Review Cobra XRS 9955 Radar Detector
Radar Roy tests reviews the new Cobra XRS 9955 GPS radar detector and pits this unit against the Spectre RDD an and various police laser guns. If your considering purchasing a Cobra radar detector, you will want to read this review now!
Cobra Radar Detectors – I’ve Been Snapped
This year Cobra Electronics went WAY OUT with a very informative and engaging presentation about their 2009 line up of their GPS enabled radar detectors.
As I approached their booth I noticed that they had a faux speed camera with flash mounted on a pole and standing in close proximity were three gorgeous gals all dressed in short black skirts wearing silver police badges.
As I entered the booth one of these beautiful ladies approached with a ticket in hand saying that I’ve been “snapped” and wanted my name so I could be entered into a contest to win a free radar detector. I declined the free detector (as I have plenty already) but she then invited me to watch a video presentation about their new 2009 line up.
Of course I couldn’t refuse as she sat me down and I watched their three minute video explaining photo speed camera and red light camera enforcement and their new “Aura” automated camera alert database.
I have to hand it to Cobra this was the best speed counter measure presentation that I’ve ever attended in all my years at SEMA and CES! Great job guys and gals…..
Review Cobra XRS 9830 Radar Detector
Driver Experience Test
Yesterday afternoon I installed the Cobra XRS 9830 into my pickup for its road test for my “Low Priced Radar Detector Review”
The Cobra XRS 9830 retail price is $209.95 and is a corded all band radar detector.
Again, Cobra uses what I would consider misleading advertising on their packaging indicating that the XRS 9830 is a 12 band “ultra” radar detector. The detector has X, K and Ka bands which are the standard bands used in the USA along with laser. However the detector also has Ku which is a European radar band and sliced up the laser band into four segments and add the capability to detect POP as one band, the ability to detect Spectre as a band, the ability to detect VG2 as a band, strobe alert as a band and then safety alert as a band. Their 12 band advertising could lead a unsuspecting buyer that the Cobra units deliver more than other models on the market which is completely untrue.
Yesterday morning prior to my testing of the XRS 9830, the Wickenburg Police Department moved their K band radar trailer around the corner from my offices on SR93. When I first found it at its new location I was using the Escort 9500i and I visually marked the location to where the detector first alerted and the location where the detector went full alert.
So I slightly deviated from my route this afternoon to add the radar trailer to my testing. The trailer was located approximately 1500 feet after a banking right turn at the bottom of a hill. The Escort 9500i alerted while I was inside this turn, approximately 3000 feet north of the trailer. As I approached this same location with the Cobra detector, it was completely silent.
After making the turn, I visually observed the trailer approximately 1800 feet away, at this point yesterday the Escort was at full tilt, however the Cobra was just giving out its first “chirp”. It wasn’t until the trailer was within 1500 feet that the Cobra began its full alert of the K band trailer.
At this reporting range and depending upon other traffic on the highway, it’s debatable if the Cobra provided adequate warning to avoid a ticket if this was a real encounter.
After this encounter, we headed south to Interstate 10 on Vulture Mine Road.
This area is a sparsely populated area, void of any devices that would normally activate a false alert on a radar detector such as microwave towers and door openers. During this 25 mile leg the Cobra logged over 15 X band and 3 K band false alerts.
Heading east on I-10 the detector made its first Ka alert just prior to me noticing a west bound DPS trooper. Traffic was light in this area and I could not determine from the nature of the alert, if the officer was using constant on or instant on radar. However, I would consider the alert notice adequate in that it provided ample time to slow down.
Turning northeast on the Sun Valley Parkway, I began my lookout for the Buckeye Police Officer that frequented this area with his Ka radar gun. Although I did not spot him, I did get a contestant on Ka band hit from a Surprise Patrol car further north. The officer was parked on the opposite side of the roadway facing my direction and the detector alerted within 2200 feet, well outside the kill zone.
However as I still had some time and it didn’t appear that the officer was heading anyplace soon, I turned around and installed the 9500i that I had in my truck as I was interested in seeing how that unit would do under the same situation.
After travelling two miles back west and turning around I was at least five times further away then the Cobra alerted and the Escort alerted at this location much further away the moment I applied power.
I reinstalled the Cobra and returned to my normal route and headed home on US 60.
