Customer Reviews

Cobra CXR925 Micro Talk 35-Mile 22-Channel FRS/GMRS Two-Way Radio

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I recently bought a pair of these Cobra MicroTalk CXR925 two-way radios to use as 'test' replacement radios for our 6.5 acre, 4 building mini-campus (mostly we purchased based on various strong customer reviews and the longer charge life of lithium batteries, which we need for a full 8 Hr workday's usage.) Five years ago, we purchased several pairs of earlier Cobra MicroTalk LI 6000 WX two-way radios, which were perfect for our facilities; they are durable, and perform wonderfully for our day-to-day staff operations purposes. Unfortunately, a couple of them have begun to fail due to almost 5 years of hard, daily usage and normal wear and tear ... but they were a great investment during their working lives and some are still working like champs. Disappointingly, our 2 newer and more expensive 'test' Cobra MicroTalk CXR925 replacements have proven to be an unsuccessful replacement of our older Cobra LI 6000 WX models. The only problem (but a major one) is that at the highest volume setting of '8' on these CXR925s, these 2 new radios are barely audible and my maintenance and janitorial employees have complained that they often have to place the units right up to their ears to clearly hear transmissions. We now only use these 2 newer CXR925 units with office personnel and with earpieces. Wish Cobra still made the LI 6000 WX model.

IMPORTANT REVIEW NOTE / CUSTOMER FOLLOW-UP FOR THE ABOVE REVIEW: This is a follow-up to the above review by the myself, the author. I sent the above mentioned 2 radios back to Cobra's factory repair services per instructions from their repair department shortly after writing this review. Within a couple of weeks, my 2 radios (the same ones I sent back) were returned to me and the previous volume issue with both units was completely corrected. Both units are now working perfectly and at volume levels that are more than acceptable. Great customer support!

THANKS COBRA for standing behind your product and repairing these radios to my satisfaction!

We are so impressed with these radios that we bought a second set -- the clarity of the voices is so much better than the old Magnavox radios we had before. We got these primarily to go skiing with so the family can stay in touch. We haven't had a chance to use them for that, but we have tried them out. My husband drove down our road approx 2 miles from the house and we had no problem hearing each other. They are easy to use. We predict these will work great in the mountains skiing.

I received these in the mail yesterday, and charged them overnight. The next day I was a little skeptical whether or not they would function properly. They both work perfectly, and the sound quality is great. It is also nice because the radios have just the right amount of functions. You can get done what you need to, withought being dragged down by an insane amount of worthless functions. I tested them today and I was able to get a mile and a half range out of them while I was in my house and my sister was in a car. We were both in a city and it was rainy (I actually don't know if rain would affect it). On the box Cobra states that you can get 35 miles on a mountain (with perfect conditions), 17 miles in a forest, and 3 miles in a city. Overall this is definetaly worth its price. Great buy.

Pros
lightweight (can be a con)
VOX works well
Just the right amount of functions
Sound quality is good
Comes with rechargeable lithium batteries
1 year warranty on the radios

Cons
You don't have these amazing walkie talkies

These were purchased to replace a pair of Motorola radios, mainly because of the rewind feature and the longer battery life. With out car club, we always carry radios when we are meet up for a run so we can communicate between cars and keep the group together. These radios work GREAT for that! As more and more people start using these radios, we are trying to put one or more of them at either end of the group as the range for these radios will allow conversations back and forth. The rewind feature is awesome to have because you can be focused on driving and the navigator can just hit rewind to hear what you missed.

The only negative that I can report is that the quality control from Cobra seems to be a little lacking. We are the fourth couple to buy a set of these radios and 3 out of 4 pairs came with a defective radio (2) or a defective battery (1). Amazon and/or Cobra have both been very responsive in providing replacements so the issue is partially mitigated. We still recommend these radios to friends and we are 100% happy with the performance, charging, battery life and overall user friendly features of the radios.

