[REVIEW] Hubsan Zino 2 is a 4K drone with excellent flight characteristics and plenty of features

Seeing the world from a bird’s-eye view and creating nice videos or photos is very appealing to many people. There are already several drones on the market today that come with a quality camera and gimbal at a relatively affordable price. One of them is Hubsan Zino 2, which we tested.

Hubsan brand

The Chinese brand Hubsan offers plenty of drones, from cheap toys with a 2 MPx camera to quality ones with 4K recording. The Zino line is among the best and best-known drones from this brand.

A refreshed Zino 2 model recently hit the market, bringing plenty of improvements over the previous version. It got a camera with 4K 60 fps support, a remote controller with an info display, a higher-capacity battery, and greater range. Let’s take a closer look at what it offers.

Price and availability

We got the Hubsan Zino 2 from the well-known seller Banggood, where you can buy it at a great price. It’s also available from a Czech warehouse, so delivery is very fast. Plus, you’ll avoid any customs duties and the parcel will be delivered to your door by courier.

Basic specifications

Hubsan Zino 2 is one of the compact drones thanks to its folding mechanism, where the arms fold toward the body. In the unfolded state, ready to fly, it measures 32.60 x 26.00 x 9.49 cm. Folded, the drone is only 11 x 21.5 x 9.49 cm. With the battery, it weighs 929 g.

It records video in the highest quality at 4K (3840 x 2160 px, at 60 fps) thanks to a 1/2.3″ CMOS sensor with an f/2.2 aperture. The field of view is 80°.

Video stabilization is handled by a 3-axis gimbal, which can be tilted vertically by 90°.

The manufacturer states that the drone can take off to a maximum altitude of up to 5000 m. The maximum range, meaning the distance between the controller and the drone, can be up to 8 km thanks to the 5.725 – 5.850 GHz frequency. GPS and GLONASS support are included as well. Image transmission is handled by LEAS 2.0 technology.

With the drone, you should be able to fly for 33 minutes on a single charge. The intelligent battery used by the drone has a capacity of 3800 mAh.

The remote controller has an info display, 2 antennas, and a system for mounting a phone or tablet. It has a built-in battery with a capacity of 3350 mAh.

Package contents

Hubsan Zino 2 is sold in multiple versions. You can buy the drone with one or two batteries and with or without a bag. We had the top version available – with two batteries and a bag.

In the box, you’ll therefore find the drone itself in a bag, plus 2 intelligent batteries, a remote controller, and an adapter with a cable for charging.

In addition to this basic equipment, you’ll also get 3 cables for connecting the remote to your phone (USB-C, microUSB, Lightning), a microUSB cable for charging the controller, 2 sets of spare propellers (16 pieces), screws for mounting the propellers, a small screwdriver, and a user manual.

This package is quite well-stocked—there’s only one thing missing: protective propeller guards for beginners. The bag is very high quality, and all the mentioned items included in the box fit into it neatly. Inside, you’ll find a few compartments and a double bottom, so everything has its place.

In terms of build quality, everything feels very well made. It’s not some cheap plastic finish. We also appreciate the plastic cover for protecting the gimbal.

Since we had 2 batteries in the box, we were missing a charger that could charge both batteries at the same time.

First power-on and pairing the drone with the remote controller

The included manual is written clearly, so you can handle the pairing according to it. You need to install the app X-Hubsan 2 on your phone or tablet. We used a Samsung Galaxy S9+ smartphone.

After attaching it to the remote controller, you need to use a cable to connect the controller to the smartphone. We would’ve welcomed the option of a wireless connection—for example via Bluetooth—since the cable on the side slightly gets in the way.

The pairing process itself could be a bit simpler too, and we would’ve appreciated it if the app guided us through it automatically during the first start. However, the process doesn’t run automatically—you need to pair the controller with the drone manually in the app’s settings.

To pair the drone, you also need to press a small button on the drone for a few seconds. That wouldn’t be a problem if we didn’t need a needle to press this button—though we didn’t find one in the box.

Once the drone switches to pairing mode, you need to go to the controller settings in the app, search for the drone, and establish a connection between them. Next comes compass calibration, which the app already handles automatically as well, including clear examples.

After that, all you need to do is hold both control sticks in the outer lower position to turn the motors on, and you can fly.

App interface with lots of information

The X-Hubsan 2 app shows several useful pieces of information. In the top bar, you’ll find the current status, including whether the drone is ready to fly. There’s also an indicator of the active flight mode (cinema, normal, sports), an icon showing the current use of some intelligent features (such as object tracking), the propeller status (on or off), the live video signal status, and the battery status in the remote controller along with the signal intensity between the drone and the controller.

You’ll also find information about how many connected GPS satellites there are. If there are too few, the app will warn you about the weak GPS signal and won’t let you take off. The top bar also shows battery voltage and its percentage level. In the corner, there’s a settings button.

On the left side of the screen, you select the intelligent flight mode, and there’s also a button for automatic takeoff and landing.

In the corner of the screen, you can see the drone’s current location on Google Maps or a compass. You can zoom the map to full screen. The bottom section shows flight speed, altitude, and distance.

