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No one likes to think of themselves as a cheat—you probably don’t lie on your taxes, step out on your spouse or keep extra aces up your sleeve for Friday night poker. But there might yet be a place in your car for a radar detector—they’re not just for inveterate speeders trying to evade the highway patrol. Instead, they help honest people stay honest by warning about nearby police radar so you don’t rack up traffic tickets by accident. In fact, today’s best radar detectors actually give you the situational awareness you need to be a better driver.
A radar detector doesn’t mean you plan to speed, but it can help you avoid a pricey traffic ticket.
Whether you have an old radar detector on your dash and need an upgrade or you’re shopping for your first one, you might be surprised by how sophisticated these devices have become in recent years. Modern radar detectors can monitor a half-dozen radar bands—the band in use depends in part on the kind of radar system that the local police have deployed. Most radar detectors have displays for Ku-band, Ka-band and K-band, among others. And there’s more: Some police measure speeders with lasers, so some radar detectors have laser detection built in.
In addition, some radar detectors can warn you about red light cameras and permanently mounted speed cameras. Many have built-in filtering to accurately reject false signals, like those caused by automatic doors at nearby stores entrances. Yet others have integrated dashcams. The bottom line: You’ve never had more options. Because radar detectors can be so pricey (as much as $800 for windshield-mounted models), we’ve rounded up the best options for you below. No matter your budget or driving needs, here are the 7 best radar detectors for your car.
Uniden’s R7 ranks among the very best radar detectors money can buy. It supports all the radar bands currently in use in the US, including the new MSCD/MRCT MultaRadar frequency modulated radars that older devices cannot detect—plus lasers. And rather than just indicating the signal strength of the detected radar signal, the R7 shows an arrow to indicate where it’s coming from—in front, behind or off to the side. This is super helpful because side signals are almost always false alarms, generated by devices like automatic doors in retail structures.
That’s not all; the R7 also includes GPS. Because the detector knows where it is, it can alert you to otherwise impossible-to-detect red light cameras. It also lets you mark up to 2,000 locations of common false alarms, such as if the local mall often triggers an alert. That makes your drive quieter, with less stressful pings along your route. The colorful OLED screen is bright, easy to read and understandable, and you can get voice alerts, as well as customizable tones for each radar and laser bands.
It’s easy for your car’s dash to get cluttered with gadgets, especially if you want both a radar detector and a dashcam in your car at the same time. It’s possible to get an accessory dashcam that connects to certain model radar detectors to minimize the space they take up, but Cobra’s Road Scout does both in the same integrated package. It looks sort of like a pair of high-tech binoculars; the Road Scout features a forward-looking camera that faces out the windshield and three cockpit-facing pods—two feature controls and the center is a color LCD display.
You get a 1080p HD webcam with night vision that does continuous-loop recording to the on-board memory card (it comes with a 16GB card) and has a G-sensor to lock the recording in the event of an impact so it doesn’t get accidentally overwritten—so you’ve always captured whatever just happened.
Of course, it’s also a radar detector, and the Road Scout is a solid if not stellar performer. It doesn’t have the longest range in the roundup, so you might find that it doesn’t sound a tone until you can already see the police car. Even so, Cobra offers a lot of signal filtering to minimize false positives, and there’s GPS built in as well, so you can easily mark known false signals. This is also a very connected detector; it has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and connects to Cobra’s mobile app for community alerts and other features. It’s not the most powerful or capable radar detector out there, but the addition of the webcam might make that trade-off worth it.
A handful of premium radar detectors can claim an extremely long beyond-visual range, but Radenso may very well wear the crown for greatest operational range. And it’s not just powerful, the Radenso Pro M is also versatile, with the ability to detect all the commonly used bands, from X and Ka to the newer MultaRadar bands and laser.
It might not look like it’s at the leading edge of technology; the OLED display isn’t graphical like most of its similarly priced peers and doesn’t have directional indicators to tell you where the signal is originating. Even so, looks can be deceiving. Under the hood you’ll find superb false signal filtering for fewer distracting pings, and you can adjust the sensitivity on a band-by-band basis for the ultimate in configurability. Integrated GPS means you can lock out stationary false alerts along routes you commonly drive. The Pro M also includes a database of red light and speed cameras, and those can be updated monthly free of charge for the life of the device.
