Syma S107G RC Helicopter Review

I’m always trawling Amazon to see what might be a good buy for Christmas toys so when I noticed hundreds of excellent reviews for the Syma S107G RC Helicopter I had to get one to review.

When the parcel arrived, the box said the helicopter was for children aged over 14 years and my son (Ben) is only 10 so that was the start of my worries.

I then opened the box to see this fragile looking helicopter so began to think my investment was about to be smashed to pieces. The Syma S107G is also a micro helicopter so is pretty teeny – it fits comfortably on one hand.

Panicking I got my husband to take the first flight so I could at least get some video before Ben took his turn. With hindsight this wasn’t the best idea as hubby crashed it straight into the ceiling anyway!

The good news was though, that it survived. It is actually really durable so Ben got to have a go and despite his initial crashes it is still intact – phew!

==> Click HERE for the best prices

 

The Technical Stuff

This Syma RC helicopter is a micro coaxial hobby grade toy. This means it is one level up from toy helicopters so you can buy replacement parts if any get damaged. You can also make your own modifications if you’re into that sort of thing.

The G in S107G stands for Gyro. This built in stabilizer means the helicopter will not spin out of control but instead goes where you tell it to.

The 3 channel remote control means you control the height, direction and speed of the heli. More advanced RC helicopters have 4 channels where you also get to roll and bank whilst flying.

You can steer the helicopter in any direction due to its 360 degree control. It also goes up and down (obviously!).

All the parts are assembled straight out of the box, but you do need to insert batteries into the remote control.

The metal and plastic build is designed to stand up to the inevitable crashes.

The helicopter has a range of 30ft from the remote control.

There are two frequencies available so you can fly two helicopters at the same time.

This toy can only be used indoors as the infra red will not work in direct sunlight.

 

Syma S107 Review

I should have guessed that with all the other great reviews out there that this would be a good toy. And it was! It gets the thumbs up from both Ben and hubby who have already had hours of fun with it. Check out their video review below:

 

Pros

With a price tag of around £15-20 this helicopter toy offers great value for money.

The controls are easy to understand and it is great fun to fly. The controls are quite sensitive though so you need to get used to making small adjustments. Pushing the levers too far forwards and backwards you will soon ram the helicopter into the floor or ceiling.

Upon arrival, the helicopter needs to be charged but then you can fly it straight away.

There is a USB cable to attach to your PC to charge the Syma S107 battery which is built in. It does also have a lead to charge from the remote control but this will run down its batteries fairly quickly. I guess this would be helpful if you were away from your PC though.

The helicopter is much sturdier than it first looks. Whilst not indestructible, ours has had some fairly major crashes and is still flying happily. We have had to tweak the tail blade but I think this was more from Ben picking it up by the tail rather than a crash. The metal casing that keeps all the workings protected does a good job and the blades seem to move out of the way on impact and don’t get damaged. As the helicopter is so lightweight, the frame is tough and the power is not excessive, the crashes actually aren’t that heavy.

Whilst Ben thinks the flight time of the Syma S107 helicopter is far too short at 6-7 minutes, I think it’s great as it keeps him wanting more. He can’t fly it for long enough to get bored so he’s still excited about it when it’s ready for him again.

From what I’ve read the built in Gyro is the real plus of this helicopter. It stops it spinning off crazily and allows you to control it and fly it very precisely. It goes where you tell it to and it responds quickly to adjustments you make on the remote control. It also hovers well. Flying this machine is easy to learn making it great for novices.

The trim control (or adjustment knob as I call it) allows you to correct any issues the helicopter may develop with direction. This means that if you tell the helicopter to go forwards but it veers off to the left or right, you can tweak the knob to realign it. You won’t need to do this very often though.

Although there is some noise from the battery and the blade rotation, it is actually pretty quiet when flying.

Depending on how good your flight skills are, there may come a time when you need to replace some of the Syma S107 parts. Luckily spares are easy to find online, from blades to buckles, to new chargers. Unlike with other toy helicopters, if something breaks, it can be fixed very cheaply.

==> Click HERE for parts information & prices

 

Cons

Watch out for the ‘colours may vary‘ products on Amazon if you fancy a specific colour of helicopter. I missed this so we ended up with a yellow one when Ben would have liked a red one. They are available in red, blue and yellow.

