Most consumer-grade drones fly like helicopters, hovering in place, then zipping forward and back, and side to side on your command. When used with a GoPro or other onboard videocamera, these “quadrotor” drones can give the experience of floating high above your subject. The new Disco drone from Parrot promises a very different perspective. The 1.5-pound, styrofoam, wing-shaped aircraft has a single propeller on the back, and it flies more like an airplane than a helicopter, gliding along at speeds up to 50 miles per hour. That’s considerably faster than most helicopter-style drones. Get More on CES 2016 • Insider's Guide to CES • New Ultra-High-Def Certification Unveiled • Roku TVs Get 4K, HDR Content According to the company, takeoff is a snap—or more accurately, a shake. To launch the Disco, you shake it and then just toss it in the air and it automatically climbs to an altitude of 160 feet, then circles around waiting for instruction. You can then fly it using Parrot’s Skycontroller, which has integrated joysticks and a directional Wi-Fi antenna to communicate with the Disco—the company claims you can operate it at a distance of up to 1.25 miles, which is pretty extraordinary range for a Wi-Fi signal.

Parrot assumes most users aren’t experienced pilots, so the Disco uses a variety of sensors to create a partial autopilot, keeping the aircraft generally on course and at a consistent altitude as you fly. If you lose signal, the Disco is supposed to use GPS to return to its launch point. The military and some commercial surveying companies have been using “fixed-wing” drones like this for years. But for most ordinary consumers, this promises to be a new way to fly and capture video—evocative of the Superman-style flying dreams many of us remember from youth. There’s no pricing or even availability for the new aircraft, other than an assurance that the Disco will hit the market “sometime this year.” Whenever it does arrive, it will definitely need to be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, as the agency’s new rules require, and because of its high speed and extensive range, it is guaranteed to further fuel the debate about safety and privacy that has followed these devices through every stage of their evolution.

Stay on top of the news from CES 2016 Check out Consumer Reports' coverage from the show floor. Tweets about ces #ces OR #ces2016 from:consumerreports OR from:mariarer1 OR from:djmedfizz OR from:jeffreycullen2 OR from:r_fisco OR from:crcarsjake OR from:suecrhealth OR from:markallwood2 OR from:kellihalyard OR from:trishacalvo OR from:patbits OR from:gwendolynbounds OR from:marciswhalen OR from:briang84 OR from:rcunning1023 OR from:cray65 OR from:jtmac32 OR from:jasondfox OR fromblack ops 2 quad droneI saw this on PC Advisor and thought you should see it too.ar drone 2 antenne Drones all the rage at the moment, but the sheer amount of choice as well as the huge range of prices can make it difficult to know what to buy and how much to spend. ar drone 1 prix

Here we explain what you need to know about buying a drone, and review the best drones for all budgets. However, we've reviewed cheap drones separately, so if you're spending less than £50, see the best cheap drones Before you fly, be sure to read about the rules for flying drones in the UK. At the entry level, toy drones start at just £10, but you won’t get a camera unless you pay around £40-50. Increase your budget towards £100 and you should expect to get live video (first-person view) on your smartphone via a free app, or even a colour screen on the remote control.ar drone motor wechseln At higher prices, you get more for your money. ar parrot drone resetAs well as longer flight times more expensive drones should also be easier to fly thanks to auto-hovering. black ops 2 remote drone

Without this, you will have to work harder to keep it in the air. See also: Best new drones coming out Cheap drones tend to fly for about 5-10 minutes before they need recharging, and USB chargers tend to take 30-60 minutes to recharge the batteries. Try and buy a drone with replaceable batteries and buy a couple of spares. Although some manufacturers claim a range of over 100m, it’s best to assume you’ll never get more than about 50m. By law in the UK, you must keep drone in your line of sight at all times, anyway.ar drone 2 repair parts Small and light drones will be blown around in the wind, so warm, windless days are the best times to fly, although the smallest micro drones can be flown indoors. For bigger drones, such as DJI's Phantoms, expect flight times around 20-25 minutes. These use big batteries but are of course bigger and heavier than the toy drones. Even the most expensive consumer drones (and we're talking over £2,000) don't fly for longer than 30 minutes.

You will crash your drone and you will break things, usually propellers. Virtually all drones come with a full set of spare rotors, but as two rotate anti-clockwise and the other pair clockwise, you’ve only got two spares for each pair of spindles. Check first if spare parts are easy to obtain for a particular drone, and also their prices. Ebay is a good place to buy a 'crash pack'. Not all drones come with cameras. You don’t need a camera, since you should always have the drone in your line of sight while flying it. And even if a drone has a camera, it may not offer FPV (First Person View, a real-time video stream) which you need in order to fly it without line-of-sight. At the cheaper end of the price scale you’ll be lucky to get even 720p (1280x720) video, but if you want a drone for aerial video go for at least 1080p (1920x1080). Bear in mind that - as ever - you can't trust specs alone. Read our reviews to find out how good each drone's camera is. However, you’ll only get great quality footage if you buy a drone with a gimbal.

