Ruko drones are a popular option for beginners, and the Ruko U11MINI is a sub-250g model, weighing just 8.29oz / 235g, making it one of the lighter drones in this popular category.
Considering some great drones released in 2024, the U11MINI is not one of the best entry-level drones, as competition in this category is increasing, but it is one of the options you should consider. One remains.
Main specifications
Weight: 8.29oz/235g
size: 5.55 x 3.42 x 2.44 inches / 141 x 87 x 62 mm (folded) / 12.71 x 10.67 x 2.44 inches / 323 x 271 x 62 mm (unfolded)
battery: 2200 mAh Li-ion / up to 35 minutes flight
Charger type: USB-C cable
mode: Cine, normal, sport
Video transmission range: 2.96 miles
Video resolution: 4K, 2.7K, 720p (720p saved on phone)
Frame rate: 4K 20FPS, 2.7K 30FPS, 720p 20FPS
The U11MINI comes with a complete kit with everything you need to start flying, including two batteries that are always useful. Additionally, it offers a variety of basic features that you would expect from even the most basic drone model.
The flight performance is very good, with responsive controls and agile flight, so it can be a worthy choice for your first drone to get used to flying and controlling the drone.
Like most cheap entry-level drones, the image quality isn’t the best, but it can take JPEG photos in 4K dimensions, which is equivalent to 8.2MP.
Video can be captured up to 4K, but the frame rate is a bit low at this resolution, at just 20 FPS. This is certainly not a problem, but if you want 4K 30 FPS video, you should be careful.
Ruko U11MINI Review
Ruko U11MINI Review: Design
- small and lightweight
- folding design
- good controller
This small, lightweight, and foldable design makes the Ruko U11MINI a highly portable drone, and importantly, no FAA registration or remote ID is required for recreational use. It’s perfect for beginners, as the simple rules reduce the hassle associated with owning a drone.
This black drone has two blue lights on the front, which you might think indicate which direction it’s facing, but it’s so small that it disappears from view once it flies away. It looks good, but unfortunately it’s not bright enough. The downside of making the lights brighter is of course that it drains your battery more, so from that perspective it’s not a bad thing.
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Battery life and flight time are advertised as up to 35 minutes, but flight times during testing averaged just over 20 minutes. To be fair, temperatures in the UK have dropped into the single digits and it was windy during the flight, so battery life would naturally improve in warmer, calmer conditions.
Moving on to the build quality, the drone is perfectly adequate, but not the best I’ve ever seen. This is a foldable drone, making it more compact to carry and store, and its light weight will definitely make it more comfortable to carry. Not to mention, the carrying case included in the kit is small and has a convenient handle on the top.
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The controller has a higher build quality than the drone itself and features a set of direct access controls to initiate the camera, gimbal, and Return to Home. It’s also easy to hold, and the control sticks can be stored on the bottom of the controller for transport or storage. Finally, the phone holder extends from the top and can accommodate small and large smartphones, with space to store your phone cable for added convenience.
Ruko U11MINI Review: Functionality
- Basic subject tracking
- Level 4 wind resistance
- Return to home
The U11MINI is a basic entry-level drone with basic but also standard features for this type of model. GPS positioning is provided by GPS and GLONASS satellites with horizontal and vertical accuracy of ±1.64 ft / 50 cm. This appears to be true as the drone moves noticeably in all directions while hovering.
The GPS also has a Return to Home (RTH) feature and you can set the RTH altitude within the Ruko U11 app. Then there’s the barometer, optical flow sensor, and TOF. All of this is useful, but as you might imagine, it’s no match for a full-fledged obstacle avoidance sensor, an expensive feature found only on the best drones.
Most Ruko drones include a variety of features, allowing pilots to take advantage of GPS follow-me, image follow, waypoints, points of interest, digital zoom, and more. All of these features work, but they’re far from elegant, and your subject won’t always be centered in the frame. Also, the lack of image stabilization, either mechanical or electronic, means that the subject tracking feature, as with all video, produces bumpy results.
One of the things that makes the U11MINI stand out among other drones in its price range is its flight performance and control. The controls are responsive and certainly agile when flying in sport mode, with a top speed of 26.6 mph. Cine mode is the slowest, and Normal is the flight mode that pilots use most of the time to balance speed and battery usage.
