13 Best Long Range Drones for Sale – 2018 Buyer’s Guide

Not only is it awesome to have a drone with a powerful camera, long flight time, and GoPro capability.

It’s also extremely helpful to have a drone with a long control range.

This helps you accomplish many things:

Less chance of losing signal (and therefore, control over the drone)
Capture images and videos of far off objects
Inspect objects that are well out of the range of most drones
Brag to your friends who can’t fly more than 50 feet

A long flight distance is a god send, and you only realize it’s a necessity when you’ve flown without it (so it’s a good thing you’re here).

This article breaks down the best long range drones for sale in 2018.

The quadcopters are arranged starting with the longest control distance. Scroll down to start from the beginning, or use the table below to get an overview of each model.

And make sure to check out the price level column on the right. It will help you find the rigs that fit your budget.

Table of the Best Long Range Drones

#	Model	Flight Distance	Flight Time	Price	Price Level
1	DJI Mavic Pro	7km	27 minutes	Check current price	$$$$
2	DJI Phantom 4	5km	28 minutes	Check current price	$$$$
3	DJI Inspire 1 V2.0 Bundle	5km	18 minutes	Check current price	$$$$
4	DJI Phantom 3 Series	1km to 5km	25 minutes	Check current prices	$$ to $$$
5	Yuneec Typhoon H	1.6km	22 minutes	Check current price	$$$$
6	3DR Solo	1km	20-25 minutes	Check current price	$$
7	GHOSTDRONE 2.0 w/ 4K Camera	1km	25 minutes	Check current price	$$
8	YUNEEC Q500 4K Typhoon	800m	25 minutes	Check current price	$$$
9	DJI Phantom 2 Vision+	500m to 700m	25 minutes	Check current price	$$
10	XIRO Xplorer V	500m	25 minutes	Check current price	$$
11	AP10 Pro w/ 16MP Camera	500m	25 minutes	Check current price	$$
12	Hubsan H501S FPV Quadcopter	300m	19 minutes	Check current price	$$
13	Holy Stone HS170 Predator	30-50m	6-8 minutes	Check current price	$

1. DJI Mavic Pro

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Flight Range: 7km

This is the DJI Mavic Pro, one of the most advanced drones to date.

First off, it’s one of the only professional quality drones that’s also compact and easy to transport — the quadcopter can fold down to the size of a water bottle.

Mavic comes with a powerful camera that shoots beautiful 4K video and takes 12MP stills. The quadcopter has a flight time of 27 minutes and a long control range of 7 kilometers (the longest range drone we’ve come across). This gives you way more than enough time and control distance to get the right shots.

The drone is great for action sports photography or quick pans, because it can fly at speeds up to 40mph. Mavic’s vision positioning system includes paired GPS and GLONASS to give the quadcopter precise positioning both indoors and outdoors.

Mavic also comes with 9 smart autonomous flight modes:

Course Lock
Waypoints
Follow Me
Return to Home
Point of Interest
Home Lock
Active Track
TapFly
Gestures

And obstacle avoidance — the drone can use its ultrasonic and ToF sensors to avoid obstacles up to 49 feet away.

If you’re looking for an excellent all-around drone with a ton of range, check out the DJI Mavic Pro.

Specs

Camera: 4K video, 12MP stills (with Adobe DNG RAW support)
Range: 7km
Flight Time: 27 minutes
Price Level: $$$$

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2. DJI Phantom 4

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Flight Range: 5km

The DJI Phantom 4 is one of the most technologically sound drones you can buy.

Its camera shoots beautiful 4K video, takes 12 megapixel stills, and the quadcopter has a flight time of 28 minutes. This is longest flight time in the Phantom line.

It also comes with an obstacle avoidance system. The drone will move out of the way or bounce backwards when an obstacle comes in its way.

The Phantom 4 comes standard with five intelligent flight modes — Course Lock, Follow Me, Waypoints, Point of Interest, and Home Lock . You can read about them more on DJI’s website.

This fantastic drone with a camera‘s price has come down significantly since its release. You can get some of the most advanced features available today for an even better price.

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3. DJI Inspire 1 V2.0 Bundle

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Flight Range: 5km

The DJI Inspire 1 V2.0 comes with a built-in 4K camera that takes 12 megapixel stills and a powerful Zenmuse X3 gimbal stabilization system to help you get amazing aerial shots.

