T3 Awards 2019: the Ryze Tello flies away with our Award for the top Budget Drone

The beginner drone market is booming, but not all budget quadcopters are truly equipped to inspire new pilots, which makes it difficult knowing how best to spend your cash. There were six ace contenders in the shortlist for this particular T3 Award 2019, but we unanimously agreed that the Ryze Tello is the budget drone to own.

• Best cheap drones for beginners
• Best drone 2019

There’s much to love about the dinky Ryze Tello, not least the fact that it benefits from flight tech produced by drone giants DJI. High-calibre components ensure every flight is controlled. Couple that with vision positioning for a more precise hover, plus built-in safety features to prevent fly-aways, and this is an ideal drone for new pilots.

At just 80g and small enough to chuck in a backpack, the Ryze Tello is super-portable. Configuring it for your first flight is a breeze using the Tello app, and when you’re ready to get airborne, throw it in the air and the drone does the rest. The more comfortable you become with the controls, the deeper you can delve into flip and stunt actions via the app.

The Ryze Tello disproves the myth that you need to spend hundreds in order to shoot quality video and stills from the air, too. While image quality won’t match an aerial thoroughbred like the DJI Mavic Air, the Tello’s 720p30 camera is supported by an Intel processor and on-board EIS to help keep shots smooth. Auto flight modes for cinematic footage, including 360, are just a tap away.

So far so impressive, but the feature that truly clinched the win for the Ryze Tello is being able to program drone movement and learn the basics of coding via the Tello Edu app. Fun, educational and less than £100… of course this is a winner.

Full shortlist: Eachine 511, Ryze Tello, Holy Stone HS100 GPS FPV, Xiaomi Mi Fimi A3, Syma X8 Pro, Hubsan X4 H502S

Check out more of this year's award winners on our main T3 Awards 2019 page.