Introduction

Parrot is a company with an extremely diverse product portfolio right from speakers to RC quadro-copters. Today we will be taking a look at the newest version of their AR.Drone quadro-copter. New for the 2.0 version is faster on-board hardware and upgrades to the front facing camera. The changes under the hood combined with a brand new controller app make this new version the best AR.Drone yet by a hefty margin. Interestingly enough Parrot will introduce it at the same asking price as the original at $299. It is by no means cheap, but considering its ease of use and performance it is money well spent if you want to get into RC flying.

It has been a while since we tested the original AR.Drone which thrilled us by providing an easy way to into the RC world. The AR.Drone 2.0 is even better in this respect offering true absolute control which is enabled because Parrot added an on-board compass. This along with other new flight adjustment features means that there is something for everyone, right from people wanting to do aerial recording and experienced pilots that want a more thrilling flying experience.

As with the old AR.Drone Parrot offers some games that let you fight it out against other AR.Drones. There is also race game which just adds another dimension to the device.

Specifications

• HD Camera 720p 30 fps
• H254 Video Encoding
• 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU
• 800 MHz video DSP
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• Wireless: A/B/N supported
• 3 Axis Gyroscope 2000 degree/second
• 3 Axis Accelerometer +/- 50 mg precision
• 3 Axis Magnetometer 6 degree precision
• Pressure Sensor +/- 10Pa precision
• Ultrasound sensors for ground altitude measurement
• 60 fps vertical QVGA camera