Working with Bangood's Eachine brand, Skyzone have release a new range of box goggles; Cobra S and Cobra X which differ only in resolution (800 x 480 and 1280 x 720 respectively).
Box goggles have traditionally been the realm of the beginner - Big and bulky with frankly ugly designs that were awkward to transport but they did have an advantage in that they had one massive screen.
Given the benefit of the huge singe screen (which is cheaper to make than 2 small high res screens in binocular goggles) I'm surprised a premium box goggle hasn't been released sooner. In fact the 4+ year old Eachine EV800D is still considered to be the best option even though user interface, reliability and receiver performance are badly dated.
Specs
50° FOV LCD Screen 1280 x 720 in the Cobra X and 800 x 480 in the Cobra S
4:3 native aspect ratio. Cobra X does 16:9 as well but this is cropped
Removable Rapidmix 5.8Ghz 48 channel receiver
Integrated 18650 single cell battery holder or ability to accept 2-6s battery input
Power consumption 1.5A @ 5v. This is about 2A on a single 18650 battery meaning a fully charged 3000mah 18650 battery would take about 1.5 hours to drain.
H264 30fps 6Mbps DVR up to 128gb SD card
3 axis head tracker included
122 x 165 x 100mm
332g weight
A closer look - battery
Finally goggle manufacturers are using smarter battery systems in goggles. Using a removable 18650 in a proper battery tray is such a better idea than sticking a battery on the strap or in your pocket with a cable that can easily get damaged. Why did it take so long? Anyway this battery setup is clean, light and simple.
A typical 3000mah battery will last 1-1.5 hours when being drained at a rate of 1.5A @ 5v as per the specifications. If you really want you can still provide power via an external pack up to 6s. This is handy because you can use flight packs as a backup if you run out of juice in the field. Of course since there is no power plug you get a bonafide power button to turn the goggle on and off.
looks like this has USB charging too so unless you need to change 18650 cells in the field, you can just leave it in there and charge via USB.
A closer look - fit and comfort
When you receive the goggle you'll need to add the adhesive backed velcro tape to the goggles and then the foam to that. This includes 2 face pieces and a nose piece. There are also adhesive back foam pieces that look like an afterthought to block out the light that comes in by the strap mounts. They are not thick enough though and still let light in which is a bit of shame but not the end of the world given the size and brightness of the screen.
The strap is one of the awkward ones that goes around and above your head - unnecessary in my opinion and will be swapped out for a nice wide strap. Bear in mind that if you want to swap the strap for a closed loop strap (typical) then you'll need to cut the strap mount a little to let it slide in.
Lastly on fit, you can actually use these goggles with the right pair of glasses which is handy as these don't have adjustable focal length not that this is nearly as accurate as the right pair of glasses anyway. Remember that silly gap that is poorly covered by foam and lets a bit of light in? This is the gap that allows you to wear glasses. Perhaps not such poor design after all. Anyway, by my measurement your glasses will need to be less than 153mm wide at the widest point at the front to fit. You may need to pay around but frames are cheap these days anyway.
Screen
Cobra X here which has the high resolution 1280 x 720 screen. The screen uses LCD technology and is large (50° Field of View) and so is extremely immersive, This sits in in between the very top of the line binocular goggles in the mid 40s (Fatshark HDO2, Skyzone04x, Orqa one) and the DJI fpv goggles which go up to 54 degrees.
For me the screen is crisp but understandably the blacks are a little more washed out than the top of the line OLED goggles which admittedly cost over double the price. Given we are dealing with analogue signals though I am really nitpicking. Certainly much better than any box goggle I've ever used.
Receiver
Now, where other features on this goggle can be seen as practical incremental improvements, this upgrade really is a revolution - not only is this the first box goggle to offer a removable receiver module, the Rapidmix receiver Skyzone have included is objectively EXCELLENT. It uses the same signal blending technology as Clearview, ImmersionRC Rapidfire and TBS Fusion where it blends the images from the two discrete receivers to get the best signal rather than switching to the receiver unit with best RSSI.
Recommendations
If you want box goggles then these are the ones to get. Don't waste your time with the more expensive high resolution screens on the Cobra X, save the $50 or so and get the Cobra S. Even if you are not thinking about box goggles then these are well worth considering as a lower cost premium goggle.
Want to learn more? Check the official page for the latest discount.
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