Emax TinyHawk - Setup and Review

Introduction
The Emax Tinyhawk is the latest in the line of ready to fly quadcopters from Emax USA which started with the BabyHawk R and the Hawk 5 both of which have been reviewed here at QuadifyRC. Both had good gear on board but were excellent when considered as a package because unlike any other model available these have been full set up and tuned. The new Emax Tinyhawk follows in the same vein albeit in a much smaller 1s brushless whoop form factor. This review will cover the setup out of the box as well as flight and video performance.

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Specifications review
First lets take a look at the specs and I'll immediately adress the fact that it is 1s only unlike the HappyModel Mobula7, Eachine Trashcan or FullSpeed TinyLeader (links go to reviews). I'll discuss this more later but for now I don't think it is a disadvantage, rather it just fills a different position in the market. Rest of the details with comments in red below:

• 08025 brushless motor with durable ball bearing 0825 is a good size for 1s brushless and the fact that it uses ball bearings is great news for longer term durability and smoothness in flight 
• Durable polypropylene plastic frame with propeller guards This is a VERY strong and well designed frame
• Motor beeper function. Find your TinyHawk after a crash Nothing the others can't do.
• Speeds up to 56kph Good for a 1s brushless but not in the same league in a straight line as 2s
• Up to 4 minutes flight time on a single battery Better flight time than the 2s whoops which struggle to get to 3 minutes
• Fast F4 Processor for smooth stable flight characteristics Good to have a F4 processor so that 8k/8k gyro/PID speeds can be taken advantage of
• MPU6000 gyro for vibration free operations Good reliable gyro, defacto standard in brushless whoops
• Unique inverted motor design to keep CG as low as possible to fit in the smallest of spaces. Not sure about smallest spaces but I believe this helps a lot with the stellar handling of this micro quad
• 25mw VTX and 600tvl Camera with smart audio. Standard spec on a 1s brushless. Some 2s brushless have more power but think this is unnecessary given the proximity of flying with a 1s
• Pre-tuned from the factory with expert pilots and new pilots in mind. 3 rate profile settings for all types of flying feel This is a big deal - the tune is EXCELLENT and missing on practically all other quads out of the factory. Emax have a very good history of shipping quads with great tunes and it really makes a difference
• Plug in type motors for easy maintenance Fine, very much standard in this size
• 1s High Voltage (HV) 450mah lipo included Would have been nice to have had 2 but 1 is better than none!
• FrSky compatible D8 receiver built into FC Fine, works well
• Custom carbon fiber themed carrying case Nice to have a carry case
• 75mm motor to motor L 110mm x W 95mm x H 39mm Quite large for a 1s brushless owing to the stretch X shape which is unique to the TInyhawk in this class
• Dry Weight: 29g Slightly heavier and more powerful than other 1s micro brusless quadcopters

What is included

• 1x Soft carry case
• 1x TinyHawk drone
• 1x USB High Voltage capable 4 port USB Charger
• 1x 1s High Voltage (HV) 450mah lipo battery. GNB powered

I was disappointed that a spare set of props was not included (revised props are here) but what I can say is that I'm very happy to have this charger! Every other charger I've ever received never charge to the correct voltage. I've tested this charger several times now and it charges to EXACTLY 4.35v. It would have been nice to have been about to choose 4.2v as a charging option too but I'm probably getting nitpicky now.

Case is nice and has room to store a few batteries too

This charger is great! Note it's actually 6 port, not 4. Now I just need some more batteries...

Setup
This is my favourite part of this quad - it is FULLY set up. You may want to set up your custom rates and OSD but there are already 3 sets of rates setup and the stock OSD setting are good. I'm just a creature of habit. All unique betaflight screens as set by Emax are shown below.

Flight performance
Woah, this flies really nice. Whether it comes down to the tune or the design of the quadcopter (more likely a combination of both) this is just a pleasure to fly. Yes running on 1s means you'll be using more of the throttle and so will have more resolution but I've never been able to fly as close to the ground consistently as I have with my tinyhawk. The DVR below was the second pack I ever flew and the first on my own personal rates.

