Best Radar Detectors

Latest detectors with GPS know where red-light cameras are

The newest, priciest radar detectors don't just detect radar and laser guns. They now use GPS receivers to warn you about speed/red-light cameras. "GPS also eliminates false alerts," and it's the most important new radar-detector feature since the early 1990s, say the experts at SpeedZones.com.

Reviewers say the Escort Passport 9500ix (*Est. $525) does the best job at both tasks: It outclasses all rivals in plain old radar detection in Speed Measurement Laboratories' tests, and it finds more red-light cameras than other brands.

Meanwhile, the 9500ix is "90 percent less irritating than any other detector on the market" in a Popular Mechanics test, because it's smart enough to automatically figure out which alarms are false and quit alarming about them -- which means this detector will actually get your attention when it counts.

Escort still sells last year's top model, the Escort Passport 9500i (*Est. $450). It too has a GPS chip to remember speed traps, false alarms, etc. -- but the driver has to notice them first and press a button to put them in the 9500i's memory. The new 9500ix goes two steps further. First, it automatically identifies and remembers false alarms -- you don't have to tell it a thing. Second, it already knows about thousands of red-light and speed cameras, thanks to its preloaded, updateable database.

The closest runner-up to the top-rated Escort Passport 9500ix is the Beltronics GX 65 (*Est. $475), another Escort-owned brand. It's just about as good at detecting radar guns, laser guns and red-light cameras in tests, but the Beltronics model doesn't automatically remember where false alarms are -- you have to do this manually.

Cobra's version, the Cobra XRS 9960G (*Est. $300) costs less. It offers most of the same features as the pricey Escort and Beltronics GPS models, plus a few extra. It includes a lifetime subscription to its speed/red-light camera database, it makes updates easy with a little removable USB key (with the Escort Passport 9500ix, you have to haul your laptop out to the car, testers note), and it's the only brand with a strobe-alert function to warn you of approaching emergency vehicles (it detects the strobe lights the vehicles use to change red lights to green). However, tests show that the Cobra won't warn you about radar and laser guns quite as quickly as the Escort and Beltronics models, and CNET says it "may come up short for faster drivers."

If you don't want to spend hundreds on a new radar detector, you can buy a separate device that just warns of speed and red-light cameras. The Whistler RLC-100 (*Est. $75) successfully identifies each known red-light camera in Speed Management Laboratories' test, as does the Whistler RLX-250 (*Est. $190) with its remote control and color screen, although we did not yet find this pricier model for sale. Surprisingly, an inexpensive app for the iPhone -- iRadar (*Est. $10) -- works just as well in the same test.

The Valentine One (*Est. $500) doesn't have GPS capabilities, so it can't warn you about speed or red-light cameras -- and it annoys some reviewers with its frequent false alarms. Some experts still recommend the Valentine One because until now, it sensed radar from farther away than any other detector. However, the Escort Passport 9500ix has finally caught up with it there, according to Speed Measurement Laboratories' latest tests.

Mid-priced radar detectors without GPS

GPS is the only way a detector can warn you about speed and red-light cameras. But if you're not worried about those, experts say you can get a good radar/laser detector for hundreds of dollars less.

The best models in this category all come from Escort and its subsidiary Beltronics. The top-rated Beltronics RX 65 (*Est. $300) detects radar and laser guns in plenty of time for the driver to slow down, and its city mode reduces false alarms, reviewers say. However, it doesn't suppress false alarms or detect faraway radar guns quite as well as the top-rated Escort Passport 9500ix in tests.

Two runners-up offer similar performance, but fewer features. The Escort Passport 8500 X50 (*Est. $300) lacks voice alerts and Ku-band detection for European use. The Beltronics Vector 995 (*Est. $225) lacks the RX 65's multiple-threat alarm (which tells you if more than one type of radar gun is detected), but it does have a basic voice alert.

A cordless radar detector, the Escort Solo S2 (*Est. $340), runs on two AA batteries. It gets good reviews from some experts and users, but we also found complaints that the batteries run out quickly (you can buy an optional power cord) and that it doesn't detect radar as strongly as other Escort models do. The Solo S2 also lacks voice alerts.

Radar detectors the police can't detect

Radar detectors are legal in passenger cars in most jurisdictions in the U.S. (Virginia, Washington, D.C. and military bases are the exceptions, and they're also banned in most of Canada), but the picture is considerably different for drivers of commercial vehicles. Federal law prohibits radar detectors in commercial vehicles over 10,000 pounds in all 50 states. Most radar detectors give off signals of their own, which can be picked up by police using a radar-detector detector (RDD). That makes using radar detectors risky for commercial drivers, as well as for regular passenger-car drivers who sometimes travel through locations where radar detectors are illegal.

The best "invisible" radar detector is the Beltronics STi Driver (*Est. $500), according to reviews. It masks its presence to RDDs right to the gun in Speed Measurement Laboratories' tests, but it can detect radar and laser guns from a long way off.

Two cheaper models prove undetectable by RDDs in the same test: the Cobra XRS 9960G and remote-controlled Cobra XRS R10G (*Est. $350). Both have GPS capabilities to alert you to speed and red-light cameras -- something the Beltronics STI Driver can't do. But neither can detect radar guns as strongly, from as far away, as the Beltronics can in tests.