The overall performance and filtering of the Cobra XRS 9830 was good when compared to the other detectors tested in this price range. A few added value features that I did like was the LED plasma like display that made the detector easy to see in bright light and the LED voltage meter. Does it have the performance and range to save you encounters when you’re traveling 20 or more miles above the speed limit, probably not, but I have not found any detector yet in the price area that would.
Radar Roy’s Badge Rating – Two Badges
Review Cobra ESD 7400 Radar Detector
Driver Experience Test
Today we selected the Cobra ESD 7400 radar detector from our arsenal for my “Low Priced Radar Detector Review.” And I didn’t have to travel far to rate the performance or so should I say lack of, on this detector.
The Cobra ESD 7400 retails for as much as $59.95 and is advertised as being a six band radar detector capable of detecting the three radar bands used in the USA, VG2, Laser and Cobra’s Safety System.
Before heading out of town for our 85 mile trip, we pulled into the local Circle K convenience store to get a cold drink. Parked nose out in the parking lot was a Wickenburg Police Officer running a dash mounted K band radar gun with the antenna pointed forward in my direction. The Cobra did not alert until I was literally fifty feet in front of the patrol car. It was evident that the officer’s radar gun was left in constant on, as the officer himself was inside the store getting himself a cold drink.
I parked alongside and got my cold drink and pulled out of the parking lot with the officer directly behind following. If I maintained a distance less than fifty feet the detector had no problem detecting the officer’s radar gun, any further the detector fell silent.
I continued west to head out of town and came across another Wickenburg Officer that was operating a Ka band radar gun parked along the side of the road. Again the Cobra did not alert until I was pretty much on top of him.
Realizing that if continued my normal test route was worthless and that I would be spending more on fuel then the detector was worth, so I called it a day.
I have tested hundreds of radar detectors in my day and very few have ever received a no star rating. My “Zero Star” rating has historically been reserved for those devices advertized as being capable of scrambling police radar and found as worthless as placing a brick on your dash. I’m very disappointed in that such a well known and respected company such as Cobra has lowered the bar in marketing a device such as this.
Radar Roy’s Badge Rating – Zero Badges
Escort Inc. vs. Cobra Electronics Corporation
Over the past several months there has been quite a bit of debate regarding the enforcement of patents in the radar detector and laser jamming industry on RadarDetector.net
Wikipdedia states that the elements of patent infringement includes any party that manufactures, uses, sells, or offers for sale patented technology during the term of the patent and within the country that issued the patent, is considered to infringe the patent.
As the operator of RadarDetector.net, I have come under fire from radar detector enthusiasts for censoring messages relating to devices that I suspect violate patents and by manufactures for not censoring enough of these messages because they feel the messages themselves encourage the illegal importation and use of these products within the USA.
Today while searching the net for cases involving the speed countermeasure industry, I was surprised to find a recent filing by Escort Inc. against Cobra Electronics for patent infringement regarding Escort’s new 9500i radar detector.
In December of 2003, Escort Inc. filed patent number 6,670,905 (905 patent) for a GPS enabled radar detector that aids in the management of unrelated or otherwise unimportant sources (false alerts) and also maintains a list of the known stationary sources in nonvolatile memory. After the patent was grated to Escort, I would suspect that they used it in the development of their new 9500i radar detector.
I was aware of Escort’s patent and was one of the select few that had an opportunity to test and review the Escort 9500i’s before its release at the 2007 CES Show in Las Vegas. Therefore it was somewhat of a surprise to me (and several others in the radar detector industry) that several weeks prior to the CES show, Cobra Electronics issued a press release of having the first GPS enabled radar detector, the XRS R9G.
It was then that I asked contacts that I had inside Escort if they had any comment about Cobra’s infringement on their patent. Then the official “off the record comment” was that they needed to look at Cobra’s new detector and their patent and let the attorney decide. After ten months of not hearing any follow-up I figured that the topic was dead, how wrong I was.
Today I located Escort’s complaint 1:07-cv-852 filed October 12, 2007 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio against Cobra Electronics alleging that Cobra had violated Escort’s 905 patent with Cobra’s manufacture and sale of the XRS R9G.
On November 11th, Cobra Electronics filed their response to the court disputing Escort’s claim of infringement and filed a counter claim against Escort alleging that Escort violated their “279 patent” entitled “Electronic Signal Detector with Mute Feature” in development of the 9500i.
