The Xiegu G90 is a Chinese-made 20-watt HF transceiver built around a direct-sampling SDR receiver, and it has become one of the most talked-about budget rigs for portable HF work. It sits well below the price of an Icom IC-705 or a Yaesu FT-891, and it’s the radio a lot of newer UK/Ireland hams reach for when they want a self-contained HF field station without a big outlay.
Key specs
- HF only, roughly 0.5-30 MHz, no 6 metres
- SSB, CW, AM and FM, up to 20 watts output (AM typically lower)
- 24-bit direct-sampling SDR receiver with a colour bandscope and waterfall on a detachable 1.8-inch display head
- Built-in automatic antenna tuner and a CW decoder
- Weighs a little over 1kg, runs from an external 12V supply or battery pack rather than an internal cell
What it does well
- Genuinely affordable entry into SDR-based HF with a real waterfall display, a fraction of what an IC-705 or IC-7300 costs
- The built-in automatic tuner is a big deal for portable and field use, it will match a wide range of less-than-ideal antennas, random wires and off-resonance end-fed halfwaves included, without carrying a separate tuner
- The bandscope and waterfall, even on a small screen, make band activity visible, a genuine step up from an old-school analogue rig with just an S-meter
- The detachable display head gives useful mounting flexibility for a vehicle or a compact portable setup
- Active firmware development and a large user base mean most of the early-release bugs have been fixed over successive updates
Trade-offs
- HF only, no 6 metres, which rules it out for anyone chasing sporadic-E openings on 50 MHz
- A 20-watt ceiling is a real limitation for weak-signal DX or contest pileups compared with 100-watt desktop rigs, though it’s plenty for casual and portable QSOs
- The 1.8-inch screen is genuinely small for reading a detailed waterfall, especially outdoors in bright light
- Receiver audio and AGC have drawn some criticism in reviews, with reports of pumping on strong signals and rougher receive audio than a Yaesu, Icom or Kenwood equivalent
- No internal battery, it needs its own 12V supply or external pack, adding to the kit you carry into the field
Price and who it’s for
UK retailers list the G90 at roughly £380-£450, sometimes with sale pricing or tuner/battery bundles. It’s aimed squarely at the budget-conscious portable, SOTA or POTA operator, or anyone wanting to try HF SDR and a self-contained tuner-equipped field rig without spending IC-705 money. If outright receiver performance and build polish matter more to you than price, look further up the range.
Verdict
The G90 won’t out-perform a full-size 100-watt transceiver, and the small screen and rougher receive audio are fair criticisms. But judged as what it actually is, a compact, tuner-equipped, waterfall-display HF radio at a genuinely accessible price, it’s one of the best-value ways into portable HF operating available today. A sensible first HF rig for a newly-licensed portable operator, and a capable spare or backup for anyone already further up the ladder.