The Xiegu HF Transceivers
Daimon Tilley G4USI takes a look at the range of HF transceivers from Chinese manufacturer Xiegu.
When you read various radio-related social media platforms, Chinese transceivers seem to be a bit like Marmite − there are those who love them and those who hate them! While no radio is perfect, wherever it comes from, my own experience has been quite positive overall, with only one notable exception, and this article is intended to be a follow-on from my recent On a Budget series where I covered HF transceivers.
I have owned a Xiegu X5105 for a little over two years now and when writing the aforementioned article I mentioned the three HF transceivers produced by this aspiring Chinese company, but have only had the opportunity to use the X5105.
I dropped Alan at Sinotel an email asking if he would be prepared to lend me a G90 and a G1M transceiver in order to write this review, and he kindly agreed. This article will describe the three rigs on offer from Xiegu, Fig. 1, along with my own extensive testing.
Specifications
gives an overview of the key features of the Xiegu offering. As well as hopefully giving you a good overview of the Xiegu offering, I think the table also demonstrates that the rigs offer good value for money and something for every budget.
First, let’s talk a little about Xiegu themselves. Based in Shenzen, China, ChongQingXiegu Tech (to give them their full name) have been established since 2010 and have produced a number of transceivers, some of which, such as the X1M and X108G, are no longer in production. Their website is not particularly great, but I feel it is not really aimed directly at the end-user in any event, with Xiegu selling through resellers. The site (URL below) indicates that they employ 68 staff. Alan tells me that he has a good relationship with the factory and there is regular dialogue. This is a firm that is becoming increasingly experienced in the HF market and I feel sure will continue to produce new products.
The G1M G-Core
The smallest, cheapest product is the G1M G-Core, Fig. 2. This is an SDR transceiver covering the 80, 40, 20 and 15m bands at about 5W output. Out of the box, it comes with a power lead, microphone, programming lead and basic instruction manual.
The first thing that struck me was its small size and just how light it felt in the hand. It is an updated model from the previous G1M and has a monochrome OLED display, volume control, tuning knob and a number of multi-function buttons on the front panel. These buttons are not labelled but are indicated by the OLED display. CAT and Data Modes are supported by means of 3.5mm jacks on the rear panel, along with a jack for the key or paddle, external speaker and a BNC antenna connector. Power is via a standard 5.5 x 2.5mm coaxial plug (centre positive.) There is also a knurled knob for a ground connection.
Powering up the rig I was pleased to see a clear and uncluttered display, which was easy to read. The menu buttons were easily identified from the screen and the rig was simple to use and operate. I found that the inbuilt panadapter functionality was limited, even though its scale could be easily altered by the user. I just found it difficult to pick out individual signals from the background. The display was readable in bright sunlight.
Tuning steps, mode, VFO selection, band change, keyer settings and display parameters are all changed from these menu buttons using either a short or long press. There are not layers and layers of buried menus, and once you have used it a few times, there is no need to refer to the manual.
In use, I found operation to be very easy and I made a good number of both CW and SSB QSOs while I had it. CW operation was good, with an 800Hz filter (a bit wider than I would personally prefer, but very usable) and I was able to choose from a straight or iambic keyer, including Mode A and Mode B, as well as keyer speed. Keying was quiet and while not full-break-in, response time was quite quick. Although I didn’t make use of it, there is also a channel-setting function for memories.
I used the rig with my main HF antennas − a selection of quarter wave verticals, a multi-band EFHW and my Spiderbeam fiveband Yagi − and quite enjoyed using it. I also tuned around the SW broadcast bands and enjoyed listening to stations there, too.
There were only a couple of things that I would change with this radio at this price point. The first was the quality of the received audio. Due to its small size and small speaker I found the received audio a little poor. The speaker would not drive quite as loud as I would like and the sound was a little thin and tinny. Headphones didn’t really improve matters, but an external speaker helped.
I also found the band coverage a little unusual. This rig, due to its size and weight, begs itself to be used portable, but 80, 40, 20 and 15m would not be my bands of choice for portable work. Not many of us work 80m portable really (he says, waiting for a stream of letters to the editor!). Maybe 40, 30, 20 and 15 (or 17m) would be better? As an SDR transceiver, you would think that this could be readily changed, although Low-Pass Filtering would also need to change with it. It surprises me that
Xiegu don’t offer this rig with two or three band options to choose from. The form factor too, lends itself more readily to base station work, although I reckon it would make a great multi-band CW-portable platform.
