As far as my thoughts on the radio, well, I am not really impressed.I am no stranger to these radios as I have owned a few UV5R, KGUV9D, ect.. First of all, the radio is solid as far as build. Nothing feels lose. Because of the lithium-ion battery, the radio is extremely light. The antenna is another issue. It feels cheap. The problem is that if you change it, you are left with a huge gap at the base because of the wide width in the OEM antenna design. The top knob is for power and volume only, not a channel selector or squelch. The volume is also an issue. The volume pot is so sensitive that with a simple turn you can go from 0-9 ( Max volume ) in a blink of an eye. Then, of course there is the track ball. Why in the world did they put one of these things in there? You can simply touch it and it moves things on the display.Even if can be locked, it is a PAIN when you need to use it. The back light; great when it's on. However no option to toggle it on and off. The only options are: on all the time, 5,10,15 seconds,that's it...Like Moto radios, TYT allows you to assign different functions to the 3 side buttons and the 2 top buttons marked P1 and P2. Tha's fine but "light" is NOT one of those options. Maybe something they can add through firmware later on. You also do not have any brightness adjust. If it's on it's bright, otherwise it's off. Audio; lound, very clear but a bit on the tinny side without any base or low end on the voice. Alpha tags. Not too bad. You can go up to about 12 characters I believe. Keypad feels a little flimsy. If this was a $50--$80 radio, I'd say you are getting a bargain, but even with the dual DMR bands, there is still a lot of room for improvement is other areas. For $219, I am not comfortable keeping this radio or trying out another one. Again, nice radio overall, I'm not saying it's total crap. I'm sure it is fine for a good portion of people who buy it. It just has too many issues that I am not happy with for MY taste. The CPS has some nice choices and features. You can download it from them for free. Those are my first impressions albeit not what I intended this thread to be initially.