 "Pretty good for the money, but..." | 2009-11-13 |
| - Reviewed By paulebiz |
I purchased this unit for my wife, who needed an upgrade.
There are already some very thorough reviews on this, so I'll just cover the salient points.
First, there is some criticism of the GPS unit sticking out the side of the unit. It does look a bit punchy, but there is a reason for this design. Cobra had come out with an integrated GPS design, but they were sued by Escort, who has a patent on the integrated rd/GPS design. Cobra got around the patent by their new design.
I think that most rd's have sufficient sensitivity, so the issue for me is falsing. My wife's old rd falsed on everything, so it became almost useless as one learned to ignore it. Not a good thing if this time it's really a wolf out there.
I have the gold standard in rd's (after the Escort 9500)- the Bel rx65, so I'll compare to that.
The Bel consistently falses in 2 places in the town next to me. The Cobra did likewise, as well as a few random other places, presumably from other rd's (a huge mis-feature of the old model).
It falsed on an X band door opener is Worcester. The Bel never does.
It seemed to have about the same detection range as the Bel when I encountered real radar.
Conclusion is that the Cobra will irritate a bit more that the Bel, but not bad.
I think that the LCD screen is a bit of overkill, but for any setup tasks, it's superior. I prefer the simpler LED setup for in-use.
The overall design is a bit bizarre, and the unit is quite large.
The mounting suction cup bracket is a joke - flimsy, and the rd is just supported by the bracket's strength. Consequently, it bounces up down as you drive along. There is an alternate Velcro patch provided and we will go to that, once the other problem is solved...
The freaking power cord is too short! As mounted on the windshield, the power cord is pulled tight across the radio and heater controls (Ford Fusion). I figure that the accountant that did most of the design work decided that they could save 13.7 cents per unit if they shortened the cord.
For the GPS, you download a small program from the Internet, so that you can plug the GPS into your PC (not a Mac), and periodcally update the database. After installing the program, you plug the GPS in for an update, and Windows detects new hardware. It now wants a driver. The instructions never mention this part, but after 2 tries, I figured it out. When you install the program, you are putting the driver on the PC.
Other than the few design gaffs that I mentioned, it's not a bad rd.
I would not recommend this model. If you don't care about the GPS feature, there are better options out there.
This unit cost $208 from Amazon. The Bel rx65 can be found for as low as $263 at the time of this writing. For the extra ~$60, you can get a better unit. Remember, one avoided ticket will probably pay for the purchase.
In this case, my wife was OK with this model. I would have sent it back.
For a comprehensive review, you can search out Radar Roy on the web. He has several reviews on you-tube, including this rd. He does give a thumbs-up on the rd. |
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 "best bang for the buck!" | 2009-11-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A15EGKHQ41K28U |
| easy to use, very customizable (can turn off certain alerts/frequencies etc.) cobra updates its aura database daily to ensure supreme coverage, comparable w/ the higher end models of escort and bell but cheaper and AS EFFECTIVE! owned this radar for 3 months and it has already saved me 2x. the Ka band is the most used frequency/radar and it gives me warnings so early i often have to squint in the distance to locate the speed trap... |
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| "This baby works!" | 2009-10-16 |
| - Reviewed By bookenator |
My old radar detector died an untimely death, so I decided to switch brands and get something with built-in GPS while I was at it. After reading all the reviews I narrowed it down to this one. I'm glad I got it. It has a nice clear colorful display, and the sound is good and clear too. You plug the GPS part to your computer with the included adapter to download the database of red light cameras and high accident areas, then attach it to the main unit which installs easily on your windshield with the suction cup bracket. Plug her in and you're off to the races (so to speak ;)
There are cheaper models out there but this one has everything you need. It's already alerted me to situations that my ever watchful eyes didn't see until it would have been too late. I'm glad I got it. |
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| "Take that red light camera photo enforcer" | 2009-09-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2I6WCCM7EPADW |
| The Cobra XRS is a blanket to the city/highway driver. The Cobra XRS 9960G let's you once again enjoy driving.What a product. Thank you Cobra,keep it up. |
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| "Good investment" | 2009-09-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: AXKICTSMM7AYL |
As an engineer I have done some repeatable tests and every time I got same results, hence this unit is reliable in my opinion. I was able to pick all traffic photo enforcement areas and radars in different states. Display of GPS coordinate is a cool feature when you need to let others know where you are at. The "small USB" based GPS antenna should be reinforced a little bit for more mechanical ruggedness. I am not using the octopus grip clips that comes with the kit. Again.... design problem, The grip, length & angle of metallic piece, total weight of the detector do not match and fells from wind shield after a few road bumps. It is not major thing, you can buy different mount or stand.
Over all I am pleased with the product. |
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| "Agressive Driver 6speed Turbo Car & 3rd Cobra Radar Detector" | 2009-09-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A289I5DG8DZEZ2 |
1 Fantastic value 4 your money!
3rd Cobra product in Auto Radar Detection
Easy to set up and download updates
Great LIFETIME UPDATES Service by Cobra owned company
Ez to hide on dash and while you park your car
Easy to program every function
Caught every camera and "Danger" zone so far in 10 days of driving, 1200 miles.
I drive 50-60k miles a year
I raced cars in 8 states
I drag race, drift & AutoX as well as street race
I burn rubber daily & I CHIRP-POWER-CLUTCH BRAKE daily
I'm a good landlord and rich, but I want to feel like a "child" daily.
I'm a Litigation paralegal with 114 court cases of experience.
I got 2 moving violations this year and am at 1 point on my drivers license.
This has slowed me down and made me stop at yellows vs. "zoom through".
GREAT BEHAVIOR CONTROL INSTRUMENT FOR AGGRESSIVE DRIVERS!!! |
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