As both sides are now locked in litigation, it is doubtful that I can get either an official or unofficial response from either side. So we will keep watch for any new legal briefs or filings in this court until the case settles.
Review Cobra XRS 9530 Radar Detector
Driver’s Experience Test
The second detector tested for my “Low Priced Radar Detector Review” is the Cobra XRS 9530.
The XRS 9530 retails for around $149.95 and is advertised as a 12 band radar detector. Cobra’s marketing of their multi bands can sometimes be misleading to consumers as there are only three radar bands and one laser band currently in use in the USA. However Cobra has a tendency to split up the laser band into four segments and add the additional strobe alert, safety alert system, vg2 alert and spectre alert to these four bands leading a unknowledgeable consumer to believe that the Cobra units detect more radar then competitors models, which is completely false.
We installed the Cobra unit, programmed it to highway mode and added an additional 200 miles to our normal 85 mile route, as we were heading out to Tombstone Arizona for the weekend.
The first thing that struck me about the Cobra unit was on how quite the unit was. Days earlier I had taken the Whistler XTR-185 and I had logged over 15 false alerts on the same roadway. Knowing that even high end radar detectors with much better filtering capabilities would had at least alerted once on this same path, I became a little concerned.
On Interstate 10, just outside of Avondale I received my first K band alert. Ahead approximately 1800 feet, I observed an Arizona Department of Transportation speed trailer. From my experience I knew that a high ended radar detector would have alerted to this trailer at least four times the distance of the Cobra unit if not more.
Another thing that I found unusual in this encounter and also later encounters, that after the threat passed the detector seemed to be still locked on the same radar detector signal long after it should have had diminished.
While in the Phoenix area on I-10 the detector began picking up numerous X band alerts. As X band is not used in Arizona, I switched modes to city. While in this mode the Cobra detector delays the audio reporting of X band signals until they reach level three while still displaying the alert on the display.
Again I noticed that the detector seemed to be locked on previous X band alerts on the display, much longer then I would expect.
Just outside of Tucson Arizona I noticed a Pima County Sheriff’s Office unit that was parked off the side of the highway with the nose pointed in my direction of travel. Standing outside of the car, I observed the deputy taking measurements. The Cobra unit did not alert to the deputies Ka dash mounted hand held radar gun until I was well inside the deputies kill zone of 1300 feet.
My next encounter was just outside of Tombstone, when the unit alerted to a Ka alert as I crested over a hill right into the path of parked Tombstone Town Marshall.
My overall experience with the Cobra XTR 9530 was poor. No, the detector did not disturb me with false alerts; however when I needed to be alerted the detector just didn’t stand up and do its job. My rule of thumb has been that a detector should have at least seven times the range of the police radar gun to be effective.
In the two encounters with what I fell were both constant on Ka band, the detector did not alert until I was well within the “kill zone” of the officer.
Radar Roy’s Rating – One Badge:
Day Two – Traveling the Bayou
At 6:00 am co-driver The Veil Guy and I began preparation for day two of the Fireball.
We first the pulled the 540i next to a dumpster unloading shovelfuls of candy wrappers, empty soda bottles and even a couple of cigar wrappers that we accumulated the day prior. We then sprayed the interior with air freshener in an attempt to deaden a “stinky sock odor”.
Both of us brought a small arsenal of detectors and handheld radar and laser guns with for our trip. Our prearranged plan was to field test as many detectors that we could, during our endurance cross country rally.
Bob and I agreed for day two, we would do a side by side comparison of the new Cobra XRS R7 with the Bel STi radar detector.
I brought my Toughbook, Garmin GPS and iPhone, used extensively to locate landmarks, download maps and to solve clues for this event.
Bob and I also had six video cameras and two digital cameras between the two of us, but both forgot purchasing tapes for recording.
After topping off our gas tank, we headed out race day two’s staging area located just off the western bank of the Mississippi River. An entourage of local media was already present taping and performing live interviews for the local news stations.
As we pulled into formation we were greeted by various local dignitaries that included Baton Rouge City Council personnel, the Chamber of Commerce President and the State Visitor’s Bureau President.
We performed a final cars inspection and checked in and received a FEDEX envelope containing the clue for the first leg of our journey and told that we were not to open the packet until we began driving on the Interstate.
