Parrot unveiled a new version of its popular Bebop drone on Tuesday, capable of longer flight times and faster speeds. On the whole, however, it does not seem like a gigantic leap forward for the French company's higher-end consumer drone. Parrot, which is known for its growing lineup of toy drones, stuck with a 14-megapixel camera for the Bebop 2 that tops out at 1080p resolution video. The 180-degree fisheye lens also remains on the nose of the drone, a precarious placement for an aircraft that regularly crashes into walls and trees.
The optional external flight controller still extends range to 2 kilometers, as promised with the last version (though not always delivered, in The Verge's assessment). Parrot said the upgraded Bebop does address some of the connectivity issues that plagued the last version, but did not provide much additional detail.
Unlike other drones on the market, the Parrot models can be flown indoors. At the Metreon in San Francisco, Seydoux demonstrated how easy it was to control the device, flying it through a throng of reporters. If any of the drones' flexible, six-inch propellers hit something or someone, they all stop immediately.
Like the first Bebop, the second iteration has 8GB of onboard flash storage
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