First look at the new 710 on KI6NAZ's VLOG. I must say I am NOT impressed. Yes it has a display port, but only the low resolution worked. Yes it has an USB mouse port, but Josh could not make it do anything but move a tiny mouse cursor around. Yes is has the 3D waterfall, which Josh loved, but it made me ill watching it.
Yes it DOES NOT decode CW, and apparently it does NOT decode RTTY either. Josh tried for some time a to find it and even (gasp) looked in the manual and could not find a RTTY decoder which the 7300 has. And in fact you can work an entire RTTY contest with just the 7300 and its RTTY memories and even increment serial numbers and log the entire thing on the 7300 by itself with no computer at all.
Yes it has the external speaker and the ability to "blend" the external and internal speaker together. I was not impressed, and I am a certified (certifiable?) Icom fanboy.
But several things like the inability of pushing the lower row of softkeys on the display either with finger of stylus accurately left me cold. My first fanboy impression is the rig is not "cooked" yet, and is begging for a software upgrade to fix several issues (mouse, and softkeys).
Again, less than impressed. And VERY unimpressed by the price which is the same as the FTDX-10. There is no question which of the two Yaesu rigs I would buy for the same money, and it is NOT the FT-710. For one thing the DSP on the 710 is no where near as good as on the FTDX-10, from what I have heard even over a you-tube connection. NOT even close. Of course the price of the 710 will drop soon and hopefully the software will be upgraded soon to fix the bugs. But I see NO reason anyone with a 7300 would want one, and it can't hold a candle to the FTDX-10 and only a fool would choose the 710 over the FTDX-10 for the same money.
That is my story and I am sticking to it. In a word I was expecting a 7300 "killer" and it is not.