At 9:00 am the count down began and a local Baton Rouge television news reporter waved us on with the green flag.
As we pulled onto the Interstate I opened the sealed envelope and read our first clue. “Proceed directly to the Red Stick – According to legend Baton Rouge’s name came from a notation on a map used by French explorer Pierre le Moyone in 1699”
With the Toughbook already fired up, I went directly to Wikipedia to try to obtain information about this ‘red stick’ with hopes of beating out other rally contestants who have been known to change and/or delete clue information on this interactive research site.
Wikipedia had vague information on the red sticks location being in the area of the state capitol so we headed off to the state house. As we pulled into the park there were already ten other Fireball cars parked infront and another ten following behind us.
Wikipedia mentioned that the Red Stick was a tall Cypress pole that was smeared with animal’s blood that apparently served as a dividing line between the city and local Indian tribes. None of us expected to find a red pole with blood, but assumed that there would be some historical marker, so Bob and other drivers fanned out and walked what seemed to be a ten acre park, while I and other navigators remained in the car doing Internet searches.
I found a link on Google Maps to a private blogger’s website making reference to the Red Stick as being located behind the Capital Building and even had a google map pointer showing its location. I waved Bob over and we drove behind the State Capitol building and found a state corrections center. There were several employees in the lot and none ever heard of anything called a “red stick” but suggested that we go over to the State Capitol Police Department located across the street.
We went over to the police building and met an officer who was in the parking lot loading his patrol car. He mentioned to us that we were the fifth person who walked into the secured parking area asking for the location of the “red stick” He too replied that he never heard of any such thing but directed us back to the park saying that there were all sorts of memorials and historical markers in the area and to check them out.
We arrived back at the park, finding that most of all the other Fireballers either had left in frustration or were tracking down a better clue. Looking up at the entrance of the State Capitol building we observed two gentleman wearing red jackets standing at the entry way. Bob sprinted up the twenty fights of stairs asking about the red stick. Both related that they also never heard anything about any red stick, but that a state historian was in the lobby and perhaps he could offer assistance.
Bob walked inside finding the first knowledgeable person on state attractions and he provided a detailed map to the location where we would find the marker of the “red stick.”
Once Bob arrived back in the car with these directions, I plugged them into our GPS and we were off to a park ten miles away on bank of the Mississippi River.
As we pulled into the park we saw the Bat Mobile and Team Blinder pulling out. They directed us to a young lady that had the next clue and mentioned that at least ten other teams had beaten them to the park.
We checked in and were then given our next clue “Do the hokey pokey and turn around as you’re about to break to one of Louisiana’s most celebrated residents; Mike VI” ancestor the legendary Mike, who tragically died as a result of kidney disease in 1956. Journey now to the den located somewhere near Death Valley”
I fired up Google and searched for “LA Mike VI death valley” and instantly came up with a page for the LSU stadium. It then made sense; the tiger mascot for LSU was named Mike. I did a search in our GPS for the LSU Stadium and headed south.
After arriving at LSU stadium we went to the glass enclosed den of Mike VI and met with a Fireball representative who then gave us our next clue, “Believe it or not, only once a year the people of Plaquemine LA find sanctuary in a tiny place which at one time even tested Ripley’s belief.”
As the clue was obvious that we would need to head to the town of Plaquemine LA, I plugged the town into the GPS. As we arrived onto the interstate, I had researched that this was named the worlds smallest church by Ripley’s Believe it or Not, that it was located on River Street, just outside of Plaquemine and had Google Map its coordinates for the GPS. We headed west on I-10 to the Iberville Parish exit.
Annoying False Alerts
While reroute to the Iberville Parish exit, we had already logged over fifty miles during which time the STi remained silent. However the Cobra XRS R7 seemed to false alert every few minutes on either K or Ka band. Feeling overwhelmed with these falses and needing Bob to to focus his attention to driving safely in this performance event, I started to become concerned. I asked if Bob was ok with the unit and related that we needed to “know and understand our ememy, the other Fireballers” who were using Cobra’s detectors. I said that I would turn the unit off after getting a confimed hit on both units.
While turning off at the Iberville Parish, we noticed a small gas station with a Game and Fish pick-up at the pump. We both figured that this would be a great time to grab a cold drink and to confirm with the Game Warden that we were on the right track.
