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Picking the right drone as a beginner can be quite difficult. Thankfully, Potensic Atom SE checks all the boxes for a perfect newbie drone. It’s pretty affordable, has lots of range, and a pretty decent camera. The only thing holding it back is the lack of a 3-point gimbal.
Potensic Atom SE- In-Depth Review
One of the biggest growing industries these days is the drone industry. At this point, at least two drone models come out that wipe other competition completely out of water.
As advanced drones improve, so do the less advanced ones. In most cases, lower-budget drones simply adopt the innovation of higher-end drones but scale them down.
Potensic has been around since 2014, and ever since its founding, this company has designed cases from high-end brands - mostly from DJI’s Phantom series.
Atom SE is the latest model from Potensic that is early, similar to the DJI mini. Sure, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the Mini, but it’s incredibly light, features a foldable design, and comes jam-packed with beginner-friendly features.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty of the Atom SE, let’s check out its key specs.
Key Specs | |
Camera | 4K HD Camera with ShakeVanish |
Battery | 2500mAh Li-ion |
Charging Time | Around 100 minutes |
Flight Time | 31 minutes |
Control Range | Up to 2.68 miles/ 4 kilometers |
Rating | 4/5 |
Potensic Atom SE At A Glance
In a sea of samey budget-drones, Atom SE really sticks out for its affordable price and perfect mix flight capabilities and beginner-friendly flight modes.
You can see Potensic really focused on producing a lightweight drone anyone can pick up and start flying in a matter of minutes.
Now, let’s cover the main features of the Atom SE so you can get a clearer picture of what we’re talking about.
Flight Time
For a budget drone, the Atom SE provides you with quite a lot of flight time.
Why?
Because this drone doesn’t come with one, but two 2500mAh Li-Ion batteries. Each battery can keep the drone in the air for around 31 minutes. But you can increase flight time for another 31 minutes by simply popping in a fresh battery.
With 62 minutes of flight time, you’ll have more than enough time to capture cool shots or just have fun piloting and zooming the drone around.
Unfortunately, the batteries take around an hour and a half to recharge, but an hour of flight time is more than enough for someone that’s just dipping their toes into the drone hobby.
After all, the Atom SE is designed for newbies.
Control Range
Most budget-friendly drones come with transmitters that leave alot to be desired. Either the range isn’t that good, or they’re lacking in the ergonomic area.
One place where Potensic really hit the nail on the head is the transmitter design and features. Firstly, the transmitter works on a 5.8 GHz radio band, which allows it to have a flight range of around 4 kilometers or 2.8 miles.
Of course, we wouldn’t recommend you fly it that far, but at least it’s good to know you won’t lose connection to your drone if you get a little bit carried away.
The transmitter is compatible with most modern devices, so you’ll have no issues attaching your android phone or iPhone so you can fly the Atome SE with FPV.
The mounting clips are located in the middle of the transmitter instead of the usual 4-point mounting system. This makes attaching your phone even easier than with other transmitters, and we’re very thankful for it.
The best thing about the transmitter is that it connects to your phone with a USB-C cable. Although Bluetooth is pretty fast, you get even less response delay with cable.
Camera
Potensic Atom SE comes with a 1.3-inch 12MP camera made by Sony with a 118-degree FOV.
Although the camera is dampened, the drone doesn’t feature a gimbal. Thankfully, Atom SE comes with some pretty good image stabilization.
But since there is no gimbal, the camera is essentially locked in place, which means you’ll have to maneuver the drone a bit better to get those shots you’re looking for.
Thankfully, you can move the camera vertically between -20 and 90 degrees.
This means you can look up a bit, but you can’t look straight down even though you can point it down 90 degrees.
When it comes to image quality, it’s pretty decent for a budget drone. There is some fuzziness at the edges of the image, but that’s more than reasonable when you factor in the price.
Don’t expect this drone to capture images on the same level as a DJI drone, but with some elbow grease, you can touch up the images you’ve captured with the Atom SE to look absolutely stunning.
Flying Experience
Since this is a budget-drones, the Atom SE has limited features. Thankfully even with limited features, this drone is a joy to fly.
The drone supports both GPS and Glonass for positioning, so there’s very little chance it will forget how to fly home or hover in place.
Atome SE features three flight modes: video, normal, and sport. Each mode provides different flight speeds and camera settings.
For instance, in sport mode, the drone won’t have any trouble reaching its top speed of 35Mph in just 2.8 seconds.
Although the drone flies pretty well, the controls are a bit too sensitive for our taste. It will take some time to adjust to the drone's friskiness.
When it comes to safety features, there’s no collision avoidance, so be careful when flying around obstacles.
Thankfully, the Point of Interest, Circle Flight, and Follow Me modes work pretty well, so you won’t always have to struggle with the controls.
What Do We Like?
There’s a lot to like about the Potensic Atom SE. It’s almost a perfect beginner drone. It’s priced just right and comes with more than enough features to get your feet wet in the quadcopter drone hobby.
First off, the drone is incredibly compact. It weighs only 250 grams and features a foldable design. You pack it in your backpack and have plenty of room left for other stuff.
The transmitter that comes with this drone is some of the best in this price range. Not only does it provide you with more flight range you’ll need, but it’s also ergonomic and comes with a simple yet elegant phone mount.
On top of all that, you get two 2600 mAh batteries that allow for 31 minutes of flight time each (62 minutes in total). This is more than enough flight time to capture a stunning image or video.
Although its features are limited, the drone flies pretty well, and there are plenty of automated flight modes that allow you to plan the flight route.
And if you want to try flying it manually, you can play around with three flight modes and see which one suits you most.
Just be careful since there’s no avoidance collision, and the controls can be a tad bit too sensitive for some.
PROS
What Don’t We Like?
Just like with every budget-friendly drone, some compromises had to be made during its design. One of these design compromises is the lack of a 3-point gimbal.
The camera on the Atom SE can only move vertically, which really narrows down the freedom you have when shooting a video.
The image quality also leaves a bit to be desired since there’s ISO noise even on the lowest settings. Thankfully, you can mitigate this by touching up the images you’ve captured with apps such as Photoshop or Lightroom.
And then there’s the lack of any safety features. Since Atom SE doesn’t come with obstacle avoidance, you’ll have to be careful how you fly it around obstacles. Combine that with over-sensitive controls, and you have a potential for disaster.
CONS
Advice To Buyers
If you’re wondering how you can enter the quadcopter drone hobby, the Atom SE is a perfect gateway.
You’ll have to look far and wide to find another drone that’s this well-built and has this good image quality.
Although it doesn’t come with any safety features, the drone is pretty easy to fly. Even with the potentially over-sensitive controls, you’ll become a pretty decent pilot after just a couple of hours with the Atom SE.
This drone will also help you learn the basic and some more advanced stuff about flight planning. And since it uses both GPS and Glonass, it will never get confused.
We’re pretty sure you’ll capture some amazing images once you’ve gotten the hang of the controls.
Final Words
The budget drone market is pretty flooded. There are millions of products that are virtually the same, with the only difference being the branding.
Thankfully, every now and so, we get a drone such as the Potnesic Atom SE that blows the competition out of the water.
If you’re on a limited budget and need a drone that’s almost on par with the DJI mini, this drone should be on your shopping list!
Last update on 2025-02-19 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API This article contains affiliate links which for which the owner of the site may receive a commision.