Customer Reviews

Whistler XTR-140 Laser/Radar Detector with Exclusive Twin Alert Periscopes

5 star:		(106)
4 star:		(65)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

I was extremely skeptical about the performance of a $40 detector, but after a few recent road trips, I am convinced this is actually a well functioning product. Although it does not have exceptional filtering ability for false signals, it can still give you enough X/K/Ka warning for you to slow down in time.

The two blue LED's are a great innovation, because you can easily see them out of the corner of your eye. This is extremely useful when your radio drowns out the audible signals, or when the sun washes out the primary letter warning lights.

You simply can't go wrong with the price. It does not have the features of the top of the line detectors (coiled power cord, voice alert, text readout, settings save, compass, etc), yet it has at its core the most important feature: the basic detection ability to provide enough warning for the driver.

Nice quality. No nonsense.

Picks up some stray X from industrial parks or commercial buildings occasionally in Highway mode if buildings are adjacent to interstate, BUT these signals easily discerned giving only one bar on strength meter, and a couple warning only chirps.

However, first night out, I had my unit reach three bars, light up the entire display like a Christmas tree, blip the periscopes constantly, basically seemed like the thing was going to implode ("scary"), and then I saw the cop! He was about 3/4 mile away, opposite side of interstate facing me with a victim pulled over, lights flashing.

Caught him a second time while exiting an off ramp in a hotel parking lot perpendicular to me prior to that with another victim! "Big, bad, Dodge Hemi" cruiser, all painted up with intimidating graphics. "Big bad", muscle car, chase car with undoubtedly the latest radar.

All I know is that this little $38 Whistler "smells" his butt a mile away like a geiger counter detecting radiation! He hangs in the same geographic area around my workplace constantly busting people (a real worka"ho"lic), but now I can "smell" him a mile away for $38!

Me like!

i purchased the xtr 140 and it has been great so far, from what ive read the 330 has voice alerts and thats the only main difference. higher end radars have alot more features (compass, volt meter, aarows, pop detection etc) but none of that matters to me, i just wanted a radar detector that works. usually i find myself drifting 12 or so mph over the posted limit in the city and it gives me plenty of time to stop. besides a blip of ka when i pass a walgreens or cvs (if you are pointed at the doors its a full alert) the city 2 mode is pretty quiet. then again i can barely hear the radar when it goes off with the radio on so the lights come in handy to get my attention

i bought the 140 model because it was cheap but still accurate. i really dont care about a 3-4 mile range of detection because with instant off and instant on even a v1 cant save you if you are alone on the road. no one uses POP radar and im not going to pay another $50 for a feature im not going to use, and in the city there are so many cars on the road that i can pick up a trap in more than enough time to react.

************update 10/2/09***************
i have had this detector for about two years now and it has yet to disappoint me. however after owning it for about a year i felt the need to splurge and purchase a higher end unit, the whistler pro 78 rev c. i thought that my top tier purchase would blow my old xtr140 out of the water, but suprisingly the performance was nearly identical. however with the pro 78 you get to select what functions you want enabled or disabled.

in short i have to stick to my original review
pros:
i have gotten over a mile detection of a K band speed trap
i have also gotten slightly over a mile detection on k/a band
very clear display
VERY cheap

cons:
lacks internal memory. doesnt save settings
"chatty" on k and specifically x band. it will pick up your cvs walgreens everytime. its best to run city II mode if you do heavy city driving

i still recommend this product to anyone when they talk about speeding tickets. always gives me plenty of time for radar alerts

the whistler also has that signal strength meter, where as i believe the cobra does not. i have a cobra esd6060 and this whistler destroys it in detection distance

Perfomance is on par with my cheap Cobra, and the alerts are less annoying. It is particularly nice to have multiple city modes with the ability to disable X-band entirely. The Blue LED "periscope" indicators really catch the corner of your eye, but become annoying with prolonged indications, such as when a patrol car is directly in front of you. This unit also lacks a DIM/Night Mode. The display is clear and informative, but looks very cheap, especially compared to the Cobra in the same price range. The mount is sturdy, but the suction cups are small and I don't expect them to last long. This one does detect other detectors nearby, which increases the false positives. A great value, just don't expect flawless detection or lots of features.

It's almost exactly the same as my old Whistler 1732 radar detector.The only pluses are the blue lights stand out at night,but you can't even see them in the daytime.Also, the 3rd city mode lets you get rid of the X band which almost no police use anymore anyway so it cuts down the false alerts by at least 80%.Worth it, although everything resets everytime so that sucks almost enough to want to buy the next model up.But for now it will work.Also it's way bigger than my old one.Not bad though for 40 bucks.

I recently bought this detector for my wife since she racked up a few tickets lately, and it has blown me away! I have an older Whistler 1545 detector that is pushing 10 years old now, and this one destroys it (even though the old one cost twice as much). The blue lights are a real attention-getter and the volume dial is a treat (something my old one doesn't have one). This baby picks up waaay farther than my old unit. It picked up a county Sheriff last night over half a mile away, over a HILL! It also caught the splash back from one of the automated radar warning signs they park on the highway (the "Your Speed Is__" things). We were coming up to it, it was 100 yards ahead of us facing oncoming traffic (away from us), and the detector caught the reflected radar waves bouncing off the oncoming trucks. Unbelievable. You would expect his level of performance in the $100-$200 detectors, but not from one that was under 40 bucks. This baby is a real gem.

Needless to say, I am buying another one to replace my old Whislter! Highly recommended.

Pros: Inexpensive, easy set-up, user friendly, exceptional performance.