At first the game warden seemed clueless when we explained that we were looking for the Madonna Chapel Church in Plaquemine but the his eyes widened as another Fireballer pulled off the highway and headed out and stated “I know! You’re looking for the worlds smallest church, don’t follow him, I know a short cut!” The warden then penciled out a detailed map though the backwoods of Bayou country.
We thanked him and headed out following his directions. Neither Bob nor I had ever been in this part of the country and found everyone we encountered to be very kind and helpful. This was especially true when we pulled alongside an old beat up pickup truck with two elderly people seated in the bed with a few younger children in the cab to ask directions. A middle aged man replied that we were going the right way, “just continue down there a bit till you come to the Popeye’s Chicken place and turn right.”
Our country back road eventually intersected Highway One and we drove up to the Popeye’s Chicken and turned right, finding River Road.
As we neared the church we saw several other Fireballers heading the opposite way and figured that even though we may not be first, we were close to the front of the pack.
About a mile away from the church I noticed other Fireballers on a dirty road heading away into a farm field and commented to Bob, “I wonder if that is the next route we take on our next clue?”
We arrived at the church […]
Review Cobra XRS R9G
I was first introduced to the new Cobra XRS R9G at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Trade Show in January. The first thing that set me back was all the oohhs and aahs that installers were making about Cobra’s new remote unit because of the ease of install.
I wasn’t as impressed even with their new wireless controller, as I didn’t feel that by mounting a radar detector to the top of the windshield would put it into the same classification as a remote mounted unit. However I decided to back off until I could actually purchase a retail unit to perform an install and to put the detector through its paces, I’m glad I did.
A few days prior to Speed Measurement Laboratories 2007 Radar Detector Shoot-Out, I took delivery of the new Cobra unit. I decided to do full install at SML in my Ford F-250 Pick Up and put it through its paces during the Shoot-Out.
I have to admit during and after the install I was very impressed with Cobra’s ease of install. The package comes with lock strips that you attach to the windshield and to the main unit and GPS antenna. Also the unit comes with a lighter cord and a direct wire cord that you can use to attach to your fuse box.
I chose to install the main unit and the GPS antenna to the right side of my rear view mirror and then I ran the power cable down the side pillar to the fuse box. I then plugged in the wireless controller to the lighter to charge, and attached it to the air conditioning vent with the supplied clip. The total time of the install took approximately five minutes.
After the install, we decided to first put the GPS through its paces against the red light cameras in the El Paso area. The XRS R9G does come pre-loaded with a database of enforcement camera locations already programmed into the unit; however the newer El Paso cameras were not in its database. Therefore when we first approached these locations, we simply had to press a few buttons on the controller and the locations were stored.
We returned later during the test and the unit did alert us in advance of the approaching “marked locations”. However we noticed that the unit was not programmed to alert to these locations in “the same direction” only as the Cheetah and NavAlert GPS units. The “same direction” feature is nice when there are multiple enforcement cameras in the same area, as the unit will ONLY alert to cameras that you are approaching that are used in the direction that you’re approaching from.
We then spent some time testing the radar detector capabilities around the El Paso area. We had the Cobra XRS R9G along with Escort’s SR7 and Beltronics STi operating, all in highway mode. Normally it is not a good practice to operate multiple detectors at the same time as they can cause interference with each other. However our SR7 was a remote unit with the antenna mounted below the front bumper and the STi is designed not to leak any RF, so we felt that we took the proper precautions.
Traveling north on State Route 54 from El Paso, both our STi and the SR7 began alerting to a Ka signal at approximately the same time while the Cobra unit was completely silent. Approximately a half mile away, I noticed the light bar of an El Paso patrol car parked in the left shoulder, a hundred feet beyond a forty five degree turn.
The Cobra unit remained silent during this off axis encounter, until we were stright on with the patrol car and within line of sight. This encounter would certainly have earned us a costly citation if we had only relied upon the Cobra unit.
To see if we could increase the sensitivity of the Cobra unit we switched the unit into POP mode. After fifteen minutes of what seemed to be continues false alerts, we decided to then switch POP off and to keep the unit in Highway mode.
After the SML test, we decided to keep the Cobra unit in our pick-up for another few more weeks to compare the units overall performance.
