(2nd Gen) TIDRADIO TD-H8 10 Watt Ham Radio, Wireless Programming, Handheld Long Range Two Way Radio, 2500mAh USB-C Battery,1.77″ Color Screen, FM, NOAA, Survival Gear Walkie Talkies -2 Pack

This is typical TIDRADIO. Good value, good price. I’m not a fan of the bluetooth app, though.I got the crystal version of the radio, which allows the lights to shine through the case. The battery has a bit more capacity than usual and is charged either with the included stand or directly plugged into a USB-C port on the battery, both using a standard USB charger. The menu system is familiar and easy to navigate. In this 2nd gen radio, I didn’t notice any of the problems mentioned in other reviews of the initial version of the radio.The company has discontinued the practice of forcing you to create an account and sign in before allowing software downloading, which I applaud. I’m hoping for future improvements of the app. It’s supposed to be a convenient way to connect the radio to your phone by bluetooth and program it. But for full functionality, you have to create an account. (I’m really tired of creating online accounts every time I need to interact with a company.) Bluetooth won’t connect if your location is off. That’s not normal bluetooth behavior. With location access, the app downloads a list of nearby repeaters, which is good–if you want it. An account is needed to provide ‘social’ features that I have no interest in. The account also allows you to store your data in their cloud, which I also have no interest in. Phones these days have more than enough memory to store radio data. If a user elects to connect a phone to his radio and share data strictly between the two devices, that should be an option, without forcing accounts and location access. There are still rough edges in the interface and it could be easier to use. Assigning repeaters found in the provided list to memory channels was tedious. After writing the data to the radio, the RX/TX pairs were correct but offset indicators are missing from the display. Hopefully development of the app will continue and it will be easier to use in the future.Overall, if you buy the radio for the radio, and use chirp or TIDRADIO’s own programming software, I think you’ll be very happy. If you’re buying it just for the bluetooth connectivity–maybe not.