Radar detectors review thread

[alutwon]

hello all, I'm in the market for a radar detector since this car is going to get me into trouble sooner or later. So I was wondering if anyone has any experience with different brands.

I had this one mind also
https://a.co/d/05cdnU6w

 

[Rzko]

I haven’t used a radar in 10+ years but I feel the same since getting this car. I’ve watched tons of yt videos and ended up ordering the valentine1 gen2 yesterday actually lol. But I was between that and the uniden r8w.

 

[CPerdomo]

I haven’t used a radar in 10+ years but I feel the same since getting this car. I’ve watched tons of yt videos and ended up ordering the valentine1 gen2 yesterday actually lol. But I was between that and the uniden r8w.

I've been considering the Uniden family. But... what made you consider the Valentine instead?

 

[Z06fan]

There are a couple of us on this forum that are also very active on the detector forum and it's generally considered that the Uniden R8, Redline 360c, or the V1 are the best detectors. There are advantages to each of those. My preference is the R8. There's are a lot of good people and helpful info on the detector forum (https://www.rdforum.org).

 

[FatRatZ]

I have used the Escort, Valentine, and Uniden brands for many, many years. I chose the unit in R8 for my most recent purchase. (actually my second R8 since my first was stolen at a hotel in Indiana.)
The Valentine falsed a lot. The escorts were OK, but not as long range as the Uniden R8. I also appreciate its auto mute function for turning off non-police radar signals in areas that it’s been before. For example, when I pull into one of our local malls, it’s loaded with signals, and the radar detector stays quiet since it knows that they are falses.
You will also see it had the longest range in a recent car and driver test of all the best detectors - it won.
The arrows are nice and it has a companion Bluetooth app.
If I were doing it again, I would get the R8W as it features a Wi-Fi connection to do updates for the firmware as well as the traffic camera and red light camera database.
The regular R8 you just need to take out of the car and take your computer and plug to update it. Admittedly, you don’t have to do this often, but would be an added layer of convenience to have the Wi-Fi.

 

[Rzko]

I've been considering the Uniden family. But... what made you consider the Valentine instead?

With the two being so close in performance even with the uniden slightly out performing the v1 I picked the v1 based on a video I watch saying the build quality of the actual hardware itself was much better than the uniden. And it’s slightly smaller

 

[CPerdomo]

I have used the Escort, Valentine, and Uniden brands for many, many years. I chose the unit in R8 for my most recent purchase. (actually my second R8 since my first was stolen at a hotel in Indiana.)
The Valentine falsed a lot. The escorts were OK, but not as long range as the Uniden R8. I also appreciate its auto mute function for turning off non-police radar signals in areas that it’s been before. For example, when I pull into one of our local malls, it’s loaded with signals, and the radar detector stays quiet since it knows that they are falses.
You will also see it had the longest range in a recent car and driver test of all the best detectors - it won.
The arrows are nice and it has a companion Bluetooth app.
If I were doing it again, I would get the R8W as it features a Wi-Fi connection to do updates for the firmware as well as the traffic camera and red light camera database.
The regular R8 you just need to take out of the car and take your computer and plug to update it. Admittedly, you don’t have to do this often, but would be an added layer of convenience to have the Wi-Fi.

Exactly what I needed to know. Thanks.

 

[thesilverbullet]

vortex is the best place for reviews

rdf is the forum…

uniden owns this market - any of the r-series will do you solid.. i currently run the r8w, r8 & r7 in my cars. the r4 is similar to r8 except it has a single antenna.

V1 is close 2nd except it does not indicate frequency - you need an app for that and escort is dead.

the main problem with escort is response time - it will flat out miss ka alerts because it is slow. the original company was sold to idiots… so this is not the same company that was the king of the hill.



https://www.vortexradar.com/


https://www.rdforum.org/

 

[Thefunk]

If only the DriveSmarter app from Escort would integrate into Google maps. Temporarily store remembered detected radar locations. I emailed Escort about a reverse rear camera as a replacement to the stock one that could also function as a regular camera recording. Wire would be for the reverse view, wireless would be for downloading the recordings from the internal SD card. Make it so!

 

[CPerdomo]

There are a couple of us on this forum that are also very active on the detector forum and it's generally considered that the Uniden R8, Redline 360c, or the V1 are the best detectors. There are advantages to each of those. My preference is the R8. There's are a lot of good people and helpful info on the detector forum (https://www.rdforum.org).

Just ordered the R8. That thing is pricey...

 

[Z06fan]

Just ordered the R8. That thing is pricey...

LOL, isn't everything. It's a nice "plug & play" detector that should serve you well for a long time.

 

[bhamvett]

Valentine One. Fantastic and upgradeable.

 

[thesilverbullet]

Just ordered the R8. That thing is pricey...

Congrats - check for firmware updates before using and good luck with the settings.

For Ka turn off the segments not needed to eliminate false alerts. usa segments are 2, 5 & 8. I’m running segments 5 & 8 only in my area. Segment 2 is rare but exist. I turn it back on when traveling. For k band good luck - hard to filter and detect the same frequency but uniden has alot of options…

for apple devices - r8 companion is a good option - has the k block frequencies setup for most cars..

 

[Thefunk]

Floc cameras sometimes use instant-on K band in some areas. I was driving in a parking lot that had them and all of a sudden K band was full signal then slowly faded but I barely left the lot.

 

[CPerdomo]

Congrats - check for firmware updates before using and good luck with the settings.

For Ka turn off the segments not needed to eliminate false alerts. usa segments are 2, 5 & 8. I’m running segments 5 & 8 only in my area. Segment 2 is rare but exist. I turn it back on when traveling. For k band good luck - hard to filter and detect the same frequency but uniden has alot of options…

for apple devices - r8 companion is a good option - has the k block frequencies setup for most cars..

Thanks for this. I took the car last night just to get a feel and.... oh my... I need to update these settings you mentioned. It goes crazy every so often. I need to update the settings for City/Highway