Best Portable Radar Detector for the Price

Valentine.

 

No portable battery operated radar detector is as sensitive as a radar detector that plugs into your car's electrical system.

But if you want a good radar (and laser) detector, go for Valentine One.

Laser detection is a bit of a misnomer, by the time the laser warning goes off, you have already been fingered for a ticket. However, it is not illegal to drive down the road with enough near IR light emitting from the front of your car to make it impossible for a laser to "see" your car and measure the speed.

 

Valentine 1.

 

beltronics by far... GX65 or Sti Driver. look at the reviews

Valentine is outdated technology...they have not updated or changed their detector

 

I have not found one I liked . I wanted to embed one into a motorcycle jacket for touring in europe where their use is heavily restricted. I found their range to be so limited it basically tells you about the same time the cop already has you. This was with the escort a few years ago. Maybe there has been some progress but at the time I considered them worthless.

V1s, while they had their day and certainly have a cult following, are antiquated and not worth the effort anymore IMO. I've got a new one I'm selling at half price if anybody is interested. The GPS based units have left the V1s in the dust. Valentine really needs to get on the bandwagon and update their features if they are going to remain competitive.

 

V1!

 

I'll buy yours for $200.

 

I have a Beltronics Vector 995 which I'm very happy with. There's a ton out there, but the Valentine 1 seems to be the one to have (if you don't mind spending $500 on it).
Check out this site where they compare all the different detectors: http://radartest.com/

 

6th Gear. Should put you past even the helicopter.

 

I use the Escort 9500ix and am very happy with it.

 

Valentine One.

Never an issue.

 

+1

 

Bel RX65 Pro

Have done in excesses over 100mph on open highway and have sped on LA surface streets ... has covered me every time it works

 

"Valentine is outdated technology...they have not updated or changed their detector "
They may not have all the bells and whistles but they detect, that is important to me, also you can send them back in for software updates when they come out...

 

I checked with my brother, who is a cop, and no one is using Speed Cams in our area. Is it worth the extra $150 for GPS based if nothing to detect?

I want to get one also, but do not want to over buy something I will never use.

 

Valentine 1 is IMHO the best there is. The directional indicators are awesome in knowing WHERE the radar is relative to you, the bogey counter is helpful for areas that your radar detector usually goes off, is somewhat programmable and best of all, you can send it back to Valentine for recalibration and software updates. I purchased mine about 4 yrs ago and sent it back to Valentine about 2 months ago because it was no longer picking up radar as it did in the past. They re calibrated it and sent it back to me free of charge!

Bell makes some good radar detectors also, but I feel the HUD on the Valentine is what makes the difference for me. I have a Bell STI, but leave that in the GF's car when I am going for a ride.

If you want to check out another site that has forums on the various radar detectors, I can recommend this one:

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy a Cobra branded radar detector!!!! They are a POS. If you read the above or any other forum on radar detectors, you will see why.

 

V1 has saved my bacon many, many times.

 

I don't have any red light cameras in my area either. But thats not whats so nice about GPS. Whats nice about it is the unit knows where you are and your speed. The unit stores false alarms in memory so when you drive by that same location next time, the unit doesn't go off again. And when you are going slow though a shopping mall parking lot or a school zone, it knows you are going under 25mph, so it doesn't go off 6 times like the V1. You can manually marks spots to ignore and hot spots where you know cops hang out so everytime you approach that location the unit will remind you (not a feature I use a lot). The V1 is so full of false alarms that it will drive you insane, unless you live in a very remote area perhaps. But in the city its unusable in my opinion, it goes off every few miles on false alarms so I end up turning it off and then I forget about it. I got one ticket that way, which was $200. That's when I decide to try a GPS based unit and haven't looked back. Now when my escort goes off its the real deal.

On the wide open hiway the V1 is great, but then again so is the escorts or bell or whatever. A long time ago the V1 had a huge advantage over the other units in terms of range but not anymore. People love the directional arrows, yes they are great but its not worth putting up with all the false alarms IMO.

I still run a V1 in my F40 on the open hiway and remote mountain roads, its perfect for that situation because thats the only place I drive that car. But in my carerra that I drive around town and also the open road, back roads, I spent the extra money and get something that works for both situations.

 

I've sent a few of mine back for software updates but rather than update the software (for free) they offered to replace my unit for $100. THAT is customer service.

 

stu, no doubt valentine has *outstanding* customer service. love that. in all fairness the escort software is updated via their web site and a usb port, so sending your unit in is not required. hate to beat a dead horse here but as a retired software engineer I loathe technology companies milking the sacred cow while at the same time consumers thinking they are getting the best technology possible based on reports from years past. that does not explain why I'm still driving a 911 -- ok i'll shut up about that now