Baofeng UV-5R Mini Review

12 Sep 2025 · Baofeng UV-5R Mini · handheld radio · VHF UHF · amateur radio

Radio	Baofeng UV-5R Mini
Bands	VHF/UHF handheld radio with FM broadcast and airband receive
Best for	Local simplex, repeaters, car-to-car chat and cheap spare handheld duties
Good bits	Colour screen, USB-C charging, Bluetooth app programming and surprisingly decent build for the money
Caveat	Still a cheap handheld, so program it sensibly and stay inside your licence conditions

A quick look at the Baofeng UV-5R Mini handheld radio; like a normal Baofeng, only smaller.

The humble Baofeng UV5R is something of an all conquering beast in amateur radio circles. Loved and loathed in equal numbers (I'm in the first half) but love em or hate em, you can't deny they've changed handheld radios. There's two periods of time, pre UV5R and post UV5R. The big boys need to up their game. Sure the haters talk about spurious emissions, the dodgy menu layout and lack of certification. But the rest of us appreciate that they're so cheap they're almost disposable, they work with Chirp for coding, and the audio quality is good enough.

Earlier this year they launched yet another UV5R variant, the mini. Naturally I ordered a couple, and a week or so later a knock on the door from Nick the Evri man rang round the house. I orderd two neon green ones and about a week after getting the green ones, two grey ones. This interaction was the green ones, I had a similar experience (thanks Nick) with the grey ones.

The look and feel of the radio is very familiar they feel solid and well built. The printing is clear and easy to read, the screen is full colour, has enough resolution to be easily readable, and is even readable in the sun (I'm looking at you Yaesu FT3D). The menu system although basic is easy to navigate and logically laid out.

Compare the Baofeng to the Yaesu FT-65, a low end Yaesu handheld. The Yaesu costs £85 (September 2025) the Baofeng costs £20 on Amazon or £15 on Ali Express. The Yaesu has a tiny LCD display, the Baofeng has a full colour screen. The Yaesu needs a dock / charger to recharge, the Baofeng has a built in USB-C. Same power output, same voice quality. This FT-65 was the last non cheapo handheld I bought, and until they up their game, I don't see that changing.

Anyway, back to the UV5R mini.

As you can see the 36mm screen is decent, the backlighting is even, the colours are fine, the text and symbols are clear. The backlighting on the keys is clear and not too bright. The buttons feel OK, the PTTs are rubber sealed and feel fine. The mic/speaker cover is rubber and fits well and they've pushed them out a bit so fitting a PC cable is much easier now. Remove the Baofeng logo and swap it for a Yaesu one and nobody would challenge it. It looks and feels like a decent radio.

It's a 2m/70cm radio, it's for chatting to your pals locally, hitting repeaters or for car to car chat on road trips. The chat about spurious emissions which under certain circumstances could impact others, for the vast majority of use cases just doesn't matter (don't hate me, you know it's true).

The radio transmits on 136-174MHz and 400-480MHz to keep in line with UK licence conditions you need to be careful when you program it. It puts out 5W on high power and 2W on low. I've not tested this (it's a £15 radio) but I have no reason to doubt it. It receives on 76-108MHz broadcast FM. 108-136MHz Airband. 136-174MHz VHF. 350-390 & 400-520MHz UHF. If you're in the states 400-520 NOAA weather is also in there. It will hold 999 channels in memory.

As well as the usual Kenwood style accessory & programming interface there's an app that allows you to do this via Bluetooth. The battery is an 1,800mAh Li-Ion and as I've said already, is USB-C rechargeable. There's 2 PTT buttons and a button you can customise.

Up on top of the radio is the usual on cheapo radios LED, I'm not sure it's all that useful as a torch, but it's there! The power/volume knob is nicely knurled and has a reassuring amount of resistance when you twist it. The antenna connector is an SMA male just like all the other cheapo radios, so when you buy one, you'll already have a half decent antenna to replace the included rubber duck. It's got a button to clone channel details from a radio close by, I've not used it, but it sounds cool.

I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing the big boys, I've given Yaesu, Icom & Kenwood plenty of my money, but c'mon how are you getting shown up by a £15 cheapo? I mean, USB-C, Bluetooth app programming & a full colour screen is not groundbreaking tech. No wonder young uns are not interested in ham radio! Just get this radio, stick in some filters in if you're that bothered by the iffy output, slap your branding on it and charge us £100.

Here's the green variant.

I've used this to do what I described above, local P2P chat with pals - they work fine. Car to car chat on road trips - they work fine. Listening to local repeaters - they work fine. Chatting on local repeaters - guess what, they work fine. The audio quality is fine, the speaker is fine, the mic is fine, the Kenwood style fist mic / speaker is fine. In fact, maybe fine is underselling them, they're spot on. Forget the big boys, get yourself some of these.