What's unique about this radar detector review and comparison?

The purpose of this radar detector review is to examine the real-world performance and ergonomics of the best windshield-mount radar detectors that are currently being made.

We wanted to compare them in real-world driving situations against actual speed traps which we encountered and to report our findings in a format that is as comprehensive as it is unique; we wanted you to feel as if you were along for the ride.

Many of the conventional reviews extant address the performance of radar detectors in terms of distance.  In keeping with VEIL's philosophy, we reported our results in terms of time - as in, reaction time.

This, we believe, is ultimately what radar detector performance is all about - providing its owner with sufficient reaction time to safely slow down and avoid a potential speeding ticket.

Each of the detectors were retail versions of the products.  No radar detector was provided to us by the manufacturer and our opinions were formulated on these specific samples.  We did not take into account the possibility of production variation, which may exist.

We did not want to write just another editorial and the conclusions we reached here may be entirely different from your own.  That's OK, as a good number of the things we covered are subjective in nature.

We offer two flavors of our findings:

Summary Version  - which leaves out some detail and contains none of our daily travel logs
Full Version -  designed for the "road warrior"

Since different aspects of these radar detectors will appeal to each individual differently, we included an incredible amount of detail in our unabridged version.  In doing so, we provide you the option of deciding whether or not you wish to understand how and/or why we reached the conclusions we did.

With the full version, we broke the report into sections about individual aspects of each either performance-wise or ergonomically - so that you can choose what is most relevant - and included some additional pictures and video clips.

Each version contains unique content (particularly, the conclusions)- for you "true diehards" - so you may enjoy both versions!.

The Radar Detectors

We set out to test, compare, and review the three latest high-end radar detectors: the Beltronics RX65 Pro Rev 3.6, the Escort 8500 X50 - Rev 5, and the Valentine One v3.8.18 /w POP2 (aka: V1.8).

All were acquired new, shortly before our trip to CES in late December, 2004.  We added an older Valentine One (V1.7) to the mix for good measure.

We hope the information provided, herein, will elevate the level of knowledge about all of these great radar detectors.

Enjoy The Ride!

Equipment

How they look together. Note: Detectors not tested this way

Display

Bel RX65, Escort X50 (Red), Valentine V1 at Night

Tthe Bel RX65 Pro easily had the most readable display at its maximum bright settings, followed by both Valentines, and then the 8500 X50.  The display brightness differences only became apparent in a direct comparison and all were more than adequate.

The tonal qualities and volume levels obtainable with either the Beltronics or the newest Valentine allow for rapid communication to the driver - an essential ability.

The Valentine One, in comparison, feels a little like something from the 70s when it comes to programming.  The single LED display and single push-button knob serve as the limiting factors here.  We would not recommend programming this unit without reference to the programming manual, which can be inconvenient if one is on the road.  To our knowledge, there is no quick reset mechanism available on the V1.  Unlike the other two detectors, the default settings have POP reception enabled.

Real-World Performance / The Drive

Our Test Vehicle (Western Route)

We selected a test vehicle that would serve our enthusiastic driving requirements that wouldn’t break the bank in the process. We settled on a 5-speed sterling silver BMW Z4 convertible for our 1500 mile journey.   The Bimmer was rented from Rent-A-Vette of Las Vegas, NV, an agency that offers high-line vehicles for hourly (ouch), daily, or weekly rentals.

Besides being hideously expensive to rent, we resisted our initial urges to selecting a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo or the "arrest-me-red" Ferrari 360 Modena for the test as we really didn’t want to attract that much attention, considering our expected driving style.  These works-of-art look like they deserve a speeding ticket while parked!

Of course, we immediately applied VEIL to our rental vehicle in the event we inadvertently stumbled upon a laser speed trap - try doing that with a laser jammer!

Driving Conditions/Style

While we don’t condone speeding, we wanted to use these detectors in a manner consistent with their intent - to protect their drivers from would be speeding tickets!

As such we routinely cruised “in excess” of posted limits and sometimes found our speed to be occasionally north of the “century mark.”

Granted, rural areas of western states are a bit more conducive to this sort of driving.  In other words, we wouldn’t necessarily attempt driving as boldly in urban areas and/or more populated states with more heavily traveled roads - but we did want to experience the full potential of these great radar detectors.

Our Western Route

Red - Day 1, Blue - Day 2, Yellow - Day 3, Green - Day 4

Our Eastern Route

We decided to add two additional days of driving to include several eastern states (PA, NJ, NY) since we had as yet to encounter a bona-fide X-band or laser speed trap.  Our "target" vehicle was a late model BMW 540i Sport which had been treated with VEIL for about nine months and was still going strong.  We chose a route that would take us through some of the most heavily patrolled areas of NJ and NY (I-78 and I-87, respectively.)

During this segment of our driving route, we came to realize that the "texture" of traffic enforcement is different, in feeling, than that of the West.  In this portion of the country, there tends to be a much greater likelihood of being targeted with instant-on/pulsed radar.  Although we had encountered some of these kinds of speed traps during our 1500 mile trip out West, they where in the minority by comparison.

We believe, in this driving environment, extreme sensitivity must be balanced with a minimal propensity to "falsing" so as to not dilute the sense of urgency of any given radar/laser alert.

Although the term "false" may be misrepresentative - as any alert is likely from a legitimate radar/laser source - we use it here to mean from a source other than a confirmable speed-enforcement related origin (i.e.; trooper or traffic speed sign).

The Valentine, as expected, was quick at alerting to ALL radar/laser traps encountered and may provide ultimate performance, but our venerable V1’s stellar performance was somewhat diminished by a greater propensity to “falsing” on K band and required the most involvement of the driver to properly interpret its alerts.   We would prefer it to be quieter [even at the risk of some advanced warning time to a real trap] because, after awhile, we found ourselves ignoring its K-alert anyway which can be just, if not more so, as risky.

This increased falsing was noticeable even in rural [remote] areas of our driving route.  The Valentine falsed the least on Ka-band relative to the other two detectors and in the summer season - its been suggested - that this may become more pronounced as there will tend to be an increase of "cheap" radar detectors on the road as people do more vacation traveling.  We'll have to wait and see...

We still love the arrows, that immediately identify the location of a “threat” and have been accustomed to them for well over a decade!  But, we did not specifically encounter a speed trap, during this test, where they would have made a substantive difference - which is not to say that there aren’t specific conditions, where they may have.   And - as evidenced on our driving route of day six - they may occasionally be misleading, requiring proper interpretation from its owner.

Additionally, the Valentine was somewhat ergonomically challenged as compared to the other detectors from Bel and Escort.

An all too familiar site on this stretch of highway.

Think of the Valentine as the pure race-car of the bunch - such as a Ferrari F40.  It has awesome capability, but (this current version) may be a bit fatiguing to take on long-trips. 

Valentine One, v1.7

The older model has aged especially well and continues to dazzle us with reliable top-shelf performance.  Other than not having the newer POP nor Ku capabilities, this detector is still an incredible performer and we really wouldn't feel any less protected driving with it [in the States] as compared to the newer detectors.  "No POP," you say?  "So what," we say - troopers should be using the standard operational mode of the BEE III anyway so that they can legally issue tickets and until the day that POP can be used in that manner (we doubt that'll ever happen) its more about marketing hype than a real threat.  Is POP capability nice?  Sure, but this detector still remains a benchmark by which [all] other radar detectors (including the V1 v1.8) are judged.

Now, what's your preference?