Drone noob seeking advice

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Hi everyone,

My 9 yr old son has expressed an interest in the Phantom 3 drone. I have a friend willing to sell me his Phantom 3 Pro and a barrage of accessories (nice carrying case, 4 batteries, etc.) for a wonderfully fair price. I am quite excited about getting into it and ready to pull the trigger on the purchase.

Then I read the reviews for the DJI GO app in the Apple App Store. People are torching the latest update with negative reviews, many claiming that their previously working drone has now become a brick. This makes me wary of buying this P3 Pro (which is in excellent condition).

Does DJI maintain their 'back product lines'? Can I expect them to address the issues customers are complaining about, given that the P4 line is likely their primary focus?

My friend gave me a demo of the drone, and it worked beautifully. However, he has a Samsung phone, I have an iPhone X. The complaints I read were centered on the iOS app and various iPhone models, but particularly the X. Anyone have any experiences to share?

I have many concerns now, and I'm hoping folks with more experience in this field can share some experiences and advice!

Thanks in advance!
 
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I would possibly consider something more like this for a 9 year old:
Eachine E013 Micro FPV RC Drone Quadcopter With 5.8G 1000TVL 40CH Camera VR006 VR-006 3 Inch Goggles
Eachine E013 Micro FPV RC Drone Quadcopter With 5.8G 1000TVL 40CH Camera VR006 VR-006 3 Inch Goggles
Alternatively you could try the app on your phone with the drone first to make sure it is working? It maybe that the complaints are from drones without updated firmware or countless other reasons for it not working.
So far dji seem to be supporting the p3 line and only a few months back introduced the p3 4k so i think they will be continuing support for a while yet.
 
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If you can get a P3Pro for a wonderfully fair price, and are 'quite excited about getting into' drones, then pull the trigger on that bad boy!

Work-arounds abound.

If the current iOS app doesn't work on your X, get a cheap tablet - after you get into it you'll want a bigger screen than a phone anyway... plus, you won't tie up your phone while flying. I use three different Android tablets with 3 different versions of the OS. The first tablet I used (April 2017) was a $50 Kindle Fire I'd had for years - I rooted it, added access to the Google Play store and DL'd the GO app - worked fine until I upgraded to a bigger brighter screen. Or, on Android, you can side-load an older version of the app. (I know nothing about iGadgets)

Or, there are places where you can download older versions of the app, and the AC and RC firmware also for that matter.

IMO, the P3P is a great 'starter drone'... the Phantom 3 line has been around long enough that they've been dissected, hacked, customized, and just generally figured out inside and out - and there's hardly anything one cannot do to a P3.

We can tell you have an 'itchy finger' LOL... so just 'pull the trigger' already! yeeehaaa
 
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Great drone for your son! Make him do his research though without the knowledge of what it can and can’t do and precautions to take it will either be lost or crashed.
 
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Welcome to the forum .
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching .:)
 
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The P3 is more then a starter drone and if the price is right it's one darn good first bird for your son and you. Kid's are smart and make sure he understands the in's and out's of his new adventure. As far a firmware is concerned you don't have to upgrade and older versions of GO are still available for your tablet or phone. If it fly's well I would leave it for now. A smaller cheaper drone to learn is also a good idea and they are fun too.
 
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Does your son want to take professional looking photos and videos?

Personally, I think something like a $100 drone would be better suited for his use. He will most likely end up crashing the drone at some point. I can't see spending $300+ on a high end drone for this reason and because the P3P is probably much more then he would use it for.
 
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Wow -- pleasantly surprised by all the replies. Thanks everyone!

We've had true starter drones before (don't remember the brands offhand; the most expensive was like $80). Flew really well indoors but disastrously susceptible to the slightest gusts of wind.

This will be a joint venture with my son. We will split the costs so he has skin in the game, and you're **** right that he will need to do research and demonstrate competency before he's allowed to fly it on his own.

Thank you all again for the advice and encouragement. Thanks especially to @umanbean for the heads-up on possible workarounds.
 
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Wow -- pleasantly surprised by all the replies. Thanks everyone!

We've had true starter drones before (don't remember the brands offhand; the most expensive was like $80). Flew really well indoors but disastrously susceptible to the slightest gusts of wind.

This will be a joint venture with my son. We will split the costs so he has skin in the game, and you're **** right that he will need to do research and demonstrate competency before he's allowed to fly it on his own.

Thank you all again for the advice and encouragement. Thanks especially to @umanbean for the heads-up on possible workarounds.
I think you will have a great time. Tge only teason i suggested the link to the mini quad with goggles was about learning to fly properly. The p3p does most of the wotk for you but give immense pleasure and something you can do together.
The mini is about a bit of fun. Flying race quads has taught me loads. If you can fly fpv the rest it is relativly easy.
I say pull the trigger and show us some film...
 
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for the heads-up on possible workarounds.

And there are more... many more. Hang here for a while, you'll get it - I can tell.

Also could tell from your OP that this was a "part-yours/part-sons" venture... LOL

Read, study, learn together - fly safe!

Y'all have fun! Enjoy him while you can, he'll be gone before y'know it. (mine son is 22 now and works 800 miles away, miss him)
 
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@umanbean

Could you please provide links to trustworthy sites where backrevs are available? I'm always leery of sites like that due to malware, etc. Would be good to have some trustworthy go-to resources out of the gate.

My buddy is loaning me the drone and allowing me to get acquainted with it on the gear I have. I will be firing it up this weekend. Super stoked to check it out!

Thanks again everyone.
 
Would be good to have some trustworthy go-to resources out of the gate.

Thankfully, I've never had issues that caused me to have to downgrade (and I'm on Android anyway), so can't be much help to you there... and esp. w/ iDevices. I've read here of repositories tho, they're out there. Hopefully someone w/ more knowledge of that will come along.

But, the most trustworthy site I know of is hosted by Mr. @msinger and the addy is www.phantomhelp.com

In the right-hand column click Software --> DJI. There are links to older apps there, but I haven't followed any of them.

Anyone new to DJI quads would do well to surf all over that site... and learn a lot just by osmosis. :D
 
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