The Drone gods surely must be happily grinning ear-to-ear, chugging moonshine and dancing a hearty jig in their version of Olympus. What with all the drone monsters out there filling the skies and competing for the privilege of emptying your pockets so you can spend hours happily twirling them whirly contraptions in the air like a kid with a shiny new toy brought by an unusually benevolent Santa. Drones are fast becoming a way of life, entertainment, business, and leisure, as well as a convenient means of keeping up with and tweaking the nose of those ever snobby Joneses.
One of the more remarkable creations out there indeed has to be the Yi Erida tri-copter drone. In case you didn’t know, Yi makes all manner of cameras that gives GoPro a good run for its money and reputation, so they finally decided that its past time their remarkable creations got airborne. Made of Formula 1-grade carbon fiber that is five times stronger than steel yet far lighter, the Yi Erida is truly a wondrous eyeful to look -and keep looking- at. With its ultra-lightweight carbon fiber construction, it can heartily break the sound barrier -or almost- at lightning fast 75 MPH- way faster than any other drone. And additionally stay aloft for nearly a century. Ok, for a still astoundingly large 40 minutes. Just think of what 40 minutes of drone fun looks like folks! Pure, uncluttered paradise we say!
It’s a tri-copter too rather than the usual conventional quadcopter, and two of its three arms can magically rotate and fold back into the body for both improved carriage and portability. Yi is firmly in a take-no-prisoners mode and doesn’t care who knows it or what they do about it. According to it, the Yi Erida aims to overwhelmingly and convincingly address the shortcomings of all the drones -premium and otherwise- currently in the market and heavily leverages on their considerable expertise and experience in imaging and aeronautics to exceedingly exceed the current drone performance and parameter figures. It’s in short here to shake things up and keep it shaking.
Looking up its skirt -sorry belly- a 4K gimbal-stabilized and motorized camera unflinchingly stares back at you. This is the Yi 4K camera which normally retails for $250 and shoots 4K videos and images at 30fps. It promises truly eye-jabbingly awesome pics and videos aplenty for either the conscientious professional who accepts nothing less than 100% perfection or the playful amateur. No controller is provided, and none is necessary unless you want to use the Yi Erida to thread a needle in a Category 3 hurricane. Control is thus via a connected smartphone with the Yi mobile app enabled and running the show.
In its bid to win this fight to the finish and corner the drone market all to itself, the Yi Erida will sport most if not all the sensors and features we long have been used to. This will probably include the follow me feature, active track, and only the gods know what else.
Availability is anytime soon, while the price is around $1.100. Thereby proving once more that exceptionally good things never come cheap.