I've got my own flying drone. I'm basically the CIA and a spaceman all in one civilian package. I'm going to fly a drone, I'm going to get arrested, and I'm going to be a hero." After pulling one of Parrot's AR Drones out of the box and experiencing this understandable reaction, you start to think about what you're really dealing with—a flying robot, controlled by your phone, with a camera that records the world below as if you're sitting in a tiny cockpit.An affordable four-prop remote-controlled drone with an HD camera and a wide-angle lens.Aviation dabblers who want to look over their neighbors' fences.DesignAn insectoid pod, about one square foot, with an orange color scheme near the toy end of the aesthetic spectrum.Using ItThe first minute is magical—with a single button press, your own little drone hops a meter into the air. And just sits there. Next, you fly that fucker right into a wall.The Best PartIt's a flying drone with a built-in camera. You own a drone.Tragic FlawNeither of the cameras—the front facing 720p one or the lower-resolution cam that points straight down—are any sort of magic.

(Think cell phone camera from 5 years ago.)The tilt-to-control flight interface is so instinctive that it is borderline overwhelming. It tilts just like I tilt my phone?Test NotesFlying an AR Drone makes you feel like a robotic Peeping Tom crossed with a cybernetic monk with a splash of soon-to-be-killed Call of Duty side-story operative.I broke the hell out of the Styrofoam indoor hull pretty much as soon as I started screwing around with it.You can buy replacement hulls for about $45—a lot of scratch for something that's almost certainly going to be trashed multiple times, especially by a novice. (Good news: glue is still available.)I lost it off the roof of a midtown NYC building. I let it fly too far away from me and it stopped responding to my commands. It drifted slowly in the breeze until it ran into a building and fell about 20 feet onto a skylight. From there, I was able to get it to respond, and I guided it onto the ground. The claimed outside range of the Wi-Fi connection—200 feet—isn't as far as you might think.

Parrot didn't seem very on the ball when it came to actually supporting its product after its launch, as a quick scan of the AR Drone forum will uncover. Not all the features promised in the 2.0 version have been released yet; updated firmware has actually caused drones to "drop altitude abruptly"; developers trying to use the AR Drone API complain of a lack of feedback from Parrot engineers. It didn't engender a lot of confidence in your $300 purchase. (Parrot seems to have improved in the last couple of weeks, having released new firmware.)There are some really interesting hacks—especially ones that turn the AR Drone into a hunter-seeker. Others can track objects, or even follow you like a pet. Why hasn't Parrot hasn't included those out of the box?If you really want to buy a drone to capture high-quality footage, you'd be better off buying a rig purpose-built for it. Some $1,000+ models now have six-axis DSLR mounts as options (and the horsepower to haul them).The app can save video files to your phone (and even upload them to YouTube), but another option is saving directly to a USB stick that can be nestled inside the flight body.

This saves at a higher bitrate, with no potential dropped frames due to Wi-Fi issues. One caveat: finding a USB stick that the AR Drone will recognize. It took me a few before I found one that would record—and I happened to have a hot crash right after plugging it in. Unfortunately, I don't have video of that crash. The hard shut-down disrupted the writing of the file. Sometimes having a record of your big failure can ease the embarrassment.macdev drone dx oled boardThe indoor hull's four Styrofoam hoops, meant protect the rotors, break with very little force. ar drone battery reviewHow about thin loops of wire? macdev drone dx vs alien invasionFlexible but sturdy plastic ribs?Should You Buy It?As far as drones go, you're not going to get much more accessible or inexpensive as the AR Drone.

But it's still three bills—and Parrot's shortcomings on service aren't instilling consumer confidence. Updated software is meant to fix the loss-of-altitude problems that have plagued the first runs. But since my test drone is waiting on replacement gears (due to an unfortunate decision to let an intern attempt to fly it on the High Line in Manhattan), I can't verify if Parrot has worked out all the kinks. Flying a drone is a lot of fun, and you can get some decent video out of the Parrot's camera. Provided you have the disposable income and free time to justify it, the AR.Drone 2.0 is a satisfying purchase. Whatever you do, just be prepared for the inevitable crash—and the possibility of lost footage or additional costs to repair the damage.Drone 2.0 SpecsCamera: 720p 30fps HD Lens: 92-degree diagonal wide angle Processor: 1 GHz 32-bit ARM Cortex A8 Weight: 380 grams with outdoor hull; 420 grams with Styrofoam indoor hull Motors: 4 brushless 14.5-watt, 28,500 RPM inrunner motors