Cons: None yet.

i bought this xtr-140 detector about a week ago online due to receaving about 4 speeding tickets in the last couple months. it was almost 50 dollars less than the exact same 1 at bestbuy. today on drive home it beeped for the first time since i hooked it up then beeped more blue led lights light up and went nutts. it picked up a cops radar on the other side of a huge hill and down a straight stretch of road about a half mile. and the cheapest speeding ticket ive receaved has been 175 dollars, so this detector has paid for itself over three times allready on its first use. this is the first detector i have ever owed and didnt really know how to compare all the differant options these things have or what they even ment. the blue led lights are extreamly bright and noticable and the beep is a extreamly high pitch, it also has a volume up down turn nob so you can also turn the load beeps off and just use the blue led lights. like i said before i have never wrote about a item before or owned a detector but would definately recommend this detector to anyone looking for one and allready have.

First let me say while I don't own a radar production factory you might just think I did if you met me. I've owned just about every brand of radar out there and have spent several thousands of dollars on countless "toys" over the years just to have fun, test and play! I travel frequently and have watched all these detectors give all kinds of warnings. The first thing I've noticed about the Whistler XTR 140 is that it's very quiet in the 3rd city mode. But while doing so you compromise some sensitivity along the way? Let me be clear to all that read this article, this detector is in no way a Valentine1 which I own or an Escort X50 which I own as well but it does do the job pretty well compared to the "Big Boys". The best advice I can give to all you readers out there is if you want The Best go with The Valentine1 (Hands Down) the arrows are a great plus on the V1 and it also filters out the new MPH speed signs that flash and show you how fast (They don't give you a ticket JUST SHOW YOUR SPEED) you're going. DON'T get these confused with Photo Radar! My Escort X50 I love to but it doesn't have the arrows to tell you where you being hit, goes off on the MPH Signs and is just a tad below the V1.
If you go with the Whistler XTR 140 or "ANY" radar detector in this day and age I would highly reccomend combining with The Blinder Extreme M20 or M40 Lazer Jammer depending on what you drive because chances are if you get hit by lazer your gonna get pulled over no matter what detector you have! NOTE: I've had people get hit in front of me several times and ONLY my V1 has gone off as it's looking ahead and got a shot between the cars. The Blinder didn't trip because I wasn't the target car. NO other detector comes close to the V1 in sniffing out Lazer.....Hope this helps in making your choice!

Ok, this is my 2nd "Cheap" (read below $50) radar detector. The earlier one was from Cobra (very good too). I'd planned to get the same model for my wife's car as well (she recently got a ticket :( ). But while browsing Amazon I came across this model, good / cheap / functional. What i liked was the "Blue" indicator lights (really cool at night) and the visual signal strength meter.

Both are very similar, however for $5 more the Whistler is a little bit more sensitive (both give u enough time to slow down). However the audible alerts on the Cobra are more pleasant... u know the tonal quality and stuff. The whistler audible alerts are very harsh... and if u live in a city zone like me.. that means constant irritating noise from the harmless radar doors, safety radars, etc...

Otherwise, the cobra is smaller (+1 point). Whistler has longer cord (+0.5)

Overall both are good and for under $50 each, I'd say get one of both yourself. Good investments against tickets / insurance rate hike...

Other than the audible alerts, I like the whistler better though :-)

Hope this helps.

Having owned both a Cobra Radar Detector (absolute crap!), and a Passport 8500 (excellent, but it was stolen) I had went out searching again for a replacement for my Passport. While I loved it, I was not going to pay $300 for another one. On searching through Amazon, I came upon this Whistler and saw it very highly rated by those who purchased it. I searched other websites, and found similar reviews. Considering the current price (just under $40), it seemed like the bargain of the century. So I purchased it, and it arrived yesterday.

The functionality of the detector is fairly straightforward. On power-up it is automatically in Highway mode. You can switch to one of three City Modes (City = reduced X sensitivity, City I = Greatly reduced X Sensitivity, City II = X-band turned off). You can also turn on VG-2 (aka Radar detector detector). It has a simple wheel on the left side for power/volume. Buttons on top for mute, city/hwy mode, and to turn on/off VG-2.

On my first few hours with the detector, I see where they saved money. It does not save your settings. If you put it in City II mode, when you turn off the car, it will not power-up the next time in City II mode. It will power up to it's default setting of Highway. However, that is a minor inconvenience.

Honestly, this thing paid for itself within the first hour of owning it. As I mentioned, I received it yesterday evening. So this morning it was attached to my windshield on my first run to drop my kids off at school and then drive to work for me. I drive along a state highway that has a 55 MPH speed limit, which drops down to 45 in sections. Now, no one ever changes their speed along this highway. Everyone seems to do about 60 or more the whole way... me included. Well I enter one of these 45 mph zones with no other traffic around me (it's 7 am) and suddenly the Whistler chirped once in an area where I've never (and I mean NEVER) seen a speed trap... I glanced at it after the first chirp, and saw it was flashing K/Ka band, which I know the local constabulary uses... so I take my foot off the throttle. It chirps again... my foot is on the brake at this point, then it became more insistent as my speed is now down to about 48. I'm scanning everywhere to find the source and suddenly I see him, in the center median hiding behind a tree in the median is a motorcycle cop with his radar gun trained on me. He glared at me as I drove past but I'd slowed down before he could get a reading on me.

I highly recommend this radar detector if you want to have something reliable, but don't want to pay for a top-of-the-line ValentineOne or Passport. Would my $400 Passport have seen the radar trap? Yes. Did my $40 Whistler see the radar trap? Yes. So, they both performed as I wanted, but one did it for 90% less money. This thing paid for itself within the first 23 minutes of owning it. You can't go wrong.