What if Snap's Spectacles could take off from your face, turn around, and take a photo of you, before returning to your head? That's the idea behind the new Snap Pixy, a small drone that's designed to launch from your hand, capture photos and videos of you and your friends, then land back in your palm.
The Snap Pixy will sell for $230 and will be available later this year. Here's everything you need to know.
Snap Pixy: Price and availability
The Snap Pixy is currently available for preorder at pixy.com and will ship in June or July, according to the site. You can get the Pixy, bumper and carrying strap, rechargeable battery and USB-C charging cable for $229; the Pixy Flight Pack, which includes two batteries, costs $249.
Snap Pixy: Design and features
The Snap Pixy is a small, yellow rectangular drone with a camera at one end, and weighs 3.6 ounces with its removable battery. The drone has a 12MP front-facing camera and 16GB of onboard storage.
The battery is good for between 5-8 flights of 10 to 20 seconds, according to The Verge; extra batteries will cost $20 each, and a dual battery charger will set you back $50.
Unlike most drones, which have either an app or a separate controller, the Pixy merely has a dial on the top with six flight patterns. To use it, you hold the drone at eye level for it to take off; it then tracks you as it's flying, and returns to your hand once you hold out your palm.
Snap Pixy: Competitors and outlook
While image quality is likely to be well below that of the best drones from say, DJI, the Snap Pixy could hold some appeal. However, Snap's Pixy looks nearly identical to Air Selfie's Air Neo drone ($149), which also has a 12MP camera and 16GB of storage, and has a number of autonomous flight modes. The Air Neo can also be controlled by an app, giving it additional features over the Pixy.
Given Snap's higher profile, it's likely that the company will sell more than a few of these mini drones. But we're not sure if we're ready to deal with a bunch of tourists flying selfie drones. Is this the new selfie stick or something more? Stay tuned for our full Snap Pixy review.
