UDI RC U27 Free Loop Inverted Quadcopter Review

UDI RC's U27 is a nice little quad that offers inverted flight. The controller is pretty large but fits nicely in your hands and the buttons are right where you would want them to be. I was provided a sample for review and here is what I liked and didn't like about this quad.
First, lets start off with what you get. You get the quad, two 450 mAh Lipo batteries, a USB charger, some extra props and removable prop guards and an illustrated instruction manual. This is a little quad, 5.5" x 5.5", that has some interesting flight characteristics. The prop guards are removable, which is nice, and protects the quad both in normal flight and inverted flight. You can even land upside down if you so wish. It has some cool blue LEDs for the bug eye effect and some nice LEDs on the bottom that help you orient it at night (two white in front and two red in the back). This is an intermediate quad, I would say beginner but it is really too small in my opinion to be a good beginner quad. It also zips around on you and has a sluggish throttle. Well, the throttle probably isn't sluggish but the props have a low pitch because they are intended to fly both ways. So you get what comes along with that and the result is a slow throttle punch. If you are looking for a beginner quad, I suggest the UDI RC U818A-1 which is what I learned on.
The quad itself is fine, the battery is tight fitting which is a troubling trend that I am seeing in a lot of quads. The battery fits so snug that it can become tough to pull out and users are left yanking on the battery leads which is not the way to do it. Luckily UDI RC provides a pull tab on their battery so you can pull that and not the battery leads.
The transmitter is really nice and my favorite part about this quad. You get three flight envelope modes, three trims, a left and right bumper buttons and headless mode which I will go more into later. What this little guy lacks as far as a throttle punch it makes up for in terms of pitch. The low and medium modes are fine and great for when you start out and are getting used to flying this quad. I quickly found myself in high pitch mode and watching this quad zip down my street. Because it is small, it does not do great with wind. It can tolerate some wind in the high pitch mode but is not going to slice through it. Keep in mind that it was zipping in a straight line, not zipping up and down. As a result of the pitch on the prop blades, it does not do well on a sudden drop of the throttle. It will recover but not before dropping a few feet. These are not faults of the quadcopter but rather characteristics of a quad that will be flown in inverted flight. Just want to be clear here for people buying this quad expecting it to fly like a normal quad. It does fly like a normal quad with some exceptions and differences.
In addition to the low, medium and high pitch rates the key feature of this quad is going into inverted flight. You hit the left bumper and this quad will turn left and go into inverted flight pretty nicely. The controls then just work as normal with the quad flying around in inverted mode. If you hit the left bumper again, then the quad will flip left again. Same with the right bumper for right flips. If you press down on the right stick, you can also flip 180 degrees in all directions. There is even a headless mode which means that once you set the proper orientation the quad will respond to your stick inputs regardless of which way it is facing. Think stick based movement rather than orientation based. This is intended for beginners but I have never used this mode nor am inclined to try it out now as I have progressed in my piloting skills. When the quad is about to run out of juice it has some real problems getting up in the air. It will just go slow and not be able to really lift itself off the ground. In a little bit of time the blue eyes will blink and that is it. I wish there was a beeping on the transmitter when low voltage cutoff (LVC) is about to be reached. That way you can safely bring the quad in for a landing.
In addition to a LVC signal on the transmitter, I would like to see a larger battery compartment and it accept a standard 500 mAh battery with a JST connector. These batteries are a lot more common and I have not seen one other quad with the battery connector that it is currently being shipped with. You do get two batteries, so that helps. I think another set of props that do not do inverted flight should be provided with this quad as well. Perhaps there could be a button to turn inverted flight on or off on the transmitter and once you put these props on you hit that button so you don't accidentally go into inverted flight with the wrong props on.
I'm happy with this quad but be aware of the flight characteristics prior to purchasing as it flies a little differently due to the fact that it can go inverted.