The Baofeng UV-9R PRO is essentially an upgraded UV-5R, that is rated IP67, so it's waterproof and dustproof. The IP67 water rating means it can be submerged up to a meter under water, for 30 minutes. i haven't verified the rating, but the radio does have gaskets to prevent water ingress, however the battery does not, so I'm guessing the battery would be rendered inoperable in the case of immersion. While mentioning the battery, it's a 2800mAh, 7.4 V lithium ion battery, that will not fit in traditional Baofengs, so it requires a different charger. The battery does last a long time (15+ hours) while in standby mode.
Overall, the UV-9R PRO feels more solid and substantial than the typical UV-5R. It's a little taller than the uV-5R too. I've seen various claims regarding the output power. From my experience, it transmits at about the same wattage as the UV-5R, but the receive sensitivity isn't as good as the UV-5R. I tried some different antennas too and it didn't seem to make a difference. My sample size is one radio, so it could be this one isn't performing as well as it could.
It's easy programmable on Chirp, but it does require a UN-9R PRO specific cable. It has 128 channels available for the memory. This bad boy covers a frequency range of 136-174 MHz (RX/TX) and 400-520 MHz (RX/TX), without any limitations. It can be manually programmed too, if needed.
The UV-9R PRO is generally an improvement over the UV-5R's. It doesn't feel cheap, it actually looks better too. There are some drawbacks. The UV-9R PRO requires different batteries and accessories than the other Baofeng models. One weird thing about the 9R PRO is that it's necessary to turn the radio off to change from using the VFO to using the memories, and vice versa, there's no VFO/M button. The radio performance could be improved too, as my particular radio wasn't working as well as other transceivers in my radio stable. Battery life is very good.
The cost on Amazon was around $40, without the programming cable. I haven't seen a AA battery pack available anywhere yet for this particular model.
The radio would be okay for a group on patrol, but I'd still want another radio with me, due to the mediocre performance. I give it 2.5 stars out of 4.
