If you're a beginner your best radio is a basic four channel like the Hitec Laser 4. I bought mine with radio, 4 servos, receiver, battery, charger and switch for a little over $100. My plane flies just as high and just as good as any other plane in it's class. I can do loops, rolls, immelmans, split S, hammer head stalls all with my little four channel radio. It's a trainer plane but it can do all these maneuvers and it can hover. Even though that has more to do with the engine than radio.

There will always be a better computer radio coming out tomorrow and it will be cheaper than what's available today. If you can hold off until you "really" need one then you will get a better deal.

I too struggled with making a decision on a radio; this manufacturer or that one, this model or that one, computer radio or not, four channel or eight. I finally had to stop and ask myself if I really needed the super-duper computer radio in order to fly or did I just want it to fulfill my manly desire to gadetize. It was tough being honest about it, as I like all the shinny buttons and switches on a computer radio as much as the next guy. But with the money I saved ($150) I'm buying a stand alone Hitec Laser 6 radio with buddy cord ($80) so my son can fly too.