EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro Review: Does this Mid-Price Drone Soar or Should it Stay Grounded?

The world of consumer drones is largely dominated by one company, DJI. DJI has become known for its high-quality drones that are relatively easy to use and offer a solid build quality. But they're also not the only company in town. EXO has been building drones for a while too. Recently, I reviewed the EXO Mini and found it to be a relatively low-quality product, especially compared to similarly priced DJI models. But EXO also has higher-end drones that look to be slightly more promising. The EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro may be a little pricey compared to the miniature drones out there, but with a higher quality camera and faster flight speed, it could be a great option for those who want a solid drone under $1,000.

Unboxing and first impressions

The EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro comes with everything you need to get started and flying as soon as possible. Everything is packed into a nice carry case that you can use to hold the drone, controller, and all of the accessories you need. That includes two sets of two propeller replacements, two charging cables, spare joysticks, and more.

While it's nice that there are two charging cables, it's actually borne out of necessity. The charger for the drone's battery has a USB-C port, whereas the controller is charged through a MicroUSB port. That's unfortunate, as MicroUSB went out of date years ago. And while it would be nice if EXO redesigned the controller in general, simply changing the port to the updated standard should be easy enough. Setting aside the fact that MicroUSB is out of date, everything should at least charge with the same connector for some consistency. It's kind of bizarre that the two use completely different charging connectors.

Charging cables aside, the selection of accessories that comes with the drone is highly appreciated, especially the relatively well-built carry case that can fit everything you need. The drone is available in combos with one battery, two batteries, or three batteries—my unit came with one.

EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro pros and cons

EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro Price

The EXO Blackwalk 3 Pro comes in at $949 for the single battery package. That's a slightly awkward price range for drones, especially compared to the most popular drones from DJI. The DJI Mini 4 Pro costs $759, while the DJI Air 23 costs $1,099.

EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro specifications

• Dimensions: 4.7 x 6.8 x 2.7 inches
• Weight: 600 grams (with battery)
• Camera resolution: 48 megapixels
• Max video resolution: 4K (3840 × 2160)
• Battery life: Up to 53 minutes
• Transmission range: 9.3 miles
• Obstacle avoidance: 360 degrees

Flight performance

Stability and control

For the most part, the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro was stable during flight and easy to control. The drone offers a number of different flight modes, which I'll get into later, but rest assured the drone didn't seem to destabilize during flight at all. On the contrary, it flew quite smoothly.

Range and battery life

The EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro has a transmission range of 9.3 miles, which is decent, but not incredible. To be clear, you'll never get the advertised range of a drone in the real world, as this range is tested in ideal conditions with zero other radio interference. However, the range isn't quite as good as some competitors, even cheaper ones. The DJI Mini 4 Pro offers a rated range of 12.4 miles, which is very good for a drone in this price range. Again, you won't actually hit 12.4 miles in the real world, but you will get a better range with the cheaper DJI drone than you will with the Blackhawk 3 Pro.

The transmission seemed to be a little more consistent on the DJI Mini 4 Pro as well. I found the feed to stutter and skip quite a bit when flying the Blackhawk 3 Pro, something that didn't happen with the DJI Mini 4 Pro when I tested it. This can also vary quite a bit from location to location though.

The battery life offered by the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro is very good. You'll get a maximum flight time of 53 minutes, which is above average for a drone in this class. Again, this is a figure you likely won't hit in the real world unless you're using the lowest power settings possible. But I expect most users will get around 35 to 40 minutes of flight time from the drone, which isn't bad at all.

Wind resistance

EXO advertises a wind resistance of up to 36 mph, which is also quite good for a drone in this price range and weight-class. It essentially means that in reasonably good weather, you should be able to fly the drone without any issues. Even mild weather situations should be fine. While the drone might move a little when you're controlling it, it shouldn't be more than the drone can handle.

Flight modes and features

The Blackhawk 3 Pro offers a number of different flight modes that you can use depending on how comfortable you are flying the drone. There are different modes for being able to fly the drone quicker by turning off some of the safety features. However, if you're just getting started with drones, I recommend keeping the settings the way they are out of the box.

The drone also offers some intelligent features like Follow Me and Return Home. Follow Me should allow the drone to follow you when you're flying it automatically, while Return Home lets the drone navigate back to its starting point automatically. It's a handy feature, but certainly not one that's unique to the EXO.

Camera quality

4K video performance

The video quality offered by the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro is quite good. The drone supports capturing footage at up to 4K resolution, which makes it great for creators who want to ensure that they're getting crisp and detailed shots. Unfortunately, it can only capture 4K video at up to 30 frames per second, which means you can't use it for the kinds of slow-motion shots you might want from a drone. By contrast, the cheaper DJI Mini 4 Pro also supports 4K video, but it can record at up to 60 frames per second, so it can be used for slow-motion footage. Like the DJI drone, the Blackhawk 3 Pro supports HDR for more natural image quality. So you'll get better detail in the highlights and the shadows of a video.

That's not to say that video doesn't look good on the Blackhawk 3 Pro. It does. It's crisp and detailed, and colors are reasonably vibrant. But you can get more versatile videography capabilities from cheaper drones.

Image stabilization

The stabilization you get through the gimbal built into the Blackhawk 3 Pro is pretty good. I did find there was some shaking in the video, though, which was a little frustrating to see for a drone this expensive. It wasn't over the top, and I only really noticed it after viewing the footage on a much larger screen than my phone. So if you're creating content for smaller screens in the first place, it won't matter all that much. However, it's still something to keep in mind if you want the best quality footage you can get.

