I'll probably change this eventually, but I've found that taking advantage of the color coding is a big help.
I can't read the fool display fast enough, but if it's the local PD, for example, I usually can see that the display went blue for a couple seconds. Same for the FD - red, etc.
Battery life is seriously deficient. As much as they are inconvenient, a snap-on battery pack would be a better solution, IMHO, than the internal AA's, other than being able to get the cheap AA's just about anywhere. I have several Ham HT's that use an expensive snap-on, but they all option a "case" that'll hold AA or AAA batteries for emergency use. Meantime, you keep on on charge, and one in the radio, and you're good to go for a day.
These HT's are serious types. 5Watt transmitters, wide scan range, and all kinds of digital or analog non-carrier squelch setups. Hundrends of saved frequencies, etc., too. The only thing they won't do (besides maybe not working at 900mhz) is decode APCO25.
Regards,