After returning home, we ran the unit against Scottsdale’s 101 freeway cameras and other local fixed photo radar and red light cameras in the area. As mentioned Cobra’s unit does not allow for “same direction” notification and this feature is almost needed on Scottsdale’s 101, as there are three cameras on each side of the freeway, for a total of six. During our trip down the 101, the Cobra alerted to all six, even to those on the opposite side.
As far as Cobra’s preprogrammed database, we did find ourselves marking a number of fixed enforcement camera locations as they were not entered into their database. Prior to this review we went to Cobra’s website to check on availability of updates, but no information was posted.
As noted in the El Paso encounter, we again found that the Cobra unit had a difficult time in alerting to off axis encounters on both K and Ka band, and lagged a few seconds behind the SR7 and the STi in all other real world encounters.
What disappointed me the most was the high percentage of false alerts and even alerting to the wrong band on several encounters.
The ratio of false alerts of the Cobra when compared to the SR7 and STi was almost 50 to 1. In many of these false alert encounters, we even shut off the STi and the SR7 to eliminate any doubt of these detectors interfering with the Cobra unit and while these units were powered off, we still encountered these same false alert signals.
In all encounters the Cobra would always indicate the correct band during its initial alert. However we noticed on numerous occasions that the display would then switch to other bands. One K band speed trailer in particular caused the Cobra to first alert to K, but then fluctuate between K, X and even Ka.
Cobra’s suggested MSP is $439.95, placing this detector in the same price category as the Escort 9500i, the STi and the Valentine One. However to compare the Cobra’s performance to against these higher ended units I can only say this, Cobra has a long way to go.
I do admit that after installing and using the Cobra, I have appreciated their revolutionary idea using the mounting the detector in the method that they have chosen. However I did find myself a few times checking under my seats, under the dash and under the floor mats trying to find the remote control head that I misplaced.
I wouldn’t find myself recommending this unit to any “road warrior” and if it is GPS radar detection that you want, I feel that you have better options to chose from considering either the NavAlert or the GPS Mirror coupled with a good high end detector.
Radar Roy’s Rating – Two Badges
CES – Day One
Over the past several weeks I was given the opportunity to test drive the new Escort 9500I radar detector from Escort. Part of the agreement I had with Escort, along with several other items that I am often given to try out, was not to disclose any information about their new unit until 10:00 AM PST today (the opening at CES).
So as the doors opened at 10:00 am, I was uploading my review of the 9500i and the upload finished at 10:01.
After the upload, I made a beeline to the Bel and Escort booth. There I met with Escort and we discussed my test drive of the 9500i. Overall I was very impressed with the 9500i and again, it will be my top pick for the 2007 detector line.
As to answer many of the user questions on radardetector net regarding many of their questions:
Laser Sensitivity: In preliminary tests with laser, the 9500i was in par with the Bel RX65 and Escort 8500 in laser detection. So I would rate the laser performance as good.
Stealth Capabilities: No, the Escort 9500i was not designed to have the stealth capabilities as the STi in defeating the Spectre. However the 9500i is VG-2 proof.
TrueLock Feature: My experience with the TrueLock feature in locking out false alarm locations is that the radius of the area that is marked as a false alert location is very small. Even if an officer was running radar on the same exact radar frequency as the device that was marked as a false alert location, I would suspect that the strength of the officers gun would give ample warning outside the radius of the marked location.
USB Port: Initially the USB port will allow the user to store and update marked locations of speed traps into their computer and will also allow users to share their information. Escort says that they also plan on offering “marked locations” to users so they can download a larger database. This USB port can also be used to do diagnostic testing and updating the firmware, however they will not commit to a time frame when this feature will be activated.
Sensitivity and Range: I didn’t have the time and resources to do a full scale range and sensitivity report on the 9500i, however I was able to compare it to the SR7 and the STi in real driving situations. The 9500i alerted further away then my SR7 and approximately the same range as my STi in Ka alerts. On K alerts all three were about equal. We will be doing the new tests in March with the 9500i and other detectors.
Availability: Initially I was given a target date around March, but my experience is to add another month after the first announced target date so that the manufacture can address last minute issues. Also another tester of the 9500i that I spent time with today, also suggested some other features that Escort could add to refine the final production model. So my best gut tells me that I would expect that the first production units will be coming out late April or early May, but again, that is my estimate, not theirs.
