The Xiro Xplorer Mini ($399) is a small drone that's best suited for flight at lower altitudes and close distances. It's controlled exclusively via a smartphone app, captures video at 1080p, and is stabilized by GPS. It's one of the more stable drones of its type that we've tested, and responds to controls well, even though it lumbers through the air. But video quality leaves a lot to be desired, and the price tag is on the high side for what you get. We're still testing the new Parrot Bebop 2 FPV ($699.99), but the original Bebop ($299.00 at Amazon) is still on sale and a better choice for backyard pilots who don't want to spend a lot of money. Our Editors' Choice for budget drones is a larger, more capable model, the DJI Phantom 3 Standard ($499.00 at DJI) .

Design

The Xplorer Mini ( at Amazon) is small, measuring just 2.2 by 12.2 by 12.2 inches (HWD) and weighing 15.2 ounces. Despite its small size, it weighs more than 8.8 ounces, so you do need to register with the FAA before flying. The drone features a black and yellow design. Because of the its meager height, you need to take off from a flat surface—it can't handle takeoff from a grassy lawn.

We tested the $399 base model. There is a bundle available for $499 that includes a spare battery and a travel case. It's a folding drone, with four arms, each with a motor and rotor, that sit snugly next to the fuselage when closed. You need to press a button, located at the hinge point, in order to pull them out, and make sure they're locked into place before taking off.

The battery is housed in the main body. You need to pop off the top plate to gain access. The plate is plastic, and features some splashes of yellow that are reminiscent of tire treads and paint spatter. It provides about 15 minutes of flight time, not at all bad for a backyard drone (the Parrot Bebop gets about 9 minutes). It takes about an hour and a half to charge the battery.

You're limited to flying with your Android or iOS smartphone. Altitude and rotation are controlled by moving the left dot on the app screen up, down, left, or right. To move the drone through space you'll want to hold your finger down on the right dot and tilt your phone in the direction you want it to fly. It's a clunky control method that doesn't feel as intuitive as a remote control. But when you consider that the the Xplorer Mini is fairly underpowered, your chances of getting into serious trouble with it are minimal.

There's no memory card. The Mini is an Android-powered device with 16GB of internal memory. In order to download images and videos you need to plug it into your computer via a micro USB connection. On a Mac that means using the Android File Transfer utility. I had some issues offloading video files in a batch—the Mini kept unmounting in the middle of the transfer. But I was able to pull them off of the drone by downloading them individually.

Performance and Video Quality

The Xplorer has an operating ceiling of 165 feet, but it's very slow to ascend. It's only rated to communicate with your phone at distances of 330 feet, and it's top speed is about 18mph. I don't think I ever got it moving that fast—the drone lumbers through the air.

If you're looking for a small, nimble aircraft to fly around at low altitudes, this isn't it. Drone racing is a real thing, and there are aircrafts built for that purpose. If you're more into speed and less into videography and photography, take a look at the Horizon Hobby Blade Nano QX2 ( at Amazon) .

Video quality is not good. The camera is in the nose of the aircraft and features a wide-angle design with noticeable fish-eye distortion. The 1080p footage is shaky, as there's no mechanical gimbal stabilizing the cameras like you get with larger drones and premium compact models like the DJI Mavic Pro ($999.00 at DJI) . With the Mini, you can only shoot at 30fps—there's no 24fps option available.

Xiro's solution is to use digital image stabilization. It significantly crops the frame and corrects for the distortion, but it introduces some other issues. The ground appears to swim, like waves on the water, when hovering, and if you make a quick turn or maneuver a huge black swath of space intrudes into the frame. On sunny days, expect to contend with flare. I got quite a bit of it in my test footage. It also introduces a flickering look when light cuts through the propellers from certain angles.

Images are shot in JPG. Photos are captured in square format at 9.7MP resolution. Detail is pretty strong, matching what you'll get from a flagship smartphone. But I did notice some blown highlights, an indication that dynamic range is not fantastic. Raw photography is not supported.

Conclusions

If you're in the market for a small UAV to fly around a local park or your backyard, the Xiro Xplorer Mini can seem like an attractive choice. Even though it's slow, it handles pretty well, and gets longer flight times than other small, low-cost drones. I'm not a fan of smartphone control, as a remote control makes it possible to control a drone over longer distances and with more precision, but for something that's not intended for high or long-distance flight, I can live with it.

The real issue here is video quality. When shooting footage that isn't digitally stabilized you get shaky video. When stabilization is enabled, there are odd artifacts and partial frame blackouts. It's bad enough that I recommend taking a pass on the Xplorer Mini. There are some other options available at similar price points, including the Parrot Bebop 2, which promises to improve the battery life of the original. Our Editors' Choice for budget drones is still the Phantom 3 Standard, which is just more capable in every way. If you are serious about a small size and high performance, the Mavic Pro is your best bet, although it's significantly more expensive.

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Further Reading

• Drones May One Day Deliver Your Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream
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• Film Your Underwater Adventures With This Tiny Scooter
• FAA: New Rule Creates Network of Trackable Drones