with a flat F-log profile gives scalers plenty of color to work with in post-production.

As you can see from our sample images above, 4K videos exhibit fine detail and benefit from the drone's aerial stability, but lack a bit when it comes to dynamic range - no surprise given the tiny size of the sensor.

To give you an idea of in-camera processing, the first few clips in our sample were shot in the default color profile, while the last ones were captured in F-log (no color grading on our part).

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Photos can be captured at 12MP or 8MP resolution in JPEG and/or DNG raw formats. Again, there is a lack of dynamic range "punching" in them, but this could be mitigated in post-production. For a tiny camera on a tiny drone, we found the results to be acceptable - if not perhaps as impressive as those on the DJI Mini 2.

Should I buy the Fimi X8 Mini?

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Buy it if...

You want the cheapest and most reliable 4K drone on the market
The Fimi X8 Mini camera provides impressive 4K images, considering its low price: it is considerably cheaper than the similarly speculated DJI Mini 2 camera. DJI's new Mini SE has the X8 Mini beaten in price, but its video tops at 2.7K.

Do you want a USB-C compatible drone
With both the flight battery and the USB Type-C quick charge controller, it's much simpler to have the Fimi X8 Mini powered than to have to worry about external chargers and AC adapters.

Do you want a non-DJI drone
DJI is the Coca-Cola of the drones world, but if you want to root for the underprivileged, the Fimi X8 Mini is one of the few options that doesn't feel substantially worse than the DJI equivalent. That said, Fimi isn't exactly a tech bum: he's part of the Xiaomi family.

Don't buy it if...

Do you want the absolute best sub-250g drone
The DJI Mini 2 is a better drone than the Fimi X8 Mini, while also falling into the sub-250g weight category. It's more solid, safer to fly and offers slightly better image quality.

you need to avoid obstacles
Without avoiding obstacles ahead, the X8 Mini cannot prevent it from crashing into objects in front of you. If you fear your piloting skills aren't up to par, be careful.

You want the cheapest and most reliable sub-250g drone (probably)
As of this writing, we haven't reviewed it yet, but the recently announced DJI Mini SE will likely be significantly cheaper than the X8 Mini, while still offering good levels of performance.

These are the best beginner dronesyou can buy.

 
 
 
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