There are many great radar detectors on the market in 2018; radar detectors that can serve many different needs and expectations. With everything said, how do you decipher which radar detector will be the best radar detector for your personal needs? This decision can come down to seemingly small factors such as the area that you live in; a factor that can affect the amount of sensitivity that you will require from your radar detector.
Deciphering Signals
The best radar detector for you will be a radar detector that is able to filter through false alarms and notify you of signals from police radars and lasers. False alarms can come from an array of things such as grocery store automatic doors to the traffic avoidance systems in many modern cars. A radar detector that is great at its job will be sensitive enough to alert you of a police signal but not sensitive enough to trigger when it receives a false alarm.
The Review
To meet the various needs of our readers, we have compiled a list below of the radar detectors that we believe will serve you best. In this review, we provide both the positive and negative attributes of each radar detector in addition to pricing and seemingly minute details.
Our Pick: Uniden R3 ($399)
The Uniden R3 is a radar detector that matches the caliber of many more expensive radar detectors, and has a range that exceeds that of the other detectors on our list. The R3 is able to filter through K and KA signal bands.
The R3 is highly modifiable and offers a mute function that allows for you to silence it in areas with high radar traffic, such as in the automatic door scenario that we mentioned earlier. In addition to many goodies, the detector comes with an integrated GPS that notifies you of red light cameras and speed traps.
A complaint that we have heard about the Uniden R3, although it is a sensitive radar detector, is that the radar has a subpar laser sensitivity
Valentine One ($399)
The Valentine One has excellent radar range and can notify its user of where a signal is coming from through two arrows that point up and down. The Valentine one, or V1 for short, is very quick to alert a user of a signal detection and now offers device optimization through the Valentine smartphone app.
Unlike the Uniden R3, the V1 is not offered with an integrated GPS and cannot be easily modified without utilizing Valentine’s smartphone app.
One thing to be aware of with the V1 is that Valentine offers hardware and firmware updates that you will need to pay for. These updates a great way to make sure that your device is able to perform at its peak performance.
Escort Max 360 ($649)
Much like the Valentine One, the Escort Max 360 displays arrows to its users. Like the V1, it also has a smartphone app that allows its users to make changes to the device settings. Unlike the V1, however, the Max 360 has an integrated GPS and displays alerts from every direction. The Max 360 is also able to prevent false alerts that can be created by the technology in many modern vehicles.
A negative aspect of the Escort Max 360 is that updates are not always tested before they are released and can lead to some frustrating experiences with the detector depending on what bugs the update may have. Additionally, when compared to the Valentine One, the Max 360 is not very quick to make alerts.
Escort Redline ($599)
The Escort Redline is another radar detector that has great range. The Redline can alert users of the largest range of signals; such as X, K, and Ka signals. The POP feature of the Redline is great as it detects the sneaky POP signals of police officers. Much like the Uniden R3, the Redline has a mute function and can also make itself “invisible” to radar devices. To complete the great package that Escort has placed into the small device that is the Redline, the Redline has voice alerts which allow the user to focus on the road as the device speaks to them.
The downside of the Escort Redline is that it can alert users of a signal far past when the signal was detected. This can make the device a little annoying at times and can prevent a user from determining when a new alert has been detected.
