TYT MD-380 Review!

I just uploaded this review today. I had been working on it for a while but not really getting anywhere, so I just decided yesterday to get it finished and render it. There is an extended version as well as the normal version. The extended version just shows me going through all the menus, so I cut it out from the full version as it's not that interesting. You can still watch that long version though if you want, there is a link in the videos description on YouTube.
If you have any feedback, suggestions or questions, feel free to leave a comment on the video, or on this post.

Is the TYT MD-380 worth buying?

In the last few years, DMR has become a very popular digital voice mode on the UHF and VHF bands and this radio is the latest cheap DMR radio to come out of China. The question is, is it any good?
The answer depends on your requirements and what you expect of the radio. If you just want a radio that works (mostly) and can put up with it sometimes glitching or crashing or just doing things wrong, in return for a cheap price and a nice screen, then this radio is for you.  If you need a radio to work consistently and well, and be able to put up with outdoor weather, then this radio is not for you. That is the short and simple answer.

The longer answer is slightly more complicated, and involves discussing the difference in price between this radio and other more expensive, but higher quality, radios.

TYT MD-380 Text messaging

I was wondering why the text messaging on the TYT MD-380 didn't seem to work with other DMR radios that I have. I only tried it with my Motorola DP4800 which has the option of selecting between Motorola proprietary type messages and DMR standard type messages.

I assumed the MD-380 would be using the DMR standard message type, but after some testing I found that it actually uses the Motorola proprietary type. This is strange because I doubt that the manufacturer would want to pay Motorola to use their proprietary text messaging standard when they could have just used the DMR standard one.

I also found that the compressed UDP data header has to be set to none for the Motorola radios and TYT MD-380 to work together. On the Motorola, there are two options again for the compressed UDP data header. They are the same as for text messaging: Motorola proprietary or DMR standard. I tried using both types of compressed UDP data header combined with both types of text message and neither would work with the TYT.

To get the Motorola radio to send texts to the TYT successfully, you have to set compressed UDP data header to "None" and text message type to "Proprietary". On the TYT you have to just turn off compressed UDP data header.

TYT MD-380 bugs

The TYT MD-380 is a relatively new, cheap DMR radio from China. As with most chinese radios, it has a few bugs. I have had the radio since 21/07/15 and this is all of the bugs I have found so far. It has a lot more bugs than any radio being sold to the public should have! I am used to chinese radios having bugs, but this amount is ridiculous. I wouldn't even call this radio ready for beta testing.