 "awesome radar the best!" | 2009-12-16 |
| - Reviewed By Bienvenido Cariaga |
| after i got a speeding ticket for the first time. i bought this radar detector right away. i tell you this product is so awesome it warns me of cops all the time! so if you are looking for a reliable radar detector this is definitely the right choice after all this cobra is always faster than the speeding ticket! |
| |
 "Sizable but worth it" | 2009-12-10 |
| - Reviewed By TCN |
I haven't used a radar detector in years. My last one detected three bands, this one detects fifteen, including the Ku band, which according the Cobra hasn't come the US yet.
I don't drive at ticket worthy speeds, but my city added red light cameras over the past year. I don't know where all of the cameras are and in some cases the green/yellow is a very short cycle catching me going through the intersection on red. This radar detector has been excellent in letting me be aware of red light cameras so I can slow down and take the necessary precautions to avoid a red light ticket. Cobra also gives owners lifetime updates on this service which I find to be invaluable.
Unlike my GPS, I love the fact that this automatically turns off when I turn off my car.
My primary complaint about this radar dectector is that it is bulky. Hopefully down the road they can reduce the size yet keep all of the features. |
| |
| "GPS enabled radar detector" | 2009-12-01 |
| - Reviewed By G. Chase from Kuwait |
| Great if manually selecting GPS cameras as we have to do in the Middle East. Has more bells and whistles than needed. Works very good but a bit noisy on false K alerts in the city, display has glare issues in direct sunlight. Other than that very happy with it. |
| |
 "Pretty good for the money, but..." | 2009-11-13 |
| - Reviewed By Groc from Massachusetts |
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. |
| |
| "best bang for the buck!" | 2009-11-04 |
| - Reviewed By g35driver |
| 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... |
| |
| "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. |
| |
Expedited Available
