Best Radar Detectors for 2023

hey what's up guys so in this video we're gonna go over all of the very best radar detectors that are available now there are a lot of different options out there and just like how there's different cars that are going to be best for different people in different driving situations the same is actually going to be true here for radar detectors so depending on where you drive uh even your personality and your preferences as well as of course your budget all this kind of stuff is going to determine which detector is actually best for you now if you're new to radar detectors before watching this video definitely check out my video on radar detectors 101 that's going to go over a lot of the key Basics and important features that you need to know about I'm going to link to that video down in the video description or you can just click the button on screen in this video though we're going to be going over all of the best radar detectors that are available starting with kind of your entry level detectors and then working your way up to the top end detectors now full disclosure this is not a paid or sponsored video we're just going to be going over the main key pros and cons of the different detectors to really help you choose which one is best for you now down in the video description I'm going to have links to all the different detectors that I talk about here in this video they are affiliate links so if you use those links to purchase it does support my channel it doesn't cost you anything but it helps me continue doing videos and tests and comparisons like this here for you guys additionally once you purchase your detector it's going to be important to learn how to use your detector to program it to configure it and really kind of optimize it so down in the description I'm also going to be including links to my different setup guides to help you guys get up and running as quickly as possible and so with all that said let's go ahead and take a look at the very best windshield mount radar detectors all right so diving right into things most of the really low end radar detectors like under 100 for example they're going to be junk you're going to find that they're going to offer really poor performance and a lot of false alerts so I would recommend that you don't waste your money and instead invest it in something better now the best inexpensive detector that I would recommend is the Uniden dfr7 it retails for about 200 or so plus minus and it offers surprisingly good performance for the money it's also going to give you reasonable false alert filtering plus it's going to add the GPS features that you'll want around town including low speed muting manual GPS lockouts and your red light camera and speed camera alerts now it's otherwise a pretty simple detector it doesn't have a bunch of bells and whistles like Bluetooth or a multi-color display or photo radar detection however if you're looking for an inexpensive radar detector this is the most affordable option that I would recommend now I'd also like to give an honorable mention to the unit in dfr9 you see the dfr7 was officially discontinued a couple years ago but it continues to be produced and sold that said sometimes it can be pretty hard to find or even not available for sale and so if that's the case I would recommend that you take a look at the dfr9 instead it's essentially the successor to the dfr7 and it shares the same platform under the hood and the same performance however it also adds a number of really nice extra features for example you're going to step up to a multi-color OLED display you've also got an ambient light sensor available so that display can now be Auto dimming to get darker at night or brighter in the daytime it adds a new advanced mode mode which is going to give you some additional manual controls over the detector sensitivity it can display multiple radar signals simultaneously plus there's little things like let's say you're driving down the highway and you pick up a red light camera on a nearby Surface Street it has an extra feature to help mute those for you when you're driving past on the highway and so it's got a number of nice improvements here over the dfr7 now the price of the dfr9 I've noticed does tend to fluctuate over time but if you can pick it up online for maybe around 200 or just a little over I think it makes sense to pick up as an upgrade over the dfr7 Now The Next Step Up is going to be to the unit in R3 now this detector in my opinion is almost legendary you'll find it online for around 299 or so and it offers an incredible level of performance and features for the money and at this price point there's no other detector from any manufacturer that's as good as the R3 now the R3 is not perfect none of these detectors are they all have their pros and cons of course but something that I found specifically with the unit detectors is they seem to do a really good job as far as offering you a really good bang for the buck at different price levels and so yes while there definitely are going to be other detectors that are better you're going to have to spend money or well more money for those at these different price points or lower typically the units are going to offer you one of the best bangs for the buck and so with that said taking a closer look here at the R3 it's got an improved platform over the dfr series detectors and thanks to this upgraded platform it's going to give you excellent long-range detection it's going to be strong against all of the different frequency radar guns that Police use not just a couple of the different guns it's also going to give you improved false alert filtering capabilities and it's going to add photo radar detection to alert you to the presence of mrcd or mrct photo radar cameras and in my opinion it's a big step up over the dfr7 or the dfr9 and so if you're looking for a solid detector with really good performance and features without dropping the cash for like a high-end detector I think the R3 is going to be a great choice I think it's kind of the minimum really that I would recommend as far as like a good detector now if most of your driving is done on the highway and especially on more rural