The original lizard 95 was a great little quadcopter since it was small, fast and was cheap to buy.  So the new upgraded version is a bit bigger at 105mm, and more expensive.  The new lizard packs a whole lot of new tech such as an F4 Flight controller with floating IMU box, and a Dshot 600 28A 4in1 ESC.  These are all great, but what separates the new lizard from the crowd is the fact that it rocks a 720p DVR on a micro quad.. yes you read that correctly.  But does all this tech make for an overpriced, heavy sluggish quad?  Read more to find out!

Specifications at a glance

• Custom mini Omnibus F4 pro corner flight controller (with floating IMU box)
• 720p HD camera with DVR
• 1104 6000Kv motors
• 28A 4in1 ESC running Dshot600
• 48Ch 25-200mW VTX with UXII Antenna
• 4S 550mAh 60C Battery
• Unique frame with vertical arms (for less drag when flying fast)
• Optional Frsky XM+ receiver (yes it is a genuine one)
• 80g empty weight without the battery

The Good

Lets start with what makes the lizard 105s so good:

• The integrated 720p DVR camera is the main stand out feature of the lizard, giving you the ability to record nice looking footage to share on YouTube, something not at all common on quadcopters of this size.
• Although alot of the electronics are clones built by eachine, they are all at the cutting edge, with a nano omnibus F4 with a vibration damped IMU (MPU6000) box and a UXII FPV antenna for solid signal.   You do however, have the option to buy it with a clone FRsky receiver, or a geniune XM+ which is nice.

• The frame itself has a unique design with a blend of vertical arms, and aluminium parts.  It is nice and strong but suffers from poor quality control (in the unit we received), more on that in the bad section.
• The lizard uses a powerful 4S power system with a high spec 28A ESC’s running dshot600 to give you solid flight performance.

• The component placement makes everything relatively easy to access, such as the bind button on the receiver, the USB connection on the FC, the button to start/stop recording on the DVR.  Even placement RX antenna placement and the FPV antenna are great. The only thing that is awkward is getting to the VTX channel button and also inserting the micro SD card into the DVR.

The Bad

The lizard 105s is not perfect, and here’s why

• The frame is definitely on the heavier side for quads of this size, weighing in at 80g empty, or 130+ g with the battery.
• The frame arms are not made very precisely, as the holes are abit to big, so the arms can actually bend up/down slightly.  This is not a massive issue as the quad flies fine.. but its not great manufacturing.
• The tail buzzer and LED board are only secured with some double sided tape and in our review unit this did fall off; luckily it did not catch on the props.  So when you get yours, make sure to secure it properly, preferably with some zip ties.

• Another potentially annoying thing on the lizard is that the MicroSD card slot does not lock in place, so in a hard crash you could lose the card.. and also the footage.  It is also annoying to insert and pull out the SD card. I always need to use some tweezers.
• The FPV camera, although on an adjustable mount, does not have much protection at all, and since this is at the front of the quad, expect it to get damaged eventually.

Why should you get it?

Overall I have to say that the lizard 105S is another great quadcopter from eachine.  The original lizard95 offered great potential for the price, but the poor quality control let it down.  Fortunately, the lizard 105S seems to not only improve the build quality but also pack the quad with an impressive amount of tech.  Furthermore, the setup of the lizard 105S was super easy as the only things I needed to change were my flight modes to suit my preferences.  The integrated DVR camera makes it super easy to record crisp video of your flights in HD, something not found on many other micro quads.  Although the 105s is not exactly the bargain of the year, the extra price is justified by the level of tech you are getting on the quadcopter.

Where to Buy

• Banggood China
• UnmannedTech UK

What is the build quality like?

Eachine did listen to customer feedback with the lizard95, and the lizard 105s actually arrives without any need to do modifications.  The lizard 95 had reports of motor screws not being secured, or loose in the box.  But after a good inspection I it is better than the lizard 95, but still not exactly great.  The biggest problem is that the holes in the arms have been drilled too big, so the arms can actually flex up and down by a few degrees which is a real shame.  I did not notice much issues with this when flying, but over time the arms will just get more loose and eventually will cause some unwanted vibrations, or worse when flying.  You can take this with a pinch of salt, as I did receive a pre-release version and have told eachine about this, so hopefully this will be fixed with the production run.   Other than this, the build quality has some nice touches like battery Velcro already installed and the cables where properly secured in place.  The frame also has prevision for the receiver antennas to sit nice and high, out of the reach of the props.  Talking of which, the props are also much better than the ones included on the previous lizard, and it is nice that they are only 4 blade, not the ridiculous 5 blade as on the lizard95.  My only criticism here, is that the receiver antennas are passed directly though holes in the carbon fiber, so over time it can cut them.  Secondly, as mentioned before the tail LED/buzzer unit was only secured by some double sided tape, and ours came off, so this is something you will need to check and fix yourself.

How easy is it to repair?

Although the frame is strong, it is not the easiest to work on due to its small size.  When undoing the cage be sure not to undo the back screws unless you have a spare hour or so as reattaching the nuts is close to impossible.  However if you just undo the front two bolts, the cage and tilt upwards giving you barely enough room to swap out a flight controller, or re-solder some ESC connections.  Overall its not the most accessible drone in this class, but its by no means the worst (unless you remove the rear cage screws ofcourse!).

Some more pictures of the lizard 105S

I have only had the lizard 105S for a few days, and only flown it a few times, but as I fly more I will add more details to this review.  If you have one and want to add your feedback, do so in the comments.  However, at this point I don’t have any hesitation to say it looks like this will be the next best seller for quads of this size.  This is based on the fact that it flies well, but also has an integrated 720p DVR.