With version 2 of the Inspire 1, DJI added new propeller kits to make installation smoother. And a more reliable locking mechanism reduces the abrasion that is common in propeller installation. This prolongs the propeller’s life.

DJI has also improved the Inspire 1’s motor performance, making it a more powerful quadcopter.

Specifically, this package comes with a ton of helpful add-ons:

Extra battery
Remote control harness
16GB MicroSD card to save and store your images/videos
Extra propellers
Carrying case for easy transport
And more

The Inspire 1 V2.0 is the #1 choice for many professional commercial UAV pilots.

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4. DJI Phantom 3

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Flight Range: 1km to 5km

The DJI Phantom 3 is by far one of our favorite all-around drones.

The drone comes in four versions (with varying control distances):

1. The Phantom 3 Standard (1 km) — The Phantom 3 Standard offers less features than the other versions, but it is also the cheapest. Even so, it has a 25-minute flight time, can shoot 2.7K video, and it takes 12 megapixel still photos. This puts the Phantom 3 Standard ahead of many other drones in its price range.

2.The Phantom 3 4K (1.2 km) — The Phantom 3 4K is similar to the Standard except it comes with an upgraded camera that offers 4K video capture capability, and flight distance increases by 200m.

3. The Phantom 3 Advanced (5 km) — Like the Standard, The Phantom 3 Advanced shoots 2.7k video and takes 12 megapixel stills, but control distance increases to a whopping 5 km and it offers live FPV (first person view) streaming of the camera’s view to your controller.

4. The Phantom 3 Professional (5 km) — The Phantom 3 Professional’s video quality takes a massive jump up to 4K, making it an excellent choice for professional pilots.

For $449 for the Standard up to $799 for the Professional, you can’t go wrong with any of these amazing long range quadcopters.

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5. Yuneec Typhoon H

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Flight Range: 1.6km

The Yuneec Typhoon H is a direct competitor to the Phantom 4, and rightly so.

It has 6 blades (hexacopter) which typically provides a more powerful lift than the 4 blades of a quadcopter. The drone comes with an obstacle avoidance system, like the Phantom 4, through a sonar system in the front of the rig.

The landing gears retract, giving your camera a 360 degree view. This is very important for getting shots at tough angles and giving your camera an unobstructed view of the world around it.

And the Typhoon H has a 22-minute flight time, films in 4K resolution, and takes 12 megapixel stills. This hexacopter is a powerhouse and one of the best drones you can buy.

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6. 3D Robotics Solo

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Flight Range: 1km

Solo is one of the most technologically advanced drones available, because it offers a ton of autonomous flight features. And it has come down drastically in price at under $300.

It’s a GoPro quadcopter and it’s one of the only that allow in-flight access to your GoPro, giving you the ability to adjust camera settings, start recording, and stop recording while flying.

Solo also comes with four autonomous flight modes — Follow Me, Orbit, Cable Cam, and Selfie.

The quadcopter’s controller is manufactured in a video game design to make it easier to handle, and it offers one-touch takeoff and landing.

This is one of the few drones that beginners and veterans alike can fly to get professional quality shots.

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7. GHOSTDRONE 2.0 with 4K Camera

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Flight Range: 1km

The Ehang GHOSTDRONE comes with an ultra-powerful 4K camera, and the drone itself comes with an awesome set of unique features:

After you download the EHANG Play app (iOS and Android), you can choose Avatar Control. This allows you to control the quadcopter simply by tilting your phone in the desired direction. (This is also known as motion control.)

Using the same app, you can use Waypoints to give GHOSTDRONE a flight path and have it follow the path automatically. While the drone is flying itself, this frees you up to take aerial images/videos or simply get an aerial view of the world on the FPV screen.

The quad also has an auto return-to-home function when battery power gets low (this is an important safety feature). And the camera comes with multiple image taking modes, like Wide Dynamic Range, Cycle Recording, Burst Mode, and Time Lapse.

GHOSTDRONE is also ready to fly right out of the box.

With this set of features and a long 1km flight range, this drone offers a ton of opportunity to experiment with different ways of image capture and drone flight in general.

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8. Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon

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Flight Range: 800m

800m is more than enough flight distance to take full advantage of the Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon‘s advanced features.

