Ya know, 10 days ago, I thought this thread would die. And, it did die. Only to be resurrected.
The OP's question was about amateur radio handhelds with more than 5 watts output power. However, what I see for the last several messages is people disagreeing about something other than the OP's question. The age old question "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" comes to mind.
There are a few handhelds built for the amateur radio market that will output a legitimate 6 watts or 7 watts, but they often do it at the expense of battery charge life or heat build up. There are also handhelds being sold outside the traditional amateur radio marketing streams that are being advertised with unsubstantiated claims of their power output. In some cases, these radios will only output 5 watts on the available battery packs, but will output higher power when connected to a 12 volt DC source.
As for the 6 or 7 watt radios, whether or not a 1.5 dB, or less, increase in output power makes a difference in the real world depends on a lot of factors. And, I'm sure there are all kinds of anecdotal stories about how a few watts more power made the difference between clear communications and not. OTOH, on a carefully calibrated communications receiver, it takes about 6 dB difference in incoming signal to make a 1 S unit difference.
All that said, I think the OP's question has been answered.
