Which radar detector uk

Our previous Best Buy is still convincing. It has a built-in SIM card that allows it to update the locations of speed cameras and limits every 60 seconds. It even takes a feed from Highways England, so knows about changes to variable limits on smart motorways, and has a built-in laser detector which could give early warnings for cameras. Buy now from Amazon. This was the only device which actively detected both radar and laser, announcing if the cameras were live in addition to their location.

On the downside, it has to be plugged in to a PC to get the latest camera database updates, and it looks and feels like a gadget from the eighties. If you can live with that, it works really well.

With no fancy screens, it was easy to dismiss the Evo as obsolete. Camera locations were flagged clearly with a synthesised voice and coloured LEDs.

Waze is here because TomTom moved the goalposts by bundling its winning speed-cam app in with GO navigation. Some detectors can alert you to mobile cameras as well.

Many sat navs can also identify the location of known, fixed, safety camera sites sometimes you'll need to pay a subscription fee and let you know when you're approaching a speed camera. Camera detectors are legal for use on UK roads. Speed camera detectors are not legal in the Republic of Ireland. The SIM card will update your device every minute.

It also has a laser detector so you can have total peace of mind. You do need a subscription, however, and it is pricy. But it also works very well indeed. Connect your phone to the device using an app and it will beep to inform you of changing traffic conditions. All information is supplied by the network of users and can inform you of more than just nearby speed cameras. It can also warn you of accidents and dangerous conditions ahead.

You can also get an official mount so you can fit it to one of your car's air vents. The DriveSmart 65 MT-S combines smart technology and navigation to become your in-car control device as well as the navigator and radar detector.

Because you're getting two, arguably three devices in one, the DriveSmart 65 MT-S is tremendous value. For our full guide on the best aftermarket sat navs, read our article here. For a free app, Radarbot is impressive. The database is updated daily so you get accurate and reliable warnings of not only fixed cameras, including ANPR and tunnel cameras, but also mobile cameras reported by other users. There are two different ways you can increase your awareness of speed enforcement, be they fixed speed cameras or cops with laser guns; one is through databases of pooled GPS locations — and the other is to actually sense the technology used by the speed measurement systems.

The sensors detect police radar guns, hence their common name, though they usually also detect modern LIDAR laser based detectors. Invisible Lasers have a much narrower beam so can detect speed from around a mile on straight road. A feature that can solve this is auto-off, which uses location sensing to turn off the sensor in areas it is illegal.

Finally usability is a key issue; a lot of vehicles, and even shop doors, use LIDAR and similar technologies to detect obstacles or visitors — so systems to help reduce false positives without distracting use a lot of computing power to analyze the signals which can have cost implications.

Thanks to the built-in GPS, you can teach this system where stationary false alerts are on your route — and mute each as you go.

Auto lock-outs are also coming, too, following a patent dispute which has been settled. The menu screen is pretty good, and all the programming is done directly unlike some devices there is no app. This makes it a good choice for those less enamored with the world of touchscreens, though software updates are still available.

On that subject, the R7 usually manages the highest distances in feet from a radar detector at 2, to 2, ft, and the alert gets pretty loud quite fast. The Escort Redline C is a high-end product, supplied in a branded pouch with a cigarette socket charger and an elegant color OLED display relaying current speed and signal strength, accompanied by clear LED arrows you can even change their color via the settings in the app which alert you to the direction from whence the alert was triggered.

This design helps separate the useful information, from the Escort camera database, which is updated every Monday, from the essential which you need to react to lightning fast — the detection.

This is another good long-distance detector at the high end of the market, featuring clear directional indicators in its LED display a big forward arrow, and smaller ones for side or behind, easy to see on a bright day.

The magnesium case helps extend the range and if you see it as a benefit makes the device very hard to detect. The electronics have been designed to filter out as much of the lane-change and driver-assist lasers which cause false positives as possible.

The system also ramps up its alerts a little less urgently than some systems, and a progressive ramp-up can be nice, but when there is an officer with a gun it might not be quick enough for you.