The right side belongs to the camera. Here you switch between video and photos—or the gallery. There’s a shutter button, gimbal tilt control, but also camera settings like white balance, resolution, and photo or video format.

Of course, the largest part of the screen is dedicated to FPV video transmission from the drone’s camera.

There’s really a lot of information in the app, so it takes a little while to get oriented.

Hubsan Zino 2: How does it fly?

Flying with this Hubsan is really easy. We already had some experience with drones, but we let several people try it who had never flown a drone before. After a short explanation of the controls, these people were able to take off, control the drone, and land it without any problems.

The drone holds its current position very solidly. You can take off with it calmly and put the controller down on the ground without worry. The drone will stay in its last position. You don’t need to worry about it dropping all the way to the ground. The bottom side has a small camera with sensors, which is why the drone keeps a safe distance from the ground.

In addition, in the cinematic mode the drone flies at a speed of only 1 m/s, so this mode is great for beginners. In normal mode it reaches 12 m/s and in sport mode 20 m/s.

We were very satisfied with the flight characteristics. We had a great time flying with the drone—the controller sticks provide enough grip and the drone reacts immediately to their movement.

We also flew with it in the wind, and it handled it with ease. In slightly stronger wind, you could already see that the drone had to work to maintain its position, but we didn’t notice any significant problem. In stronger wind it deviates a bit from its current position, which is understandable especially in gusty conditions.

The manufacturer claims a flight time of 33 minutes in calm air. During our testing, the runtime was around 25 minutes. But there was often at least a fairly light breeze, so in complete calm we almost never flew. Charging the battery from 35 to 100% takes about an hour.

The maximum range should be up to 8 km. For obvious reasons we didn’t test this, and we also didn’t test the maximum altitude. At a distance of 500 meters you can barely see the drone anymore. Also, according to the currently valid legislation, you should fly the drone only within visual line of sight. If you can’t see the drone with the naked eye after 500 meters, you shouldn’t go any further.

Video and photo quality

What probably interests you most is what videos and photos this drone can produce. Hubsan Zino 2 offers up to 4K resolution at 60 fps, which even its Xiaomi, Fimi X8 SE competitor doesn’t have. So we had very high expectations.

Hubsan didn’t disappoint, and we were happy with the video quality. Sometimes there are areas that are overexposed—too bright or too dark. It struggles a bit with direct sunlight, and you can see the sun glare in the video, but in general we can say the video output is at a high level. The video is full of detail, sharp, and the color rendering is mostly good.

Check out the sample video we shot with this drone. We flew in sunny weather as well as cloudy weather with light fog. The video is edited from multiple shots and wasn’t adjusted in any way.

Photo quality is quite good. But we were more satisfied with the video quality. In good lighting conditions it takes good photos. In worse light or when shooting toward the sun, it’s a bit worse. The drone also lets you save photos in the RAW format.

Check out the 3 photos we took in full resolution by clicking the links: Photo-1, Photo-2, Photo-3.

Intelligent flight features

Hubsan Zino 2 offers several intelligent flight modes: creative video, object tracking, waypoint mode, orbit mode, line fly, hyperlapse, and panorama.

In creative video mode you have 2 options: 360° shooting and comet. With 360° shooting, the drone rotates according to the set parameters around its own axis, and while doing so, it records the video. You can set the angle – by how many degrees the drone should turn, the rotation speed (in degrees per second), and the rotation direction.

In comet mode, you choose only the rotation direction and mark an object on the screen—then the drone will rotate toward it. In the manual for comet mode, you won’t find anything. It’s probably a new feature that didn’t exist at the time the manual was published.

Object tracking is a function that you probably already know. With the drone, you take off to a distance of 5 to 15 meters, mark the object you want it to follow, and if that object moves, the drone will track it. Hubsan Zino 2 also offers a mode where the drone follows the remote controller (the so-called Follow Me mode).

We tested both options and we have to say that tracking the marked object didn’t always work correctly. Several times we marked ourselves, but after a moment the drone lost sight of us and stopped tracking. In the video below, you can see a clear example of how object tracking works from the app’s point of view. We got the best results when the drone was at a low distance from the tracked object.

Other intelligent modes

You’ll also find waypoint mode, where you set several points that the drone will then fly through on its own. When we chose this mode, the app offered us the option to plan a route in two ways. In the first mode, you can draw the route with your finger on the map. Then the drone will follow it. Several points are automatically marked along the route, and you can edit them one by one.

The second option is that you manually fly the drone to a specific location, which you then save as a route point. After that, you move to the next location and save it as well, and you continue like this. Finally, once you’ve saved all the points and start this function, the drone will fly through them by itself, without your input.

With this mode, however, the drone stops at each saved point and only then moves on to the next one. We’d also appreciate an option for a fully smooth transition along the marked route.

Orbit mode is basically classic circling. With the sticks on the controller, you can set the circle diameter, height, and direction. The drone can orbit around the controller, around your current position, or around a chosen point on the map. You can also change the speed with the sticks while the function is running. The camera is oriented toward the center of the imaginary circle. This mode worked correctly, as expected.