back roads in that situation you can consider getting a unit in R1 it's got the same performance as the R3 because it shares the same platform it just lacks a GPS chip and so it's not going to give you some of the additional features and false alert filtering that you'll want if you do a lot of driving in the city and so if you're looking for a long range radar detector primarily for back road driving and you want to save some cash I'd say grab an R1 for most people though I still say pick up an R3 instead because it's going to be a more well-rounded detector with the GPS chip which is going to make it good for both City and highway driving now as far as the next step up for 50 more you're looking at the Whistler Titan and with the introduction of the Titan this is the first time that I've ever included a Whistler detector in any sort of best of list like this it offers great range just like the unit in R3 but the main advantage is the fact that it has automatic GPS lockouts and so now if you keep passing stationary sources of false alerts like speed signs on the side of the road the detector can automatically learn them as a false alert and filter them out for you you're not going to have to manually teach the detector that this is a false alert the Titans also going to offer a three-year warranty instead of just a one-year warranty and it's got some additional cool features like special settings presets so if you want to kind of pre-program different settings you can actually do that here that could be nice in case say you have different drivers and different people want different settings you can just change the different settings profiles depending on the driver or let's say you drive between different states and maybe officers use different types of radar guns and you want to customize a detector depending on your location you can actually build in presets and switch between them on the Fly here with the Titan next let's take a look at the very best high-end non-ao radar detectors these detectors are going to give you some of the longest range possible they're going to allow you to vary the detector's sensitivity based on speed the automatic GPS lockouts are going to work better than the whistlers they're going to offer improved photo radar detection and they're going to add Bluetooth so you can pair the detector with your phone to add some additional functionality and the three detectors that we're going to be talking about here include the escort Max 3 the unit in R4 and the redenso DS1 let's begin by taking a look at the escort Max 3. now this detector I prefer over the unit in R3 or the Whistler Titan it's going to offer automatic GPS lockouts which the R3 doesn't have plus it's going to add Bluetooth to the detector and using Bluetooth is going to make it easier to change settings using your phone it's going to give you real-time alerts shared with other drivers a lot like Waze though not with nearly as many users as Waze and it's going to allow you to display the speed limit of the road that you're on right on screen right next to your current speed again this is similar to Google Maps or Waze but it's going to be right on the face of the detector next there's the Uniden R4 this detector's MSRP is 50 more than the max 3 at 449 though often online you can find it for 3.99 or less and the R4 is going to offer even better performance it's actually the longest range non-aero detector available in the market you've got your automatic GPS lockouts of course and the detector has Bluetooth built in though with the unit detectors you're only going to be able to use third-party apps with their detector and so Bluetooth wise I think the max 3 is better than the R4 because you've got both IOS and Android apps available directly from the manufacturer however I tend to lean towards the R4 over the max 3 for three reasons number one it's going to give you even longer range number two you've got a front-facing mute button which is easier to press while driving and then third the R4 has some additional k-band filtering options specifically to help deal with some of the false alerts being emitted from some of your nearby cars with collision avoidance systems next I'd like to give an honorable mention to the redenso DS1 the DS1 actually shares the same platform under the hood with the R4 though the R4 does have a little bit better performance it has an LNA under the hood to help boost the sensitivity the DS1 actually has an improved horn but we actually find that the LNA actually gives us the longest performance now that said the DS1 has a larger display also it's Bluetooth has essentially been active from the start and rodenso even makes their own app which is going to let you change settings or even update the firmware the detector right in your car using the Redemption so Nexus app now currently this app is Android only there's no ETA for an iOS version it's got an additional k-notch option which is going to help you knock out false alerts from nearby Mazda cx-5s which also really helps keep the detector quiet around the road and it actually relies on USB type c for power which is especially nice if you drive a car that doesn't have a traditional cigarette lighter Outlet in the car it only has USB ports right if you don't want to hardwire detector you just want to plug it in with the DS1 you can just plug it into a USB port for power and you're good to go also like escort with the max 3 redenso offers a speeding ticket guarantee with the DS1 something you're not going to get with a Unity detector now between the DS1 and the R4 I tend to lean towards the R4 I like having the added range though of course the DS1 is no slouch by any means practically speaking I also prefer the more compact Mount of the Uniden now the renazzo has a really cool trick Mount plus a magnetic quick release on it but in my car that makes it too big and bulky to fit properly above my rearview mirror but at the same time in most cars for most people it's going to fit just fine the ds1's price has also gone up to 469 which means now the R4 is going to be the more inexpensive option but regardless though I think the redenso DS1 is a strong Contender for being one of the very best