Racing quadcopters rarely look as good as the JJRC/JJPro P130 Battler, an RTF or BNF drone for under $150, but unfortunately looks can be very deceiving as we found out during our delayed review.
The P130 is pretty, but flawed…
We have all heard the quote “Never judge a book by its cover”, well when we first set eyes on the P130 Battler we were excited and a little bit in-love, frustratingly this joy was short-lived.
Available in an RTF (Ready to fly, with transmitter) or ARTF (for those with a transmitter and receiver already), the P130 at first looks to be a great deal. A 130 class racing quadcopter with the looks, compact size and a nice specification, except for what you assume to be a misprint, the 1806 2300kv motors.
The camo-print design is really inspiring and we have not seen such aesthetics on a racing drone before but sadly the positives end there. The design of the frame is as such that the rotating rear props almost collide with the wiring of the flight controller.
The close proximity of the motors to the frame means that only 3″ props can be attached and that results in poor performance when in the air, although not as poor as some other reviewers have suggested – we were able to get the P130 to flip and roll very quickly without loss of altitude.
Poor build quality…
The build quality of components is another concern, for our P130 the following elements were faulty before we even left the ground:
- 1 x Speed Controller
- 1 x Naze32 Flight Controller
- 1 x 3s 850mAh Battery (one dead cell)
Fortunately GearBest (whom supplied the product) quickly replaced the faulty components by shipping spares to us, but due to our own workload it was months later before we were able to find the time to strip back to raw components and to re-solder the spares in place, hence why this review is late.
But the biggest issue that we observed relates to the design of the battery attachment and the overall balance of the quadcopter. The battery must be attached is such close proximity to the 5.8ghz antenna that it becomes impossible to tilt the camera into an acceptable FPV flying angle.
Gravity wins…
Slide the battery further back and the CoG (center of gravity) is horrendous and results in the quadcopter trying to fall backwards out of the sky during a turn.
Overall, we were disappointed by the P130 and therefore we cannot recommend it. Despite it flying fairly well and giving a good battery life, it would require some redesign by the consumer in order to really utilise it as an FPV quadcopter. We suggest instead either the Walkera Rodeo 150 or the new Rodeo 110.
Watch our full video review…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92OLr_StqvE
Product links…
- JJPro/JJRC P130 Battler RTF (with transmitter)
http://www.gearbest.com/multi-rotor-parts/pp_461939.html - JJPro/JJRC P130 Battler ARTF (without transmitter)
http://www.gearbest.com/multi-rotor-parts/pp_461940.html - Walkera Rodeo 150 RTF/BNF
http://www.gearbest.com/rc-quadcopters/pp_356605.html - Walkera Rodeo 110 RTF/BNF
http://www.gearbest.com/multi-rotor-parts/pp_595440.html
Be sure to comment below with your thoughts, especially if you own a JJRC/JJPro P130 Battler.
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