I've owned a Baofeng UV-5R+ duo band talkie for 144/440, and a TYT TH-UVF9 220/440 dual band talkie for several years already. The advances are obvious in this new model radio.I bought the BTech UV-5X3 tri-band radio to only have to grab one radio when going to a hamfest, club meeting, et cetera. At less than $60, the syncing of the two lines of the display with frequency on Line A and channel name on Line B, as well as 3 bands in one small radio was the clincher for me. Heck...all three of these radios together is still only about half the price of a Kenwood TH-F6A and they do the job.The UV-5X3 also has a "real signal strength meter" as compared to its earlier siblings. It actually works for peaking on the received station. On the older radios mentioned above, if you opened squelch, you'd get a full 5 bar signal display. Not very useful...The free CHIRP software one can use to program frequencies, mode, offset, power level, et cetera is just OK. It doesn't allow setting any of the configuration functions of the UV-5X3 (e.g.: 2 line display syncing, display backlight colors for standby/receive/xmit). Those are only accessible through the somewhat tedious Menu structure. The good news is that once you configure the radio the way you like it, CHIRP will also download those manual settings to your computer. So, first build a CHIRP file with your desired channel frequency and name information.Blow that into your UV-5X3. When you're happy with it, go through the configuration Menues. Then download everything from the radio into your computer via CHIRP and save it under a new filename. You can then use this inaccessible configuration information for future uploads to the radio by updating that load for future changes to channel frequency content and name changes.The BTech USB programming cable uses a genuine FTDI chip, so it will work with any version of Windows O/S. (The older Baofeng cables from the UV-5R days used a counterfeit FTDI chip in them and will only work with Windows XP or earlier O/S's. I know this because I have both types of cables.)If you must have complete computer programming capability of the Menu based configuration functions, you'll have to purchase the RT-Systems cable and software for $49. If you only buy their software for $25, it will not work with the radio manufacturer's cable, but only RT's proprietary cable. Somehow, $50 for programming a $60 radio seems kind of silly to me. But then, I'm a cheap ham married to my lovely bride who is also a cheap quilter. Naw...strike that...we're simply frugal, and love each other madly.BTech included proprietary software that programmed both the frequencies and the configuration functions for their UV-2501+220 micro-mobile radio. It would have been nice to have that done for the UV-5X3 too, but (sigh...) NO. I suspect that if I pop for the next generation BTech micro-mobile once again, I will have to do the 2-step CHIRP for frequencies and manual Menu configuration function approach for the UV-25X4 also. (I already did buy one, but got someone else's returned and still-defective radio. See my other review on that. I, likewise, returned it.) I still will not spend $50 to program a $130 mobile. That's not my nature...and I know the older UV-2501+220 software won't program the next-gen mobile.I was pleasantly surprised to see a combo earpiece and mike included in the box with the UV-5X3 goodies, so it can be used without unduly attracting the attention of overzealous police officers while I'm talking and driving. Nice touch...I'd recommend to anyone they also get the 3800mAH long-life battery for this radio. Get yourself a speaker-mike, too, and you're set for many hours of pleasant operating on the air.I'm very happy I "took the plunge" and bought the UV-5X3. CCR's (cheap Chinese radios) have come a long way in a very short time.