non-aero radar detectors next moving on to detectors that do offer directional arrows this can be a really nice benefit to know where the officer is if he's ahead of you or back behind I've done an entire video that goes over the benefits of having a detector with arrows it's not necessary but I do find it to be very helpful now if we take a look as far as the detectors that have arrows uh two popular options are going to be things like the escort Max 360 or the less expensive Cobra dual Pro 360 which is the same thing as a Max 360 just kind of repackaged now while these detectors do have a number of things going for them such as reasonable performance they're pretty quiet around town they've got automatic GPS lockouts and they offer Bluetooth to change settings from your phone display the current speed limit of the road that you're on or again share alert it's in real time with other drivers personally I'm still avoiding them due to this long-standing sleeping issue to where the detectors look like they're up and running normally but sometimes may not alert properly to police radar now to escort's credit they have released some updates to help improve this so it doesn't happen as often as it did before but there are still to this day some reports of detectors sleeping and not actually alerting so for that reason there's a couple other detectors that I would recommend instead starting off with detectors around the 500 price point there's going to be the unit in R7 as well as the Valentine one gen 2. for most people I think the R7 is going to be the way to go but among radar detector enthusiasts the V1 Gen 2 is really popular especially because you can pair your phone to the detector and add some additional cool functionality now jbb one this app is particularly excellent It's Android only but it essentially turns your V1 into a rolling Command Center I've got an entire video series dedicated to jbb1 that goes over the coolest options and how to get started with the app so I would definitely recommend if you're interested you can take a look at that and then on iOS you've got a couple options available like V1 driver and V1 companion they're not as crazy fully featured as jpv1 but they're going to offer the key functionality that you're going to want like your GPS based low speed muting or GPS lockouts and so if you do a lot of driving around town you can use your phone's GPS and an app to help keep the detector extra quiet now as for photo radar detection unfortunately the Valentine one has not been designed to detect it so it's not going to be a suitable option for that more importantly though we've been seeing this issue with false Ka band alerts on the V1 now Valentine actually recently released an update to help reduce the frequency of these Ka falses but unfortunately it looks like people are still reporting Ka fals is with the V1 myself included again it doesn't happen nearly as often as it used to but people are still reporting Ka false's nonetheless which is kind of unfortunate because while every detector is going to false especially to K Band Ka falses are going to be much higher priority and there's a lot fewer sources of false alerts so I take Ka falses pretty seriously so unfortunately the V1 Gen 2 does look to still have some issues with Ka fall sync despite the fact that Valentine has actually made a nice Improvement recently to help cut down on the frequency of those alerts now the other detector around the same price point that I would recommend is the Uniden R7 it also offers good range not quite as good as the V1 Gen 2 but still very good in practice and you're going to get your directional arrows to help you identify where the source is located it's going to add photo radar detection something that you're not going to get from the V1 and perhaps most notably it's going to have better false alert filtering out of the box because of the fact that it has GPS built directly into the detector and so you're not going to be reliant on your phone to add in some of the core functionality like your GPS lockouts and your false alert filtering or some of the extra features like your frequency display now that said when you pair your phone with your radar detector you can add in some of these features like the GPS lockouts and the implementation may actually be better from a phone the algorithm being used in the apps is actually more sophisticated than what you've got built into the detector so the GPS lockouts may actually work better if you do it with the phone but I've found that in practice a lot of people prefer these simplicity the inconvenience of just having everything built into the detector itself and not being reliant on your phone running different apps so it kind of depends on what you're looking for now on that note a pro tip regarding the R7 there's actually custom third-party firmware that you can purchase for your R7 to add some useful features and make the detector even better for example you can add in the automatic speed based sensitivity adjustments it's got some additional k-notch options to help filter out some BSM falses such as those that you would experience from Mazda cx-5s there's extra security protection built in in case your detector gets stolen plus it improves the automatic GPS lockouts with uniden's implementation there's still some outstanding issues that unit needs to address and this is an option to actually give you improved GPS lockouts on your R7 this custom firmware for the R7 costs 45 dollars and if you'd like to pick it up you can private message mithuru on rdf I'll have a link to more information about this firmware down in the video description again just like everything else that I talk about here in this video and so in my opinion the unit in R7 it's gonna be one of the best all-around detectors that you can buy and it's definitely one of the best recommendations on this list and then finally moving on to the very top end detectors we're going to be taking a look at the unit in R8 and the Escort RedLine 360c these are going to be two of the very best performing radar detectors on the market they've got your directional arrows they've got good false alert filtering they've got photo radar detection