The Midland X-Talker T61 Two-Way Radios are a solid purchase. They have tons of available features, a slick design and a very easy-to-read LCD display. The light weight and compact design make it very easy to carry and use.

At this point in using the radios, we’ve experienced really good battery life and recharging time (about 3 hours for a full charge). The rechargeable battery packs are clutch, but it’s nice to have the option to use AAA batteries if needed when planning to spend a long day using the radios (especially on a ski mountain when all battery life typically cuts short). The recharging dock is small and easy to find a little desktop space to store it (comes in very handy in a small travel trailer with limited space), but you can also charge individual walkies using the micro usb port. It’s also a very helpful feature to have the option to connect a speaker/headphones. We find this especially useful while on bikes.
This set of radios is pretty user-friendly and the instruction manual is mostly easy to understand. As a total novice 2-way radio user, it took me a while to get the hang of the menus and understand the privacy codes. If you’re a newbie like me, I’d recommend bookmarking the user manual (on Midland’s website product page) or keeping the printed version handy for the first couple uses. All the channels available on this set are license-free, which is good because, again, novice. Once you get on a channel (private or otherwise) with your radio partners, you have the option to lock the keypad so you don’t accidentally change channels and lose contact with your buds. I’ve also appreciated the ease of a full factory reset as I play around with the radios. With an easy button press, you can restore it back to “start” without having to navigate through the menu to reset.

So far, we’ve had good success using these radios at a moderate distance (1-3 miles). They’ve been good while out on the SUP or kayak and someone is on the beach and have been useful at campgrounds while doing chores and tasks outside. We’ve also used them while hiking in parks, though successful radius really depends on how forested the hike is. Desert hiking offers much better clarity at distances. Midland makes it clear that their claim of 32 miles of range comes with caveats, so we don’t hold them to that long of a range. However, users might be really disappointed with range if purchasing on that 32 mile claim alone. We’ve found that lots of conditions negate the useful range of the walkies, so tempered expectations are good. A small note inside the battery compartment upon opening reminds users to use the “Hi Power” setting for maximum range.

The weather alert feature is conceptually really neat, but so far I’ve only gotten one useful and clear weather alert. Otherwise, they’ve been very spotty with brief reception when an alert is found during a scan. I like to think this would be a really helpful feature, but it’s more of a nice-to-have and I wouldn’t rely on it being consistent.

Aside from the optimal claimed range of the radios being conditional, my biggest gripe with the radios is that this model (T61VP3) doesn’t come with the animal call alerts… only a series of agitating beeping tones. Personally, I’d much rather have a wolf howl, but alas, only the T65 has this feature. I won’t dock any stars for that.

Also worth noting, these claim to be water resistant, though I don’t know how resistant as I haven’t tested that claim yet. I do what I can to keep them from getting wet while out on the water and I imagine anything more than a moderate rain would be unchill for proper radio functioning, so I default to trying to keep them dry.

Overall, these are excellent 2-way radios for straightforward communication in the outdoors. We’ve consistently found these helpful in different circumstances, so they’ll hopefully be a solid part of our gear kit for a while!

Very visually appealing product! I love the look and they work great. The sound quality is very clear so long as no major obstructions come between the two radios. I would have liked to have rubber on the sides of the radios for a more high quality feel. I didn't drop them, but they feel a little fragile if I were to drop them. I used them to talk to a friend in a different car as we roadtripped together. It was a great way to keep the trip fun. I also used the radios as I hiked with my family to stay in contact with the group of my brother and his friends hiking ahead of us. They work best over flat, unobstructed landscape as described on the box. Overall great, functional product.