5 Best Quiet Drones on The Market

Two years ago, I used to think that all drone owners have pimples and play World of Warcraft. Now, I’m proud to call myself their colleague.

And it’s not just because I am a level 55 warlock.

Whether you’re just getting into drones or you’re a seasoned drone pilot, one of the silent drones below is definitely your best bet.

MY REALIZATION: Being 57 years old I was never a drone guy to begin with. Two years ago, I started playing around with quad-copter drones and realized they can be used for a variety of things, including transporting cold Miller from another room.

BIG PROBLEM Drones suck the living life out of every battery and offer a maximum of 30 minutes of pleasure on a charge. Simply put, they are an electric equivalent of my wife Bonnie.

MY RESEARCH: I’ve spent 4 months analyzing a total of 21 drones from the leading manufacturers. Out of those 21, I made a shortlist of 5 that have a decent battery life but are also super quiet.

BOTTOM LINE: The quietest drone you can get is the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom. I bought one after testing it. The reason I’m including other drones on this list is because I think they are great alternatives in their respective price ranges.

Overview of the best quiet drones in 2021

#1 DJI Mavic 2 Zoom

Even though I’m considered old, I can freely say that this drone awoke the inner child in me and I’m willing to bet it’ll do the same for you, whether you’re 25 or 75.

Yes — once again I was a little fat Ferret, covered in leftover chocolate chips, with greasy fingers and plastic parts stuck in my underwear.

DJI Mavic 2 Zoom is like putting a binoculars on a telescope and launching it in the air. In a SHTF scenario, you can put your rifle on the shoulder, launch this bad boy in the air and survey a perimeter of 5 km without ever revealing your position.

Here’s why I loved the Mavic 2 Zoom so much:

• By far the quietest drone I’ve EVER heard (features DJI’s low-noise flying technology)
• 24-48 mm mechanical optical zoom (this is a 2x zoom, something like you’d get on a high-end crossbow)
• Allows you to zoom during flight (on the move)
• 30 minutes of flight time
• Max speed of 44 mph (probably the fastest drone I’ve tested)
• Hollywood-level gimbal
• Shoots 4K with the max recording range of 8 km
• 720° obstacle detection
• A plethora of DJI intelligent flight features
• Foldable, lightweight and portable (when folded easily fits in your bag)
• Sturdy controller works at low temperatures (as low as -20°C)
• Hasselblad camera helps you spot a squirrel from 5 km away

Needless to say, this drone comes with all the value-adding DJI intelligent flight features.

You can set it to follow you or to track object, to circle the perimeter, to fly on a drawn flight path and everything is controlled through the app and the controller.

One of the best things about this beast is the super-clear live feed footage you get on your phone — 1080p — and this is something I haven’t found on too many competitor models.

The many features of the Mavic 2 Zoom are bolstered by the quality controller it comes with. It’s made of high quality rubberized plastic and can fit most mobile phones easily.

Once folded, this drone doesn’t take too much space and you can easily hide it from your wife.

So, I think you get where I’m going with this one — you don’t necessarily need a drone this expensive, but you kind of want it.
The kid in you deserves it.

#2 DJI Mavic Pro Platinum

Here’s why the DJI Mavic Pro Platinum takes the second place:

• Almost as silent as the Zoom 2
• Operates on a radio signal (instead of Wi-Fi like most drones)
• Max range of 8 kilometers
• 2970mAh battery which provides up to 30 minutes of flying/hovering time
• Battery charges in 1 hour
• Weighs around 1.7 lbs
• Max speed of 40 mph
• It’s small, lightweight AND foldable
• Comes with 2 batteries if you get a more expensive pack (worth every penny if you’re shelling out)
• GPS-ready
• Records in 4K at 24 fps
• One of the highest quality drones in the world

Before we go any further, you should know that this drone is expensive. MSRP starts at a 5 figure range, but that can go higher depending on the seller.

And before you tell me “Ferret, you crazy SOB, I ain’t got a grand for a drone” let me tell you that this unit is not for everyone.

It’s for people who want quality and spare no expense — if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, read on as every drone listed below is a tad cheaper.

Back to our runner up.

The controller the Mavic Pro Platinum comes with looks like a prop from Star Trek.

And it has to be this good if you’re flying it across the continent, taking full advantage of its max range of 8 kilometers.

After you mount your phone on this controller, you get access to a plethora of advanced features. I had a hard time grasping the complexity of it all, so there’s a learning curve.

The good thing about is that everything is pretty much visual. You can use the app’s drag & drop features to program everything, from the buttons on the controller, to flight paths, sound signals, battery allocation, etc.

If you start reading about DJI drones online, you’ll definitely come across a term “Intelligent Flight Mode”. This is something many DJI units have and it’s essentially a preprogrammed set of modes that make piloting a drone easier.