Drones under 250g are not suitable for high winds, but some drones have level 5 wind resistance. The U11MINI is not the most powerful drone of its type, as it has level 4 wind resistance, which equates to speeds of up to 18 miles per hour, but it was powerful enough to easily handle this wind level during testing. .
One negative point that must be mentioned is that the instructions state that pairing between the controller and the drone can take up to 51 seconds, and it certainly takes that much, if not more, in some cases. It takes time.
This has to be done every time you turn on the drone and is a little frustrating to say the least. You should also leave your smartphone unplugged during the pairing process, as the connection between the drone and controller may be stopped.
Ruko U11MINI Review: Performance
- Powerful image processing
- Up to 4K 20 FPS video
- automatic camera
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Like most drones, the U11MINI performs best in terms of image quality in bright conditions due to its small sensor. There’s not much information about the camera and lens itself, but the specs seem to use a Sony sensor that captures photos in 4K dimensions, suggesting a resolution of 8.2MP.
Camera control is fully automatic, so both photos and videos can be taken with autofocus, 4K capture at 20 FPS, and 2.7 at 30 FPS. This frame rate is low for 4K video these days, and it would be even better if 4K 30 FPS were available to create smoother videos at this resolution.
The main problem with fully automatic cameras is that you have no control over exposure compensation. So some shots will be fully exposed, others will be underexposed, and the rest will be overexposed. Taking photos and videos can sometimes feel like a blessing in disguise.
Image quality is not very good, with strong artifacts visible in both photos and videos. Halos due to over-sharpening and generally too strong in-camera processing. There is also severe barrel distortion depending on the pitch of the gimbal, which can be set between 0 and 90 degrees. Distortion is lowest when the camera is facing forward, but there is some pincushion distortion, and barrel distortion is most noticeable when tilted down about 45 degrees.
The lack of image stabilization means the video is bumpy. But in addition to this, another symptom of the lack of stabilization is that if the drone is caught in a crosswind, the horizon will be seen at an angle instead of as straight as it should be. Therefore, although the U11MINI can handle level 4 winds, it is better suited for calmer conditions when shooting photos and videos.
Ruko U11MINI Video
Ruko U11MINI Review: Cost
Ruko drones are popular in the U.S., and the reason may be because of their price. The Ruko U11MINI is an entry-level model priced at an attractive price of $260 / £198, removing the cost barrier of drone ownership. However, once the DJI Neo is released at a price similar to the base kit, there will be very stiff competition for entry-level beginner drones like the U11MINI.
The kit includes the U11MINI drone, controller, 2 batteries, 2 USB-C cables to charge the batteries directly, an extra set of propellers, and a carrying case. It is a complete, self-contained device with everything you need except for your smartphone, which requires you to download the Ruko U11 app to adjust the drone’s settings, use the camera, and access flight features. It’s a kit.
Should I buy Ruko U11MINI?
From a flying perspective, the U11MINI flies well with responsive controls, making it a great option for understanding flight controls before upgrading to a more expensive model. It also has useful and basic features such as GPS positioning, downward sensor, and Return to Home.
Unfortunately, where it falls short is in the camera department, where image quality isn’t all that great and suffers from general over-processing that causes photo and video distortion, over-sharpening, and artifacts. So if you’re looking for a drone to fly just for flying purposes, the U11MINI is perfectly capable, but as a camera drone there are better options available at a similar price.
If Ruko U11MINI doesn’t fit
DJI Neo is an affordable entry-level drone that can be flown in a variety of ways, including autonomous flight with intelligent subject tracking, the DJI Fly app via your smartphone, or using a traditional controller. The photo and video quality is also excellent for a drone of its price.
Holy Stone HS900 Sirius is an impressive sub-250g entry-level drone with many useful features, excellent flight performance, and impressive image quality when taking photos and videos. This is a drone that can easily challenge beginners, intermediates, and even more advanced drone operators.
DJI Mini 4 Pro is the best sub-250g camera money can buy with a great camera for taking photos and videos. It also has advanced obstacle avoidance and subject tracking capabilities, making it a drone that will provide years of faithful service in a compact and lightweight package.
