Review: I wanted to love Insta360's Antigravity A1 drone

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As someone who has been flying drones for years, it takes a lot to impress me. For the longest time, if you wanted a drone in the U.S., there was DJI, then there was a 50 yards of nothing, then there was everyone else. I'm happy to say that is no longer the case. In the past year, new contenders have started to emerge, which is good timing since DJI is possibly/probably/almost definitely going to get banned in the U.S., and soon.

One alternative has emerged with a very compelling offering in the form of Antigravity A1 drone. Antigravity is an offshoot of Insta360, a fact that will become important (and obvious) once you learn more about this drone. While most drones are cameras that you can fly, the Antigravity A1 is a 360-degree camera that you can fly.

Put simply, you can put this drone up in the sky and fly it like any regular drone, but instead of capturing what's ahead of you, or under you, or over you, it captures all of it in 8K. This has several advantages, but first, let's talk about the hardware.

The Antigravity A1 8K 360 Drone comes in three bundles, available starting Dec. 4 at Antigravity and Best Buy:

• Antigravity A1 8K 360 Drone Starter Bundle — $1,599

• Antigravity A1 8K 360 Drone Explorer Bundle — $1,899

• Antigravity A1 8K 360 Drone Infinity Bundle — $1,999

What's in the box

It's not entirely clear which bundle I received, but I believe I got the Infinity bundle, which includes a carrying case that carries the drone, a one-handed controller, the goggles, four drone batteries, and a battery for the goggles. There were also a bunch of other accessories — extra blades, screwdrivers, and importantly, four batteries and a charging dock that can handle three of them. The drone itself weighs in at 249 grams, which means there are fewer regulations you need to follow to fly. It's a classic folding drone with four extendable arms. There's also an automatic landing gear which flips down automatically when you land — it's neat.

The controller has a trigger and all sorts of buttons and switches that control the drone. The basics you need to know are the up and down toggle, which increases and decreases altitude, a roller wheel, which turns the drone in place, and a trigger, which makes it go forward. 

Then there are the fancy remote control goggles, which have dual Micro-OLED displays with a resolution of 2,560 x 2,560 pixels. There's also an exterior display, which is handy for a few different reasons. One of the first things I had to do was update the software on the various pieces of equipment, and the display on the outside of the goggles could show me the progress. The display also allows you to share what you're seeing with outside observers, which is pretty cool.

One nice thing about the goggles is that they offload the battery to a lanyard you wear around your neck. This removes the weight of the battery from your face, which is very welcome indeed. The battery attaches to the headset with a cable that has a USB-C connector on one end and a barrel plug on the other. The headset itself also has a USB-C plug on it, but that plug doesn't accept power — it's for data only. I would prefer to have the option to use either the barrel plug or the USB-C port for power, but that is sadly not an option.

When folded up, the drone is smaller than a 16" softball, and it can fit into a jacket pocket — at least a jacket pocket for a guy my size. It's extremely portable, though of course, the goggles and the controller also take up a fair amount of space.

Flying the Antigravity AI 360 drone

One of my favorite drones to fly up until this point has been the DJI Avata 2, which is an FPV drone. To fly it, you wear a set of goggles and use a one-handed controller, which allows you to fly in, around, and through obstacles with aplomb. It's like those drone videos you see of flying through a bowling alley or Wrigley Field. It's intuitive and simple to learn.

The Antigravity A1 is very similar to that — you wear a headset and use a one-handed controller to fly in the direction you want to go. The only difference is that you're capturing everything around you using top and bottom-mounted sensors. The really trippy part is where the headset comes in, because as you're flying, you can turn your head and look around you. You can turn in a complete circle and look up and down and see everything, including straight down, a view that's not for the faint of heart.

If you turn your head away from the direction you're flying, you get a small picture-in-picture (PIP) that pops up to show you where you're going while you look around. It's brilliant, and I love that part of it. It gives drone pilots a freedom we didn't have before.

The control interface is similar as well — there's a small square that you point with the controller to control the direction of flight. One thing that Antigravity does differently from the Avata is that it asks you to move your entire arm in order to direct the drone, as opposed to the wrist movements the Avata relies on.

Speaking of which, there are a lot more controls on the controller for the A1, which makes it less intuitive and a bit harder to learn. It's also very possible and indeed likely that my muscle memory — developed from flying the Avata for over two years — made it harder for me to wrap my mind around the controls of the A1. It's not a lot harder to learn, but it is more complicated.

The anti-collision sensors on the A1 also made the drone harder to fly — at least in my backyard. I have a tree that complicates maneuvers greatly, but the sensors tend to be extremely conservative. While the Avata is capable of flying through the rungs of a ladder, the A1 freaked out when I tried to fly it through the four-foot gap between tree branches and my fence. This is with default settings, mind.

