 It's been a year since our last big overview of the drone market and the industry has changed by leaps and bounds. The drones we played with last year were amazing. They could do things like take off and land on their own and they could return to home, but what makes this year's drones so amazing is that they have so much more in terms of intelligence. Hell, you don't have to fly them half the time anymore. You can set them to follow mode or 360 degree orbit. It's a flying camera, right? So fundamentally what you want to do is get it in the air and then you let it worry about capturing the perfect shot. Last year we spent a lot of time struggling with assembly. There were rotors that we couldn't attach and batteries that had loose wires. This year all the best drones have really tightened up that process. The batteries snap into place easily and the rotors are self-tightening. That means it's no longer about struggling when you get it out of the box, but how it flies in the air. The DJI Phantom is still our favorite drone. Out of the box it's the one you can rely on to capture great footage, which means a lot when you have a 20 minute battery. But some of the other drones we tested are bringing more innovative features to the market. 3D Robotic Solo, for example, has built smart features like an orbiting cable cam right into the remote, making it incredibly easy to capture advanced maneuvers that otherwise you'd have to be a great pilot to do. Another nice feature we saw this year was a remote with a built-in screen. That means you don't have to attach your phone or your tablet and you're not burning battery on that device while you're out flying. All the units we tested this year, except for 3D Robotic Solo, have an integrated camera. One of the great things about that is you can adjust the camera settings on the fly from the remote or the app. What that means is if you're outside and changing weather with shifting lighting conditions, you can ensure you grab that perfect shot. The DJI Phantom was still my favorite. It's the most reliable, the easiest to fly, and captured the best footage. The DJI has a number of other interesting features. It has both GPS, the American system, and GLONASS, the Russian satellite system. That meant that it founds more satellites faster and in general was more stable in the air. The Phantom also comes with a downward facing camera, which means if you're flying inside without a satellite signal, it can find and hold its position. The Phantom offers the ability to live stream to YouTube, and while it's not perfect yet, it's really promising. I also found that the Phantom was the one that was pushing the most consistent software upgrades. Out of the box, it couldn't do things like follow me or orbit mode, but DJI pushed that and now those features work. The Phantom is also the only model that comes in a wide range of prices. You could get it for $700 with a decent camera or $1250 with the full 4K. The runner up was probably the Solo from 3D Robotics. It's built some of the smart features like an orbit and cable cam right into the remote, which makes it super easy to get shots that I couldn't do as a pilot. The big problem was that the gimbal and the camera, which is a GoPro, were never as reliable. I had problems with shaking and weird shadows, and the colors looked washed out. The Typhoon from Unique is a great drone, and it has a feature that I love, which is that the screen is built right into the remote. Often when I'm out flying, I have to use my phone, which means I'm burning the battery on my principle device just because I'm up in the air. The Typhoon has a great camera, beautiful bold colors and crisp picture. The problem is that the digital stabilization adds a weird, jello-y shake to the image. The Chroma is basically the same drone as the Typhoon with a few small modifications. It has the same great remote with the screen built in. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as reliable and crashed a number of times before I could even get it in the air. The Parapebop comes at a great price and a small form factor, which is easy to fit in a backpack. Unfortunately, it's not reliable enough to put in the air. We crashed two units during our previous testing, which is why you don't see one pictured here today. The big difference was that the DJI Phantom was the most reliable when it came to how it flew and the quality of the footage it could capture. At the end of the day, that's the decider. A number of the drones we flew this year were easy enough that my 2-year-old son and my 65-year-old father could both fly them. But in general, drones still don't feel safe or cheap enough to be accessible to lots of consumers. Now, that could change. Chip makers like Qualcomm are telling us that by this time next year, 4K drones could be as cheap as $300 with batteries that last an hour. If that happens, I believe they will be the next camcorder. Totally ubiquitous at weddings and beach vacations. Something you see all the time and in every family.