Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus Review

The Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus is a chunk of a radio. While about the same width and height as comparable radios, it is quite a bit thicker. This is in part due to the 3100mAh battery that comes standard. Oddly enough, even for such a big radio it does not fit as well as I expected in my hand. That is not to say that it’s bad, just a little odd. If the radio was an inch taller, it would probably fit a little better.

The edges are curved and so are the edges on the clip, so that holding it is still reasonably comfortable. For the clip, it has just the right amount of tension to hold it on to whatever you clip it on to without being too hard to release. It also has a nice hook at the bottom to ensure that it does not come off of your belt accidentally.

It seems that Anytone has found an excellent balance with the buttons on both the front panel and side of the radio. They are reasonably easy to press, have good tactile feedback, and have enough protection around them to make them difficult to accidentally depress. The knobs at the top of the Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus are smooth, require just the right amount of force to turn, and have just the right resistance for the switches. If anything, the PTT button might could use a little more tactile feedback, and have a little more travel, but this is being extremely picky.

The full color screen is bright, high contrast, and easy to read in virtually any lighting. The LCD timeout is a little short at 15 seconds, but is easily adjustable from the front panel in the menu. The menu structure on the Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus is typical for most mid-range to high-end DMR radios. It is well laid out and easy to navigate, although DMR menus can be daunting for someone new to digital radio.

The radio has good balance and sits very stably on the desk. It would be very difficult to knock this guy over unless you are really clumsy.

The Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus is indeed a full-featured radio. Not only do you have dual VFOs that can do analog or DMR digital, on both VHF and UHF, but you have Bluetooth connectivity that allows you to connect the radio to headphones, headsets, your vehicle’s Bluetooth, and other Bluetooth devices. You also have GPS and a full implementation of APRS for location tracking and real-time positioning. Add to that, half a million digital contacts, 10,000 talk groups, 250 zones, 250 channels per zone, an included Bluetooth PTT button, and both USB-C and desktop drop-in charging.

As far as built-in features are concerned, this radio holds its own against top offerings from the D-star and Fusion camps. No, it does not include Yaesu’s touch screen, Kenwood’s wideband receive, or ICOM’s DPRS (although it has its own DMR APRS), but it is close enough for virtually any typical ham radio user.

Like most DMR radios, the Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus cannot be programmed with CHIRP. There are just too many options and features. That isn’t an issue for me, as the software released by any tone is actually quite good. I also very much like that when you go download their official release pack for this radio, it includes firmware updates CPS software, screenshots, programming guides, update instructions, release notes, and other utilities all in one package. This is probably the best software distribution I have ever seen for any radio.

Performance:

The Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus puts out 2.1w on 2m and 2.4w on 70cm. While the power output measured solely in power is not that impressive, the other measurements below start to show why Anytone radios demand such a premium.

The antenna is reasonably good for a factory antenna at both 2m and 70cm. The tests show over -15dB at 2m and right at -15dB for 70cm when looking at return loss. SWR on both frequencies is just barely over one. If you do a lot of analog over long distances you may want to upgrade the antenna, but for most people this should not be necessary.

Where things get interesting with the Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus is when you start looking at the quality of the transmitted power. The spectrum analysis has one of the cleanest lines of any radios I have ever seen. It is absolutely as good as any Kenwood or Yaesu radio I’ve ever tested. The signal is clean, concentrated, and has no visible variances.

As if that wasn’t good enough, the radio has excellent spurious emissions control, with only one spike over the -60dB threshold. This, too, is right in line with top tier manufacturers such as Kenwood and Yaesu. It just doesn’t get much better than this.

Transmitted audio is also excellent. Given what the signal looks like, this is no surprise.

Images:

Radio Specifics:

Test Images:

• True-2-slot: Provide 2-slot communication which allows for 2 talk paths on 1 frequency; ETSI DMR Tier I and II compliant
• Power:VHF: 7/5/2.5/0.2W, UHF: 6/5/2.5/0.2W #Auto-senses digital or analog reception
• 4000 channels + VFO; 10,000 talk groups with 200,000 digital contacts
• Display: 1.77 inch TFT color LCD, dual display; dual standby; dual PA
• Bandwidth: 12.5K/25K (Analog); 12.5K (DMR) #Fixed and defined CTCSS/DCS encode and decode
• DTMF/2TONE/5TONE encode and decode
• Four different Tone-pluse frequencies #Individual/Group/All call
• Support Contact Manager
• Display the Caller ID and name
• SMS via keyboard, One touch call/text
• Zone selection; Ranging function between radios with GPS
• ANI function and PTT ID; VOX; Digital Recording and Play
• Roaming function; Talker alias function #IP connect to Motorola Repeater
• Emergency alarm (with GPS data transmission)
• Either Voice Recording 500 hours(optional) or BT (optional)
• GPS with APRS location reporting(optional)
• AES256 Digital encrytion
• Earphone: KENWOOD connector; Waterproof: IP54
• Battery: 3100mAh Li-ion thick battery 2100mAh Polymer filmy battery(optional)

One of the things I really like about the Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus, is that it comes with just about everything you could want in a starter kit. You get the radio, a large battery, USB-C charging/programming cable, desktop charger and power supply, a decent little book, a Bluetooth PTT button with wrist strap, and a radio wrist strap, all in the box. There is nothing else to buy to have an excellent, fully functional, dual-band DMR radio.

Conclusions

Would I recommend the Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus? If you want a high quality, feature-rich DMR radio, this is the radio you want. Yes, it is expensive compared to other DMR radios. Yes, it has more features, a better transmitted signal, and a higher build quality than any other.

Is this the best digital radio? For me, I’ll keep my Kenwood TH- D74. I like the menu, screen, keys, and wideband receive. That being said, the Kenwood is not a DMR radio and is considerably more expensive. This Anytone radio has 90% of the Kenwood’s capabilities, comes with a drop in charger in the box, and cost about half as much. It is simply an amazing radio.

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