On the air, I received good CW and SSB reports. When I specifically asked for comments on my SSB audio, I was told that this sounded fine. Overall, I liked this rig and it is really amazing value for money when you think about it − a four-band SSB/CW transceiver with 5W and general coverage receive for £239 is incredible. If this rig fits your budget and your operating needs, then I definitely recommend it. Just
be aware though, that in my experience 5W of SSB in current band conditions, while absolutely possible, can also be a challenge. A good antenna, especially a Yagi, helps enormously.
The G90
Well, wow! What a cracking little rig this is, although not entirely without issues. Out of the box it comes with the same accessories as the G1M but with a better microphone with a number of functions available from its keypad. The first thing that struck me though is its weight. It is quite a compact, but heavy beast at 1.7kg. I don’t want to do it an injustice though, I am comparing its weight to the G1M and the X5105, both of which are substantially lighter. For its feature set and power output, it is still a relatively light piece of kit but remember that for portable use you will need a battery too.
The rig, Fig. 3, comes supplied with hand microphone, Fig. 4, with many features available from its keypad, power lead, programming/CAT cable and a cable for remote head operation, along with an Allen key to remove the head. The manual is more comprehensive than the G1M and covers all of the features nicely. This is the rig I had most fun using.
It looks more utilitarian than the other two of its stable mates, but in a rugged, rather than ugly, way.
Powering the rig on, the first thing you notice is the beautiful little full colour OLED display, Fig. 5. Although small, this really is incredibly clear. Good use is made of the colours and all critical information is available at one glance. It helps to raise the front of the rig a little to get the best from the display and there are plenty of DIY and commercial products to do this for you. I found the display readable in bright sunlight, but with some loss of clarity. Direct full sun on the screen was almost unusable though. However, the simple expedient of throwing your own shadow on the display soon resolves that. The panadapter and waterfall display is excellent, really usable and provides a 48kHz slice of band activity, scrolling nicely as you tune.
Necessarily, with the fuller features of the G90, the menu structure and button functionality is a little more complex, but readily learnt, and the manual neatly summarises the key features. The most regularly used features, such as power settings, tuner, keyer settings and SWR sweep, even filter settings, are quickly and simply accessed and amended. There is
a multi-function key on the front panel, which you can define to one of a number of functions. It comes set to do 100kHz tuning steps but I changed it to alter keyer speed simply and quickly.
The audio output is excellent, with great volume and really nice audio with plenty of bass and treble − easily the best audio of all three rigs and a real pleasure to listen to for extended periods. Audio reports of my SSB signal on the bands were good. A few contacts commented on the positive impact made by the speech compressor. What was also most noticeable about this rig, though, was the relative ease of making SSB contacts compared to the either the G1M or X5105.
With 20W of output, you have four times the output of the two sister rigs. Now in theory, if you increase power by a factor of four, you should get a 6dB increase in received signal strength, or one S point, not a great deal. Testing and switching between the three rigs in an hour long QSO with demonstrated this was indeed the case. Now if, as in my case with
Tony, you are receiving a 59 plus 20dB report on 20W (using a 3-element Yagi on 20m), then a 59 plus 15 report on 5W is an inconsequential change. However, in marginal conditions or with QSB, the 20W could make all the difference between being heard and not being heard, or having a comfortable QSO or a difficult one. That is also the experience of many G90 owners I have spoken to.
One of the great features of this rig is the ease of altering the filters. A quick push of the multi-function knob under the volume control allows you to shift the filter centre frequency to very effectively tune out adjacent QRM, while a second press allows you to alter the filter width just as easily. Standard CW filtering is 500Hz, but this is adjustable down to as low as 50Hz. Standard SSB filtering is 2400Hz. There is an LED zero-beat indicator built in, as well as a CW decoding function, although I don’t find the CW decoder to be very effective with anything but really good machine-quality CW and relatively strong signals.
Band and mode switches on the top of the head unit make changing these very simple indeed, and you can cycle up and down through the options.
On the rear of the unit, the G90 differs a little from its sister rigs in that it alone uses an SO239 antenna connector and two-pin power plug, which I believe is known as a mini-Tamiya connector. I am not sure why this is really, because consistency between rigs in the Xiegu stable would be helpful if you owned more than one model. There are the usual 3.5mm jacks for key, CAT Control (labelled as Comm), I/Q output and an 8-pin accessory port. This port can be connected to the optional CE-19 port, enabling easy digital modes connections as well as connection to the Xiegu linear amplifier and the GSOC controller, more of which later.