To once again address the elephant in the room it is not as fast as a 2s micro quadcopter and it is harder to pull off and recover from freestyle maneouvres. That said it is superior to the Trashcan or Mobula7 running 1s becuse it is full optimised for 1s. The Snapper7 would be a closer comparison but it feels much better and more powerful than that. This means that the Emax Tinyhawk is not a jack of all trades quadcopter like the Mobula7, Trashcan and to a lesser extent TinyLeader but IS a master of 1s brushless. As you can see from the DVR it is perfectly fine outdoors so long as there is not too much wind. Because of this I think this fills a very useful niche where it is probably my most strongly recommended starter quadcopter that is capable of indoor and light outdoor flight - it is extremely well tuned, it is fast enough (but not too fast) and it is super-durable which segues me nicely into durability...

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Durability
My work this is a tough little quadcopter. The frame is beautifully designed with well thought out material and executed in a very tody manner. Couple this with 1s speed and it is near indestructable. Not just the frame either - the electronics and motors are extremely well protected from exposure to crash impact.

FPV performance
Not bad. I know a few people have complained about reception here but I don't find it that bad and certainly it's fit for purpose for the type of range you'd expect to be flying this. If video reception is a real issue though the vtx unit is discrete so can be replaced with something more powerful like an HGLRC nano or the like. Once I pull this apart I'll see if I can improve signal quality by exposing the antenna more but it is not a priority at present because I find it good enough.

As for the camera it is ok, comparable to other small CMOS cameras like you'd find on the snapper7 and mobula7. Works pretty well at night as you can see from my video below.

Comparison to other micro brushless quads
If the Emax TinyHawk had've been launched 3 months earlier it would have dominated the market. However it happened to launch at the same time as the Mobula 7 which really shook things up and left everyone asking emax: "why didn't you go 2s?" My answer to this would be that the Tinyhawk feels like this was much longer in development by the attention to detail in designand tune meaning the 2s electronics simply wouldn't have been available when development on this quad started. 

So here I'm going to go opinion based and run a quick comparison below of why you might choose each of these current models. I've done some grouping where models compete a little more directly

Emax TinyHawk	Slower than others, better control, custom tune. FPV satifactory and limited to 25mW. Most durable frame and motors.
Mobula7 / Trashcan	Fastest and lightest in the case of Mobula but also lest durable. Poor stock tune and harder to tune out some yaw washout. Better image qualilty and up to 200mW in the case of the trashcan
FullSpeed Tiny Leader	Biggest and heaviest of all the whoops but most powerful on 3s. Still some questions on electrical reliabililty. Good tune and bestFPV image and most powerful VTX (up to 600mW). Only option capable of HD from factory

Summary and Conclusion
So after having reviewed the much more powerful 2s whoop I thought the Emax Tinyhawk was going to be a real let down. I was shocked however to find I enjoyed this out of all the brushless whoops It's certainly not the fastest but is no slouch for a 1s (and superior to all the other 2s whoops running 1s). More importantly it was fun and easy to fly whereas I always feel like I'm fighting the keep the trashcan, mobula7 and tinyleader under control. I believe the reason is that 2s may just be too much for a whoop (in my opinion) because of the peculiar characteristics it imparts on flight performance - freestyle especially. This is one of the reasons I converted the tiny leader to open 1.9" props here - immediately improved on flight performance.

​Don't get the Tinyhawk if you want all out speed - get the mobula7 or trashcan. Likewise get the tinyleader if you want cinewhoop HD footage. But if you want to just enjoy flight indoors and out equally well with cheap batteries then this is the one to get. For this reason this is the quad I will be recommending when someone asks about getting into the hobby - the durability, design and predictable, well-tuned flight just makes this such a good option especially now that it comes in a $170 ready to fly kit with goggles and transmitter.

Quick note - Gearbest has the Tinyhawk BNF on sale for $89 till end of January with the code GBEMTH6

Link and Spare parts to everything realted to the tinyhawk below, just click on the picture:

If you liked this article or found it useful please like or share below. If you click on one of the links I receive a small comission if you purchse something at no cost to you that allows me to keep getting these models to review. Thanks! BTW this is NOT my job ;)