Who has a pretty new radar detector?
 

My Escort 9500ix is getting pretty long in the tooth and it's time for an upgrade. I'm leaning heavily toward a Uniden R7 or R8. Not sure the upgrade is worth the price delta between the two. They both appear to alert far faster than the Escort 360c. What do you guys think?

I'm still using my Valentine.

Thanks, but that's not a new one. Looking for latest and greatest.

Ooops, I should read more carefully.

The V2 is the latest from them. It connects to your phone and does pretty good at finding radar. There are a lot of false alarms from new car cruise control.

Me too, although I did get the new model two years ago.

I have a V1 and sent it in 2 years ago and had it all updated to the latest.

My Cayenne Turbo S came with a built in Passport SR7. It’s old school but appears to work.

Have had a 2nd generation V1 for over a year now. I respect laser and instant on guns but the rest are seen a long way in advance. Not sure how many detectors are equipped with technology which prevents their own signal from being detected but g2 V1 claims it has it.

Either way, patrol cars sitting in the median facing traffic but not triggering an alert still occasionally happens. I have to assume they are not gunning but it's not the best 30 seconds of life and always makes me worry about the "arms race".

Almost any ticket avoided would pay for the OP's upgrade.

I’ve used V1 since about 1996. Nothing but. Upgraded every 3-4-5 years. Happy.

Earlier this year I bought at R7 based on reviews and it certainly exceeded my expectations.

And then when they came back in stock I bought an R8. My wife drives quickly too.

Honestly. The range is phenomenal. The R7 is quieter day to day, less falses from blind spot detection systems. I drive in NJ which is one of few states that still use X band a lot. So I can’t filter all c bands alerts. My R8 and 7 are setup with very similar filters enabled. It’s amazing how much quieter the 7 is.

But the 8 is incredible too. I’d buy a 7 before buying another 8 but your mileage may vary based on you local radar usage.

That's what I was looking for - whether the R8 is worth the extra money over the R7. Escort no longer supports updating my old 9500ix, so that's not an option.

Grabbed a new Uniden R7 off Amazon for $449. I wonder my two old 9500ix's will bring anything on eBay.

I’ve used the V1 since the 70’s and 2 V2’s for a while now. They work.

I have a uniden R3. Pretty powerful. Maybe too powerful. Required careful adjustment of the filters to make it usable and not irritating. Thought about the R7 but didn’t want to spend the extra $. Would be nice to have the direction arrows. If I did it over, ide go for one with direction arrows

Been using detectors since 88. These days, it feels vulnerable to not have a laser jammer installed also

I also have the R3 and am very happy with it. Has saved my bacon many times.

One thing it's lacking is the direction of the radar signal (in front of you or behind). Not sure how useful that info is, and wouldn't pay much of a premium for it, but something I've thought about.

Valentine V2 with an app. Call it a day.

Is this pretty enough? ;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1665355377.jpg

I bought an Escort 360C last year before heading out for a road trip since I couldn't find my Valentine. Then I realized... I really don't like using a radar detector. Anyone want to buy it?

Hasn't the V1 patent on the arrows expired so someone else has something similar now? I feel like I've seen an escort or something with similar functionality.

I've been using a V1 for probably 15-20 years now. The arrows are definitely useful. I've gotten laser warnings that have saved my bacon as well. I've never had a laser jammer. Laser is used in/around Houston a fair amount.
Yes, the directional arrows and counters are very nice to have. I like them.

Not sure why but I find this pic disturbing 😯

Sorry I missed this thread earlier. I bought an Escort Max3. It is basically the same as the MAX360, but only in the forward direction. It is far better than my 9500ix

I couldn't find any discounts, so it was $399.

I like the cellphone integration. I have it turned on and use WAZE at the same time.

The only issue, the cellphone application does not like to actually shutdown. I have to knock it out with Forced Shutdown or it can suck down a lot of battery life.

Needs some lipstick...flip it over....maybe it's on the other side?

Uniden R7 has direction arrows…and quite a few others

Can’t embed

Best of 2022…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqh09dqQ2mM

Spent a lot of time on his channel when deciding on my last detector


https://www.vortexradar.com/best-radar-detectors/

Got my R7 today. I'm keeping an open mind, but it feels very light and cheaply made compared to my Escorts. Obviously, housing metal and power supply vinyl shielding don't really matter as much as functionality. But I'm wondering. Worst thing is that the cigarette lighter socket plug-in is about 1mm wider than my Escort's and that makes it impossible for my water tumbler to fit in my cup holder. First world problem.

I always hardwire into my fuse box or you can go crazy with it and get one of those mirror mounts that tap into the power there

Let us know how you like it after some use. I may move my R3 to my 911 as the escort I’m using in that is 10 years old now and get an R7 for my VW

R7 is known for being somewhat flimsy and the speaker failing.

rjp

I have had an R3 for about 2 years. works really well. I replaced a Passport 8500 and it was well worth it.

i don't get the fascination with arrows. If they RD goes off, you slow down. Doesn't matter what direction its in.

