EPSON Moverio BT-300 Review

Expedy21 · Mar 14, 2017

kona said:
How can I buy these?

Amazon.com: Epson Moverio BT-300FPV Smart Glasses (FPV/Drone Edition): Cell Phones & Accessories

kona · Mar 14, 2017

Expedy21 said:
Amazon.com: Epson Moverio BT-300FPV Smart Glasses (FPV/Drone Edition): Cell Phones & Accessories

Thanks, but ouch!

YellowJacket · Mar 14, 2017

Whoever at Epson that made the decision to attach such a low quality android box to the moverio should be fired. My android phone from 2005 was more powerful.

Seriously, epson? This is 2017. Nobody is going to take your product seriously shipping out your latest and greatest tech with obsolete hardware that can't keep up. Android 5.1 and an Intel atom processor? Give me a break. You need at least 4gb ram with a snap dragon running on 6.0 android to be able to fly the latest drones. Anything less, you are risking the safety of your drone.

You should not have cut corners to save a buck. All you did was embarrass yourselves.

DVegaman · Mar 14, 2017

YellowJacket said:
Whoever at Epson that made the decision to attach such a low quality android box to the moverio should be fired. My android phone from 2005 was more powerful.

Seriously, epson? This is 2017. Nobody is going to take your product seriously shipping out your latest and greatest tech with obsolete hardware that can't keep up. Android 5.1 and an Intel atom processor? Give me a break. You need at least 4gb ram with a snap dragon running on 6.0 android to be able to fly the latest drones. Anything less, you are risking the safety of your drone.

You should not have cut corners to save a buck. All you did was embarrass yourselves.

Just curious, have you tried the product?

mikesher · Mar 14, 2017

Expedy21 said:
Thanks for the thorough review Steve. I was hesitant to buy it because of android and am also a iPad Pro, iPad mini 4, iPhone 7 plus user (P4Pro, Mavic). I bought an android Asus Zen 8 LTE from Verizon about a month ago and am fortunate to say, had no issues on several flights (Android 6 Marshmellow). I purchased the Asus because after installing the HDMI kit to the P4Pro controller with my Avegant Glyph's, I wanted a backup screen. Via Glyph reviews and testing, the Glyph's wouldn't allow a second screen with IOS.

It's super windy here now, when it abates somewhat, I will give the 300FPV and Mavic a try.

Very interested in your comparison between the Glyph and the 300FPV. I have the Glyph, and use it wireless via Airplay from IOS for the Mavic Pro. Or NVIDIA Shield K1 for Android (connected). On my P4P the Glyph is directly connected IOS or Android.

YellowJacket · Mar 14, 2017

DVegaman said:
Just curious, have you tried the product?

Yes and it's obvious the device is being pushed to its limits. What were they thinking? The hardware just cannot keep up. It's too obvious this is a big problem.

Their choice in using old Android 5.1 with an old Intel atom processor was a big mistake. Putting together a modern Android box would not have added too much to the already high price. Imo, they should have shipped with Android 6.0, latest or last year's snap dragon, and 4 go of ram. Cheapskates.

DVegaman · Mar 14, 2017

YellowJacket said:
Yes and it's obvious the device is being pushed to its limits. What were they thinking? The hardware just cannot keep up. It's too obvious this is a big problem.

Their choice in using old Android 5.1 with an old Intel atom processor was a big mistake. Putting together a modern Android box would not have added too much to the already high price. Imo, they should have shipped with Android 6.0, latest or last year's snap dragon, and 4 go of ram. Cheapskates.

Agreed that Android 5.1 needs to be upgraded. Hopefully an upgrade is supported (fingers crossed). As for the chipset:
- I don't think it's a matter of being "cheap" - phone manufacturers do massive volume, so are given access to the latest chips at a really great price/unit (particularly QCOM chips). Comparatively, AR glasses are in their infancy, where manufacturers probably don't do enough sales to squeeze out volume discounts or have access to the newer chips. The Intel Atom X5 chipset is pretty advanced - it's actually used by the Microsoft Hololens
- The real revolution here is in the display. It's the lightest pair of AR/VR glasses and the only legitimate transparent display you can buy on Amazon.