This is a stabilised mount for the camera which keeps it steady when the drone tilts or moves around. They don’t come cheap, though. If you have a limited budget and have a GoPro (or other action camera) already consider  a drone with a GoPro or gimbal mount. 2-axis gimbals can be bought for around £60. The WLToys V303 and Flying 3D X8 are capable of carrying a GoPro-style camera. Some cameras record video directly to a microSD card (or USB drive) but others record from the remote control, or even directly to a smartphone. Direct recording is usually more reliable and better quality as the video doesn't have to be transmitted over the air before being recorded. Folding drones are undoubtedly the future. and the Mavic Pro is fantastic. It may seem expensive, but the fact that it has even better tech inside it than the Phantom 4 means it’s actually very good value. If there's one downside it's that you can't remove the gimbal and camera for ground-based filming as you can with GoPro's Karma.

But the Mavic Pro's portability and the fantastic new controller are the real winners, though. It means you don’t have to lug a big case around as you did for the Phantom, and that it doesn’t have to be a special occasion: you can take the Mavic Pro everywhere. Read our hands-on Mavic Pro review. The Phantom 4 isn't cheap but shoots decent quality 4K video and is very easy to control. Batteries are very expensive, though, and the intelligent modes don’t quite match those you’ll get with a 3DR Solo which, in our opinion, is still the better choice if you need to capture complex cinematic aerial shots. Of course, the Solo doesn’t come with a camera and lacks obstacle avoidance, so the Phantom 4 is still a great choice if you can afford it. Don’t forget, though, that the Phantom 3 4K can capture similar-quality video and costs only £699. Read our full Phantom 4 review. Best drones 2017: 3DR Solo The Solo is a fantastic tool for capturing stunning aerial shots that would otherwise be impossible even for experienced quadcopter pilots.

The price, though, will be a barrier for some. Despite the price from from £979 to around £750 online, you'll still need a gimbal and GoPro. A Phantom 3 Advanced, for example, costs the same as the bare Solo yet comes with a great camera and gimbal, and now have orbit and follow modes which it originally lacked, so it can deliver similar shots on a smaller overall budget. Read our full 3DR Solo review. DJI Phantom 3 Professional The Phantom 3 is now the previous-generation model but is very stable in flight and produces stunning video footage. Its range goes beyond what most consumers will need and the only extra requirement out of the box you need is a compatible iOS or Android device to use with the controller. Even beginners will be able to fly it, and there are good safety features to prevent the Phantom flying away, as well as landing when the battery is low. The Professional model now costs around £819 online, but those who don't need 4K can save (and still be happy) with the Advanced model for under £800.

Read our full Phantom 3 review. DJI Phantom 3 Standard The intelligent flying modes may not be the easiest to use, but they do allow you to get smooth shots that would be near impossible if you were flying manually. The Go app is the same as for DJI's other drones, and the 1080p video quality is excellent considering the price, with much less distortion than from a Phantom 2 Vision+. If you can't stretch to a Phantom 3 4K,  this is superb value for money at £449 from Amazon. Read our full Phantom 3 Standard review. RRP: $299 (approx £240), US$299 A ready-to-fly FPV racing drone that's well designed and well built. It's very fast and manoeuvrable, and comes with an on-board video transmitter: you need only add your own FPV goggles (with appropriate video receiver) to get a first person view while flying. Considering what you're getting, it's remarkably good value. Read our full ViFly R220 review Slightly more expensive than the WLtoys W303, the newer Hubsan H501S comes with a built-in camera, and a remote control with a handy 3.7in screen.

This means you can see a first person view, as if you were on board - indeed, the remote also has an analogue video output for use with matching FPV goggles. It also has GPS and lasts around 20 minutes from a single charge, although it does take hours to recharge, so buy a spare battery or two - they're cheap enough. Read our full Hubsan H501S review to find out more. RRP: £199 inc import duty and handling The WLtoys V303 is a great alternative to a Phantom if your budget won't stretch. In fact, even with a gimbal and camera, the V303 works out around £150 cheaper than a Phantom 3 Standard. Spares are available from GearBest and aren't too expensive. Read our full WLToys V303 review RRP: £161.48 plus import duty and handling The Flying 3D X8 is a good value quadcopter and a reasonable alternative to a DJI Phantom if your budget can’t stretch even to a Phantom 3 Standard. You'll have to allow for import duty and handling fees if you buy from GearBest, and don't forget to budget for a gimbal and camera if you want to record aerial footage.