Part of our New Ham? This Is Where You Should Spend Your Money guide.
If you ask around about which handheld to get for DMR, two answers come up constantly: the AnyTone AT-D878UV II Plus and its successor, the AT-D890UV. There’s a reason these two keep getting recommended over and over, they’re genuinely that good, and it’s worth breaking down exactly why.
The AT-D878UV II Plus: the radio that set the bar
- Dual-band 2m/70cm, DMR Tier I/II plus full analog FM, with true VFO functionality so you’re never limited to pre-programmed channels
- Output power configurable in four steps, 1-7W on VHF and 1-6W on UHF
- 4,000 channels, 10,000 talkgroups, and a massive 500,000-contact capacity, most competing radios cap out far lower
- Bluetooth done right, including Bluetooth PTT, widely regarded as one of the only handhelds in this class that actually implements it well
- GPS/APRS transmit and receive, 1.77″ color TFT display
- A hard power switch, meaning no parasitic battery drain, you can charge it, put it away for months, and it’ll still have a charge when you come back
The honest knock against it: scanning is slow and the receive range is more limited than something like a wideband Yaesu handheld, so it’s not going to double as a general-coverage scanner. But for what it’s actually built to do, DMR and analog on 2m/70cm, it’s hard to find a legitimate weakness at its price point.
The AT-D890UV: the same formula, meaningfully upgraded
The 890 takes everything that made the 878 great and adds the features people kept asking for: air band AM receive, cross-band repeat, true dual receive on separate dual power amplifiers, and AES-256 encryption. It carries the same 4,000-channel, 500,000-contact capacity, the same Bluetooth and GPS/APRS, and a bump to 7W output. If you’re buying new today rather than replacing an existing 878, the 890 is the more complete radio.
Where the BridgeCom Maverick fits in
Worth a mention here: BridgeCom Systems, a major AnyTone reseller and one of the best-known names for DMR support and training, has released their own radio in this same class, the Maverick. It’s a dual-band DMR/analog handheld running 7W VHF and 6W UHF, a 3100mAh USB-C battery rated for up to 35 hours, a 500,000-contact list, air band receive, cross-band repeat, AES-256 encryption, and a customizable color display, spec for spec, it’s clearly built to compete directly with the 878 and 890. At $299.99 it costs a bit more, but BridgeCom backs it with their own training course and pre-built hotspot codeplugs bundled in, which is a genuinely different value proposition than buying the radio alone. It’s a solid option if you want that extra hand-holding, but feature for feature it’s competing with, not surpassing, what AnyTone already built.
How they stack up against the rest of the field
- TYT MD-UV380/390: a longtime budget favorite, but generally regarded as clunkier in menu design and Bluetooth support compared to AnyTone’s lineup
- BTECH DMR-6X2 and DA-7X2: genuinely solid competitors with true dual receive and good audio, but AnyTone’s Bluetooth PTT implementation and contact capacity still tend to come out ahead in side-by-side reviews
- Radioddity GD-AT10G: a capable budget option, but UHF-only and without the dual-band flexibility of the 878/890
- Baofeng DM-32UV: the price leader of the group, and a reasonable way to try DMR cheaply, but it trails the AnyTone radios on build quality and feature depth
None of these are bad radios, DMR handhelds have gotten genuinely good across the board in the last few years. But when people ask what to actually buy, the 878 and 890 keep coming out on top for a reason: the combination of contact capacity, real Bluetooth support, and reliable build quality is still the one to beat.