Hi James.
This has come up a few times. Best to look at measurements I think, removing the many variables found in the field. Razvan’s thread is a good one:
Commenting only on the FT3…
Yes, the FT3 is not impervious to de-sense and other issues. As with practically any other handheld it is likely worth investing in additional filtering for 2m. I am very happy with the one from SOTA Beams.
Audio - I have received good reports of audio. I use both the internal microphone and a hand mic. The former is better than the latter. On receive the quality is fine but a little quieter than I’d like. Typically I plug it into my 2.4GHz TX to my hearing aids though and bypass the loudspeaker.
I tried the bluetooth. It is very limited in the profiles it supports. It’s basically just the oldest one for hands-free devices - I don’t remember the official name - and not those for fancy stereo headsets, &c. I also found that when the radio is squelched it still sends audio on the BT with a low hiss. I don’t understand why that should be so! There were also issues with it disconnecting (to save power) by chance just at the point the radio was about to receive something. I keep meaning to try it again though, as it would be useful.
My biggest complaint is the screen, which is very hard to read in strong light. It is also fragile compared with your typical summit rocks. I prefer an FT1X on a longer hike in case I take a tumble. The GPS seems just as good.
Composing an APRS message on the FT3 is somewhat less of a nightmare than it is on the FT1X! (crib sheet absolutely required)