2.4 GHz Radio Transmitter Shootout – 2 – Final Results

Hey, did you cheat and come directly to the results page? The drop test? You even skipped the drop test? *sigh*

There is a lot of good information on the other pages. If you are seriously looking for radio information, we suggest you check out the other stuff. Some people may care more about price or weight, and less about features and dropping it. While this is how it all played out for us, your results may vary based on the importance of some categories.

As we have seen, you can get a really good radio for under $200 and be more than happy with it. We hope that we have provided enough information to use this as a tool to help you make that next big decision. If you are looking for other radios, don’t forget to check out our First Radio Shootout!

Remember, these scores are based on all of our individual ranking results scores added together.
Just like in golf, the lower the score, the better.

Overall these were the closest shootout scores yet. There were only 9 points separating first and last place. Normally there is some distance between products, but as technology advances, those lines start to get blurred and it comes down to things like feel, or ease of use and design.

Our second transmitter shootout puts the Futaba 3PKRA as the winner. Congratulations to the whole Futaba team for keeping up their high standards! This was a bit of an un-expected result. The numbers don’t lie, and in the end, it had the winning score. While it’s low on features and appearance it made up for it in a lot of other categories. It’s crazy light, and the distance it was able to accomplish for a $60 radio was very impressive. The way a radio feels in your hand when your driving it back to back with other radios is pretty noticeable, and you should owe it to yourself to try several and see what feels right for you.

The Spektrum DS3C finished close to where we thought it would end up. We knew going in from previous radio tests that range was going to be an issue, and we were also surprised by the way it felt going into the shootout without any driving. Those multiple grips are an awesome feature, and we’d like to see that offered with more radios!

The Futaba 3PM-X took a strong 3rd place finish. It put up great numbers across the board except for price, weight and ease of use which are three things Futaba could easily fix with a little work. They could fix the menus and make it easier for us all, and it probably wouldn’t be hard to shave a little weight. Overall, still a good radio.

In fourth place was the Turnigy GTX3. You get a good radio for the amazing price point, but the numbers across the board put it at about average. It was Adam’s favorite to win going into the shootout, and the drop test had him pretty sad.

The Turnigy 3XS came in fifth, but it wasn’t that far from the rest of the pack. Again it’s at a great price point, the weight was good, it was easy to use with a ton of features, but the long throw of the throttle and the steering wheel gave it a weird feeling that we just were not digging.

Thanks again for reading, and we hope you took away some knowledge and a better idea of what you are looking for when you make that next radio purchase!

Want more? have you seen our First Transmitter Shootout?

Head back to the beginning shootout page, or if you missed a section, here they all are:
Feel in Hand – Put the batteries in.. how does it feel?

Ease of Use – How easy is it to set up and use the menus?

Features – What radio has the best/most features?

Overall Appearance – How does it look? Is it embarrassing to hold at the bash spot?

Driving – We get hands on with each radio to see how they feel driving.

Weight – Will you need to workout before a day of bashing or racing to lift it?

Price – Sometimes it’s all about the cost. Which one breaks the bank?

Radio Range – Looking to do some distance driving? How far does each radio work?

Drop Test – We dropped each radio several times. Did they all survive?