GepRC MX3 Sparrow review

The MX3 Sparrow from GepRC is a 139mm sized racing quad which spins 3” props.It’s available without a receiver, or, as in the case of my review model, as bind-and-fly (although this is only available with a FrSky receiver)I comes in a handy semi-rigid case with cut away foam to safely house the model, and some of the accessories.

Although it’s great to have a case like this – the quad will only fit inside if the props are removed.

Lifting the quad from it’s case, the first thing that strikes you it is just how good it looks. Two curved anodised aluminium side-plates safely sandwich in all the electronics and sit on top of a 3mm carbon unibody frame. It’s not only lovely to look at, but provides an excellent means of impact protection for all the components housed within. Power is provided from the four 1408-3500kv motors which have a standard 5mm shaft and are supplied with five complete sets of 3042 sized tri-blade props.

Camera: RunCam Micro Swift 2, 600TVL

Dimensions: 139 x 139 x 100mm

Weight: 145g (no battery with receiver)

Battery Type: 3S / 4S 550-800mAh LiPo recommended

Receiver: FrSky R-XSR (BNF Only)

Nestled inside the aluminium is the electronics stack based around the micro-standard 20mm mounting holes. Starting at the bottom, we have a 4-in-1 28A ESC board which supports BLHeli_S and DShot, in the middle a Pico Blx F3 flight controller, and on the top of the stack, a 72 channel VTX which power output can be configured to operate at 0/25/100/250mW.

The bind-and-fly version has the tiny FrSky R-XSR receiver, pre-installed which provide an RSSI telemetry signal back to your transmitter, but any SBUS/PPM compatible receiver (as long as it’s small enough) could be used. The included CCD-based camera is the excellent RunCam MicroSwift 2 with a wide-angle 2.1mm lens.

This camera has it’s own onboard OSD that can show battery voltage, time powered on, and a pilot name. It’s particularly useful in this case, as the Pico Blx doesn’t have it’s own OSD, and keeping track of your battery voltage is fairly critical. 2-4s Lipos are supported via an XT30 connector, but to get the best out of it you will want to use a 650-850mah 4s lipo, with 3s for more of a casual cruise around.

Elsewhere in the box, there was silicon pad to stick on the bottom of the frame to help secure the lipo, a cable to connect to the camera in order to change the settings and configure the OSD, several battery straps and some stickers.

Bird’s Eye View

Flying this quad in FPV was very satisfying. It launched easily into the air and immediately felt smooth and responsive. It does seem like those PID values were well thought out. Roll and pitch controls – as expected – were explosive when you wanted them to be, but also very precise. I went straight into some rolls, flips, power loops, and inverted yaw spins without thinking about it. and as you came out of the maneuver, the quad to stop perfectly with no bounce-back.

It was incredibly fast as well, which you could make feel even faster by hurtling along as close to the ground as possible. Any worry that the 850mah 4s lipos was weighing it down too much soon vanished.

Summary

The Sparrow is a stunning looking little quad which performs fantastically out of the box, and weighs in at just 248g with an 850mah 4s lipo, making it quite friendly against the current set of impending drone restrictions. On the critical side, it is a fairly expensive model, and lacks the Betaflight OSD that many BNF models include. Beginners may also truggle with the aggressive camera angle, and will most certainly need to tune down the included rates.

Want to learn more? Check the official page for the latest discount.