Start with flight time, not resolution
Flight time changes what you can do with a drone more than any other spec, because it decides how many shots you get before the pack runs down. Holy Stone lists 90 minutes, Wex Photo Video lists 51 minutes, and Scan lists 23 minutes, so the gap between them is wide enough to change which tasks suit which brand.
Weight belongs in the same conversation, because a longer flight in a heavier body is harder to hold steady in moving air. Scan lists 126 g for its drone listing, and that figure is the one to weigh against the flight time claim before you commit.
Read every one of these as a single-flight figure rather than a working budget. Spare batteries, charging time and cell availability decide whether a long headline number is useful in practice, so check what else ships with the drone before treating the figure as the whole story.
The full field of drones is worth a look in the drone rankings before you narrow anything, because the brands compared here sit inside a much larger price and spec spread.
Read entry price as a starting point, not a total
Entry prices are the easiest figures to misread. Holy Stone lists $25 and Scan lists £48.98, and those two numbers are quoted in different currencies, so compare each against the market you would actually buy in rather than placing them next to each other.
Across the listings in this category, prices run €21.92 to €1,332.98. A spread that wide usually means the cheapest item in the range and the best-equipped one sit far apart, so work out which end of that span your budget really buys.
Delivery terms move the final total as well. Wex Photo Video offers free delivery above £50, which pulls a larger basket down but leaves the cost of a smaller order unchanged, so the threshold itself is part of the price comparison.
Regulator paperwork and insurance sit outside every figure on this page. Budget for them separately rather than assuming any listed price is the complete cost of a drone you can fly legally.
Video resolution and stabilization
Resolution is a ceiling rather than a promise. Holy Stone lists 6k and Scan lists 8k, and both present that as the maximum the range reaches, so a model sitting below the range top may capture less than the headline figure suggests.
Stabilization is listed as yes for Holy Stone and as yes for Scan. That single yes or no often matters more than a resolution step, because handheld movement and vibration show up as unusable footage long before the pixel count becomes the deciding factor.
Check which model inside the range carries the stabilization rather than assuming every model in it does. Ranges are built from several bodies, and the brand-level figure describes the range as a whole.
Warranty, returns and build to order
Scan lays out its after-sales terms more clearly than the rest of this group: 14 days for returns and 3 years of warranty, with extended warranty also listed as yes. A stated returns window and a stated warranty term are both easier to hold a seller to than a general promise of support.
Build to order is listed as yes for Scan, which means a unit is assembled for your order rather than taken straight off a shelf. That is worth planning around, since the delivery date depends on the build rather than on stock levels.
Warranty lengths across these listings run 0.02 to 3 years, so a short cover period on a cheap entry model is normal in this category. Weigh it against what the cheaper price saves you rather than treating a longer warranty as the deciding factor on its own.
The returns figure also decides how risky a first drone is. A longer window gives you time to test handling and battery performance at home before deciding whether the flight time claim holds for your flying.
Support channels and where the help comes from
Support is where brands of very different sizes diverge most. Holy Stone offers email, phone and help centre and Scan offers email, chat and phone, so you can compare how many routes lead to a person as well as how much self-service material sits in front of them.
Reach matters as much as channel. Holy Stone is headquartered in US and sells into AU, AT and BE, while Scan is headquartered in GB and lists GB as its market, trading as Scan Computers International Ltd.
Wex Photo Video is headquartered in GB and trades as Warehouse Express Limited, with click and collect listed as yes for collection in person. An in-person handover route is useful for a product you cannot judge from a specification list.
Who each brand suits
Holy Stone suits a buyer who wants the longest flight time in this group and the widest market reach. It was founded in 2014 and its listed product range covers drone, so it reads as a specialist rather than a general electronics seller.
Scan suits a buyer who values the clearest after-sales terms here, since it publishes the longest warranty and a defined returns window alongside click and collect. Scan was founded in 1986 and sells across computers, audio and gaming, which means the drone range sits inside a much wider catalogue and the drone pages sit next to cameras.
Wex Photo Video suits a buyer after a mid-range flight time with free delivery on a larger order. It was founded in 1997 and offers click and collect as yes, so collecting in person is a realistic option.
Read the individual write-ups for Holy Stone, Scan and Wex Photo Video once you have set your budget against the range above, and hold the flight time, price and warranty figures side by side rather than picking on brand name alone.