and of course they've got GPS built in like the R7 now while the R7 I think is a better bang for the buck than the R8 the R8 is the better detector and it's my current daily driver and the reason that's the case is it's going to offer even longer detection range it's got Bluetooth built in like the R4 again we do need a firmware update from Uniden to turn the Bluetooth on and something to note is that once the Bluetooth is activated the only app that's going to support it currently is going to be Highway radar which is an Android only app so no options for iOS users also practically speaking I prefer the front facing mute button on the R8 as opposed to the kind of awkwardly placed side facing button on the R7 there's also the auto mode on the R8 to kind of adjust the detector's sensitivity based on speed but if you get that custom third-party firmware for the R7 you can also add that in to the R7 as well which kind of really helps close the gap between the R7 and the R8 so really the biggest difference at that point I think uh maybe besides Bluetooth would be actually the longer range with the R8 I know there's other stuff too like the R8 that's going to be compatible with uniden's upcoming wired control pad or uniden's upcoming laser Jammers but I think for most people the R7 is going to be the better bang for the buck the R8 is going to be the one that you go for if you want the longest range possible then as far as the Escort RedLine 360c this actually used to be my daily driver before the unit in R8 came out it's 100 more than the R8 at 7.99 and some of the main differences are things like Bluetooth to connect the detector to your phone and you can run escorts apps for both Android or iOS to do things like more easily change settings from your phone get those Cloud alerts or display the speed limit right on the face of the detector the red line also has Wi-Fi built in so you can connect it to your in-car Wi-Fi or home Wi-Fi to make firmware updates easier or red light camera database updates easier it's not a huge deal to take to detector home and plug it into the computer to update but it is convenient to be able to update right from the car admittedly there haven't been a ton of updates but it is an added convenience nonetheless the main thing that I use the Wi-Fi for is just getting things like your speed limit display on the face of the detector or getting your Cloud alerts with the detector I find that it's just a easier and more reliable to use in-car Wi-Fi than it is running a bluetooth app on your phone the redline is also a fully undetectable detector just like the V1 gen 2. unit in detectors on the other hand they do tend to be detectable at close range now most people especially here in the US don't need a fully styled detector but if you really do need that functionality I would lean more towards the redline 360c or the V1 gen 2. now as for that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi stuff that's definitely nice as a bonus as extra stuff but I find the units actually be better as far as being a radar detector and the reason I say that is the unidends are much more responsive when it comes to brief alerts and they're more reliable when it comes to actually alerting to police radar you see we've been discovering kind of this issue with some of the escrow detectors including the redline 360c to where you either get kind of delayed alerts to certain radar guns or maybe to where it doesn't even alert at all to certain police radar guns now this is a known issue that escort is actively working on but until they address this issue for the time being I've actually removed the redline 360c as a recommended detector on my website now once escort addresses this issue I'll go ahead and re-add the redline 360c as a recommended detector on my website and I'll keep you guys posted just again down in the video description I'll have the latest information as far as kind of if and when this update is released and I'd actually be more comfortable recommending the redline 360c again now besides that I've also noticed that the redline 360c's ramp up is kind of an issue like with a lot of escorts it likes to ramp up really quickly and give you a really strong alert both to legitimate and false alerts other brands of detectors do tend to do a better job at kind of giving you a relative strength indicator with the ramp up so the signal starts off weak and then progressively ramps up stronger and stronger as you get closer the escorts like to blast Full Tilt really strong much sooner out of the gate which I personally don't like and so with all that said while the escorts have some nice added convenience feature with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and Cloud stuff I think that the R8 is just a better radar detector as far as alert presentation as far as alerting to different police radar guns as far as responsiveness to brief alerts Etc now finally I'd like to also quickly touch on two more escort detectors the escort Max Cam 360c and the escort Max 360c Mark II these two detectors also have some issues to alerting to certain radar guns and responsiveness which we've recently discovered in testing again escort is working on this kind of stuff and I'll keep you posted down in the video description as far as when these issues are addressed and when they are I think the detectors will be much better and they should be on a list like this and so I'm going to go ahead and cover them in this video with kind of the assumption that that stuff has been fixed assuming it's working well again in the video description to let you know when that information or when that fix is out but let's just go ahead and quickly talk about those two detectors as well because besides that I think they're both actually pretty good detectors now first starting off with the escort maxcam 360c this detector offers performance that's almost as good as the redline 360c not quite as good but still really good in practice additionally I also find the max cam to do a little bit better job than the red line when it comes to false alert filtering especially when it comes to Blind Spot filtering it's one of the quietest detectors that I've had a chance to run now