The market is flooded with 2-inch cinewhoops at the moment, so there are plenty of options to choose from. Can the HGLRC Talon 2inch Cinewhoop compete with the rest? In this review, I will examine its features, flight performance, design compromises, and one major issue you should know about before buying.
Learn more about cinewhoop in this buyer’s guide: https://oscarliang.com/cinewhoop/
Table of Contents
Where to Buy
Get your HGLRC Talon 2inch cinewhoop from AliExpress: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c42yCjsf
It does not come with spare propellers, so make sure you grab some here: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3e2ZMkx
Specifications
Here are the specifications provided by HGLRC:
- Frame: Talon Frame
- Flight Controller: SPECTER 15A AIO
- MCU: STM32F411
- Gyroscope: MPU6000
- FC Firmware Target: HGLRC F4EVO
- ESC Continuous Current: 15A
- ESC Firmware: Bluejay 0.19
- VTX: DJI O3 Air Unit HD version / ZEUS 800mW VTX analog version
- Motor: SPECTER 1303.5 5500KV
- Propeller: Gemfan 2020-5-D51
- Wheelbase: 106mm
- Dimensions: 150mm × 170mm
- Weight: 136.9g (including DJI O4 Pro)
Installing DJI O4 Pro
When it comes to FPV camera and VTX options, it seems HGLRC is moving away from DJI. When ordering the Talon 2-inch, the available versions are analog or the Power Kit, which does not include an FPV system. The frame supports the DJI O4 Pro Air Unit, but you have to purchase and install it yourself.
I will be using the DJI O4 Pro in this quad for my review.
Unfortunately, the kit does not include any instructions, diagrams, or documentation showing how to install the air unit. It took me a while to work out the correct installation method, so I will demonstrate the process here.
Design and Closer Look
The entire frame is made from injection-moulded plastic, with no carbon fibre used in the quad. This initially raised some concerns about durability and flight performance because plastic is generally less rigid than carbon fibre. However, after flying it, I found that frame stiffness was not a problem, and the quad still performed surprisingly well.
There is an RGB LED strip around the ducts that displays a rainbow pattern by default. It looks particularly cool at night, although it cannot be configured in Betaflight. You can disable it by unplugging the LED power plugs inside the quad.
Unlike the larger Talon Pro 3-inch cinewhoop, the 2-inch model does not use a modular camera-cage design. However, it is relatively easy to take apart. You only need to remove five screws: 3 underneath the quad (left, right, and rear), 2 on the sides of the camera mount.
The camera lens protrudes quite a bit from the front of the frame, so it is more exposed during crashes and may be easier to scratch.
The camera angle also cannot be adjusted externally – you need to remove the canopy first. This is slightly inconvenient if you frequently switch between slower indoor flying and faster outdoor flying, as these situations usually benefit from quick camera angles adjustments
Flight Controller
The flight controller is an AIO board, meaning the FC, ESC, and receiver are integrated into a single unit: HGLRC SPECTER 15A ELRS 2–4S 4-in-1 AIO FC.
It does not have a dedicated BEC for powering the DJI O4 Pro, so the air unit receives battery voltage directly. This is not ideal because voltage spikes can potentially damage the VTX, although it has held up fine throughout my testing.
The FC also lacks a connector for DJI air units, so you must solder the cable yourself. HGLRC includes a cable with a removable connector, which is thoughtful, but I do not understand why they did not solder it to the board at the factory. Doing so would have made the installation much easier.
Instead, users have to find the wiring diagram and solder the cable manually. The pads are also very small, making the job particularly challenging for beginners.
Another limitation is that the FC only has two UARTs:
- One is reserved for the onboard ExpressLRS receiver
- The other is used by the DJI O4 Pro or other digital VTX
This leaves no spare UART for a GPS module or other serial peripherals.
The FC still uses an outdated Micro-USB port. This is not a deal-breaker, but USB-C would have been more modern, convenient, and robust.
Finally, note that the FC is mounted upside down and rotated by 90 degrees. This is not a problem if you fly the quad with its stock configuration, but it could create confusion when updating or reflashing Betaflight because you will need to restore the board alignment manually.
The correct board alignment is:
- Roll: 180
- Pitch: 0
- Yaw: -90
This could easily catch beginners off guard. After flashing Betaflight and the settings get reset, the quad may flip over immediately during take-off if the alignment is not restored correctly. Avoid flashing Betaflight unless necessary, and always save a backup of the original configuration first.
Battery and Weight
The Talon supports 4S batteries. HGLRC does not specify a recommended capacity, but from experience, cinewhoops of this size typically use packs between 550mAh and 1000mAh.
However, the included battery strap is too short for 850mAh packs and anything larger. The biggest battery I could mount securely was a 4S 720mAh LiHV.