During my tests, I did not use the G90 on digital modes, but when running for extended periods on 20W SSB I did notice the unit gets quite warm. There is no fan fitted so, for digital modes, with high duty cycles, many users fit a fan to a stand underneath the rig. Indeed, Sinotel offer such an accessory. In addition, I had the rig lying flat on my desk and it looks as though that is where the main heatsink is, so elevating the front of the rig would also assist by allowing airflow underneath.
It is a nice feature to be able to remove the Head Unit, Fig. 6, and this makes the G90 ideal for installation in a vehicle or in some form of bespoke go-box arrangement. To remove the head unit, you need to remove four Allen bolts with the supplied Allen key. In doing so, the front instrument panel guards are also removed and cannot be used. Neither the head unit nor body comes with any mounting hardware, although Sinotel do sell a multi-purpose bracket that will fit the body or head, but two would be required for both items to be mounted. If you are lucky enough, like me, to own a 3D printer, then a number of users have made designs available on Thingiverse.com to act as stands, brackets and legs. The connecting lead between the rig and head is a rather old-fashioned and bulky 9-pin D style connector with a 120cm lead. This would be too short to fit your radio under your vehicle’s front seat and the head on the dashboard, but the good news is that such cables are widely and cheaply available in many lengths. Note that before you fit the extension lead, there is a warning sticker on the rear of the head, giving instructions on fitting the cable. If you don’t follow them, it is possible to lose the connector inside the head! The opportunity to separate the head is definitely useful, but it is not something that can be done quickly and easily, certainly not on a repeatable basis. It would be too easy to lose a screw or the Allen key. This is one of the areas of compromise really − the construction of the rig lacks a little finesse, but of course finesse in the engineering of an easier-toremove head would certainly cost more. It is a compromise worth making I think.
The hand microphone is an Icom clone and quite useful. From it you can directly enter and change frequencies, change band, change mode, activate the ATU and tune, switch between memory or VFO mode and there are also three userdefined buttons. The up and down keys can be changed to tune one of either frequency, band or volume, while the F1 and F2 buttons can each be programmed to toggle the preamp/attenuator, split operation, noise blanker, compression for SSB, or AGC (Fast, Slow, Auto and Off.) These functions are also each available via buttons on the Head Unit.
I have a tip here by the way. If the bands are noisy, turning the AGC off significantly reduces band background noise. Once you have found a station it can easily be turned on again.
The G90 supports VOX and you can make a number of adjustments, including sensitivity and anti-VOX, to personalise this, although you would need to play with the settings. The default ones were not very usable. The display also indicates the supply voltage, but usually this indicates a slightly lower voltage as the measurement is not made right at the entry of power but later in the rig architecture. This is not a
big issue. My display is currently reading 13.6V with a calibrated 13.8V DC shack supply.
An external speaker (powered only, not passive)/headphone outlet is available, and this can be selected by a short press of the volume control, muting the internal speaker, and the display changes to indicate this. My only desire for additional features on this rig would be for one or more CW memories, which are really helpful for CQ calls, SOTA references, etc. and backlit buttons for dusk/night-time use, although the illuminated microphone helps mitigate this, in part.
I will talk about SWR scanning and ATUs at the end of this article as these functions are common to both the G90 and X5105 and perform very well.
As my review time with the G90 was coming to an end, strange things started to happen. The SWR readings started fluctuating all over the place and the power would also be up, but mostly down. It was as if the radio was detecting high SWR and closing down power but not consistently − it was all over the place. I eliminated antenna and coax problems and was sure it was the rig. Contact with Sinotel suggested re-flashing the firmware. I did this and flashed the current firmware again, twice, and earlier firmware, but it didn’t fix the problem. Sinotel arranged for the G90 and G1M to be collected and despatched me a new G90. At the time of writing I have been putting the G90 through its paces and that problem has not re-surfaced, which is good news.
On the last occasion I took the rig out of the shack to test, I went to nearby Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, a two-point SOTA summit. I decided not to make the walk to activate the summit, but to operate from the car at the roadside not far away. I was at around 500m above sea level with cracking views of the Moor, the Bristol Channel and Wales.
