The Power Up 3.0: A Fun and Interactive Flying Experience

I had the opportunity to test fly the Power Up 3.0, a remote-controlled airplane that uses Android or iOS apps to control its movements. The experience was nothing short of thrilling, and I was able to have a blast flying this thing around in our initial test flights. Although we didn't achieve the level of performance shown in the manufacturer's promotional video, even as an inexperienced aircraft builder and pilot, I was able to enjoy the process of experimentation and improvement. The more success we had, the more improvements we made, and the more I wanted to keep trying to get that level of performance out of it.

As a tinkerer by nature, I think the Power Up 3.0 is an excellent gift idea for anyone who loves little electronic gadgets and paper airplanes. If you're looking for something interactive and engaging to do with your kids or friends, this product is definitely worth every penny. However, if you're expecting instant success out of the box without putting in any effort, you might be disappointed. The manual provided with the Power Up 3.0 is excellent, but the website navigation and organization of tutorial videos on YouTube can be a bit confusing for novice users like myself.

Range and Battery Life

One of the key features of the Power Up 3.0 that I was impressed with was its range, which is advertised to be as expected. The battery life also performed well, allowing for multiple flights without needing a recharge. The Android and iOS apps worked seamlessly on my Xperia Z2 and iPhone 6, although it's worth double-checking your phone's compatibility before purchasing the Power Up 3.0, as it requires Bluetooth Smart technology.

Potential Improvements

While I was thoroughly enjoying my experience with the Power Up 3.0, there were a few areas where I think improvements could be made. For instance, I would love to see a beefed-up version with a more powerful motor and/or a bigger battery for longer flights. The current design is excellent, but it's clear that Taylor Toys is committed to investing in R&D resources to continue improving their product.

