Emax Tinyhawk Freestyle — It’s like a 5″ that fits in your pocket

Emax makes some of the best FPV drones on the market today. The Emax Tinyhawk Freestyle is no exception. It is a smaller, toothpick style drone with some serious power. If you are looking for a fun drone to practice freestyle or racing skills but don’t like the crowds that show up when you break out the big and loud standard 5″ quad then you should take a look at the Emax Tinyhawk Freestyle.

Emax Tinyhawk Freestyle

The Emax Tinyhawk Freestyle is essentially a Tinyhawk S on a carbon fiber frame with some beefed-up motors. It is an excellent value starting at $105 if you pick one up from Banggood or if you prefer the reliability and fast shipping of Amazon you can get one for $110.

It uses the same F4 flight controller, 25 MW VTX, and 600 TVL camera. The VTX comes locked so I recommend unlocking it before that causes issues. Power up the Tinyhawk while holding the VTX button for 30 seconds and it will unlock. The camera angle is adjustable and I found the original angle just a bit too tame for me.

It gets its power from two 1S batteries connected in series for 2S power. It uses an upgraded dual JST 2.0 connecter to do so. This is nice if like me you are a Tinyhawk owner and you have a bunch of 1S batteries. If you prefer, it would be fairly simple to replace it with an XT30 for a standard 2S lipo.

The Tinyhawk Freestyle gets its power from 1103 7000 KV motors. They spin 2.5″ Avan propellers that give it a mean look. If Batman flew drones, it would be the Tinyhawk Freestyle. It uses a 4-in-1 5 amp ESC. Smart audio comes set up and you can bind in either D8 or D16 mode. You won’t have to use the bind button. Simply enter the CLI in Betaflight type: bind_rx_spi and be on your way.

The Tinyhawk Freestyle is small and light. It is only 46 grams without batteries and 79 grams when you add the two included 450 mAh batteries. It isn’t the fastest or most powerful micro quad I’ve flown but it has plenty of power and punch to do all the acro tricks I want. I personally am not the world’s greatest acro pilot and I prefer flying a quad of this size over my 5″.

Tinyhawk Freestyle vs 5″ quad

No, the Freestyle doesn’t have the power that a 5″ quad does. But it will certainly fly under the radar a lot better (pun intended). It is smaller and quieter than any 5″ I’ve ever flown. It can do all the tricks, flips, and rolls a full-size quad can but it won’t be drawing a crowd. I love taking my drones to the park to fly but I don’t want the attention that bigger drones bring. This little quad is the way to go.

Freestyle cons

It is a really nice little quad but it does have a few flaws. I’m not a big fan of the antenna placement for the receiver or VTX. The batteries get in the way of the VTX antenna and I didn’t get a great RSSI feed from the original. I’ll be experimenting with better placements. I would have loved it if the VTX was capable of putting out 200 MW as I want to get a little more range on my video transmission. You can hear oscillations when flying but it doesn’t seem to interfere with the way it flies. I’d love to have just a little bit more power but maybe that’s being a little greedy. It is a fantastic little quad.

Should you order the Emax Tinyhawk Freestyle?

If you are looking for a good drone to learn how to do flips and rolls then I’d suggest picking up a Tinyhawk Freestyle. It is an excellent beginner FPV drone and I would say a great step up from the Tinyhawk. If you need the power of a 5″ then this isn’t something I would recommend. However, if you want something that won’t draw attention to you flying at the park then again, this is an excellent option.

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