Eachine H8 Mini Review – Great Bang For Your Buck!
We recently got our hands on an Eachine H8 Mini by taking advantage of an old 2 for $20 drone deal. To be honest, we didn't have high hopes for this $15 drone – but we were pleasantly surprised with its performance! Here's the scoop…
[easyazon_image align=”center” height=”500″ identifier=”B00XHPBF22″ locale=”US” src=”http://www.lemondrone.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/41ImlXBljNL.jpg” tag=”blueclsolut02-20″ width=”500″][easyazon_cta align=”center” identifier=”B00XHPBF22″ key=”small-light” locale=”US” tag=”blueclsolut02-20″]We've found that the well-known rule of thumb “you get what you pay for” applies to drones. However, every once in a while we run across a drone that seems to outperform our expectations for its price. The Eachine H8 Mini is one of those exceptions.
Build Quality
The Eachine H8 Mini is made from a flexible and durable plastic. We accidentally sent it tumbling down a flight of stairs – it bounced and banged all the way down, only to get right up and keep flying! There wasn't a mark on it.
Battery Life
You'd think for only have a 150mAh battery that you'd only get a few minutes of flight time. We were pleasantly surprised that the H8 went for a solid 8 minutes or so for us. Plus, we found that the battery recharged pretty quick too, taking only about 20-30 minutes.
Control/Responsiveness
[easyazon_image align=”center” height=”500″ identifier=”B00XHPBF22″ locale=”US” src=”http://www.lemondrone.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/51T0QmqCIkL.jpg” tag=”blueclsolut02-20″ width=”500″]On our very first flight, we were impressed with how fast and agile it was. We assumed it must be in “high” mode. We were wrong. It was only in “low” mode – once we switched it to high, the Eachine H8 really zipped around. Super fun!
It is also a very stable flyer. It was super easy to bring it up into a consistent hover (after a couple small tweaks with the fine tuning adjustments).
Range
We only tested the H8 indoors due to the poor weather we've been having, so we can't attest to the range. However, we found it to be very stable and responsive indoors and we imagine it would fly well on a calm day outside too.
Value
[easyazon_image align=”center” height=”500″ identifier=”B00XHPBF22″ locale=”US” src=”http://www.lemondrone.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/41f0QWMqRlL.jpg” tag=”blueclsolut02-20″ width=”500″]We can honestly say that you'd be hard pressed to find better bang for you buck than the Eachine H8 Mini. We picked ours up for $15 and we feel we've already got $15 of fun out of it!
Other Notes
We were bummed to note that the drone only came with 2 spare props – most drones we review come with at least 4 spares. We would also have loved to see an inverse flight mode (aka, upside down flying) since competitors in this price range carry that feature. But overall, we'd say you can't go wrong picking up an Eachine H8 Mini if you are looking for a fun little micro drone.
Nice review, yeah the H8 is a great little drone.
We agree, we’ve been really impressed with how stable this little flyer is! For the price, you can’t beat it.
Hello.
I bought this drone with two 260 mAh batteries. These are longer than the original battery but it’s ok, so I can play about 25 minutes.
For the range, I send it about 70/80 meters and it was flying, it could go further. It’s enough and it don’t need more : it was difficult for me to see the direction I were flying because of the little size of the drone.
It’s my first quadcopter and I think it’s really good to learn.
For people who wants inverse flight you can buy the JJRC H22, it’s not expensive, you can find it for less than 15$ today at Gearbest, and the battery is a 220 mAh)
(ps : I’m french so I apologize for my english, not perfect)
Bonjour Greg! You said you got two 260 mAh batteries which gives you about 25 minutes of flight time – is that per battery (25 minutes each) or combined (2 batteries = 25 minutes). Either way, it is still very impressive. Not many drones can go for 12 minutes of flight, let alone 25 minutes!
I am also impressed you can get 70-80 meters of range with it!
I looked up the JJRC H22 that you mentioned. It does indeed look like a decent little flyer. And it is currently on a 71% off Flash Sale for only $13.99!
Thanks for adding to the discussion!
Of course I can’t fly 25 minutes with only one battery, but with 3 : The two of 260 mAh I added, and the battery of 150 mAh sold with the drone. The batteries of 260 mAh are 1st prices, maybe not the best. I will try to measure the duration precisely next time (the weather is not very good at Bordeaux actually, rain or wind).
For the range I was on a football field, alone so nothing which could make interferences.
Thanks for clarifying Greg! It is great information to know that you can use bigger batteries on this drone. Let us know how your next flying session goes!
Hello. I think this will be my last comment for this drone because I decided to buy a little bigger (SJ X300-2) and I will spend my time with it first, although I will continue to use it because I’m just a beginner and it is excellent to learn (I can make mistakes without breaking it). So I confirm I can fly about 24-25 minutes with the three batteries. I give you the lengh of the 260mAh for people who would be interested to buy one : 3,2cm (the original is 2,6cm, the width is the same, 1,2cm).
I mesured the range and I confirm : at 70 meter I can fly it, maybe more but it’s too far and I don’t see it enough (it’s unnecessery with this model too fly soo far).
Also, I want to mention that it as only two speed. The first is too slow according too me, even on the inside ; the second is excellent to play outside but in this mode the drone turns on itself too quickly.
Greg, thanks so much for giving us an update and some more details on your experience with the Eachine H8.
Glad to hear it is still flying well for you. Thanks for pointing out that this model only has 2 speed settings, since 3 speed settings seem to be the standard.
We’d love to hear your experience with the SJ X300-2 that you are getting. We saw it on sale recently (only $17 with free shipping) and we’ve been wanting to try it out but still haven’t had a chance to get our hands on one. Let us know what you think when you get it!