I’ve only pre-ordered two radios during my four-plus decades in the hobby (K3 and KX2). They say “Pioneers take the arrows,” but both of these rigs are still in the shack (almost 12 years for the K3). I wish you the same luck with your 705! Let us know when it arrives.
I would love to get your first-hand review of it. Slick presentations are nice but a hands-on real user report is the most fun stuff to read. Please keep us posted.
As far as I can find, there is an expectation of March 2020 availability, so who knows. I'll bet there will be plenty of reviews before I get my hands on one. I did find OH8STN's video "A Slightly Different Perspective" pretty interesting. Other than that, there isn't much so far.
How many need 2m and 70cm when operating portable, which I assume is what this radio is designed for? They probably could have dumped those bands. I might be interested in a Icom that's similar to the KX2, as long as it doesn't suck over 200mA in receive. I'd like to be able to use it on overnight backpacking trips and some of these rigs' obscene amounts of current draw in receive would make it tough to do, requiring a much heavier battery.
Seems the trend is for radios that do everything but wipe the operator's equus asinus. Both Elecraft with the KX3, then KX2, and Yaesu with the 817 set a trend being all-in-one boxes. And battery technology has afforded some design leeway regarding power consumption...kind of like how cheap RAM accommodates bloated code. I'll stick with the spartan stuff both for home and portable ops. Doing so sure keeps things uncomplicated, and doesn't detract from the fun - at least for me.
Another couple of thoughts to throw into the mix... The ICOM 705 and to a greater extent the Lab599 radios look awesome, ignoring possible battery drain for the 705. Of course, the specs posted don't mean much until they can be verified, either. But something else to consider is customer service and customer serviceability. If you can't get help when your radio doesn't work then it makes the "cost" much higher than the sticker price. I recently purchased a used KX2 and was able to update the firmware without a hitch (after I got the right cable!). That is the sort of stuff that I consider to have real value along with all the noise floor, sensitivity, etc. specs.
