OriginalToken
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It very much depends on your price range and features you have to have.
A good starting point is here: https://www.vortexradar.com/
Vortex also does some great videos that can be found on YouTube.
If you want to read a lot of stuff from other users the RDForums are great: https://www.rdforum.org/
Questions to answer for yourself, to help you narrow down the list of options.
Number 1, price point, how much are you willing to spend on a detector? That decision will set the class of detector you should look at.
Do you want a remote mount detector or a windshield mount one?
What is your driving like? By this I mean, is there a lot of dense traffic with lots of false alert sources around? If so you may want to consider a detector with excellent BSM filtering, even if it gives up performance in some other areas.
Do you drive in wide open areas with little traffic and you need maximum detection range to maximize your potential to catch distant instant on hits? In that case a low false alert rate is secondary, but maximum sensitivity is the driver.
Do you need red light camera warning? Then a detector with GPS and a camera database is the way to go.
Do you want to link the detector to your phone, or is that a negative to you? Some detectors shift features to the phone, and if you don't have your phone with you or connected to your detector you do not have the full functionality.
Do you need or want arrows? Knowing the direction of the threat is a must for some people, other people are satisfied with just knowing the threat is someplace around.
Do you want, or need, frequency readout? Knowing the frequency of the detected signal can help you be part of the decision making chain by increasing the information you have about any specific signal detected, do you know that every day you pass the same cop, on the same frequency, at the same point? Other people could care less, just tell me there is a radar present, I don't care to know anything more about it.
Do you need stealth operation? For those not familiar, in some areas, states, or facilities it is illegal to use a radar detector or have one in your car. The police in these areas sometimes have radar detector detectors, systems they can use in their police vehicles that are designed to detect the radar detector in your vehicle and alert them to its presence. So some detectors are designed to be undetectable to these systems or minimally detectable, they are "stealthy".
Some of these questions are going to come down to your personality. Do you like to be involved in decision making or do you just want the detector to tell you something is around. Do you want detection at all cost, even if it means sometimes you get a false detection? Or do you want only detection of real threats, knowing that sometimes that means you are going to get later warnings?
Right now I think the Uniden R3 is a very good detector, with nice features, outstanding range, at a not horrible price. The ****** Max 360c is one of the best detectors on the market for features and false alert filtering, but it gives up some range performance. The Valentine 1 Gen 2 is excellent, but to get the most out of it you must use it with your phone, you will be missing half the goodies it can do without a phone.
My favorite detector right now is the Uniden R7. It has outstanding range, arrows, GPS for locking out known signals, red light camera database, and decent false filtering. The false filtering is definitely this detectors weakest suite, not bad at all but not quite up to the rest of the detectors performance. I am going to sound like I am harping on the falses, but really it is very good and this is the only thing to complain about with this detector, it could always be a bit better. That is generally the way it goes in detector design, if you want max detection range you might have more false alerts, if you are willing to give up range you can reduce those falses, the R7 opts for max range at the cost of a few more false alerts. There are custom settings available in the detector to flatten this out, but out of the box it can be a bit chatty.
A new detector is on the horizon. Radenso is bringing out Theia some time this year, probably late in the year. This is going to be a very different way of approaching radar detector design. It promises to set new bars in performance. People use those terms describing "new" things coming to market all the time, but in this case the techniques used are decidedly unique and there is every reason to believe this detector will change the way commercial detectors, at least higher end ones, are done in the future. There is no other consumer radar detector on the market using anything like this technology, and it is more akin to advanced developmental military radar warning receivers. The company has been very transparent, interacting with the community on a regular basis, on how and why they are doing the design the way they are. It will be an expensive detector, how expensive is not known, but at or slightly more than todays current top shelf windshield mount detectors has been hinted at. If the production units perform in the real world anything like the demonstrated developmental prototypes, serious detector users will be throwing money at the company but it is likely to be a bit of a niche detector, more of an enthusiasts detector that only people serious about either detectors or countermeasures will buy. At least at first.
T!
