Parrot Rolling Spider is an ultra-compact drone controlled by smartphone. It flies indoors and outdoors with surprising speed and stability. The Rolling Spider works via low power Bluetooth, connecting to Parrot’s FreeFlight app (available for Android and iOS with Windows Phone arriving in October) to turn your smartphone into a controller.
There’s three different modes to choose from and while the Spider isn’t easy to control it’s at least easy not to crash and offers some built in tricks (backflips and barrel rolls) that make you feel more expert than you really are.
This is most definitely an indoor drone mind, and although it has a range of around 160 feet, its miniscule size and weight (just 55g) makes it extremely susceptible to gusts of wind. To keep it safe indoors, Parrot supply a pair of detachable plastic wheels that let it ‘roll’ up walls and keep it from bumping into things with its propellers.
All this means that the Rolling Spider is at the bottom end of the drone market, which goes up through more sophisticated models like Parrot’s own A.R. Drone 2.0 and the DJI Phantom to the larger, custom rigs that are used for professional surveying.
With that in mind, the $99.95(approximately MYR 316) price for the Rolling Spider is perhaps a little high but the feeling of watching the thing buzz steadily around your living room is pretty unique.
