Diatone Q33 RTR Micro RC Car review

The Diatone Q33 RTR is a micro RC car, similar in dimensions to a matchbox or hotwheels toy. This car is a buggy style which by no means suggest that you can run offroad with this car but it does make it more durable and simple than closed body style cars. It claims to run for 60 minutes and is available in regular car, FPV car and FPV car & goggle kits. All cars come with remote, inbuilt battery and charger - everything you need to run except AA batteries for the remote.

If you are strictly into RC cars you probably won't recognise the Diatone brand but if you ever dabbled in quadcopter then you will. They are in fact one of my favourite brands in that category because of their balance with price and quality. The Diatone Roma F5 and F4 LR are some of my favourite quads. So far as I know this is the first RC car they have released and was done as part of their 10th anniversary. This is not the first micro RC car I have reviewed, I looked at the Turbo Racing C71 1/76 scale as part of review on the MyRCFamily youtube review. This is however the first buggy that has been released in this size. Don't expect off-road capability but do expect better durability and reliability, something the C71 struggled with. I'll keep this review short and simple since this can be considered a toy grade RC car since it can't be easily upgraded or have parts replaced. Read on for more...

What's in the box? Not much!

• The car itself with inbuild 1s (3.7v) 110mah lipo battery
• 2.4GHz digital Remote (requires 2 x AA batteries)
• USB Charger
• Spare shell

Note: There are also FPV options available with an all in one FPV came integrated on top of the body shell and one kit that includes 5GHz FPV goggles.

A closer look at the car

Rather than breaking this car down by each system I'll look at it as a whole since it is harder to spearate out the systems being small and toy grade so here goes

Steering is fully proportional which is pretty impressive for a car this size and makes it feel much more hobby grade. This means if you turn the remote wheel a little the car wheels turn a little. A lot and it turns a lot, and so on. 

I thought steering trim couldn't be adjusted but it turns out it can. You just need to follow these steps: With car on press the multifunction button (as above) and turn all the way to the left. Release the wheel while still holding the button. Turn the wheel to where the car is pointing straight and release the button. Neutral point is now set and saved.

Throttle is also fully proportional, forward and reverse as well as brake. Brake isn't that useful on a car with that little momentum but it's a nice thought! One very important thing you must do is enable what Diatone calls "Brust mode" (I think they mean burst mode). This is because the car ships with a 60% throttle limit which is frankly pretty lacklustre. To enable burst mode hold down the multifunction button when you turn the remote on. If the light on the remote flashes then you are in burst mode. If it's solid that is "beginner" mode with the 60% throttle limit. I get why you have throttle limits in big cars - it's so you do less damage to the car and surroundings when you are learning. Needless to say you aren't going to damage car or surroundings with this little guy. Just do the right thing and switch to burst mode. See below for the difference.

Q33 in Beginner mode

Moar Powaa in burst mode

Under the body. The non FPV package comes with a spare body. Mine is white and so easy to paint if you want to customise. Changing it is pretty simple, just remove the two small philips screw at the rear and then release the clip at the front and reverse. While I was in there I thought it would be a good opportunity to show you some more detail of the car:

2 small Philips screws to unscrew and the body pops off with a clip at the front

The body comes of easily and can be changed for a quick change of looks

3.7v (1s) 140mah lipo battery is clearly on show here

Top down shot shows the custom printed circuit board shape and the 2.4GHz receiver antenna in yellow.

Motor is a brushed coreless 0615 motor, same as used in the "Tiny Whoop" drones. There are some very fast motors available as a result if you ever wanted to upgrade... comment if you want to know more.

Most surprisingly is the steering seems to be controlled by a full servo rather than deconstructed parts as we usually see in cars this size. This was quite a pleasant shock

Battery can be lifted, the sticky black crap is like a soft silicon glue. Here you can see the custom PCB which includes receiver, ESC functions.

Hard to show here but the gearing is actually more complex than a pinion directly on to a axle mounted spur: there is a further reduction gear which makes the gearing better suited to acceleration and extended battery life.

Performance Review

Speed. Usually I'd test the top speed of an RC car using a GPS speed meter but even the relatively small SKYRC GSM020 (which I cannot find at the moment) would dwarf this car in size and weight. Measuring it the old fashioned way (distance/time) I got 6km/h. Clearly that's not very quick but you need to consider that this is not a car for large outdoor spaces, on the contrary it is indoors that you are likely to play with and when your obstacles are chair legs and lego tracks that you set out it offers a decent amount of speed, particularly on hard surfaces. The speed of the FPV car with the camera on top will be less by comparison due to the extra weight it needs to carry.

Surfaces. This car runs pretty well on carpet depending on how thick it is compared to the turbo racing C71 and mini series which could really not run on carpet at all. This is because of the bigger tyres and greater ground clearance the buggy style offers. Even though this look like an off-road buggy please don't come with expecations that this will be able to run on the conditions - not enough power, not enough ground clearance, not enough grip and no suspension!!

Battery life. This car runs for an hour between charges. When was the last time you ran an RC Car for an hour?! For me this means lots of small sessions without charging in between but I tip my hat to you if you use the full 60 minutes in one hit! The battery life for the FPV models is about half this because it shares the motor battery with the camera and video transmitter.

Racing with other cars. These cars are fun to play with on their own but even more with 2 or more. The good news is that since the use a 2.4GHz control digital signal they will not interfere with one another and so you can race as many together as you like. Remember, you don't need a big space to run nor do you need to worry that someones car is not running correctly - these little guys are pretty reliable.

Just to be clear, if you are looking at the FPV camera model, these are limited to 4 channels compared to the 50-odd that we are familiar with in the drone world. That would be the maximum number you could run in FPV mode at a time and even then there may be some bleed over with signal.

My Recommendations

I've tried to give you as much technical information as I can here so that hopefully you can come to you own conclusion on the Diatone Q33 micro RC car. If you can't make a decision however I can give you my opinion. Firstly, it's not a cheap toy RC car at around $70 (more if you want FPV). It lacks upgradeability and serviceability, it's not particular fast and you are limited to smooth surfaces. It is however a lot of fun and allows you to enjoy RC cars whatever the weather and regardless of the amount of space you have available. This means that you spend less time repairing, tuning and travelling to you location to drive and more time actually driving. For this reason I see 3 distinct use cases:

1. Learner. With progressive steering and throttle this little car will teach how how to drive RC in a simple way. Crashing will mean no damage to the car, surroundings or yourself and you will have more time driving and less time charging. A great way for newbies or little ones to learn
2. Experienced user. If you are looking to scratch that itch for driving when your other bigger cars are in need of repair or if you can't be bothered getting to your driving location for whatever reason, these are fun to drive on their own around a little course you can make with items around the house. Even better with a buddy or willing significant other.
3. FPV experience. For those that have never tried FPV RC before it is quiet a treat but can be daunting. This is probably the easiest, cheapest and most simple way to experience FPV and feel like you are really in the car.

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My Diatone Q33 RTR micro RC car was ordered from Banggood, they stock the regular version as I reviewed here and also the FPV camera version plus the option with goggles. Alternatively you can buy direct from Diatone themselves here.

If you are looking for a discount on this car, I will post any coupon codes or flash sales for it over here on my coupons and discounts page. Remember buying from any of these links supports my page without any cost to you and is appreciated especially since I don't ask for money via patreon and the like. If you want to get involved in this discussion, feel free to join the QuadifyRC Facebook Group Here or like my page below.