Of course the helicopter needs to be charged when you get it. We know this but 10 year olds don’t appreciate it. As such if you buy one for Christmas, charge it as late in the day as you can, then wrap it and put it under the tree.

Charging the Syma S107G helicopter lasts about 40-50 minutes. It can then fly for 6-7 minutes. These ratios didn’t stack up to Ben but he’s learning to live with it and is always keen to get going when it’s ready.

Being a moving indoor toy, you will have to be somewhat careful where you fly it, especially when you’re still a learner. It might knock off an ornament or scratch furniture so bear this in mind before you start. You also need to steer clear of fans or really bright lights as they can affect the flying and the remote control.

I don’t like the connections on the USB. Both the socket on the helicopter and the end of the cable are plastic and they don’t seem to fit very well. They do work though so I guess I can’t complain too much.

The Syma S107G manual is a bit of a joke. The English translation is laughable in places but luckily if you read this review and watch our video you won’t need them!

Make sure you have 6 AA batteries ready for the remote control or you won’t be flying anywhere.

Make sure you have a room with a bit of space ready for your first few flights.

 

Things I Think You Might Find Useful To Know

This helicopter is small. See our photo below comparing it to an apple. It is 22cm long, 3.8cm wide and 9.8cm tall. When flying it has a 19cm rotor diameter.

Make sure you look after the helicopter’s battery. This is really important and here’s how to do it:

• DON’T keep flying the helicopter until the battery’s empty. Limit your flights to 5 minutes only.
• DO let the battery cool down both after charging and after flying. So don’t fly it as soon as it’s charged. And don’t charge it as soon as it’s flown. A 5 minute wait should be enough.
• DON’T leave the helicopter plugged in when it’s finished charging. You know when it’s charged as a red light appears on the USB cable. Actually these lights had us confused for a while. When you first plug the cable into the PC, the red light comes on. It goes off again when you plug the other end of the cable into the helicopter. But then it comes on again when the charge is complete.

Watch our video to see the controls in action but basically the levers work as follows:

• Left lever – makes the helicopter go up and down.
• Right lever – controls the direction so you can change course 360 degrees.
• Trim control – only needed to adjust the directional control if need be, say when forwards isn’t going forwards.

Being a complete RC helicopter novice I found it hard to get used to the directional controls working relative to the helicopter. In other words it is fine if you are behind the helicopter as right to the helicopter is right to you, but if it is facing you then right to the helicopter is left to you. Anyway you’ll see what I mean when you try it and once I got my head around it, it was fine.

Kids won’t have any problem with this but I was being over cautious on take off and landing, trying to go really slowly so I didn’t shoot up into the ceiling. Anyway you need to be a bit less cautious and get the helicopter away from the ground quite quickly or the air currents interfere with the stability. So take off quite quickly, but straight away take your finger off the throttle or you’ll crash into the ceiling.

Here are some good exercises to get you used to flying the helicopter when you first get it:

• take off and land
• take off, go left and land
• take off, go right and land
• take off, go forwards, backwards and land
• take off, go forwards, turn around, return to where you took off from and land
• take off, do some circuits (both left and right) and land
• take off, perform a figure of eight and land.

To avoid any damage, when you know you are going to crash (and you will!), release the throttle immediately.

Do not pick the helicopter up by the tail. Just carefully pick it up by the main body.

If you notice the helicopter struggling to gain altitude towards the end of the flying time, stop flying as the battery is nearly depleted. Like we said above you should not empty the battery completely if you want to preserve the battery life.

 

Fun Ideas

When you’re proficient at basic flying, set up some flight skills competitions. Create a helipad with a small table or stool, put some obstacles around the place and try to manoeuvre around them. Take turns with friends or family members to see who can run the course the fastest.

 

Syma S107 Mods

Whilst we have not had our helicopter long enough to want to pimp it or repair anything, if you are interested in such things, KillBuckets.com has some great tutorials. These include learning how to become a S107 mechanic, how to adjust the throttle so you can fly the helicopter thumbs-off, and how to replace the battery.

 

Overall

I hope you’ve found our Syma S107G helicopter review helpful. We’ve found it be great fun especially as a learner level RC helicopter. Why not start here while you learn how to fly and then move onto a more expensive model.

==> Click HERE for the best prices

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