Antigravity A1 review: Immersive 360° flying made easy

After a firmware update, all you need to do is turn on the paired goggles, the controller, and the drone. There is a tutorial that you should definitely follow carefully. There is also a flight simulator—I would strongly recommend it to anyone who has no experience with VR drones.

The controls differ fundamentally from those of typical drones: Instead of using two joysticks, you use the motion controller to point where you want to fly, and the throttle then determines the speed based on the current mode. In our video, you can get a feel for the overall controls and the VR experience. For this test, I had two people with absolutely no drone experience try out the controls in Freemotion mode—the controls are intuitive from the outset. It helps immensely that the drone’s video feed is displayed in real time. The controller has quite a few buttons, some of which can be custom-mapped. Operating all the buttons is noticeably easier with larger hands or, at the very least, longer fingers. Control is also possible in FPV mode; this mode is significantly more direct and agile and requires only a twist of the wrist instead of an outstretched arm.

The Antigravity A1 is heavily geared toward direct control. Flight routes can be created, configured within certain limits, and then flown—though these routes must first be flown manually as a test run. Autonomous flight along preconfigured GPS routes is not supported. Objects or larger structures, such as a tree, can be tracked—also in AR view—and the drone can then fly around them or away from them. This works well in practice.

The drone was tested not only in open fields and obstacle-free terrain but also in the woods. The good news: The Antigravity A1 detects obstacles well and persistently avoids colliding with them, though it can still navigate through an archway, for example. The collision detection system makes itself very clear—not only with red indicators but also with audible alerts. The display in the VR headset was sharp, at least for me when I was not wearing glasses and after I had adjusted the interpupillary distance. The screen can also be “widened,” so to speak, for an even more immersive experience. At the very edges of the field of view, there is a perceptible drop in sharpness.

The ability to look around at any time creates an extremely good sense of spatial awareness. A clever solution: There’s a rotary control on the controller that lets you rotate the drone and the center of the display without having to turn your entire body. The Vision Goggles also come with a very capable external display that mirrors the current image on the internal display. At this point, however, it should be noted that for legal operation of the Antigravity A1, a second person must actively monitor (spot) the drone—and that person should generally avoid looking at the screen.

The Antigravity A1 is marketed using the “Fly First, Frame Later” principle—which is technically accurate but can also quickly lead to certain misconceptions. As a general rule: Yes, thanks to the continuous 360° recording, an athlete or an object, for example, can hardly fall out of the frame. For shots where you only get one chance, this is an invaluable safety net. Nevertheless, the resolution of the selected frame is limited, so you should maintain an appropriate distance from the subject to minimize the need to zoom in later. Drones with a single image sensor generally achieve noticeably better detail and image sharpness—but the aerial shot must then be perfect on the first try.

On the other hand, the 360° concept enables effects that are extremely challenging—or even impossible—to achieve with conventional drones in terms of flight maneuvering; the Tiny Planet effect is a prime example of this. However, the time required for post-production should not be underestimated. You can get a good idea of the image quality from our test video. We highly recommend checking out the DJI Avata 360 review and the video.

Generally, the videos feature excellent stabilization and a balanced contrast ratio—even in challenging lighting conditions, such as in the woods, details in the shadows do not completely disappear. However, if the sun shines directly into the exposed lenses, pronounced lens flares can sometimes occur, which should be taken into account when planning flights. A second important issue is stitching: The Antigravity A1 must seamlessly fuse the 360° image from the sensors and remove its own housing from the image. In the hands-on video, this seam is usually only visible if you specifically look for it—as we did in our test. The stitching can become particularly noticeable when objects or people are filmed from a very close distance.

Antigravity specifies a battery life of 22 to 24 minutes for the A1 with the standard battery. In practice, I was able to achieve about 15 minutes of continuous recording while primarily using the normal speed mode—with a safety reserve of at least 15 percent battery charge. Charging the battery inside the drone takes about an hour. The charge level can also be roughly indicated in four stages outside the drone by simply tapping the battery briefly.

Both intended editing methods worked without any major issues during testing. The smartphone app also offers editing suggestions upon request, but this requires either a very powerful smartphone, a lot of time, or fairly short clips. The desktop application Antigravity Studio includes all the necessary features. Anyone who has ever worked with timelines will quickly find their way around. The viewing angles—and changes to them—can be adjusted for the entire clip or for sections defined by keyframes; keyframe transitions make it easy to create smooth changes in perspective. Deep Track, which tracks objects and people, can also be activated in post-production. It’s possible to convert the head-tracking view into adaptive keyframes with a keyframe density configurable at three levels—this significantly smooths out jerky head movements. Antigravity Studio offers numerous transitions, movements, and filters. Animated text and audio can also be created or imported.