I decided to keep it simple and used just a magmount with a 20m mobile whip antenna. I sat in the car and plugged the G90 into the cigarette lighter socket. My car is a petrol/electric hybrid and the cigarette lighter socket can deliver 10A from the engine starter battery, but the vehicle has to be switched to accessory mode. This is how you operate the car radio when parked. The only issue with this is that the accessory mode switches itself off after 30 minutes, without any warning. I began operating on 20m CW and logged contacts into Russia, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Holland. After having exhausted answering the CQ calls I could hear, I decided to try SSB. At this point the car accessory mode switched off cutting power to the G90. I switched the accessory mode back on, but the G90 would not power up. It showed all sorts of weird behaviour. It took many (at least a dozen) attempts and much fiddling to get it back up. I began operating again, listening around on 20m SSB and working F4EAC just south of Paris with a 57 report. Then, it happened again, the vehicle cut power after 30 minutes and the same issue resurfaced, taking ages to fiddle around trying to revive it. I should stress here, that after investigation, I do not think the rig was at fault. I asked around in the G90 social media groups and no-one else has experienced this.
Following some ideas from group members I tested the G90 on the shack PSU. I ‘pulled the plug’ many times without switching off the rig, and every time I powered back on, the rig worked fine, although many settings reverted to factory default, but that is fair enough. I also reduced the supply voltage in increments of 1V, down to 10V. The rig continued to work perfectly and no sign of the issue reappeared. So, I am left believing that something about the way my vehicle powers down (or back up) the accessory socket is not to the liking of the G90, perhaps a spike or something. It is an issue you should be aware of if this is the way you plan to operate from a modern vehicle. If I was to buy a G90, I would do more investigation of how my car powers down and either try to fix it or use a separate battery source, which is not really big deal if you plan to operate from your car, and it would prevent you accidentally flattening your vehicle battery too.
The X5105
As I said earlier, I have owned an X5105, Fig. 7, for two years, having bought it used for £300. I have used it quite extensively both in the shack and out and about portable. It was the rig I took with me on my extended train tour of Europe in 2019 when reviewing micro-portable QRP antennas for PW (Nov19) and the rig has been reviewed before in PW (August 2018).
I don’t want to replicate that earlier review here, but I cannot review the Xiegu stable without talking about it. As you can see it is the most expensive of the three rigs, but is the only one without SDR architecture, instead using a doublesuperheterodyne receiver. It is compact, very rugged and has the biggest and easiest to read display of all three rigs, with a 3.6in dot-matrix monochrome display. The display is very good and easy to read. It is the only display that is still perfectly readable in 100% direct sunlight straight onto the screen. There are no protruding knobs on the radio, with
push buttons used for volume and other controls, and a thumb-wheel arrangement for tuning. This works well and means that the only protrusion on the radio is really the BNC antenna connector.
The X5105 is truly designed as a field radio and its form factor, with tilt-legs, makes it perfect to use on the ground or on a tabletop. Complete with built in ATU and large battery pack, it is a good package that will allow you to get on the air with the minimum of ‘extra baggage’. All you need is an antenna, the rig, microphone and/or CW key and you are set. In fact, you could leave the microphone at home, as there is an internal microphone and a PTT button! I have to say, I like it a lot and it is perfect to give you a portable radio that can work all of HF.
I have had many QSOs on it. Mostly these have been CW as that is my preferred method of portable operating and I find that I get much more success with 5W CW than I do with 5W SSB.
The rig offers many good features, but without SDR architecture there is no waterfall or panadapter. However, the I/Q output works well and I have successfully used the rig with Cubic SDR software on the Raspberry Pi, giving me a waterfall, panadapter and CAT control. I have also used it extensively for digimodes although this was tricky to set up on the Raspberry Pi. Most have success with the G90 and X5105 on digimodes using Omni-Rig, only available for Windows.
The rig shares the same microphone and microphone functionality as the G90, as well as having VOX, AGC, speech compression and so on. There are multiple layered menus using four multi-function menu buttons providing quite a large degree of control once you get used to them. While I am used to it now, I do think that the G90 is a little more intuitive to use.
One feature the X5105 has that the others don’t is the ability to decode PSK31 and RTTY. I believe (although I have never tried) that in the digimodes setting you can pre-program messages, which can also be sent in those modes, allowing a formulaic QSO without a computer. I do use these memories as CW memories however.