My measured weights were:
- 136.9g without battery (with the DJI O4 Pro installed)
- 203.2g with a 4S 720mAh LiHV battery
Even with a larger 4S 850mAh pack weighing around 90–95g, the Talon should still remain comfortably below 250g.
Flight Performance
The Talon 2-inch hovers at around 35% throttle.
I initially thought the plastic frame might lack sufficient stiffness and negatively affect flight performance, but it flies much better than I expected.
It feels locked-in, agile, and responsive. It is a very enjoyable park ripper and is capable of performing many freestyle and Acro manoeuvres. The plastic construction still raises concerns about long-term durability, though, so I would avoid hard crashes.
The quad is not especially powerful or fast, but its low weight and high performance motor/prop combo make it highly manoeuvrable and fun to fly.
With a 4S 720mAh battery, you can expect around 5 minutes of flight time (mix of freestyle and cruising).
In terms of noise, I would say it is roughly comparable to the BetaFPV Pavo20 Pro.
There is no physical buzzer, and the motors are not particularly loud (DShot Beacon), so finding the quad after crashing in tall grass can be difficult.
The PID and filter settings use a custom factory tune, and I think most pilots will be happy with its performance out of the box.
The Main Issue: Extremely Poor Range
The Talon 2-inch flies well, but my main complaint is the radio-control signal.
Using my normal ExpressLRS settings (2.4GHz, 250mW output power, and a 250Hz packet rate), I was only getting around 20 to 30m before the quad failsafed.
I checked the receiver antenna, and the UFL connector was connected correctly. This suggests there may be a fault with either the onboard receiver or the RX antenna itself.
To finish the review that day, I increased my transmitter power to 1W and lowered the packet rate to 50Hz. Together, these changes increased the usable range to around 100 metres. However, with those settings, ExpressLRS should normally provide at least several kilometres of range easily. Something is clearly wrong with this particular quad.
More troubleshooting is required to determine the exact cause, maybe I am just unlucky and got a bad unit. If the onboard receiver is faulty, this highlights one of the major disadvantages of highly integrated AIO flight controllers: if one component fails, you may need to replace the entire board, which can be expensive.
One could install an external receiver instead, but the FC only has two UARTs: one is assigned to the onboard receiver, while the other is needed by the DJI air unit or another digital VTX. That leaves no spare UART for an external receiver, so no, I can’t really do it.
How to Setup
Firmware
- The flight controller (FC) board target is ZEUSF4EVO, and it comes preloaded with Betaflight firmware version 2025.12.2. For stock CLI Diff, see here.
- ESC Firmware: Bluejay, 0.21.0, 48kHz (Q-H-50)
- ELRS Receiver Firmware Target: HGLRC Hermes 2.4GHz RX, firmware 3.2.1
Betaflight Setup
- Bind the ELRS receiver – The best way perhaps is connect USB cable to the FC, wait 60 seconds until the receiver goes into WiFi mode (green LED flashes rapidly). Then connect to the ExpressLRS RX WiFi network, go to 10.0.0.1 in your browser, and enter your Binding Phrase on the webpage. Detail tutorial: https://oscarliang.com/bind-expresslrs-receivers/
- Pair the DJI O4 Pro with your goggles – Guide: https://oscarliang.com/how-to-setup-dji-o4-pro/#Pairing-DJI-Goggles-3-with-O4-Air-Unit-Pro
- Load the ExpressLRS preset according to your packet rate – Instructions: https://oscarliang.com/betaflight-presets/#Loading-RC-Link-Configurations
- Set up custom rates – My Rates: https://oscarliang.com/rates/#My-Rates
- Configure the Modes tab (arm switch, turtle mode, etc.): https://oscarliang.com/betaflight-modes/#How-to-Setup-Arm-Switch
- Set up OSD, you can copy my CLI lines: https://oscarliang.com/betaflight-osd/#My-OSD-Setup-CLI-Commands
Conclusion
In terms of pure flight performance, I actually prefer the HGLRC Talon 2-inch to the larger Talon Pro 3-inch. The smaller model feels more agile, responsive, quieter, and enjoyable for freestyle and casual park flying. Despite its plastic construction, it flies surprisingly well and feels nicely tuned out of the box.
However, the extremely poor ExpressLRS range on my review unit is a serious concern. A range of only 100 metres is clearly unacceptable, and the integrated AIO design makes a faulty receiver more expensive to replace. Maybe I am just unlucky and received a bad unit.
The Talon Pro 3-inch may still be the more flexible and future-proof option for cinematic work. Its larger and more powerful platform should provide better stability, particularly in windy environments. And its modular camera cage may eventually allow the same camera and air unit to be moved between different HGLRC BNF, as the company has promised.