Organization and Navigation

One area where the Power Up 3.0 falls short is in its organization and navigation. The website can be confusing to navigate, especially for novice users like myself. There are also some minor annoyances, such as the unnecessary "add a zero dollar template download" option that requires you to purchase additional templates. On the other hand, I was delighted to discover the Tyvek Davinci templates, which were included in my Kickstarter package and provided an excellent alternative for those looking to create their own designs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Power Up 3.0 is a great gift idea for anyone who loves little electronic gadgets and paper airplanes. With its range, battery life, and app compatibility all performing well, it's an excellent choice for anyone looking for an interactive and engaging flying experience. While there are some areas where improvements could be made, I believe that Taylor Toys has done a great job of delivering on their promises.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ensometimes we get so focused on the most extreme computers on the planet around here like the upcoming part two of our oil submerged cool pc build log thing that we'll be showing off make sure you're subscribed for that that i think we forget that some of the most interesting computers today don't have processors made by intel or amd aren't powerful enough to solve the economic crisis and don't require as much power to run as a closed dryer today's computer by contrast with the oil cooled thing is this tiny battery-powered affair that may not be able to tackle global issues but it can let you fly a paper airplane around with your smartphone which is also pretty cool the cooler master neptune 240m features an exclusive pump design and their new celencio fans to provide impressive near silent performance click now to learn more the unboxing experience was actually pretty fun because you get a whack ton of stuff taylor toys includes the wireless strap-on motor module itself a micro usb cable and one thousand milliamp hour battery bank four folding templates although you can print your own later one water resistant tyvek davinci style template for the nakamura model plane spares for the propeller and rudder and finally the user manual something you will need the module itself might not really look like anything special but there's actually a ton of technology inside at the rear is a propeller on a variable speed motor and a rudder that you'll control later by tilting your phone left and right following the lightweight carbon fiber stem towards the front we'll find the processor battery 55 meter range bluetooth module with antenna power switch and micro usb charging port that are all protected by a sweet transparent housing that clips onto the front of the plane nice and tight like so and features a soft foam nose to protect it during crashes now setup might be a little bit intimidating for some people when they see the 48 page one language yeah it's all one language user manual but since the battery takes 20 minutes to fill anyway throw it on the charger and then spend half an hour reading the documentation once folding two templates for the beginner invader plane and the more advanced nakamura install the app on your phone watch a couple of their tutorial videos some of which are great and some of which are surprisingly unprofessional like the one where the host sneezes in the middle of folding the plane and they don't even bother to cut it out and then you will be ready to head to the park and give it a whirl i'd recommend bringing the manual with you for your first few flights because there are some details particularly with respect to the initial fine-tuning of your paper airplane that you might want to refer back to but the gist is you do a test flight with the motor off make sure it goes straight another test flight with the motor on at around 60 percent more if it's a windy day although i'd recommend going out on a day that has as little wind as possible and then as long as both of those are satisfactory straight flights then you're ready to rock and let me tell you this thing kind of well rocks even though it was windier out than i would have liked which made gaining altitude kind of tough for us both my cameraman and i uh this was our new guy berkel shooting this by the way had a total blast flying this thing around in the first few test flights that we did we weren't able to achieve the level of performance that the manufacturer shows off in their promotional video but even as an inexperienced you know aircraft builder and pilot i was able to have a ton of fun and the more success we had the more improvements we made the more i wanted to keep trying so that i could get that level of performance out of it because i think it's very doable you just i think the key to having a great experience with this toy is just experimentation if you just want instant success out of the box and you don't feel like working on your plane between crashes to get solid performance out of it then this product might not be for you but if you're a tinkerer by nature and you're looking for something you know interactive and engaging to do you know i don't know by yourself or with your kids or even with your buddies it's worth every penny you'll have a blast back to boring review stuff again i guess uh range is as advertised so is battery life and the android and ios apps both worked great for us with an xperia z2 and iphone 6. although guys double check your phone for compatibility because it does use bluetooth smart or whatever so you have to have a newer bluetooth chipset on your phone but overall i think taylor toys did a great job of delivering what they said they would i do still think there are some things that could improve though i mean i would love to see a beefed up version with a more powerful motor and or a bigger battery for longer flights i mean i hope they continue to invest r d resources into this idea because i think it's really cool but i also think the out of the box experience could be a bit better the manual is excellent but their site navigation is poor and so is the organization of their tutorial videos on their youtube channel which made things a little bit more difficult for me as a novice user than they needed to be i mean here's here's a couple of examples they don't have any letter size templates for letter size plain designs even though they refer to them and say you can build them so if you're in one of those backward countries that doesn't normally use a4 printer paper then you'll have to go obtain some somewhere there's also the completely unnecessary add a zero dollar template download thing to your shopping cart and then check out on their site in order to even fold more planes on your own and get the templates um so that that was kind of annoying but i mean i guess there is good news they do have these cool tyvek davinci templates um i grabbed a 10 pack of them when i backed the kickstarter so it's not all bad and really these are all minor complaints i think overall the conclusion should be this the power up 3.0 is a great gift idea for a son nephew co-worker uncle or female version of any of the above who loves little electronic gadgets and paper airplanes by the way guys speaking of electronic gadgets i'm back now we've partnered with antec to bring you guys an awesome giveaway it is the ultimate silent gaming pc package the winner will get an 1100 v2 case an edge 750 watt power supply a cooler 1250 cpu cooler one accent lighting kit and the winner can choose the color one pair of pulse headphones the winner chooses the color and all that stuff can be yours it's actually very simple to enter all you have to do is sometime between november 3rd and november 10th head over to the linus tech tips and tech forum topic that is linked in the video description and follow the instructions there huge thanks to antec for sponsoring this giveaway and sponsoring today's video because without our sponsors it's hard for us to make videos and of course guys you know there's all the usual goodwill so thanks antec for doing cool stuff like giveaways and all that so make sure you check out their site if you're looking for a new cooler case power supply or any of the other number of actually they have really great fans as well so any of the other number of awesome products that they make thank you the viewer for watching like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment