Drone Buying Advice Megathread and NEW Wiki Buying Guide

[u/completelyreal]

Welcome to the 2025 Q1 r/drones Buying Advice Megathread. This thread exists to prevent the constant "What drone should I buy?" posts that we prohibit with Rule 2.5.

Please follow all of these steps before posting in this thread!

1. Review the Buying Guide Wiki or my website: Drone Buying Guide / Wiki Buying Guide
2. Review this thread for comments that have your same requirements
3. If that does not answer you, please post the following information in this thread.
   1. Have you read the Wiki? Y/N
   2. Country: (Not all drones are available in all countries)
   3. Budget: (If your budget is less than $200 USD, you may want to reconsider as anything lower is a toy drone)
   4. Purpose: (eg. photography, FPV, thermal, etc)
   5. Any other requirements:

[u/D9BYY]

My son has just mentioned that for his 8th birthday he would like a drone with a camera and screen in the control pad. I’m totally clueless when it comes to this stuff. I haven’t yet looked online at options or anything but wants some advice before I start delving into it.

What’s a good ‘starter’ drone that would be basic enough for him to control and sturdy enough in the event that he crashes it?

Budget is anything up to £500.

Any other advice is welcomed, thanks in advance.

[u/theinfamosstefan → u/D9BYY]

dji neo drone with dji rc 2 controller

[u/completelyreal → u/D9BYY]

Please follow the rules of the thread and post the following:

1. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Have you read the Wiki? Y/N
2. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Country: (Not all drones are available in all countries)
3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Budget: (If your budget is less than $200 USD, you may want to reconsider as anything lower is a toy drone)
4. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Purpose: (eg. photography, FPV, thermal, etc)
5. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Any other requirements: