Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was apprehensive about buying this radio but after several weeks of extensive reading and research on the internet I bought one from Amazon. Most of the negative comments you read on the internet are a few years old with earlier models and don't apply to this new X-108G "outdoor" radio. It's called outdoor because they have redesigned some of the circuits and upgraded the color LCD screen and it's real easy to see "in the field", OUTDOORS. It works just fine, very small but I expected that and wanted a "field" backpack HF radio. This is not a "CB" radio as it will not transmit on the CB frequencies, it's an HF ham radio. Output is variable and works well. The built in speech compression works well and helps with audio punch. The radio puts out the full 20 watts on all bands with a well matched antenna. I have used it intentionally with an antenna having a higher than normal VSWR and the output drops to protect the finals as expected and this is a good feature. The receiver is sensitive and draws little current in receive and works good. It has a small internal speaker that works ok...remember this is a small compact radio for QRP or backpacking. It's a "SIMPLE" fun little rig and I've used it every night for the past couple of weeks with great success and made scores of contacts. It still needs a few more minor refinements like adding a fuse to the power-cord and perhaps a better mic connector....they are ok, just not real tough..a little on the light duty side, but not a reason to keep you from buying this radio. I'd buy another....as a matter of fact I'm thinking of one for the Jeep! ************3/19/17 UPDATE*************** Having used the radio in the field, camping in Florida about 30 or so times now, today I turned the radio on and a big blue "vertical" line shows up in the screen about in the center, (I'm using a 6ah gel-cell battery, so no "glitch" from power supply or anything like that) blocking the view of the screen data and very obnoxious. Note this radio is about 6 months old and since I have no plans to pay the shipping to China and only 1/2 way into a 1 year warranty and no one in the U.S. to do repairs I'm going to get rid of it so I'm re-staring to 1 star. Bottom line is spend a few hundred more get one of the "big four" ham radios to avoid this kind of problem.