The built-in camera shoots 4K video in 1080p, and it takes crisp 12MP still photos. The Q500 4K also comes with two autonomous flight modes — Watch Me and Follow Me — standard.

The controller comes with a built-in touch screen that lets you adjust flight settings. And you can get a first person view feed from the drone camera.

Flying this quadcopter is a great choice for aerial photography and videography.

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9. DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ V3.0

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Flight Range: 500-700m

The Phantom 2 Vision+ is one of the best affordable drones with a long range of control.

It comes with the classic DJI Phantom features, like a long flight time, first-person-view capability, and a powerful camera that takes 14 megapixel still photos and shoots video in 1080p.

This version includes an upgraded controller with rechargeable batteries and a gimbal control dial, updated motors, and more efficient propellers.

The built-in 3-axis gimbal also gives you smooth footage and stable still images.

The DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ is a great camera quadcopter that won’t break the bank.

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10. XIRO Xplorer V

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Flight Range: 500m

The XIRO Xplorer V comes with a solid 500 meter control distance and a powerful built-in 1080p full HD camera that shoots crisp 14 megapixel still photos.

The camera can relay a live first-person-view stream to your iOS or Android device, and the quadcopter’s controller comes with a smartphone holder for easy viewing while you fly. The Xplorer V comes packed with some other sweet features as well:

The camera supports burst mode and timed capture
“Follow Me” and “Circle Around Me” autonomous flight modes to get selfie shots
A long 25-minute flight time
Modular design allows for customization and easy assembly
Built-in camera gimbal to help with image and video stability

The Xplorer V is one of the best ready-to-fly (RTF) long range drones for the money.

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11. AEE AP10 Pro with 16MP Camera

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Flight Range: 500m

The AEE AP10 comes jam-packed with features:

1080P video recording at 60 frames per second
16 megapixel still photos
First-person-view capability
90-degree vertical tilt camera
Up to 25 minutes of flight time
44 MPH maximum speed and 22-33 MPH cruising velocity
A mobile app for FPV flight, flight telemetry data (battery life, etc), camera zoom, and other settings/features
Automatic position hold and hover
And more

The AP10 Pro is a feature-rich drone for aspiring aerial photographers and videographers, or anyone who wants to get in the air and view the world around them.

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12. Hubsan H501S FPV Quadcopter

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Flight Range: 300m

Hubsan has been one of the most trusted brands in the sUAS industry for years now. And rightly so.

They’re products are fun, durable, and they get the job done.

The Hubsan H501S definitely fits that description.

This quadcopter is smaller, more compact, and sells for less than $300, yet it still comes with a powerful 1080p camera and FPV capability. The drone’s remote control comes with a 4.3 inch LCD screen that gives you a real time view of what your drone is seeing.

The H501S also comes with some surprisingly advanced features:

GPS Hold
Headless Mode
Return to Home
Altitude Mode
Follow Me Autonomous Flight Mode — The drone will lock onto your position and follow you as you conduct an activity
19 minutes of flight time

The H501S is a compact FPV drone that’s great for having fun and getting quality shots at the same time.

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13. Holy Stone HS170 Predator

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Flight Range: 30-50m

With 4.5 stars and thousands of reviews, the Holy Stone HS170 Predator is one of the highest rated mini drones on Amazon.

The headless security system lowers the learning curve so that any level of drone pilot can fly it. It’s also powerful enough to be wind resistant outdoors, yet small enough for safe flight indoors. And it has a high top speed for the daredevils out there.

It also has a 30-50m (100-160ft) flight range, making it one of the best cheap drones with the longest control distance.

The HS170 Predator‘s three flight modes also mean that as your skills increase, you can continue training with this quadcopter for an extended period of time before upgrading to a new one.

It’s a great option for pilots who want a quadcopter to train on and have fun with.

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13 Best Long Range Drones for Sale – 2018 Buyer’s Guide

Table of the Best Long Range Drones

1. DJI Mavic Pro

Specs

2. DJI Phantom 4

3. DJI Inspire 1 V2.0 Bundle

4. DJI Phantom 3

5. Yuneec Typhoon H

6. 3D Robotics Solo

7. GHOSTDRONE 2.0 with 4K Camera

8. Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon

9. DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ V3.0

10. XIRO Xplorer V

11. AEE AP10 Pro with 16MP Camera

12. Hubsan H501S FPV Quadcopter

13. Holy Stone HS170 Predator

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