You can choose from among a number of premium radar detectors that have excellent range, great sensitivity and smart filtering. But all that’s for naught if you don’t care to learn the intricacies of radar bands and detection settings, and your radar detector is just too hard to use. That’s where the Escort MAX360C comes in. This aggressively styled gadget not only looks great, it’s packed with features and is easy to use. It is designed to detect all the radar bands including MultaRadar and laser, but the way it’s presented is what makes it so appealing.
You get four directional arrows baked into the frame around the OLED color display, for example, and the screen is bright and easy to read—especially easy because it’s recessed to provide some shade from direct sunlight. The best part? You can dial down the complexity by choosing a novice mode which hides signal strength bars and simply advises you in plain English when it’s time to slow down.
The Escort MAX360C also has GPS red light and speed cameras, as well as the ability to automatically lock out known false alarms. Want more? It has Bluetooth and connects to the Escort mobile app on your phone for community-sourced warnings about speeds traps.
Radar detectors are one of those tech gadgets that come in an enormous price range—at the high end, you can spend $800 or more. Yet there are models you can buy for as little as $100. And you probably don’t want to find yourself at either extreme. The Uniden R3 is, for many people, the Goldilocks of radar detectors. Priced around $250, it offers a great array of features and capabilities. It performs quite well, and it’s relatively affordable. In other words, it’s the best overall value you can find.
Frankly, it’s surprising what you get at this price point; it detects all the major bands including MultaRadar and laser and musters a relatively long range. To help mute unwanted false positives, it has GPS with the ability to lock out 500 false signals. The GPS also manages to alert you about red light and speed cameras. You can configure voice alerts in addition to tones, and the color display is easy to read, though it’s not as crisp as many similar displays. Of course, you can’t get everything at this somewhat modest price point, and the R3 lacks directional arrows to indicate where the signal is coming from.
If you haven’t noticed, many of the best radar detectors tend to be priced around $450 or even higher. We consider the Uniden R3 to be the best value for the very reason that you get so many key features for just $250. But in between those two extremes, you get the Escort Max 3, a great model that clocks in (just) under $400.
The little brother to the Max 360C, the Max 3 clearly shares some of the same body styling and features. It detects X, K, Ka and laser, though it’s blind to MultaRadar (which currently isn’t a serious limitation unless you drive in Canada or the handful of states where it’s been implemented). You get a respectably long detection range and competent filtering to reduce false alarms. And integrated GPS means you can get advanced warning of red light and speed cameras. Plus, the GPS is used to vary the sensitivity based on vehicle speed. Integrated Bluetooth means it’s also compatible with Escort’s mobile app, which you can use to tap into community alerts about speed traps and other traffic advisories.
One other cool little bonus feature: It’s compatible with the M1 Dash Cam—it’s a 1080p HD camera that plugs into the side of the Max 3, making it easy to integrate all your devices in a single place, attached to the windshield with a single suction cup.
Looking for the least expensive way to get into the world of radar detectors while still getting a solid, quality product that works as advertised? That’s the Cobra RAD 480i. Yes, if you look, you can find units on Amazon for under $100—but we don’t recommend them.
This isn’t the most powerful or feature-rich radar detector you can buy, but then again you probably wouldn’t expect it to be at this price point. It detects the traditional X, K, Ka and laser bands, but you don’t get MultaRadar. There’s no GPS on board, so you don’t get some special features like sensitivity based on vehicle speed. But surprisingly, you do have access to red light and speed camera warnings thanks to updates you can get via the integrated Bluetooth and connectivity to the mobile app. That’s pretty cool for under $200. And it has both front and rear radar detection (without arrows to indicate the direction of the threat however). Is it the most powerful model out there? Not by a very long shot. But it’s the best collection of capabilities you can buy at this price point.
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