The X5105 does have one or two extra features over the G90. First it covers 50MHz, although I rarely use this band, and second, and it’s a small thing, but all the buttons are a little larger, with larger writing and are backlit. That makes it great for evening use either in a slightly dark room, or outside when camping perhaps. It really helps. Having said that, although the G90 does not have this benefit, the microphones on both rigs do light up when a button is pressed, which is also very helpful. However, if you are keen on the 50MHz function, I must sound a note of caution. The X5105 is marketed as having FM mode. I have never got this to work successfully despite the latest firmware. My friend in the nearby village also has the X5105 and when we tried 50MHz FM for a
natter, we both found our modulation was unreadable. I asked around on the groups a year or so ago and I have never found anyone who has made FM work for them! Please feel free to prove me wrong.
I have been reasonably happy with the X5105 − until I listened to the G90! The G90’s excellent audio output and filtering arrangements outshine the X5105 by a country mile. Comparing the two on transmit, both at 5W, there is nothing in it in terms of transmitted audio quality, but the X5105, with its smaller form factor and really tiny loudspeaker, sounds like a tinny transistor radio next to an old-fashioned Roberts − there is no comparison. While I found that headphones didn’t seem to improve matters, a small bluetooth speaker with a short 3.5mm audio cable really did improve things and added some muchneeded bass. Indeed, during my hour-long conversation with Tony in Italy, we did extensive switching between the three Xiegu rigs. The G1M and X5105 received audio were comparable. Transmitted audio quality across all three rigs was reported as ‘good’. I spoke to Tony for a while on the X5105 before I asked him to pause while I returned to the G90 − the 5105 was, literally, hurting my ears in comparison.
On continuing on the G90, the QSO became a pleasure once more. But of course, received audio is just one part of the story and the X5105 with internal speaker is fine for a couple of hours in the field and a compromise that is acceptable. If you wished you could add a small external speaker and I would certainly consider that if using in the shack.
The ATU and SWR Functions.
Shared only by the G90 and X5105, the ATUs on these rigs are frankly remarkable. On the blog of my personal website (below) are two articles concerning this.
In the first part of my blog, I show how, for fun, my X5105 has successfully loaded the following items:
• over 0.6 mile of electric fence around my fields and orchard, Fig. 8.
• a metal gate on the cowshed
• the metal cowshed roof
• a metal poly-tunnel frame which is directly grounded, and
• a 12ft livestock trailer!
Not only did it load them, but CW CQs brought Reverse Beacon Spots on everything but the gate − truly impressive.
Now, before you write a letter to our erstwhile Editor, I must stress that this was just a fun exercise. None of these items is an efficient antenna, but it helped me assess the tuning range of the rig. Then, a few days later I was sat on the patio using a random wire connected to the Xiegu G90 and started considering that my favourite antenna for portable use is an end-fed half-wave. Normally these antennas are fed with a 49:1 or 64:1 matching transformer, as they have an impedance of over 2,500Ω.
Could a Xiegu ATU match one of these, without the matching transformer? There was only one way to find out, and to my utter astonishment, yes it could, and I proceeded to have a number of CW conversations on both 40m and 30m EFHWs without any interim matching device, using solely the Xiegu ATU. There aren’t many auto-ATUs built into rigs that could do that!
Part two of the blog on my website covers this and this means for portable use you can reduce the amount of kit, space and weight you need to take with you.
In addition to an auto-ATU, both the G90 and X5105 have built in SWR scanning functions, providing a graphical display of SWR that varies according to whether or not you have the ATU in circuit. It is helpful when setting up antennas at home or in the field and a very useful function. I have included screenshots of this on the X5105 and the G90 here, Figs. 9 and
Accessories
Also in production is the Xiegu XPA125B 100W linear amplifier, which can be used with the G90 and X5105. It includes the famous Xiegu ATU, retails at a little under £500 and has good reviews (see March 2021 PW). If you can only afford a single rig for shack and portable or mobile use, then this linear might be a good choice to get up to the 100W mark should you wish. Although it is worth noting that it costs more than the rig itself – linear amplifiers are not cheap. If you want a do-it-all rig but must have 100W as well, then I would consider something like the Yaesu FT-891 instead. At just over £600 it would be cheaper and fine for shack and mobile use. Note, though, that for portable use the FT-891 has a very high (comparably) RX current draw, so you would want a big battery even if using it at QRP levels!
Another recent accessory is the Xiegu GSOC controller. To quote from the Sinotel website, “the Xiegu GSOC is a standalone colour touchscreen panadapter/ controller designed for external control of Xiegu G90 transceiver.” It has not been released long and I have not seen one, but it looks an impressive piece of equipment, but at the same price as the G90 itself, I am not quite sure that it makes economic sense, to me at least.