Photo quality

Photos captured with the Blackhawk 3 Pro were decently high quality. The drone has a 48 megapixel sensor built into it, and images I took generally looked detailed and crisp. Colors were reasonably vibrant too. The overall color tuning on the drone isn't incredible, and you might find that some aspects of an image look a little blown out if you capture a shot with lots of dynamic range. However, again, they certainly didn't look bad and were more than usable for many situations.

Low-light performance

Low-light performance on the camera wasn't great. The EXO advertises the camera as being able to capture great low-light video, but I didn't really have that experience. I found that unless your scene had a decent amount of light, videos were fuzzy and relatively poorly lit.

User experience and app

Controller design and ergonomics

The controller that comes with the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro is the same controller that comes with the EXO Mini that I also recently reviewed. Unfortunately, that means that as with the EXO Mini, I didn't have the best experience with it.

The controller comes with a display of its own, which can be used to show information about battery life, GPS, and more. That said, you'll need to use it with your phone's display to see a feed of the video from the drone. There's a tray that slides out from the bottom of the controller and allows you to slot your phone in. The tray seems to be lubricated a little with an oily substance to make it easier for it to slide out, which is a little strange considering it's where you put your phone. I did find that this lubricant got on my phone a little. However, it's clear that the amount that's used varies from controller to controller. I also found the tray for holding your phone to be quite weak. When I accidentally dropped the controller, one side of it completely snapped when I was reviewing the EXO Mini. I was obviously much more careful this time around, but I still think that the controller should be able to withstand a little more than one single drop.

The controller is also quite bulky and not the most comfortable to hold. The cable that connects the controller and your phone gets in the way of being able to hold it comfortably too. The controls are fine though, and you'll find that you get used to where they're located relatively easily.

App functionality and user interface

The app for the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro can be confusing at times. However, it worked better with the Blackhawk 3 Pro than it did for the EXO Mini that I also tested. I didn't get any confusing error messages this time around, for example, but it's the same app so it’s entirely possible that other customers will.

Once you open up the app and connect your phone to the controller, you'll be able to connect everything to the drone relatively easily. Once you’re connected, you'll see a live feed from the drone's camera. You'll then take off with a button on the left of the display, and you'll be able to access camera settings and controls on the right of the screen. It's a little cluttered, and it doesn't have the best design, but barring any confusion around errors, you'll get used to how it looks and feels.

Setup process

Setting up the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro was relatively smooth, unlike the EXO Mini. You'll connect your phone to the controller, turn it on, then turn the drone on, and the two should automatically connect. If you're in the app, everything will fire up without too much manual input. You may then be guided through a few additional steps to get the drone into the air. For example, you may have to calibrate the compass built into the drone, and you'll likely have to wait a while for the GPS to connect. GPS issues were a big problem with the EXO Mini. However, I found them to be much less of an issue with the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro.

Design and build quality

Portability

While the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro isn't a mini-sized drone like the EXO Mini or DJI Mini 4 Pro, it does fold up to be relatively portable and lightweight. With the battery installed, the drone is 600 grams, which means you'll need to register it with the FAA to be able to use it. If you're looking for a drone that you don't have to register, you'll need to find one that's under 250 grams, the best of which is the DJI Mini 4 Pro. EXO is a little confusing around FAA registration, though, and don't be fooled by its poor marketing. All of the listings for the Blackhawk 3 Pro note that the drone is “FAA compliant,” which doesn't really mean much in this context. It may well be compliant with regulations, but that doesn't mean you won't have to register it. It's like saying that a car is DMV compliant.

Despite the added weight, I didn't find it to be overly bulky or heavy. It fit nicely into the carry case that it comes with too, making it easy to take on the road.

Case and accessories

I was pleased with the case and accessories that came with the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro. The case is well-built and has plenty of space for all the accessories that come with the drone. It's organized decently too, and I found it easy to put everything back into the case after flying the drone.

I was also happy with the number of accessories included. It's become standard practice for drone manufacturers to include additional propellers, so EXO doesn't necessarily get too much credit here. However, it's still nice they're included in case you need them, and there's also a screwdriver to help you replace them quickly.

Build strength

The build quality of the drone itself isn't bad. It's not the most premium drone out there, but its construction isn't as poor as the EXO Mini. For the most part it's built out of plastic, but that's common and necessary when weight is so important. I never really worried I was going to break the drone itself.

That wasn't necessarily true for the controller, though, which I still find to be cheaply built and poorly constructed. That's especially true for the phone tray, which is easy to break.

Comparison with competitors

DJI Mini 4 Pro

The DJI Mini 4 Pro is smaller and lighter than the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro, plus it's cheaper. That said, it can capture better video at up to 60 frames per second with HDR support. It also offers better build quality, especially when it comes to the controller. Not only that, but the DJI Mini 4 Pro offers more smart features and a longer transmission range, plus it can fly almost as fast. Most users should buy the DJI Mini 4 Pro instead of the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro.

DJI Air 3

If you're willing to spend a little more, then the DJI Air 3 is vastly superior to the EXO Blackwalk 3 Pro. The DJI Air 3 has two cameras built into it for more versatile video capture, with one of those cameras being a telephoto camera. It also offers better build quality, a much longer transmission range, and a battery life that's almost as good.

Final verdict

Reviewing the EXO Mini was a nightmare, but the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro was much smoother and easier. The drone worked well most of the time, offering great battery life and decent build quality. But it's not perfect. The controller is poorly built, and unfortunately for EXO, the DJI Mini 4 Pro exists. The Mini 4 Pro captures better video, is built better, easier to use, and is cheaper. Plus, it's under the FAA registration weight limit. If you're looking for a drone in this price range, it's worth going for the DJI Mini 4 Pro, as it's better than the EXO Blackhawk 3 Pro in most ways.