I think Epson is hoping that the display is compelling enough to drive adoption - in my opinion, it is. If they can sell enough units; hopefully they'll gain access to better chipsets. I'd love for the BT-300 to have the latest iPhone specs in a pair of AR glasses under $800; is that realistic, I would assume not...

YellowJacket · Mar 15, 2017

That's a wall of text. All Im saying they skimped on the hardware.

Expedy21 · Mar 15, 2017

mikesher said:
Very interested in your comparison between the Glyph and the 300FPV. I have the Glyph, and use it wireless via Airplay from IOS for the Mavic Pro. Or NVIDIA Shield K1 for Android (connected). On my P4P the Glyph is directly connected IOS or Android.

Unless I was doing something wrong, to me, the Glyph's were just a one inch screen, one inch from my eye. I used them with Litchi and the head tracking worked well. I need reading glasses; wearing the Glyph over my glasses was doable but uncomfortable. Viewing thru the BT-300 is awesome. It's like looking at a big screen TV, no need for reading glasses. The only issue I have so far is viewing in daylight, even with the supplied shades. Here in Florida, it's bright and sunny 99% of the time. However, this morning I discovered a second set of shades that I missed in the unboxing, will try them today.

DVegaman · Mar 15, 2017

Keep us posted on how you make out.

Expedy21 · Mar 15, 2017

The darker shades are much, much better; the difference is like night and day (no pun intended, lol). Also paired my Apple Airpods, it was almost instant pairing. Can get music, but don't recognize the microphone on the Airpods for voice input. Will put some more time on that and some researching and see if we can get voice commands with the Airpods.

Mr Spock · Mar 15, 2017

Platypus65 said:
Try toggling off "calibrate map coordinates (for china mainland)". That seemed to do it for me.

It is off. But thank you for the sugestion.

Rigging65 · Mar 15, 2017

Got mine today. After getting them set up and Go4 loaded I went out and burned 3 batteries through the Mavic. I'm pretty impressed. It's a different sort of flying. I don't have a ton of VR experience, and I like VR, but it always felt very 'remote'...like I was in the bird and really lost the sense of where I was versus where the bird was. With AR, I feel like I get both. I like it! For me...there is virtually no latency with the 300s. If there is, it's so slight that it's negligible. I will say that I'm not a fan of the touch pad interface...it works fine, it's just slow to use and the pad is so small that it's hard to be precise and fast...thus it's slow. I'm not an android guy...EVERYTHING I have is iOS...so that's something to learn too. It's not too bad though. All in all, I'd say I'm very happy with the 300s. I wish they were $400, not $800, but hobbies are expensive. I'm gonna run them out to Napa tomorrow and shoot a bunch of the color that's blooming out there right now, so that ought to be righteous! My first impressions are good!

macinfosys · Mar 16, 2017

Anyone able to install the updated 4.0.4 Go4 app onto the BT-300 ? It is currently 4.0.3 from the Moverio App Store. Curious if anyone knows how quickly Epson has been on releasing updates to the app once DJI releases the official app.

stratos · Mar 16, 2017

wanted to order one but see that they only sell them in the US

Else should have order it right away

Expedy21 · Mar 16, 2017

macinfosys said:
Anyone able to install the updated 4.0.4 Go4 app onto the BT-300 ? It is currently 4.0.3 from the Moverio App Store. Curious if anyone knows how quickly Epson has been on releasing updates to the app once DJI releases the official app.

DJI GO 4 4.0.5 apk download

I'm not sure of the site, download at your own risk...

Expedy21 · Mar 16, 2017

Just paired my Apple Magic Mouse to the BT-300. Of course being an Apple device on Android, not all Apple functions are available. But it does function just like the BT-300 track pad for use when not flying.

Expedy21 · Mar 16, 2017

kona said:
Thanks, but ouch!

Worth every penny, I highly recommend it. Keep in mind, it's not just for flying; you have a mini computer in your hand with a monitor projected in HUD format as big as your big screen TV.

Expedy21 · Mar 16, 2017

Mr Spock said:
It is off. But thank you for the sugestion.

For map functions, you will need to have internet access. Use your cell phone as a hotspot

macinfosys · Mar 16, 2017

Just downloaded and installed this release from the web: DJI GO 4 4.0.5 apk download onto the BT-300 in place of the Epson version 4.0.3. Seems to download / install with no issues. But I have not had a chance to test it live with the Mavic yet.