The Future?
For more than a year now, there have been rumours and pictures of a replacement for the X5105. Radioddity, a retailer in the USA has just placed a picture of a new Xiegu on its website − the X6100. This appears to be very similar to the X5105 but using SDR architecture and providing 10W when connected to an external 13.8V supply, or 5W from the internal battery. It will be interesting to see it, if and when it appears. If it can combine the best of the G90 with the portability of the X5105, Xiegu will be onto another winner.
I asked Alan at Sinotel about it but he says that there is no official announcement from Xiegu about this yet, leaving some asking if it is just a concept and if it will ever see production.
Summary
I think Xiegu make some really good equipment at very good prices. They are not always without issue, however. In my experience, and that of some other users, this tends to be in relation to firmware. Firmware is the code that makes the transceiver function and is often responsible for many of the functions, such as ATU operation, CW decoding, etc. It seems that when Xiegu initially offer a new rig to market, users soon find faults and things that need improving. Often Xiegu respond positively with updated firmware, which the user needs to upload to the rig. The trouble is that while this might fix previously identified issues, thus far it has quite often brought unintended consequences, causing issues elsewhere with other features, that then also need fixing.
In the case of my X5105, when I bought it to use mainly as a CW transceiver for portable work, the firmware it came with did not work on CW! It ‘clipped’ the first few characters, making QSOs impossible. At the time I understood that previous versions of firmware did not have this problem, so I downgraded firmware to find it fixed, at the loss of other features. However, a few months later, new firmware was released, and all was fine in the world. This firmware version has now been in use for nearly 18 months with no
issues at all and no further updates, so it seems the X5105 is all good now, as far as firmware is concerned.
As far as the G1M is concerned, the firmware in this is dated 2020 and also seems stable with no issues. In relation to the G90, from what I have read in user groups it seems that version 1.75 was a stable release, but that following user feedback Xiegu issued a later release of software, and some people report the unintended consequence of tuning issues. I wonder if this is what happened to my original test G90? In any event the rig is so good that I think it is worth putting up with issues like this and updating firmware as new versions are released. Some users are frustrated that they feel like beta testers when they expect a rig to just work fine, but many in the community see this as a reasonable price to pay to get such a well performing rig at such a low price.
Is there a best Xiegu to purchase? Well, it is down to budget and use. I think the G1M is excellent value for money for what it does. Four bands, SSB and CW with general coverage receive for less than £240 is outstanding value. This rig could easily be used portable as well as in the shack.
The G90, in my view, is best suited to those deployments where space and weight are not too critical. For example, deployment from or near a vehicle, caravan or tent etc. or indeed as a base station. However, some users use it portable with just a 4S 18650 battery pack, which are small and lightweight. The rig is highly capable, and the 20W output is very helpful on SSB in marginal conditions. I also think it is the best of the three rigs to use and certainly the most pleasant to listen to.
The X5105 is a real field radio, well suited to a backpack. Compact, if a little on the heavy side, it gives you every mode on every HF band, plus 6m, along with a builtin battery, and is perfectly suited ergonomically for field use. Lengthy operating on SSB is however, like the G1M, tiring on the ear, unless you use an external speaker but I can live with this for field-type use of a couple of hours or so. If you are a CW-only operator, then the ten CW memories on this rig might help swing the decision.
There is little or nothing to choose between the rigs in terms of ‘ears’ and switching between them yielded indiscernible differences in receive sensitivity. There is no doubt you can hear a lot more than your 5 or 20W can work, and that is all you need.
For me, the use-case differences are sufficient that I have decided to keep the X5105 for back-pack type deployment and invest in the G90 for mobile and caravan use. If you are looking for a cheap base station rig, perhaps with occasional portable use, then the G90 wins hands-down every time.
In the end, these are good quality, well performing rigs that offer remarkable value for money. If you are prepared to change firmware once or twice (in the case of the G90) until all issues are resolved and stable, the rewards are worth it. Changing the firmware is not difficult as long as you follow the instructions closely, and Sinotel do offer the service of doing this for you for just the cost of the return courier (£11.99) if you are not able to do it yourself.
Xiegu rigs punch well above their pricepoint and it is for this reason that many of us put up with the occasional issue and firmware update. I think Xiegu will continue to grow and improve, disrupting the ‘big three’ players as they go. I wish them every success. My thanks to Sinotel for the loan of the G1M and G90.