When talking about operating distance, AKA the distance the RC car can reach without losing control connection, most affordable $100 RC cars don’t show themselves in the best of lights. You see, typically, they’re meant to be used within the backyard, which translates to roughly 300 feet at most. That’s 100 meters for our European readers.
In terms of battery duration, many people expect surreal numbers inching to the hour-mark. However, that’s far from what you can expect from drones under $100. Most of the time, you’ll be looking at 20 to 30 minutes of runtime, which isn’t half bad considering the average battery durations from a few years ago.
The speed varies greatly from model to model. At this price point, typically, you’ll find models claiming to go as fast as 30-40 km/h. There are, however, cheap buggy and touring models that go faster than 50km/h, going all the way up to70km/h. But, at those speeds, we aren’t talking about RC cars for kids anymore. These speeds are quite dangerous and only teenagers and young adults should operate with such devices.
Last but not least, let’s focus on durability. There are no exact numbers we can make comparisons on in terms of durability, but one thing is certain – the build quality of newer RC cars under $100 is far superior to models dating back a 4-5 years back. Newer tech trends have surfaced a new wave of rigid chassis and durable canopies that can handle quite a few crashes before finally giving in.