I tested the drone over the past couple of weeks in the latter part of the fall and early winter. In Chicago, that means in windy conditions and cold temperatures, neither of which are great for flying. Antigravity suggests you can get up to 24 minutes of flight time on a charge. That seems about right, under optimal conditions. I got closer to 18 to 20 minutes in my testing, but again, that's in suboptimal conditions.

Capturing everything all at once

Flying the drone and being able to look all around you is fun, and an incredible experience on its own. You can fly up to 400 feet in the air (the maximum allowed by the FAA) and just turn your head to look around and see what's going on around you. But where this really becomes beneficial is when you are capturing the footage as a creator.

With a "normal" drone, you almost need two different operators — one to fly the drone and the other to aim the camera. In fact, many professional-grade drones actually require that. The Antigravity A1 eliminates that issue by capturing a full sphere of footage around it at all times. All you have to do as a pilot is fly in proximity to what you want to capture, and you can focus the camera later when you're sitting at your computer.

That's at the heart of the Antigravity A1 experience — freedom. As a casual user, you can fly this intuitive drone anywhere you want in the sky and look around and see whatever you want to see without having to manipulate and maneuver the drone just right. As a content creator, all you have to focus on is putting the drone near the event you want to capture, and it takes care of the rest.

While the technology isn't all the way there yet, imagine having a drone with a 360 camera on it to film Tom Cruise's cliff diving stunt in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning. Needless to say — don't try that at home — but rather than worrying about drone positioning and camera angle, you eliminate a variable by just flying the drone next to the motorcycle and capturing everything.

While we're on the subject of capturing with the device, this would be a great time to talk about the fact that I wasn't able to actually retrieve what I captured from the device.

You may have noticed this review doesn't feature any photos or videos taken by the drone, which is its main job. That's because explorting my files has proven impossible. I don't know if that's because I'm testing the drone before its official launch, or some unknown technical problem, but it's certainly frustrating.

I'm working with Antigravtiy as we speak to address this issue, and we'll be sure to update this review — with photos! — once we get that resolved.

It all comes at a cost

All that being said, one of the reasons DJI has been so successful in the U.S. market is how inexpensive its drones have been. The DJI Mini 3 currently starts at $419. The DJI Avata 2 Fly More combo, which comes with a similar set of accessories as the A1, is $1,199. Meanwhile, the Antigravity A1 starts at $1,599. That price includes the drone, goggles, and grip controller. There are also various accessories that can bump the price up to $1,999 at its highest level. 

That's not terrible, but it's also not very accessible. You have to really want to fly a 360-degree camera to buy this drone. It's a very cool experience, and it takes an enormous burden off your shoulders if you're a content creator. 

It's also important to remember that this is a Gen-1 product. It's very well built and designed, but there are still a few kinks to work out. I'd like to see the controller itself get a little tighter with fewer buttons, so it's easier to fly. I'd also like the default settings of the collision sensors to tone down a little so I don't need to find an open field to fly in.

But for a first effort that solves a lot of problems, there is a lot to like here. I keep coming back to the idea of freedom, because that's what flight is supposed to feel like. It's great to just get up in the air and take everything in without having to worry about which way the drone is pointed. It sounds like a minor thing, but this drone changes your relationship with flight on a fundamental level.

Is the Antigravity A1 drone worth it?

While I had a positive experience actually unboxing and piloting this innovative new drone, because I've been unable to export my files, I can't give a proper recommendation yet. Check back as I update this review after spending some additional time with the product. Hopefully, you'll be able to see all the photos and videos I took.

I can say that the Antigravity A1 does look like a viable alternative to DJI drones, albeit without any budget-friendly options for beginners. And considering that Insta360 is also a Chinese company, I'm a little worried they'll also face a ban eventually, too.

Antigravity A1 360 8K Camera Drone: Specifications

• Takeoff weight: 249 grams with Flight Battery

• Folded dimensions: 141.3 × 96.2 × 81.4 mm

• Unfolded dimensions: 308.6 × 382.3 × 89.2 mm

• Flight time: 24 minutes with Flight Battery; 39 minutes with High-Capacity Flight Battery

• Max flight distance: 8.0 miles with Flight Battery; 14.3 miles with High-Capacity Flight Battery

• Max wind speed resistance: 24 mph (Level 5)

• Global Navigation Satellite System: GPS + Galileo + Beidou

• Storage: 20GB (also supports microSD)

• Camera sensor: 1/1.28-inch

• Lens aperture: F2.2

• Maximum video resolution: 8K (7680×3840) @ 30/25/24 fps

• Maximum photo resolution: 55MP (10496×5248)

• Maximum video bitrate: 170Mbps

• ISO range: 100-6400

• Live view quality: 2K @ 30 fps