GoPro Karma Drone review 2017

OUR VERDICT

The GoPro Karma is so much more than a drone, giving you video stabilization in the air and on the ground. However, there are better quads floating around with longer battery life and smarter brains.

FOR

• Portable, fold-up design
• Total stabilization package
• Tight controls

AGAINST

• Lacks collision detection
• Not-so-autonomous auto flight modes
• Short battery life

The Karma Drone has been GoPro’s soap opera. It’s been a rollercoaster of excitement and disappointment, all of which started with vague sightings and rumors leading up its grand arrival – and the long-awaited drone was then recalled a few months later, when a fatal battery flaw began causing drones to lose power mid-flight and fall from the sky.

Price and availability

Drones aren't cheap, but the GoPro Karma comes in at a surprisingly reasonable $1,099 (£999, AU$1,649) price considering everything that's included in the package.

That price puts it just slightly above the $999 (£1,099, AU$1,699) DJI Mavic Pro and $799 (£829, AU$1,899) Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon; but, as the line goes, the Karma is so much more than a drone. The GoPro package offers more versatility, with a removable GoPro Hero5 camera that you can use separately or attach to a handheld gimbal.

There are also plenty of barebones options to purchase only what you need. The Karma Drone is especially tantalizing for GoPro Hero 5 owners, as the rest of the package costs $799 (£719, AU$1,195) without the bundled camera.

There are even more slimmed-down options. There’s a drone-only kit for $599 (about £470, AU$790), while $399 (about £320, AU$530) nets you just the quadcopter without a gimbal or even the included controller.

Users can also purchase the Karma Grip on its own for $299 (£289, AU$499), while for those who are curious the GoPro Hero 5 costs $399 (£399, AU$549).

At the time of writing, GoPro has only announced that the Karma Drone is back on sale in the US. However, we expect availability at its original pricing (as we’ve listed) should be returning to other territories including the UK and Australia
The Karma Drone is also unique in that the camera sits on its nose, whereas most quads have the camera hanging underneath their fuselages. Seating the camera up front enables a greater range of upward movement. Another benefit is that the rotors and the drone’s chassis are rarely captured on video.