A lot of great opinions here. Myself,,,,,I'd recommend if you plan on staying in this great hobby of ours, I would buy the most radio you can afford, meaning the 7 channel. I've purchased 3 radios since beginning to fly about 8 years ago for two reasons. I ran out of model memory and I needed a radio that would support dual elevator servos. Once you get into flying planes with flaps, retracts and maybe even smoke,,,you'll need those extra channels. It's also nice to set up dual aileron dual servo planes on seperate channels as to be able to program in some aileron differential or flaperons. That's a whole different animal though.

Best of luck,,,