letting me know if your feelings are more complicated than this or this also check out the link in the video description a so you can enter the giveaway for this and b if you want to support us you can give us a monthly contribution buy a cool t-shirt like this one change your amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so whenever you buy power-ups for people or you know power supplies or whatever else we get a small kickback that kind of thing helps us out a lot thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe yousometimes we get so focused on the most extreme computers on the planet around here like the upcoming part two of our oil submerged cool pc build log thing that we'll be showing off make sure you're subscribed for that that i think we forget that some of the most interesting computers today don't have processors made by intel or amd aren't powerful enough to solve the economic crisis and don't require as much power to run as a closed dryer today's computer by contrast with the oil cooled thing is this tiny battery-powered affair that may not be able to tackle global issues but it can let you fly a paper airplane around with your smartphone which is also pretty cool the cooler master neptune 240m features an exclusive pump design and their new celencio fans to provide impressive near silent performance click now to learn more the unboxing experience was actually pretty fun because you get a whack ton of stuff taylor toys includes the wireless strap-on motor module itself a micro usb cable and one thousand milliamp hour battery bank four folding templates although you can print your own later one water resistant tyvek davinci style template for the nakamura model plane spares for the propeller and rudder and finally the user manual something you will need the module itself might not really look like anything special but there's actually a ton of technology inside at the rear is a propeller on a variable speed motor and a rudder that you'll control later by tilting your phone left and right following the lightweight carbon fiber stem towards the front we'll find the processor battery 55 meter range bluetooth module with antenna power switch and micro usb charging port that are all protected by a sweet transparent housing that clips onto the front of the plane nice and tight like so and features a soft foam nose to protect it during crashes now setup might be a little bit intimidating for some people when they see the 48 page one language yeah it's all one language user manual but since the battery takes 20 minutes to fill anyway throw it on the charger and then spend half an hour reading the documentation once folding two templates for the beginner invader plane and the more advanced nakamura install the app on your phone watch a couple of their tutorial videos some of which are great and some of which are surprisingly unprofessional like the one where the host sneezes in the middle of folding the plane and they don't even bother to cut it out and then you will be ready to head to the park and give it a whirl i'd recommend bringing the manual with you for your first few flights because there are some details particularly with respect to the initial fine-tuning of your paper airplane that you might want to refer back to but the gist is you do a test flight with the motor off make sure it goes straight another test flight with the motor on at around 60 percent more if it's a windy day although i'd recommend going out on a day that has as little wind as possible and then as long as both of those are satisfactory straight flights then you're ready to rock and let me tell you this thing kind of well rocks even though it was windier out than i would have liked which made gaining altitude kind of tough for us both my cameraman and i uh this was our new guy berkel shooting this by the way had a total blast flying this thing around in the first few test flights that we did we weren't able to achieve the level of performance that the manufacturer shows off in their promotional video but even as an inexperienced you know aircraft builder and pilot i was able to have a ton of fun and the more success we had the more improvements we made the more i wanted to keep trying so that i could get that level of performance out of it because i think it's very doable you just i think the key to having a great experience with this toy is just experimentation if you just want instant success out of the box and you don't feel like working on your plane between crashes to get solid performance out of it then this product might not be for you but if you're a tinkerer by nature and you're looking for something you know interactive and engaging to do you know i don't know by yourself or with your kids or even with your buddies it's worth every penny you'll have a blast back to boring review stuff again i guess uh range is as advertised so is battery life and the android and ios apps both worked great for us with an xperia z2 and iphone 6. although guys double check your phone for compatibility because it does use bluetooth smart or whatever so you have to have a newer bluetooth chipset on your phone but overall i think taylor toys did a great job of delivering what they said they would i do still think there are some things that could improve though i mean i would love to see a beefed up version with a more powerful motor and or a bigger battery for longer flights i mean i hope they continue to invest r d resources into this idea because i think it's really cool but i also think the out of the box experience could be a bit better the manual is excellent but their site navigation is poor and so is the organization of their tutorial videos on their youtube channel which made things a little bit more difficult for me as a novice user than they needed to be i mean here's here's a couple of examples they don't have any letter size templates for letter size plain designs even though they refer to them and say you can build them so if you're in one of those backward countries that doesn't normally use a4 printer paper then you'll have to go obtain some somewhere there's also the completely unnecessary add a zero dollar template download thing to your shopping cart and then check out on their site in order to even fold more planes on your own and get the templates um so that that was kind of annoying but i mean i guess there is good news they do have these cool tyvek davinci templates um i grabbed a 10 pack of them when i backed the kickstarter so it's not all bad and really these are all minor complaints i think overall the conclusion should be this the power up 3.0 is a great gift idea for a son nephew co-worker uncle or female version of any of the above who loves little electronic gadgets and paper airplanes by the way guys speaking of electronic gadgets i'm back now we've partnered with antec to bring you guys an awesome giveaway it is the ultimate silent gaming pc package the winner will get an 1100 v2 case an edge 750 watt power supply a cooler 1250 cpu cooler one accent lighting kit and the winner can choose the color one pair of pulse headphones the winner chooses the color and all that stuff can be yours it's actually very simple to enter all you have to do is sometime between november 3rd and november 10th head over to the linus tech tips and tech forum topic that is linked in the video description and follow the instructions there huge thanks to antec for sponsoring this giveaway and sponsoring today's video because without our sponsors it's hard for us to make videos and of course guys you know there's all the usual goodwill so thanks antec for doing cool stuff like giveaways and all that so make sure you check out their site if you're looking for a new cooler case power supply or any of the other number of actually they have really great fans as well so any of the other number of awesome products that they make thank you the viewer for watching like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment letting me know if your feelings are more complicated than this or this also check out the link in the video description a so you can enter the giveaway for this and b if you want to support us you can give us a monthly contribution buy a cool t-shirt like this one change your amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so whenever you buy power-ups for people or you know power supplies or whatever else we get a small kickback that kind of thing helps us out a lot thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe you\n"