Radar Detectors Reviews

Radar-detector enthusiasts are a passionate group, and the two main entities that test radar detectors, Speed Measurement Laboratories and Guys of Lidar.com, are fanatical in their attention to detail, providing clear explanations of testing policies and extensive documentation of each and every test they conduct. Rarely do we see such devotion to critical analysis and pure love of research than at these two websites. Quite simply, Speed Measurement Laboratories (which publishes results on its website, SpeedZones.com) and Guys of Lidar.com are the best reviewers of radar detectors out there -- period. However, neither makes specific recommendations. Instead, they present all the information and let readers decide for themselves which radar detector is best for their needs.

Roy Reyer, a former police officer, participates in and draws upon tests from Speed Measurement Labs, but also conducts and publishes his own analysis and tests. Though Reyer sells radar detectors through his website, RadarBusters.com, the detectors he tests and the ones he rates highly are not restricted to the products he offers. User reviews at Epinions and Amazon.com are helpful, and the radar detector forum at RadarDetector.net is also packed with information. Users are both well informed and highly opinionated. Consumer Reports has yet to evaluate radar detectors.

While manufacturers and users sometimes claim otherwise, most people buy radar detectors for one reason -- to avoid speeding tickets. It's not surprising, then, that there's a bit of an outlaw attitude when it comes to radar detectors. Unfortunately, that attitude sometimes spills over to reviewers as well. In the past, we rated the opinions of Craig Peterson and his RadarTest.com website highly. However, earlier this year, Guys of Lidar accused Peterson of sabotaging a radar detector field test they were conducting and posted a video on their site to back up the claim. Though we can't substantiate the authenticity of either the video or the claim, we do note that RadarTest.com has done just one review this year -- a now largely out-of-date look at laser jammers that predates the incident. As most of the other content on the site is more than a year old, we have significantly downgraded our rating of RadarTest.com for this update.

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

The best advice we've seen is that the best radar detector is the one that fits where you travel and the types of law enforcement used. With that in mind, the Valentine One, Beltronics STi Driver and Escort Passport 9500i, are all top-shelf choices. All are strong performers overall, but each has a particular strength that could make it the ideal choice for certain drivers. However, all are relatively expensive. The Beltronics Pro RX65 doesn't quite have the range of the best radar detectors, but it's feature packed. The Whistler XTR-690 costs less than half as much as any of the radar detectors above and is good at keeping itself hidden from RDDs. Though its range is adequate in most cases, and sometimes even better than that, it won't give you nearly as much warning as better rated radar detectors.