Lily Next-Gen: the new life of a closed project from the Mota Group.

Introduction

We all remember how the drone developer Lily officially declared bankruptcy and completely closed the project due to a banal lack of funds to launch a serial production. We think that many then regretted what happened, especially those who invested in this startup and hoped until the last that everything would resume.

Less than a year later, the well-known American company Mota Group drew attention to the closed project Lily. A major player in the global market, founded in 2003, long before DJI Innovations existed. The field of activity is the production with the subsequent sale of high-tech consumer electronics, including UAVs and robotics around the world. Having a strong production base, the Mota Group acquired part of the assets and the Lily brand itself. Then, relying on her own accumulated experience in the field of UAVs, she presented the drone in her vision. What you have lost and what you have acquired is the Lily Next-Gen selfie drone, you will learn further from our review.

Features

• Futuristic design
• Made of durable polycarbonate and brushed aluminum
• Folding arms and rotor design
• Same quick start principle
• Smartphone / compact remote control with built-in display
• Self-adjusting 13MP 4K camera
• Built-in mechanical suspension digital stabilization
• Flight time 18 minutes
• 2 × batteries (Li-ion) included
• Battery charging time 30 minutes
• Brushless motors
• Level flight speed up to 40 km / h
• Lightweight, only 385 grams
• Ready to fly out of the box (RTF)

About the product

As we could see, the new developer has moved away from the old exterior and added compactness to the drone due to the folding design of the arms, similar to the folding principle with drone Karma. As a result, Lily Next-Gen added only a little in size (in flight condition): 31.1 × 27.2 × 7.6cm (Lily dimensions: 26.1 × 26.1 × 8.18cm.). The drone is made of the same materials as the previous Lily - high quality, durable and at the same time lightweight polycarbonate combined with brushed aluminum, but it now weighs 385g, versus 1.3kg of Lily.

What has been abandoned

1. Complete avoidance of analog construction and design
2. No protection against water and dust IP67
3. There is no remote control bracelet
4. The drone takes off exclusively from the ground (before it could just be thrown)
5. Autonomous palm landing is excluded

It is a shame that the Mota Group has abandoned such significant advantages of the previous version, because they were the hallmark of Lily, a portable selfie drone with an emphasis on an active lifestyle.

Benefit Details

Otherwise, the Lily Next-Gen drone has only succeeded. It is completely autonomous thanks to Smart Hover ™ technology, GPS and computer vision. Everything is aimed at making the use of the product as simple and easy as possible.

Lost Communication

If Lily Next-Gen loses communication with the smartphone, it freezes. The system will first try to restore the connection, if this fails, the drone will automatically switch to return mode and go to the place of the last takeoff, keeping the given altitude along the entire route, taking into account the terrain.

Camera

Instead of a FHD camera, the Lily NG is equipped with a self-adjusting 13MP 4K camera, which, according to the manufacturer, is suspended using a mechanical gimbal that works in conjunction with electronic stabilization. We could not find any illustrations with the mechanical suspension device of this drone, so for now we will just take the developer's word for it.

External power supply

Power supply of the aircraft is no longer built-in, but external. The kit comes with two lithium-ion batteries at once (for the Fully Loaded Package - 3 batteries), providing, according to the specification, 18 minutes of flight each. The included charging dock - Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 provides the shortest charging time - 30 minutes.

Battery Monitoring

If the user ignores the low battery warnings, Lily NG will automatically land within a safe circle from the paired smartphone.

Streaming

Anything that the drone's camera captures can be streamed in real time to social media such as YouTube, Facebook Live, etc. Through the "Lily Companion" application, the user can also change camera settings, edit the captured photo / video material and share with everyone through all known social networks in one tap.

Now in place of the remote control, the drone traditionally tracks the smartphone (IOS / Android) with which it was paired via the Lily Companion app. Flight characteristics remained unchanged.

Wind resistance

Lily Next-Gen has successfully passed wind tests at wind speeds over 9.8m / s. But, the manufacturer still recommends not to launch the drone at wind speeds higher than 6.7 m / s.

Security

Lily Next-Gen, like all modern drones, comes with a geofencing system - Fly Safely Postcard. The user will always be aware of the No-Fly zones.

Control

The drone can be controlled in two ways:

1. Smartphone running IOS / Android, through the Lily Companion application
2. By means of control equipment paired with a smartphone (included in the "Fully Loaded Package" and can be purchased separately ).

Package contents

The manufacturer offers two configuration options:

1. LILY Camera Drone Pro Package (1 Year Loss / Damage Protection)
2. LILY Camera Drone Fully Loaded Package (1 year loss / damage protection)

Pro Package

Fully Loaded Package

Appearance

Specification

Drone