Had a few radios over the years (Motorola, Uniden) and recently tried the Cobra CXR825 and Motorola MR350, both good but I returned them after a friend showed me his Cobra CXR925 that I proceeded to order on Amazon, why ?
CXR925 compared to CXR825 :
---------------------------
- much better battery life, battery capacity almost 2x (could still use a battery meter, right now it only shows when the battery is going...)
- thinner, the CXR825 is a bit "thick"
- the 20 second voice recorder is useful, especially when reception is spotty
- (slightly) better range, possibly due to the (slightly) taller antenna

CXR925 compared to Motorola MR350:
---------------------------------
- More compact
- Better battery life, CXR925 is 1500mAh Li-Ion, Motorola is NiMH 800mAh (?)
- (slightly) better range
- the 20 second voice recorder is useful, especially when reception is spotty
- no LED light, that could have been handy from time to time

CXR925 would have earned 5 stars if :
- real battery meter, not just low bat alarm
- some weather resistance, top of antenna is already a bit scratched although it didn't fall

I've owned and operated many many FRS/GMRS radios of different brands and types, and these definitely are the best. They have a range of 1.5 miles in our city (don't expect the outrageous claims of any of these radios). If you live in a mountainous area, perhaps they would work 35 miles peak to peak. Anyway, these have higher power and can reach out better than other radios. I'm very pleased with them. They work even better than eXRS, which I had not expected. I still think ham is the best way to go (most of my family are ham radio licensees), but this is the next best thing (also maybe eXRS). For GMRS, you need to spend $85 for the license and then $50-$60 depending on where you get the radios. Ham isn't much more. It can even be cheaper. It's $14 to take the test and $100 for a basic radio. The only difference is that you need to take a basic exam. For me, it wasn't that difficult. You have a huge world open to you through ham radio, with thousands of repeaters around the world to use, IRLP, and hundreds of other types of emphasis you can get into. Another route is eXRS. It has 10 billion "channel" possibilities (using spread spectrum frequency hopping technology). It, too has a shorter range than ham, only about 1 mile, and there are a couple of down sides to it. They can get "out of sync" with each other and then you have to turn the radio off and back on again. They eat batteries faster than anything imaginable. Notwithstanding some of the cons, I still love eXRS. But if you don't want to get involved in ham radio, I would say this (GMRS) is the next best thing, or eXRS (eXRS, especially if you want to have privacy).

Purchased 2 sets in November 2010. Now in January 2011 neither set will take a charge. Radios, x4 2 different docks will not charge. I think both sets of batteries are junk, or the chargers. Seems odd however, that neither set will now charge. Bummer is I gave one set as a Xmas present to some friends. Have not heard back from Cobra or the company I made purchase from as yet.

Battery life has been really great on these so far. Tested the range by driving out about 2-2.5 miles and using maximum range mode was able to communicate and hear each other even with a mini forest in between which is good. Will come in handy when traveling or on hiking trips for sure. NOAA weather alerts were clear and understandable as well.

I purchased these as replacements for an old Motorola set we had used for ten years. The new Cobra CXR925's are amazing. The lithium ion batteries are fantastic and last more than 48 hours. Range and clarity is excellent and they are fairly small. Charging is a breeze with the stand charger. Money well spent. Better than expected product from Cobra.

When I received this as a gift last Christmas it worked great and I loved it. I charged up the batteries and we played with it to see how well it worked. When the spring camping season came around I tried to recharge the batteries and one took a charge in no time. The other did not. I swapped the handset to the slot that had charged the other handset but the light would not come on. I swapped the batteries between the two handsets and the charged battery powered up the handset that had not been able to charge the battery. Suspecting the battery I got out a magnifying glass to see what was up. Sure enough there was a small pucker on the top seam near the battery terminal. I reinserted the battery and left the back off of the handset. When I started pressing on the popped out puckered plastic the charging light came on. I release the battery's pucker and the charging light went out. After a lot of messing with the battery I got it to take a charge but it would not reliably power the handset. I went to the Cobra website and guess what, they didn't carry replacement batteries!!! After a lot of searching I found some reasonably (???) priced batteries all from websites in China. In order to use internet chat to communicate with them through their website it turned out that website in China REQURIED that I download their 'chat' application to my computer. Download an application from China? You can bet I didn't do that. So right now I have one working radio which does me no good at all. I can't believe Cobra built this two way radio, based on a nonstandard battery and that they don't cover the battery for defects in workmanship. I may run another search for the battery as it has been several months since I looked this up but this is a hassle. Based on this experience and lack of parts availability I will probably not be buying any other Cobra products. Too bad for them I need a new CB and a new Trucker's GPS...