An actual Good detector......
Written: Feb 03 '03
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Pros: Clear and Easy to Read display; Clear voice
Cons: Dim could be dimmer; Voice level poor; little Digital Delay
The Bottom Line: Well worth the price to performance with some flaws that can make or break this unit.
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| A-RDR-GUY's Full Review: Cobra Electronics XR-1050 Radar Detector |
Cobra Electronics has been producing radar detectors since the early to mid 80s. Cobra has had its fair share of providing strong detectors in the beginning of their days, but since the mid-early 90s things have been a miss for the company. This was due to the FCC opening the police radar band to an even wider spread in the Ka region. The old band was 34.2-35.2 GHz, and now it is 33.4-36.0 GHz.
The design of the detector is sufficient. It provides a three button (MUTE, DIM, and CITY) selection near the front for easy access when mounted on the windshield. The volume control, a variable switch, is placed on the left-side of the unit near the front. Mounted on the top of the detector is the speaker for the Voice and audible alerts. On the back is where, and only where, the windshield mount hookup is. What can be nice for motorcyclists, this unit allows for an external earpiece hookup.
The unit’s MUTE feature is standard that many offer. Press the button and the alert is muted, and remains muted till an alert is no longer. This also allows an Auto-mute feature when selected. The unit remains quiet till the alert passes the threshold that is set by Cobra. (3 of 5 bars)
The DIM feature is nice to have. It is offer in two DIM modes and a Dark mode. When DIMmed on the first setting, it is still clear to see in the day and very easy to see in the dark. For the second DIM is clear at night (even for drivers and police), but is somewhat hard to see in the day. As for the Dark mode, it says it all, "Dark."
The City Feature is a very basic setting. Select city and the detector is in a mute state for X band only till it passes that threshold again.
The Cobra XR-1050 offers "supposed" 10 bands protection and ID'ed to the driver via a fairly large and clear Green text display. Presented on the display can either the radar/laser detected or scrolling text by any emergency info, and can be relayed to the driver by a clean and clear female voice.
This Statement has been used to sell this Cobra XR-1050:
"Cobra® introduces the world's first 10-BandTM Radar/Laser Detector with Digital Signal Processing. A high speed RISC digital processor, similar to those used in high end personal computers, is used to achieve incredibly high sensitivity and virtually no false alerts."
This Statement is true...but not.
The newer setup has been an improvement over other detectors offered by Cobra. This circuitry, RISC, has improved the sensitivity and selectivity. On all three FCC allocated police radar bands, the XR-1050 offers good protection.
As for the offer the 10 band protection this is not entirely true. These bands that Cobras Says it protects you from are:
1. X band - radar
2. K band - radar
3. Ka band - radar
4. LTI 20-20 - laser
5. Ultra-Lyte - laser
6. Pro Laser (I & II) -laser
7. Pro laser III - laser
8. VG-2 - used for detecting the use of a radar detector
9. Safety Alert - emergency alerts and safety info
10. Strobe Alert - used on Emergency vehicles to change Traffic lights
The true Police bands allocated that all newer detectors look at are:
X band 10.525 GHz
K band 24.125 GHz
Ka band 33.4-36 GHz
Laser- 904nm by all laser guns
The rest are just added to hype up to sell their produce.
The performance of this unit has been above par in all aspects. This unit is much better than the current 9000 series on the market (i.e. 9860/9560) plus any current Uniden and Whistler detector of current. The reception is close to double than the current 9560 that it was compared to.
Performance Recorded and Experienced numbers are:
. . . . . . City . . . . . . Hwy
X band . 0.45-.75 mile . 0.5- 2 miles
K band . 0.35-.75 mile . 0.35-2.5 miles
Ka band . 0.15-.5 mile . 0.25-2 miles
Laser 5% fair chance of reception
For the downfall of this spark of improved performance come with problems.
- The Volume level of this unit must be at maximum levels to hear the speaker. With this in mind, the voice alert if activated is so distorted that it is worthless to have it on.
- The CITY feature is so Basic that when the detector was introduced for $250-300 originally, what is Cobra thinking.
- The DIM feature is still too bright for concealing night time use from observing eyes on the driving range.
- The Windshield mounting of this unit is solid when mounted but can be a pain to either snap in place or releasing the unit.
- And the next two are can be a BIG problem with this unit.
-- Falsing. This is True Falsing, not the kind that is consider at your local Grocery stores. This unit is fairly easy to falsing in the Ka band. This can be from other detectors and from one unknown falsing that was experienced near a business (believed to security system related).
-- The other is Digital Delay. Digital delay is a delay that is encountered in a Processor that is slow in processing inbound info and producing a result, ie detecting. The encounter experienced on this is about 1/2 sec to 2 secs.
Previously this unit was a intro at $250-300. At that price and Basic features, this unit failed to be sold in numbers and with I can see why. Today you might find the XR-1050 for around $100-125, and it is well worth the price to performance.
In recommending this product is a somewhat difficult choice. It is well worth the dollar to performance offered. But it can be a difficult to fully recommend this unit. This is due to the Digital Delay and the unknown falsing that was experienced. It is a toss up.
I hope to see Cobra utilize this design for better detection than what is offered today by them, add more features, and fix the Digital Delay and falsing. Then this unit would be a high seller and a Fully recommended item.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
A-RDR-GUY
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Member: Eric D
Location: Southeastern, Virginia
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 33 members
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