I bought a secondhand VX-5R and generally have found it quite easy to use. However I find the following quite niggly:
1) If you set an "odd" repeater offset it doesnt automatically remember it, so the next time you go to that repeater, you have to first remember how to do odd offsets, and then fiddle wth it to actually use the repeater. 2) for an oldie like me the manual is sometimes very dense - or perhaps its me that is dense :) 3) the settings to allow you to use different bands for tx and rx - for instance to listen to and perhaps contact the ISS - are not particularly intuitive, and are certainly fiddly to achieve if you are not familiar with the radio
Having given these negatives, I must say that I like it as a handheld. I use it in the car attached to a magnetic UHF cb antenna, and get very clear tx and rx with repeaters that I happen to be passing by.
It's a nice size too. Not so small as to be unuseable, but not huge for the pocket either. I built a 2m foldable antenna out of TV ribbon. I take this with me when I go bushwalking, and it makes a good companion to the VX-5R
