HoverAir Aqua Review

Price and Availability

The Aqua is available in three bundles. The Standard Combo (£1129) includes the drone with one battery, a USB-C cable, the Lighthouse wearable and armband, a repair kit and a single waterproof battery bag. The Basic Combo (£1,219) adds a second battery and a charging hub (capable of charging two batteries sequentially), whilst the Fly More Combo (£1,299 and available online only) comes with three batteries in total, three waterproof battery bags, a maintenance kit and the charging hub. 

There’s no getting away from the fact that the Aqua is pricey, at least in comparison to DJI’s drones. You can buy the semi-professional DJI Air 3S for significantly less – but I think the Aqua’s unique skill set does go some way towards justifying its lofty RRP.

While the drone is available in most of the world already, it has not yet launched in the United States due to ongoing FCC regulatory considerations. Zero Zero Robotics has confirmed it is working to comply with those requirements, with the aim of making the product available to US customers as soon as it can. But there is no indication of when that might be.

Design and Build

• 249g non-foldable quadcopter design with enclosed rotors
• IP67 waterproof rating and orange finish for maximum visibility
• Considerable post-saltwater maintenance required

The Aqua’s rigid, non-foldable frame is a key part of its design: a folding mechanism would introduce more potential points for water ingress, which wouldn’t be ideal for a product that routinely lands on the sea. The downside is a bulkier footprint than buyers used to folding drones of the same sub-250g weight will expect.

That makes the complete absence of a carry case in any of the bundles frustrating. With the camera lens and propellers partially exposed, getting the Aqua safely to and from your launch site requires either buying the £49 optional accessory or crossing your fingers and shoving it in a plastic bag. The best drones routinely bundle good quality carrying bags, so it’s a disappointing omission here.

The drone is fairly robust, with chunky clips to keep the battery in place and a padded frame to protect the propellers from horizontal hazards. But the props could get damaged if the drone were to land on an uneven surface, and while flying at the beach I’ve noticed that sand tends to get into the Aqua’s mechanisms too – it’s nothing a quick rinse can’t fix, but another maintenance task which, as I’ll come to, is a big part of owning this drone.

Visually, the Aqua is hard to miss – and that’s by design. The hot orange finish makes the drone easy to spot both in the air and sitting on the water’s surface, and I think suggests aquatic gear like buoys and lifeboats, which feels entirely appropriate.

A 1.6-inch AMOLED screen on the drone’s front provides an on-water interface for switching flight modes, checking settings and even reviewing what you’ve just captured. It’s good, too: bright enough to be readable in direct sunlight, I found it a welcome alternative to fumbling with a smartphone whilst balanced on my paddleboard.

But the drone is only half of the Aqua hardware equation. Equally important is the Lighthouse wearable (which I’ll get into in the section below), which clips around the forearm via a Velcro strap and is designed to be worn and forgotten while you focus on whatever activity brought you to the water. It’s lightweight, comfortable to wear and robust.

There’s an upkeep commitment here that goes well beyond anything required by a land-based drone. After flying in salt water, the Aqua needs a thorough rinse in fresh water, drying with a clean cloth, and an inspection of the battery compartment before the next flight (a colour-coded moisture indicator inside that compartment lets you know if water is still present, which is handy).

Swapping batteries on the water also requires completely dry hands, which is more easily said than done during a surf session.

Flight Performance

• Wide range of automated flight modes
• No active obstacle avoidance
• Level 7 wind resistance

Zero Zero describes the Aqua as a “self-flying camera” rather than a drone, because it’s primarily designed with autonomous flight in mind. You can control it manually using your phone, the Lighthouse’s buttons or an optional controller, but it’s really designed to follow and film you while you do other, more interesting things.

At my count there are 13 different (and customisable) automated flight modes here, including several designed with specific water sports in mind. These perform preset moves with the drone while filming or taking photos; hitting the Home button on the Lighthouse will bring the drone back to your location where it’ll either land on the water or be grabbed out of the sky (carefully) from the top.

Rather than solely using computer vision to identify and frame a human body, as DJI’s ActiveTrack does, the Aqua locks onto the Lighthouse wearable strapped to the user’s arm. In a water environment, where reflective surfaces and submersion can fool purely visual tracking, this seems like a smart choice. The RTK positioning system keeps the drone aware of the wearer’s location at all times, even if the latter is fully submerged in the water.

One consequence, however, is that the drone follows the accessory on your arm rather than composing a shot around you as a visual subject. I found that this can lead to odd (and frankly bad) framing, with the wearer partially cropped out of shots or situated well off-centre. So buyers expecting the precise, subject-centred framing of a conventional vision-based follow-me drone should temper their expectations accordingly.

When I first tested the Aqua, the connection between Lighthouse and drone would frequently drop, but post-launch firmware updates seem to have improved this somewhat, while also adding to the line-up of flight modes. Where earlier testing produced full disconnections on every flight, recent sessions produced only intermittent weak-signal warnings, each resolved within around 30 seconds. 

It is worth noting that, like other HoverAir drones, the Aqua uses ShadowTrack positional following rather than active obstacle avoidance. That means the drone will not detect and/or navigate around objects in its path. I didn’t have any collisions while testing it, but if you’re in an area with lots of other people or potential hazards, you’ll need to exercise plenty of caution.

In terms of its general flight, it’s decent. The 23-minute maximum battery life is nothing to write home about, but acceptable; the motor noise is fairly unobtrusive; and the drone manages to battle gusts of wind with surprising moxie for its size.

Camera Performance

• 1/1.28-inch CMOS; 4K up to 100fps; 12MP stills with HDR
• H-Log 10-bit support and 160Mbps maximum bitrate
• Default footage tends to overexpose

The Aqua’s default colour science tends to slightly overexpose, adding a certain washed-out flatness to the image as it comes out of the drone. I’ve adjusted the sample clips embedded in this review in DaVinci Resolve to give a more balanced, richer look, so do be aware that your clips may not look quite as good straight from the camera. Dialling down the exposure compensation before shooting or switching to the H-Log profile may help, but it’s worth being aware of before heading out on the water.

The H-Log option (a flat 10-bit profile that tops out at 30fps) makes for a strong choice for anyone who intends to edit their footage in post-production. Files recorded in H-Log hold up well to colour correction and grading, and, at a maximum bitrate of 160Mbps, the Aqua is pretty generous by the standards of drones in this weight class. 

You’ll need to keep an eye on the lens though. Despite a hydrophobic coating, I did have a long sequence spoiled by a rogue water droplet sitting on its surface. It was only a one-time event, but I feel like that’s one time too many for a supposedly waterproof drone.

When conditions work in the Aqua’s favour, the footage it produces is impressive for a drone of this size and weight. The single-axis gimbal and f/2.55 aperture means the Aqua can’t match the image quality of a comparably priced conventional drone such as the DJI Air 3S. But that comparison misses the key point – that the Air 3S wouldn’t survive the conditions the Aqua was built for.

Should you buy it?