Review Whislter Pro 78 and XTR-690

During the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, I got my first peek at the new Pro 78 and the XTR-690 radar detectors from Whistler.

What impressed me most was Whistler’s commitment to raise the bar by developing a new line of detectors that would put them into the same class as the higher end models from Beltronics and Escort.

During the March RadarBusters and Guys of Lidar testing, Mike Batton, an engineer from Whistler provided pre-production models that we pitted against the “Big Three” and we were all impressed with Whistler’s overall performance.

This pasted weekend we obtained retail samples of both models and took them out to our testing location.

Both models were definitely better performers then any of Whistler’s prior products and they both out performed anything Cobra ever came out with, but were they as good as the higher end Escort or Bel units on sensitivity and/or performance, no.

However I must give Kudos to the engineers at Whistler for certainly raising the bar on what I would classify as entry level or mid priced radar detectors.

What impressed me most in my review were the added features that Whistler included, such as a battery voltage meter, a backlit blue LCD screen that is easy to read and then their “periscope” LED alert lights ontop of the detector that will certainly grab your attention during an alert.

Radar Roy’s Rating – Four Badges