How Does One Evaluate Radar Detectors?

In order to do a meaningful radar detector comparison, we realized we must be able to rank every detector using a variety of criteria, with clearly some aspects being more important than others. Also, some variables can't really be quantified, but are nonetheless very important. Here's a list of the factors that influenced us in our decision making.

1. Price: the cost of the device. Since this is viewed from the perspective of the buyer, the higher the number, the cheaper the price (i.e. a value of 5 would indicate a really cheap device).

2. Bands: the range of bands of radar and laser the device detects.

3. Voice Alerts: does it give voice alerts or does it merely give audio alerts? How about visual alerts?

4. False Alerts: False alerts can be very irritating, since if they come often enough, they make the driver complacent. This means that he starts ignoring them. Therefore, being able to reduce false alerts is an extremely important feature of radar detectors. Many devices have specialized capabilities precisely for doing just that (such as the Autolearn mechanism).

5. Features: we list the available features of the device, such as safety warning alerts, earphone jack, carrying case, SmartCord, AutoMute button, etc. Some features are clearly not important while others might be crucial.

6. Installation: Custom installed detectors are aesthetic and hidden. Windshield mounted detectors are clunky and must be manually attached to the windshield. However, Custom installed detectors are limited in usage for the vehicle in which they are installed in, while windshield mounted detectors can be carried and used in other vehicles and even motorcycles.

7. GPS Capabilities: Some devices include GPS capabilities that store coordinates where police often monitor traffic. This is immensely useful as warns the driver to slow down in these places even if no alert is given. Some detectors even enable downloading these coordinates from the internet! Although this feature is not strictly necessary, it makes an excellent addition to any radar detector.

8. Detectable: is it detectable by detector-detector scanners? In other words, are you, the driver, invisible to detector-detector machines that the police may operate? Obviously this may be crucial.

9. Database subscription: If the device has GPS capabilities, then it may include a database subscription which means that it can download 'risky' coordinates from the internet that are up-to-date regarding speed traps, speed cameras, etc. This is not applicable to any radar detectors that do not include a GPS component.

In addition, we took into account whether the device is a radar detector, a radar jammer, or both. Clearly devices that have both capabilities were considered to be better.

As for the overall score: there is no exact 'formula' we used to make this decision, but we can say that price played a large factor. In other words, our overall score aimed to maximize the effectiveness of the radar detector for the price it costs.


Tom_Harkenshire

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