Line fly, as the name suggests, is a straightforward flight. You can set the flight angle, distance, altitude, and speed here. After you start it, the drone will fly straight according to the parameters you set. We also didn’t record any problems with it.

In the video, you can watch how the Orbit and Line fly modes are set up and what their execution looks like.

Time-lapse videos and panoramas

Hyperlapse is a time-lapse video in motion. During photo capture, the drone will rotate and thus create a video in motion.

In panorama mode you have several options – spherical, 180-degree, vertical, or a classic wide-angle panorama.

We were surprised that the app can’t create the final panoramic photo from the individual shots on its own. To generate it, you have to use additional software that can do that. You can view an example panorama in full resolution on this link.

Remote control

The remote controller fits well in your hand and is built with quality materials. In the middle, there’s an informational LCD display where you’ll find the basic information that’s also shown in the smartphone app. The display is readable, and the values are visible even on a sunny day.

The bottom part is extendable. Here you place the smartphone, and the control sticks are also stored underneath—only needed to remove them if you want to put the controller into the included bag.

The controller has 2 antennas and 3 physical buttons on the front – a home return button (landing at the takeoff location), a power on / off button, and a flight mode change button.

At the top, there’s a wheel that lets you smoothly rotate the gimbal in the vertical direction. There’s also a button for taking photos, recording, and the so-called Fn button, which is used to adjust the display brightness. In the app, you can also assign it a function to end the current intelligent flight mode or to reset the gimbal.

The controller has a 3350 mAh battery, which lasted us about 3 years. We expected a little better battery life. It charges via a microUSB cable and takes about an hour to reach a full charge.

You can also use Hubsan Zino 2 without a phone connected to the remote controller. The downside is that you can’t see the camera feed, but you can still fly the drone this way.

Problematic app and updates

The biggest issues for us were with the X-Hubsan 2 app. Even when we downloaded it from Google Play, we noticed not-so-positive ratings about its stability. People also complain about updates that disable the drone for them. They say that after releasing an update for the drone, the update had to be installed—otherwise you couldn’t fly with the drone.

That wouldn’t be a deal-breaker by itself. But they also say that after updating, they can’t use the drone anymore because it can’t connect to the app. During our test, no firmware update was offered to us.

We did notice, however, several issues. Sometimes the app would display an error message: “USB cable disconnected”. At that moment, we lost the image in the app, the signal status data disappeared, and the altitude, distance, and speed indicators froze. After unplugging and reconnecting the cable, everything returned to normal. But after a while, it happened again. At that time, the drone was within visual range and fully controllable.

On another occasion, the app simply froze right after powering on, or it wouldn’t display the video stream from the drone’s camera. We had to turn it off and on again.

On the other hand, we have to say that most flights went without any app-related issues.

The app would mainly need an improvement in stability. If you fly a longer distance and you lose the video feed, it’s not very pleasant.

Safety functions

Hubsan Zino 2 comes with several safety mechanisms. When it comes to the battery: if it’s fully charged but not used, after 10 days of inactivity it starts discharging on its own. As you probably know, it’s not a good idea to store batteries fully charged. This mechanism helps extend their lifespan.

What happens if the signal drops between the drone and the remote controller? Don’t worry—the drone always remembers the GPS coordinates of the takeoff point, to which it will return in case of problems. So if you lose the signal, the drone will return to the start location.

Also, when the battery is low—either in the drone or in the remote controller—you’ll get a low-capacity notification. When the remote controller’s battery is low, you’ll also receive an audio signal.

As for the drone battery: if the capacity drops to 40 %, you’ll get the first notification. After that, every additional 5 % you receive the same notification in the app. When the battery drops to 25 %, the drone automatically starts returning to the takeoff point. This return and the subsequent landing can be interrupted and you can land manually.

Automatic landing works quite well. The drone always hit the takeoff point with an accuracy of 1 – 2 meters. During automatic landing, the drone first returns above the spot where it’s going to land, and only then starts to descend.

There’s also an automatic takeoff function. The drone will take off by itself and stay at a height of about 2 meters above the ground.

Hubsan Zino 2: Final rating

We really enjoyed flying with the Hubsan Zino 2. Its control is easy, intuitive, and anyone can handle it—even a complete beginner. We were pleasantly surprised by the video quality, which is 4K resolution at 60 fps. It delivers accurate color reproduction and a sharp image with plenty of details. We also rate its flight performance and control positively. The only major downside is the Android app, which has its bugs. It definitely needs reliability improvements.

Even though flying a drone is fairly simple, we’d appreciate it if the manufacturer also included protective propeller guards, the way some other manufacturers do.

The drone doesn’t have an assistance system that allows it to avoid obstacles on its own. However, this feature isn’t available on other models in a similar price range either – DJI Mavic Mini or Xiaomi Fimi X8 SE. Overall, this drone left a very positive impression, and we can recommend it with a clear conscience.

If you have any questions about this drone, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment. We’ll be happy to answer your questions.