We have an Icom and we can't fault it. It takes dry cells as well as its rechargeable battery and seems to hold its charge for ages (despite the radio being several years old now). We keep the dry cell cassette in the grab bag/flare box.

Lots of handhelds around nowadays at reasonable prices, but Icom is a big name and all I can say is that we have been very happy with ours. Its waterprrof and easy to use, and ours was the model that had a rotary volume control on the top which I like.