If I were you Id hold out for the new Baofeng the UV-82L. I got to play with one of these today and they are starting to flood into the country

Better than the UV-B5's?...in regard to reception/clarity/accessories/programming?

Here's some...

UV-82L's

Thanks

-Emt1581

Someone on here wrote up a comparison between all the Baofeng radios.

The UV-B5 (according to them) was the best of them unless you really needed the extra 1 W of transmit power (true 5W vs 4W for the B5) from the UV-82.

Now the UV-82 does have one nice feature the other Baofengs don't.  There are 2 transmit buttons, the top one for what's in the top part of the display and the bottom one for what's on the bottom of the display.  I don't recall right off if the UV-82 actually has 2 VFOs or not (meaning you can listen to both the top and bottom freqs at the same time).  I will assume (and you know what that means) so because the secondary transmit button would be far less useful without it, but I don't recall at the moment.

I'd go with the B5 for my first radio and only get the 82 if you've having problems hitting repeaters or other distant contacts, and that only after getting a much better antenna (I'm assuming, based on your previous threads, that you'll be putting a mag mount antenna on the vehicle you're riding/listening in).

I kind of like the tiny size of the 5r.

I was looking at that today and I think that the 3000mah rating on that battery is a little optimistic given its size. The included headset is nicer the stock antenna seems to do a better job --we had no problems hitting Johnstown from Bedford while a UV5R was only able to key the repeater from outside. The audio is better --cleaner--best way I can describe it otherwise all the other accessories work; speaker mic, programming cable
 

Me too, but that new one looks very nice, and that 2 PTT for 2 channels is really tempting me right now!! is it part 90 cert?

Yeah, according to what I'm reading that was a misprint.

http://www.miklor.com/UV82/UV82-CompareUV5R.php

"Battery - 1800 mAH
    Note: Some early batteries were marked 2800 mAH.
    This was a confirmed misprint from Baofeng factory."

These look decent.  When the price gets down to the $35ish level (if it does) and it has larger batts available, then I'll order some of them to eventually replace my UV-5R+'s when they keel over.