Cobra Electronics
Next stop was Cobra to see their new remote mounted XRS R7 and XRS R9G.
The first thing that struck me was two of the letters and the number they used in the naming one of these new remote detectors, SR 7, sounds familiar?
Also I was taken back by the ooohs and aahs that a couple of 12 volt installers were making about the units ease of install.
First off my opinion of their remote is that it really isn’t a remote mounted piece at all. The combo radar/laser antenna is designed to be mounted in the passenger compartment, on the top of the windshield, in the area between the rear view mirror and the passenger sun visor, or behind the mirror if room allows.
The display unit is wireless, and can be mounted to the dash area. The user would charge the display unit using either a remote charger or the USB port when it is connected to a computer.
The remote mounted radar/laser antenna can detect radar/laser forward and rear
Cobra told me that the user could also program false alert locations into their unit and would also allow the user to mark their own enforcement areas into the GPS as the 9500i.
I was also told that at this time no testing by any outside reviewers have been done with their new unit (including Car and Driver)
Whistler Group
Stop three was the Whistler group to see their new line up that includes their new dash mounted high performance XTR690 and the Pro 78.
Whistler told us that the XTR690 and Pro 78 are equal in performance, but that the XTR690 would include a compass. They also said that both units would be similar in performance as the higher priced Bel and Escort products.
Both units were very sleek in design, however when I pulled out my camera, I was told that no photos were allowed at this time of their showcased products.
Rocky Mountain Radar
What would a CES show be without visiting the hucksters at RMR and saying hello.
However as I did my preliminary intel on their booth several times prior to making my grand entry, I noticed that both Mike and Raul were both M.I.A.
A few minutes prior to making my rounds at RMR, RacerX (a member of the radardetector.net forum) was perusing their wares. On the east side of their display I began checking out their display and I didn’t notice any new items from their radar/laser jammer arsenal that they were planning on marketing.
As I circled around to the northend, Debbie Petty saw me and stepped next to a new RMR employee “That’s the guy that is offering that $50,000 reward on our products” and as I turned her stepping back to warn the other RMR employees working the booth that were standing next to RacerX. Debbie then pointed to me and said “That’s Radar Roy, that asshole”.
Speed Measurement Laboratories
Carl Fors and I then met up for dinner after the show. Carl was also one of the select few that tested the 9500i prior to CES and we both compared our notes and overall we both agreed that the new Escort unit was a revolutionary new unit and that its performance was excellent.
Carl did say that he was planning on making some major changes to the date and testing procedures at this years test and that he would be sending out a notice soon.
Carl also told me of some new police equipment that he knows is being tested.
During the Boston National Chief of Police Association show, MPH had a protype of a Ku gun they were “tossing around” and he also heard rumors of a new laser gun that is under final development from another manufacture that he could not give any details on, but felt that it was a winner for the police side of the industry.
Review Cobra XRS R9G Remote Mounted Radar Detector
I am very excited about this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that kicks off next Monday, January 8th, in Las Vegas.
Earlier this week, a Whistler insider leaked information about their new XTR 690 radar detector and not to be out done, today Cobra gave a sneak peak at their newest detector, the Cobra XRS R9G 12- band remote radar detector with GPS capabilities for tracking known traffic enforcement cameras and speed enforcement zones.
CES has awarded Cobra a 2007 Innovations award for this new detector.
Product release photos from Cobra Electronics show one radar detector antenna that also appears to have a smoked lens to the front where I would suspect their laser sensor, a GPS antenna, the main console that I expect would be dash mounted and the various electrical connectors for power and connectivity.
Suggested retail for the XRS R9G is $449.00 and Cobra expects to have them available in mid March.
I’m excited that the Cobra is including the GPS technology into this detector and I suspect that there will be other manufactures that will also be announcing similar GPS radar detector devices at the CES show.
However, based other users history with Cobra radar detectors on http://www.radardetector.net/ and my own experience with the Cobra line, I have my reservations on how this new detector will actually perform on the street, especially as they are using that same “12 band detector” ploy that they use in marketing their other lower end units.
Doors open at 10:00 am PST and I’ll be making a beeline to Escort/Bel, then to Whistler, and then off to Cobra.
Look for a VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT on by blog around early afternoon, during the first day of the show and other updates from CES!
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