it's not a stealth detector the way the red line is so if you need a stealth detector if you encounter radar detector detectors again this isn't going to apply to most of us here in the United States but for those of you guys who do need a stealth detector the red line is a stealth detector the max cam is not now the biggest Advantage here of the max cam is the well cam functionality the max cam actually has a dash cam built in and this can be really helpful to give you added protection in case of collisions sharing videos for your different radar saves or just generally recording what happens when you're on the right Road the maxcam also allows you to embed radar information right onto the video itself which is pretty cool the dash cam records in 2K which is better than 1080p the video quality is not amazing but it does do the job it's also going to offer basic parking recording as well nothing is super sophisticated or anything but it can record both when you're driving and when you're parked admittedly Standalone dash cams are going to give you a lot more features and functionality but if you're looking for kind of an integrated radar detector and dash cam combo the maxcam 360c is the best one that I found on the market and having something integrated like this is really convenient one device One Mount one power cable and you have both your radar detector and your dash cam so it simplifies installation and I personally like it as a travel detector to get both my radar detector and dash cam in one it retails for 50 more than the redline 360c and for many people I think it's worth it to get that added dash cam and finally I'd like to touch on the max 360c Mark II this detector is a hundred dollars less than the redline 360c and even though it's not cheap I still think it's actually a better value for the money than the redline 360c is and the reason I say that is you're still going to get really good radar detector performance it's based on the same radar detection platform as the max cam so you're going to get really good long range performance not quite as good of the red line but still really good in practice uh the BSM filtering it's still a very quiet detector too you'll give up the rdd immunity the stealth characteristics like you'll get with the red line but again most people aren't going to need that in practice and it also adds 5 gigahertz Wi-Fi not just 2.4 so if you drive a newer car that has only five gigahertz Wi-Fi we'll need a newer detector like the max cam or the max 360c Mark II I also find that it's quieter than either the redline 360c or the Uniden R8 it gives me fewer false alerts which is one of the biggest appeals driving around with a detector now that said in the back of my mind I also wonder some of the quietness is related to some of the alerting issues we've seen with the Genesis and so it remains to be seen if escort can maintain their quietness while also ensuring that they can alert properly to police radar guns once they get that part addressed I think that would make the detector much more desirable and much well something that I would be much more comfortable recommending as well with that said yeah that's a lot of detectors let's go ahead and kind of uh summarize everything and also greatly simplify uh kind of this whole decision and choice as far as which detector is best for the best inexpensive detector under 200 you're going to want to grab the Uniden dfr7 that said for a few bucks more though I do think it's worth stepping up to the newer dfr9 if you're driving is strictly on Rural back roads and some highway driving pick up the unit in R1 for most people though I would suggest that you step up to the unit in R3 at minimum I think this detector is well worth the money now if you want to add automatic GPS lockouts you can step up to the Whistler Titan if you also want to add Bluetooth well pick up the escort max 3. if your car has USB type c for power and not a traditional cigarette lighter Outlet pick up a redento DS1 if you're looking for the best performing non-aero detector pick up the unit in R4 out of all the detectors that we've talked about so far in this list the R4 would be my detector of choice and then moving on to the detectors that offer arrows your best bang for the buck is going to be the Uniden R7 you can also then enhance the R7 by adding some custom firmware for it for radar detector enthusiasts who love having control and information at their fingertips you can pick up the Valentine One Gen 2 and pair it with an app like jbv1 if you're looking for the very best high-end detector in my opinion that award goes to the Uniden R8 and then among escort's flagships once they get some of the k-band alerting issues addressed there's a couple options here that I think could be really good choices too if you're looking for a long range radar detector that's undetectable by radar detector detectors and you want the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi features pick up the redline 360c as far as the best bang for the buck among escort's high-end detectors that's going to be the max 360c Mark II and then find finally for the best radar detector and dash cam combo that's going to be the escort maxcam 360c and so that was a lot of detectors there's a lot more that we could say of course about any one of these detectors but these are kind of some of the main pros and cons to consider uh when choosing which detector is going to be best for you again links to all these detectors and more information including setup guides all that stuff will be down in the video description for you and so with that said yeah thanks so much for watching hope you're all doing great and I'll see in the next video

Channel: Vortex Radar

Views: 144,367

Keywords: radar, detector, radar detector, best radar detector, 2022, 2023, uniden, dfr7, dfr9, r1, r3, whistler titan, escort, max3, max 3, r4, radenso ds1, arrows, long range, v1, v1 gen2, valentine 1 gen2, v1driver, jbv1, v1companion, max360, max 360c mkii, max360c mk ii, redline 360c, maxcam 360c, r8, r7, international firmware, custom firmware, buyer's guide

Id: _Wl54uiIq-I

Length: 25min 31sec (1531 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 16 2022