IMHO, when you step up to the mid grade radios you get so much more for your money than with the entry level ones. Any manufacturer's 6 channel radio will fly your planes fine and will give you the most useful programming options like exponential, end point adjustments, and dual rates. But when you step up to the 8-10 channel radios, you get not only the extra channels but also flight modes (very handy), servo slow (great for flaps, retracts, and throttles on temperamental engines), and generally better overall construction. On that last point, you'll get better gimbals usually with a smoother feel and better durability and a more robust case with a larger screen making your programming duties easier to do. Also, telemetry is standard these days on most mid grade radios, which is a nice safety feature that can alert you to a low flight battery, tell you your airspeed, and a half dozen other things. Then you also get lots of smaller perks- more model memories, more digits for your model names so you don't have to abbreviate them, sound alerts for timers and telemetry data, customizable switches, etc. So if you can afford it, stepping up to the Futaba 8J or a similar radio would be a good investment.