Hi fellow RC fans!

We were approached by Zonda Hobby and asked if we want to review this new RTF copter. Well, of course, we said yes. We got this free of charge, for an honest, unbiased review. With that out of the way, let's start the review.


It arrived in a beautiful box, packed nicely in foam to protect the items. The company had done a really good job packing this quad.

What first caught my eyes is that this is one of the few RTF models with its own frame design, like the Vortex, Vendetta or the Holybro Shuriken. This is something rare, most manufacturers just buy off-the-shelf components and sell it as an innovative product. Huge thumbs up for that.

Inside, there is a custom-made SPRF3 board with easy access to the receiver ports. We got the 30A version, it has the Littlebee 30A ESCs, upgradeable from BlHeliSuite. These are reliable ESCs with pretty good performance. The motors are also custom made, they are 2205 sized 2300 KV ones, if you don't smash them, they will serve you well. There is an average 800 TVL CMOS camera with pretty good light handling, also it is soft mounted. The VTX is also built-in, it is a decent VTX, does its job as you would expect, no huge mistakes. There is also an OSD built in, it works pretty well with Beta/Cleanflight. It runs on 3 or 4 cells. There are nice LEDs on the front and the back, the rear ones are WS2812B so you can configure them in Beta/Cleanflight.


Setting up


When we received the box, all we had to do was to connect a receiver, mount an antenna and plug in the battery. It did fly on stock settings, but there were severe oscillations we couldn't get rid of, so we decided to flash Betaflight on it. It was a good decision, it flew amazingly well on BF, much better than with CF, even on stock PIDs. The OSD also worked on BF, it is also possible to configure PIDs on the OSD.

The frame

It is a custom-designed frame with nice engineering solutions. For example, the camera a has an excellent soft mount, it gets rid of the jello effect which can be a problem on CMOS cameras. It also has foam pads on the bottom, it feels much better, it is a really nice touch. You also get a set of spares of those. The frame has nice fairings on the bottom for the ESCs, protecting them from unexpected branches. There is a strong rubber band at the back to prevent the balance plug from getting into the props' area. We also like how the battery is held in place. It is mounted with a velcro strap and the shape of the top of the quad prevents it from sliding forward or backward. The velcro mounting bars prevent it from sliding left or right and the plastic antenna holders prevent it from sliding to the front or to the back. The motor cables go nicely under the arms, there is no chance it will get stuck on a tree.

It really feels like some engineers sat down together and built something well-thought and awesome.


The FC+PDB+OSD assembly

The aforementioned parts are built together. It uses the SPRF3 target. Every wire is already installed the way it should be. There is also a current sensor built in, it can be very useful. You also have a buzzer, it can really help you find the quad in tall grass. Unfortunately, the FC is soldered in place on pins, it will be close to impossible to change it. The ESC signal cables are routed to the correct place and the ESCs connect with a micro connector. There is not much to say about it, everything is nicely labeled and works the way it should.


The VTX

The VTX is also soldered on the main board. It is an average VTX unit. It works as expected, there is only one problem. To change channels, you have to use DIP switches. I think their age is over, apparently not yet. Their advantage is that you don't have to plug in the quad to change channels, but most of the time, they are a pain to deal with. I did not expect Zonda Hobby to let us switch frequency from the OSD, but these switches took me by surprise. Anyways, the connector is RP-SMA. We broke the antenna mount several times and because of that, Zonda Hobby released an upgraded one which is still going strong. What I also liked that there is a huge heat spreader on the VTX, transferring the heat into the frame itself.

The motors

The motors look like they are custom designed, too. They have arrows showing which way they turn, it makes it easier to install props. The interesting thing is that the bottom of the shaft is held in place with a screw and not the usual c-clip. This is a new method of locking the shaft, and we like it as it makes repairing the motors way easier. The motors also look really cool with their green body.


The ESCs

They are the same as the Littlebee 30A you can buy on any Chinese web store or eBay. Many people use them, many people like them. Indeed, they are solid performers. The 30A rating should be enough for quite some time. Although BlHeli-S is taking off, the old Littlebees have proven themselves.

The stock props

You also get a set of props with the kit. They are 5 inches in diameter and 4 inches in pitch. They are told to be unbreakable, but of course, we managed to break them. They were good props while they lasted. If this is your first quad, it's an excellent choice, but don't think you are going to get away with only one set of props. Buy lots of spares. The 5040 size is a good starting point.

The camera


The kit comes with an 800 TVL CMOS camera. Fortunately, it is soft mounted, this prevents jello effect from ruining your fun. Its light handling is very good, although I would like to see a nice CCD camera instead of this, then the soft mount wouldn't be needed. Several pilots tried it and nobody complained about the camera so it's not bad, however, I might replace it with an HS1177.
Also, the vibration damper rubber balls holding the camera can easily jump out in the case of even a light crash, and it is quite hard to get everything back to its place. Some pilots thought after a few rough landings that jello effect is more acceptable than putting rubber balls back to their holes.

Pros

• Simple to setup
  
• Excellent parts (except for the camera)
  
• Takes some abuse
  
• Outstanding engineering
  
• Massive heat spreader on the VTX
  

Cons

• Average quality CMOS camera
  
• Camera mount can fall out, difficult to put it back
  
• DIP switches
  

Verdict
A very goos RTF choice, with the same components as an upper-middle class hand-built copter. Most of the cons are really only inconveniences. 


Pilots' opinions:

Klaus:

Good starter kit for someone new to drones or looking to upgrade from the toy-grade category, with a sub-par camera. This is a really good combo, it will serve you for a long time.

Rudolfking:

Also this model lacks the possibility of mounting an HD camera mount. Of course you can design&print or build your own, but it is certainly uncomfortable for beginners who are searching for a ready-to-fly kit and also want to create HD quality videos.

Ziv:


A well-designed, all-round quad with nice features. I like it


Proptor:

Nowadays its a tendency to release RTF, ARF racing quads. In the first years only the greatest fpv related manufacturers were in, but lately smaller startup companies started to stand in the line. And now we arrived to Zonda Hobby!
They have a great ARF racing quad named Q220. If you want to compare to any recent ARF quads on the market it would be the ImmersionRC Vortex series.
On Q220 everything just works as it should be. No hassle or setup needed. Plug in your RX and battery (3-4S capable) and you are good to go.
The FPV cam is only CMOS, but you can get used to it. It has detailed OSD function as well as LED indication under the arms and on the back.
If you pair it with Zonda Hobbys new fpv goggles you will get beep notification on your head, when the quad needs more juice.

So to sum: I would definitely buy this kit, do yourself a favor and try it!




If you have any questions, feel free to ask, we are here abd try to answer every single one of them.

It looks good, i think durable is very good for the beginner user.

Absolutely durable, today I smashed it to the ground and no problems!