Essentially, what this means for you is that with DJI Mavic Pro Platinum you can do the following:

• Draw a path where the drone flies automatically and just observe using your display
• Take pictures by gesturing towards the drone
• Set the drone to follow an object or a person (imagine tracking an animal in a survival scenario)
• Set a point for the drone to continuously orbit around
• Set the drone to fly straight to the home point on your command

And trust me, I’m just scratching the surface here as I’m still discovering the many features this drone provides.

#3 Eachine E520S

Even though Eachine 520S sounds like a weird death machine conceived by Mao Zedong himself, it’s actually an amazingly quiet GPS drone that goes for cheap, making it one of the best deals on my list:

• It’s foldable
• It can return home and land itself (when you program it)
• It can fly on low voltage before it runs out of battery
• It’s the size of an open palm
• It weighs 0.6 lbs with the batteries
• Total flying time of 27 minutes
• Battery charges in about 2 hours
• 5G camera that shoots 4K
• Controler attaches to your smartphone
• Custom flight path options
• Automatic takeoff

Once you calibrate the compass you can turn this beast on and set it free in manual mode.

The range you can get with this drone is around 200 meters out and around 20-30 meters up.

When it comes to flying it manually, the Eachine E511S comes with a pretty decent 2.4Ghz controller with more than enough controls to justify its low price tag.

Out of its advanced options, two caught my wrinkly eye the most:

• Custom flight path feature
• Circle the perimeter feature

The first one allows you to drag your finger across your mobile screen and basically draw the flight path of the drone. You then set it on its way and monitor it through the screen.

The second option gives you the ability to program the drone to circle you in a set perimeter, allowing you to quickly scan the perimeter in a huge circle.

All in all, I don’t see many downsides to this drones other than its battery life.

#4 FIMI X8 SE

FIMI is Xiaomi’s drone subsidiary — in case you’ve been spending a lot of time in a nuclear bunker with a 1999 Baywatch calendar and lotion, Xiaomi is a gigantic Chinese electronics company which has a reputation of making high quality knock-offs at an affordable price — in this case the FIMI X8 SE is a cheaper version of the DJI Mavic Pro.

Like twice as cheap and almost as good.

FIMI X8 SE is exactly what you should get if you’re looking for a good silent drone under $500. It’s probably one of the best quadcopters in that price range:

• It’s foldable, lightweight and reasonably quiet
• Shoots 4K at 30 fps
• 25 minutes of flight time
• Charges in 2 hours
• Several DJI-like flight modes
• Max recording range of 5 kilometers
• Excellent build quality

The reason why this drone is cheaper than my #1 pick, the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, is because it doesn’t have advanced auto-pilot features like obstacle detection, terrain adjustment, etc. This baby is reserved for manual flying and it doesn’t hide that fact.

The controller that comes with it is quality-made and has several design wins that the tech-savvy people will appreciate — for example, it has a cutout for cables. It also opens really wide so you can fit a tablet inside, instead of your mobile phone.

When it comes to video quality, the camera on this drone is what makes it worth it. The image does not break up, gimbal is nice and smooth and you can spot details from a mile away.

In the end, there are 3 things that make this drone a buy in 2019:

• It flies really high (up to 200m) and it’s virtually silent at those altitudes
• It’s beginner friendly (you don’t want to crash a $1,000 drone, trust me)
• It offers a lot of value for an entry-level price

#5 DJI Mavic Air

If there ever was a metaphor for the elephant in the room, then it’s the fact that there’s another DJI drone on this list. They really are that good.

This time, it’s the DJI Mavic Air, which is a foldable quadcopter drone with respectable features:

• 21 minutes of flight time on a charge
• Shoots 4K video with a maximum range of almost 7 km
• 3-axis gimbal camera (almost as good as the one on the Mavic 2 Zoom)
• 720p live-feed stream
• DJI intelligent flight features, like object tracking, autopilot, obstacle detection and more
• A plethora of sensors that enable the smart flight features
• Ability to take 180° panorama images

The drone comes with a beautiful case and it’s about the size of your palm when completely folded. It’s really tiny and weighs around 15 ounces. Out of all the drones I’ve tested, the only drone that’s a similar size is the DJI Spark, which is not on this list for several reasons (most notably because it shoots in 1080p).

The Mavic Air flies beautifully, it’s fast and the controller is your standard DJI-stuff: sturdy, well made and can serve as a cold weapon once you remove your phone from it.

The DJI Mavic Air is proof that small things can provide a lot of pleasure — a hypothesis Bonnie is always glad to confirm.

If you’d like to learn how to fly drones or find out more about them in general, here are some third party articles that helped me when I was starting out:

• How to Fly a Drone: A Beginner’s Guide to Multirotor Systems, from the folks at UAV Coach
• Master List of Drone Laws (Organized by State & Country) from the same authors as above
• Drone pilot training – from beginner to commercial drone pilot license, from Jonathan Feist