Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does the job, October 13, 2007
When the Laser Alert "goes off," have your Nitroglycerin pills available. The instructions say that no matter what the volume or other settings are set to, the Laser Alert will go off at maximum volume. It's loud.
The blue LEDs are visible in darkness and in sunlight, except if you're wearing Blue-Blocker sunglasses. The yellow tint of the glasses totally obliterates the blue display, even if turned up to full brightness. Therefore, I'm in the process of learning how to recognize the different alarms by audio.
There are a couple of extra, bright, decorative [blue] LEDs on top of the unit that can be set to either stay on solidly, or blink only when there's any type warning. They don't convey any useful information, but they might be turned on in case of mobile fiesta. The assorted dim settings don't affect these two LEDs, so if they're active, they're at full brightness. But they can be turned completely off, such as after the party ends.
The Dark setting is not totally dark. The design strategy is that in the Dark mode, the display will go totally dark during an alert, and stay dark for an extra 20 seconds. I find that doesn't completely address the concern of not offending policemen for having a detector in my car. At night, I believe a policeman (or other cars) passing will see the dim blue LEDs on top of the dashboard. I'm concerned that if a policeman sees the detector, he won't give me the benefit of a few mphs that I might have had if I didn't have the detector. And I'm not interested in non-policemen seeing that I have a detector, either.
There is also a Dim mode for nighttime driving -- brighter than Dark, and stays lit regardless of alert.
There are at least three different settings for the X-band sensitivity. I have the sensitivity mildly reduced, and have few false alerts while driving in town, and I'm learning where they are after a while so as not to cause concern. If you're sure there are no X-band radar guns on your trail, the X-band can be completely disabled.
Sorry I can't address the question of sensitivity -- how much time the detector gives you to hit the breaks before the smokey's radar gun measures your speed, but reviews on the internet say the price-to-performance ratio of the Whistler is almost as good as detectors over twice the price. http://www.laserveil.com/whistler/pro-78/xtr-690/
I have yet to see a message, such as, "Construction Ahead" scrolling across my Pro-78's display. I'm pretty sure this detector can do that.
A female voice announces the type of radar alert, followed by beeps that get faster as the signal gets closer, and the visual display reads signal strength from one to nine, to help determine whether they're getting closer or not. At "Nine," the beeping goes "Shave And A HairCut Shave And A HairCut..."
I've recently taken to using the AutoQuiet mode, where the alarm partially drops in volume a few seconds after it goes off. That's a good thing.
I've been meaning to get some replacement suction cups for the windshield mount. They're small, and I assume their lifetime is limited. Whistler sells replacements for some exorbitant price, but I think the Crafts department of Walmart can help. I usually put the detector under the passenger's seat when I'm done, and the last time both suction cups fell off, so I found when I went to go retrieve it. That never happened before. I'm thinking the plastic is starting to shrink.
I'm thinking of making a log of alerts for my semi-weekly 4-hour trip, to help me remember where the "false" alerts always go off, and to help me realize if an unexpected alert occurs. Most of the alerts are from temporary traffic signs (the ones with big orange chassis and light-bulb lettering), some of which continue to emit microwaves, even if they're dark with their signage turned off. I found one with a laser, which I assumed was there just to rattle my teeth -- I don't think it has a camera or anything. At least, no one has contacted me. After going past it a few times, I don't worry about it anymore, or any signs, except to minimize collisions with fellow vehicles. It's important to remember that construction workers never have a nice day, but sometimes those signs are out for months on end with no workers anywhere, and state unreasonable limits for the conditions. At least, first check for humans before going too far over a Construction Zone limit.
Finally, I recommend my approach: Use the detector to help learn about enforcement activities, not to evade them. And when you're hit with a radar gun, you'll be proud that you weren't driving in a dangerous manner and that you didn't have to hit the breaks or anything which would have demonstrated you have a guilty conscience.
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great price -- Great range -- Great value, October 31, 2007
The Pro-78 has some very nice features. I had another Whistler model for over 6 years and this is a great replacement. It has very long range radar detection - I often can't yet see the source when it alerts. It may be a mile down the road. The auto-dim feature is very nice -- my old one required me to press a button to dim the display. I find the blue display much less harsh than my old amber display. And the extra 2 LEDs on the top really get your attention. And I found the best price at an Amazon store.
|
|
|
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful detector for a great price, March 23, 2008
This is the 3rd detector I've purchased and certainly the best. My first detector was purchased in 1999 and was also a Whistler. It worked great and had been dependable, always alerting me with plenty of time to insure I was going at a proper speed by the time I came within range of a police radar gun. However, I noticed that it stopped doing alerts on the interstates. I believe that is because I don't think it could detect super wide band KA and the state police have switched to guns using that technology, so it was time for a new one.
I happened to see a cheap (chinese made) import at a very low price on one of the deal a day sites and so made an impulse purchase after confirming it could detect super wide band KA. I should have done my homework as when I began using this unit I found that its range was so limited that by the time it alerts you are already in range of the radar gun. My estimate was that this cheap unit had only about half the range of my 10 year old unit. This unit was a waste of money no matter how cheap it was, so it was back to shopping for a new detector.
This time around I took my time to read the reviews of many detectors at several web sites. After reading these reviews it soon became obvious that the Pro-78 was a near universal choice for the best detector for the money, with a performance that almost equaled detectors costing 2 or 3 times as much as it.
My own personal experience is that this unit has almost double the range as my 10 year old unit. In fact this power almost caused me a problem right after I started using it. I live in a rural area and commute about 40 miles into work. I was heading into work one morning and was traveling on a lightly used local road a few miles from house when I got a KA alert that only lasted a few seconds. I have been commuting down this road for 10 years and know that there shouldn't be any alerts so I slowed down to the speed limit and started looking for a cruiser. I went about three quarters of a mile and didn't see anything and so thought it was just a false alarm and was just starting to accelerate to the normal speed locals go down this road at (about 10 or so mph over the limit) when suddenly the detector went off again and when I looked up the road I saw a cop on foot hiding in the bushes with a hand held pulse unit. He was about 1000 feet away so I was definitely in his accurate reading zone. I guess the Pro-78 had picked up the first alarm when he lit up the radar on some other car when I was still 3/4 of a mile away (and around a bend or two). It had picked it up so far away that I had almost given up on the alert!
Given how sensitive this unit is, one can pick up radar controlled door openers from quite some distance away. Fortunately most of these are on the X band which isn't used by the police much any longer. I disabled the unit from alerting to X band and so 90% of the false alarms are gone and I know where the other (K band) door openers are on my normal commuting route. If necessary there are some filter options which can further reduce false alarms if necessary but I haven't found them necessary.
I've been using this unit for 2 weeks now and have had it fire alerts on both local roads and on the interstate and am confident that this unit can provide me with plenty of warning time before I get into a radar gun's "kill" zone.
So to sum up this is a great radar detector for the price and is definitely worth your consideration unless you want to spend enough money to buy a top of the line Bell, Escort or Valentine unit.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
