I have two ham radio handhelds: a Baofeng UV-5R (about $25) and a Yaesu FT-60R (about $150)

While the Baofeng is cheap, that's about the only thing it has going for it. It would probably make for a reasonable communications device for very short range simplex work. Or it would probably work if you have unobstructed line of sight to a close repeater.

In my case, my club's repeaters are 18 miles from my house. The Baofeng cannot hear them or trigger them, even when hooked up to a nice outdoor J-Pole antenna. The Yaesu can easily converse both ways with great signal reports using only a small whip antenna. Also, the Baofeng's audio output is very low - I have to leave mine on full volume and even then it's very hard to hear anything, even in a quiet environment. Not so with the Yaesu.

The Baofeng's do have their place though. Because of their price, they make good "just in case I ever need one" radios, as long as you remember their limitations. You may not get far (range-wise) on a Baofeng compared to other higher end radios. A lot of this may have to do with quality of manufacture. If you buy a second identical Baofeng, it's performance may be quite different than your first Baofeng. I'm assuming that my particular Baofeng was plucked off the bottom of the quality stack of radios built by new trainee employees on a Friday before a 3 day holiday weekend, after a beer drinking lunch.