Battery: 3 elements 1,000 mA/hour LiPo rechargeableThere isn't a whole lot of wiggle room between toy helicopters/quadricopters and enthusiast remote controlled helicopters. The former are inexpensive toys that often cost less than $100 and are often really difficult to fly. The latter are extremely expensive devices for hobbyists that require a lot of room and safety precautions. Drone 2.0 sits in the middle; it's a $299.99 ($369.99 for the Power Edition with two extended batteries) quadricopter you control with your smartphone or tablet. Drone features two built-in cameras, is easy to fly, and can be controlled without too much danger of it flipping over or smashing into things. If you want a satisfying flying toy that can take photos and (silent) videos and makes you feel like a gadget genius for controlling it with your mobile device, the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is a dream toy. App-Controlled DroneThe drone itself is a plastic quadricopter with four plastic rotors. Two styrofoam bodies are included: an indoor body with foam rings surrounding the rotors, and an outdoor body that keeps the rotors exposed.

The bodies slip right over the drone frame and stay securely in place with a little pressure. The drone doesn't have a power switch; it's activated by plugging in a battery, setting it in the battery slot, and setting the body over it.Drone 2.0 doesn't come with any sort of controller, because it relies on an Android or iOS device connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot the drone generates. Yes, you need a tablet or smartphone to pilot it. On the other hand, it means whatever you use to control it can double as a point-of-view display for the drone's onboard cameras, and that you can customize how the drone behaves based on the controls. The app uses a two-"stick" control system by default, using the left stick (an area on the touch screen you can move in four directions) to control elevation and the drone's direction, or yaw, and the right stick (another four-directional area) to move the drone forward, backward, left, or right relative to either where it is currently facing or relative to a universal direction set when you turn the drone on.

If you have an Nvidia Shield portable gaming device, you can control the AR.Drone 2.0 with its physical analog sticks, which makes piloting the drone feel more responsive. Camera FunctionYou can record whatever the AR.Drone 2.0 sees through its forward- or down-facing camera in 720p quality. The mobile app handles all recording and storage, so any video or photos you take are automatically added to your smartphone or tablet; the drone doesn't have any onboard storage. It doesn't record sound, because the drone's rotors would drown out any audio it could capture. Video quality is decent indoors, but don't expect anything better than what you'd shoot with an inexpensive smartphone.FreeFlight software is your main method of both piloting and recording video from the AR.Drone 2.0, and it's the simplest way to update the drone's firmware. It can also map out and geotag your flights, upload your photos and videos to Parrot's AR.Drone Academy service, and browse other users' photos and videos.

FlyingBoth flying and shooting movies and photos with the AR.Drone 2.0 is surprisingly intuitive. The drone does a very good job of staying stable in the air, hovering consistently in a small area when you're not directly controlling it. Despite this, be prepared for a few crashes as you get the hang of flying it, and you should probably keep the indoor shell on until you know you can control the drone. Fortunately, it automatically shuts down when it crashes, letting you know something went wrong in the app and preventing damage that could come from rotors spinning uncontrollably against a surface.  If you have a backyard or a big enough room, you can figure out how to fly the AR.Drone 2.0 in just a few hours of entertaining experimentation. While the Nvidia Shield's physical controls were the most responsive, I didn't have any problem flying the AR.Drone 2.0 with my Google Nexus 7. It takes a lot of energy to keep a drone aloft, and that means you'll be swapping or charging batteries about every 10 minutes.

A full charge on the battery gives the AR.Drone 2.0 about 12 minutes of flight, which isn't very impressive but on par with other remote controlled drones. The battery charges with the included AC adapter, and it takes approximately an hour and a half to fully charge. Drone 2.0 Power Edition comes with two higher-capacity batteries that give you combined 36 minutes of flying time, but unless you're willing to invest in either the Power Edition or additional batteries your flights will have to be short and sweet. A stunt command lets you make the AR.Drone 2.0 do barrel rolls or flips by double-tapping the screen. It's a fun trick, but it also kills the battery quick; in my tests, after a few barrel rolls, the drone was down to less than 30 percent of battery life after only five minutes of flying. Once the battery power gets below a certain level, the stunt function stops working so it doesn't run out of power mid-flip. You can still keep flying it until the battery becomes critically low, at which point the drone will power down and attempt to land safely.