I’m not 100% sure how to approach this review, from the perspective of the drone being more of a toy, or from the point of view of someone that wanted a good camera platform that is also a drone. I’ve flown drones for many years, from Phantom (before they had numbers) to current Mavic models, and most in between. I’m into my photography, too, so it was appealing to be able to take delivery of, and review the Ruko F11Pro 2 Plus with its claims of 8K* photos, 4K/30fps video, and a 48MP sensor to capture those with. The Ultra-smooth footage from their 3-Axis gimbal mounted camera, 20k feet signal transmission and 74 minutes of flight time between the two batteries that come with the kit.
At $424.99 USD (Currently reduced from $599.99 USD on the Ruko website) which is about $600 in Australian dollars, it’s certainly not a cheap toy! So I’m reviewing the drone as a proper camera drone, that seems to make more sense. (The reason I considered it a toy to begin with is that is what was listed on the box when it arrived and in my research I have seen it referred to as “more of a toy”) …but lets find out!
Unpacking the drone, you get everything you need in the box including a decent carry case, the drone, controller, two batteries, propellers and a spare set of propellers, A charging cable for the batteries (usb-c to usb-c) as well as data cables to connect your controller to your mobile phone, they include usb-c (which I used with my iPhone 17) a usb-c to lightning, which my son used with his iPhone X and a USB mini one, too… They also include a little screw-driver, spare screws, spare joysticks for the controller, a cover for your drone’s gimbal and a handy controller layout guide that you’ll find attached to your controller when you unpack it. (You can see my unboxing of it, below)
You get everything you need to get started with flying, you only need to add a memory card and you’re set to go! That was my first problem, on the side of the drone there’s a small sticker that says the drone support from 32gb to 256gb memory cards, no mention of what format the card has to be and I assumed it would likely request you format the card when you slide it into the drone. I didn’t get a formatting request on my maiden voyage, I did take a test photo and it appeared to transfer and I could hit export on the screen and save it on my iPhone from within the Ruko Mini app, so I figured all was well! More on this later.
Before heading out to fly, I put both batteries and the controller on charge, they all charge via USB-C and it was about two hours from start to finish before everything was all charged up, there are easy to read battery level indicators on the battery and controller.
The first flight for someone who has flown a DJi drone before will be very familiar, wait for your satellites (unless you choose to turn GPS off…risssky!), shift your controller’s sticks inward and down to start the motors, check “up” is all clear and push the lift stick up to lift off – easy! If you’ve not flown a drone before, the instructions that are on the controller card show you everything that the controller does. The drone comes switched into “beginner mode” meaning it’s in ‘camera speed’ (slow) and that it won’t fly all that high – it is actually VERY user friendly and very stable, too. It’s not cm perfect with its stability, my current “other” drone will stay on the spot you put it and unless something goes very wrong, it seldom moves. The little Ruko did tend to shift back and forth, but only a few centimeters each way – no big deal. You can see how stable she is, below, and it also gives you an idea of how loud (pretty quiet) the little bird is, too.
As I was saying, first flight as a beginner is very easy and you will get your confidence up very quickly, then you can pop into the menu in the Ruko Mini app (top right corner button on your screen) and flick the ‘Beginner’ option to off and set it free! Now, on the website they suggest that the little bird has a “20000” long-range digital transmission, whereas in the controller interface (below) you can see it says 20-10000m… These distances remain theoretical, we have to fly VLOS here in Australia, Visual Line of Sight, that means you need to be able to see your drone in the sky with your own unaided (bino’s etc) eyes. For a drone that is light grey and 15cm long, that’s not actually that far… But I’ve given it the beans and the controller has remained connected just fine. If you take it to the park and want to fly around, you will have no issues at all… If you take it to the ocean and want to see how far it will go, one of two things will happen, it will go a long way, or…. **splash**
The Ruko F11Pro2 Plus is said to have automatic return to home, I couldn’t find much information on what that meant, in the controller settings it does say “when returning, the aircraft will rise to the set return altitude, please make sure there are no obstacles above” I assume, and I’ve not tested it just yet, but if the drone loses connection with the controller, it will rise to the set altitude (120m below) and return to its starting point.
I went back to the park today to test the RTH function along with some formatting differences with the memory card. Let’s talk about RTH (Return To Home) first. It would seem that the RTH altitude adjustment in the app doesn’t control the RTH altitude – as you can (still) see below, mine’s set to 120m – I flew the drone a little ways away from my starting position today and turned the controller off! After about 45 seconds (I didn’t count) the drone turned to face the home position, ascended about one meter and then made its way back, turned to face the way it had started out and then proceeded to land. The Return to home function does indeed work, but the height thing could catch you out – something to keep in mind.
While we’re on the topic, the controller is a standard two stick layout, left, right, up and down on your left, and fly left, forward, right and backward on your right stick. You also have physical buttons for return home (and stop returning if you tap it again) as well as speed change, compass calibrate and one button take off and land.
On the top of the controller you have a button to start and stop video as well as one button to take a photograph. On the right you have a scroll dial to raise and lower the gimbal – This button worked for me about two times in ten. I had to land the drone, remove the battery and then it started working – I don’t know if it was a fault of the drone, controller or what, but it was frustrating!
You do get some interesting colour filters and some pre-programmed flight patterns (circle and follow)
Landing is as easy as launching, you can either have the drone land itself with the physical button you can see above in the image (the arrow pointing down to a H brings it down, as does the up / down arrow on the left) You can tap the return to home option on the app OR you can just pull down on the left stick until the drone is on the ground. When it gets to about ten feet off the deck, I notice it slows as it has a sensor under the drone, I’m not sure how sensitive it is, but it recognised my hand was under it and slowed, then landed when I held down on the left stick. My 12yo landing the drone below using the left stick method.
The real trouble started (as I mentioned earlier) with the memory card fiasco. The drone has a physical sticker that says “32GB to 256GB microSD cards” (below) with no mention of formatting. I put a very high quality ProGradeDigital MicroSD card in the drone (256gb) and tested by taking a photograph, it appeared to save in the app, but after arriving home, the memory card wasn’t able to be read on my Mac. The second time I put the MicroSD card into the drone, a notification popped up on the app asking me to format the card – I did that, the card seemed to work fine in the drone but again, couldn’t be read on my Mac. I tried another option, opting to format the MicroSD card as Fat32 on my Mac and then popping it back into the drone. It was able to save photos and videos and was able to be read on my Mac.
When I spoke to support, they advised that it had a maximum card capacity of 128GB (contrary to the sticker on the drone) and to format it IN the drone as Fat32 – You only have the option of “Format the TF Card” so I just did what it said. Long story short – Format a MicroSD card as Fat32 IN YOUR COMPUTER and it should work!
Images finally downloaded and on my Mac, I’m not finding a full-size 48mp “8K” file, not even close, I feel like the numbers are a bit smoke & mirrors, which is fine, it’s not a premium drone, though it is still expensive, the video reports to be a 4K H264 file, it’s clear enough (unless you zoom and then it gets quite messy) but the still images and lower light images do leave a lot to be desired. If I were buying a drone for decent quality images, I’d look at something else purely based on the still image quality. If you’re just looking for a drone for some fun flying, ease of use, OK image quality to share on your phone all in a compact package, the Ruko F11PRO 2 Plus Camera Drone isn’t a bad option.
DRN would like to thank Ruko for providing the review unit.