The newer R4 is supposed to be even better but came out after I got mine.

Got a Uniden R8 yesterday. Love it so far. And so easy to update with the new PC updater. Will move the R3 to the 911 to replace an older passport. First RD with arrows and I’m loving that.

I've got one of those in my car. It's wonderful to have it mounted to the mirror and the power cable is only a few inches long.

More information is better. Arrows and bogey counter together are great.

You get a hit on your detector that there's radar ahead of you. You have great visibility of both sides of the road and you don't see anything as your signal gets stronger and stronger. Then the signal flips to behind you and starts getting weaker, so you know that the bogey was in the other lanes and nothing to worry about.

More info is better than less info and allows you to make informed decisions.

I guess I've had the V1 gen2 for about 3 years now. I've never used the phone app that I remember. I just realized after this thread popping up that the phone app is how you get free upgrades for the V1 Gen2 so I reinstalled the app, and ran out to the wife's car and sat in the car for 5-10 mins while my virgin V1 got the latest update from Sep of 2023. THat's right, brand spankin' new update as of this month. Cool. There were several updates in 2020, 2021, and 2022. I think at some point in there they enabled the ability to update from a cell phone via the V1 App, so maybe that hasn't always been a thing.

I was curious, there are also a couple of aftermarket apps available for V1 if for some reason you don't want to use the V1 app. I think there are apps in the Apple and Android app stores. In the Apple store, I saw 3, one that's $10, one that's $12, and one that's $15.

V1 Companion $10

V1 Driver $12

V1 Radar Connect Pro 4+ $15

Unfortunately, my car is in the shop, so I'll have to wait, likely until next Tue/Wed to get my car back to test the updates.

I've got an OLD V1 and a V1 gen2, and love them both. I leave the old on in the wife's car with the suction cups so I can use it when I'm driving and have the mirror mount in my car for the gen2.

V1, never leave home with out it!

A quick report on the MAXcam 360c.

As a radar detector, excellent. I like the arrows and it definitely is better than my Max3. Not hugely, but the 360 is helpful.

The camera integration is bad. Idea good, but the application flat doesn't work. To get the videos, you have to realistically pull the card. Better off getting the Redline 360c and a separate camera.

I still love my V1. The customer support is as good as it gets.

When I was in California, Palm Springs area, it hit 105 to 107 most every day. My car was in the sun, and 135 degrees inside. My rear view mirror fell off!

I have a mirror mount for the V1 so it is attached just under the mirror. The mount for the detector was broken. I sent Valentine 1 an email and asked how I get a replacement mount and how much they are. They replied they would ship one to my house. I replied that is nice, but I am on vacation,in California, could they ship it to the hotel address attention to me, but I really need it before my journey back home to Oklahoma. The sent it to the hotel, two day shipping and all for no cost to me at all.

On the way home in New Mexico on Highway 60 and is a remote area, it started a warning.

Of course I would never be one to speed in a remote and isolated straight road. But just over a hill, and back off the road a bit was a State Trooper running radar.

Of course I went through right at the speed limit and continued my journey home.

It looks like the V1 companion app is fairly well loved compared to the other two, at least per app store reviews. There are also a couple of other Android based apps for V1 that are not on Apple.
https://www.rdforum.org/threads/116904/

The developer for the V1 companion app also seems to have apps for other detectors including the R7 and R8. I guess now that many of the newer detectors are BT capable there's a whole market for apps that work with them which is kind of cool.

i have the R8 companion app…haven’t used it much as it has only been a couple days but seems to be well done and i like the that it can send audio through my apple car play and out the car speakers.

I haven't used the V1 app, but I will as soon as I get my car back. Some of the apps add some interesting sounding features. If I like the V1 app and use it, I may eventually spring for one of the other apps that add even more features. We'll see. I don't have a problem paying a developer for an app/tool that I use, but I'm also not one to pay for every app that sounds interesting. I have to feel like I'm really going to use the app regularly before I'm willing to pay.

i believe it was Vortex or the comments under one of his videos that gave positive reviews for the companion app. i think i paid $10. i rarely will do that and i no longer buy apps that require a monthly subscription. this doesn’t. it was $10 and that’s it. a small price to pay for a well developed piece of software. will i use it? not sure. i dont like phone holders in the car so not being able to glance at the phone app probably limits some of its advantages. i will say that pairing it to my R8 is flawless and immediate.

Geez, I have an old Escort Passport 5000 but I haven't used it in a long time. I always liked that detector because it has an lcd screen and would show a little icon scanning across the bottom of the screen and when it detected something it would show if it was coming from the left or right.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

I replaced an old 8500 with a R3 not too long ago. Radar detectors have certainly come a long way in the last decade. I don't have the will to play with its advanced features but seems to be working well enough.


I am a big fan of hardwiring with blendmont
https://blendmount.com/