I haven't looked yet to see if the Puxing, TYT, etc. are using the same chip or same manufacturer. Though I suppose some of them could be using clones of this chip or that chip is a clone of ... (loop detected).
Yeah, I haven't looked closely. There are several tear down reports of the UV-3R out there with everything documented pretty well. The core of the device is a single-chip FM transceiver DSP that was built for HT-like devices. I imagine that it is plenty good, but requires adequate supporting infrastructure to make a useful entire package. It's very sensitive, almost to the limit of my (old) service monitor, but I imagine that's partly do to the (gross) lack of frontend filtering.
If you are willing to take the time to type it, I'd love to read it.
There's more information available on the nearly 1000-member yahoo group. But:
The microcontroller running the interface is either overtaxed, slow, or poorly programmed. Each button requires a significant press to get it to register. Long-press secondary functions take way too long. The interaction and menu layout, however, is very usable and better than any of the other chinese knock-offs that I've seen thus far.
It clearly has some shielding and filtering issues. With the programming cable connected, I can transmit on VHF and it will stay keyed (due to RFI in the cable) until I unplug something.
The widely-reported second harmonic on VHF is only 6dB down on most radios, which is about 54dB below the legal limit. Some people have had success adding a filter capacitor to drop it down a bit, while other people report it makes it worse.
The VHF image (at about 73MHz) is only attenuated like 20dB. There is a bunch of junk coming right out the antenna jack at various parts of the band.
The "drop in charger" is nothing of the sort. It's a vertical stand for the radio, with a separate bay to charge the battery. The battery is a LiOn unit, but there are no charging smarts in the base, just a 5V supply directly into the battery. That's, like, not cool. I hope they do something smarter if charging it within the handheld, but I think I'd check on that before I held it to my face while charging.
The unit itself only takes 5v (not 12 or 13.8) in the side jack, which is pretty annoying.
I has the obligatory (apparently China is very dark) "flashlight" on the top.
If not for the illegal RF emissions and the dangerous battery situation, it might be a worthy "throwaway" radio at less than $50.