It's a Cobra on steroids! (in a good way)
Written: Jan 21 '04
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Pros: Green text, dsp, voice, strobe, great range
Cons: Says Cobra, digital delay, lacks features
The Bottom Line: It's a good priced detector depending where you buy that has the performance of detectors twice as expensive.
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| xtremeskea's Full Review: Cobra Electronics XR-1050 Radar Detector |
I don't know much about radar detectors. I just know that I'm young and drive a red convertible and will get pulled over for doing 3 over the speed limit. When it came time to buying a detector I talked to my good buddy (soupcraze) and asked him what I should buy. I know he knows radar detectors cause he obsesses over his v-1 more than his girlfriend and when he recommended a Cobra, I asked him if he lost his mind.
This Cobra is different. It uses DSP, which is the same technology used in high end detectors. This gives it a higher range and less falsing. I can tell you first hand the less falsing isn't that much less. My detector falses on Ka band 20-50 times a day.
The voice alerts on this detector are sweet. Instead of just normal, "K A Band" or "X Band," this detector says, "Be Careful, * band Alert Ahead." It has a female voice. Some people don't care much about the voice but I think the female voice is better to listen to than a male voice.
Another nice feature is Strobe and SWS alerts. I haven't seen the SWS cause there are no transmitters in my area, but I have seen the strobe and it is cool. Strobe is what emergency vehicles have to control the stop lights. When the detector picks up a strobe single it flashes, "Emergency Vehicle" and voice alerts tell you, "Be Careful, Emergency Vehicle Approaching."
The text display is nice and easy to read. It has 4 brightness settings: bright, dim, dimmer, dark. Its hard to tell the diff between the first three in the day time but at night its easy to see the difference. Dark however turns the entire screen off and lets you know the detector is on with a little green dot in the corner. DID I MENTION THE TEXT DISPLAY IS GREEN?!?!?! Love the green, its so cool.
The range is pretty good, I have been saved a few times. However I strictly use the detector in hwy mode. I'm not located near a big city where I have to constantly worry about X band falsing so I don't bother with the cty mode. Plus you are supposed to have improved performance in hwy mode. Also, it is best to keep in in hwy mode because of the 1-2 second digital delay caused by the DSP. Some people might not like it but if you think of the range your getting compared to other detectors in the price range, 1-2 seconds isn't that big of a deal.
The lack of features are what make this detector inexpensive and comparable to the Bel Vector 940. Both lack features and have great performance.
Hey, if Soupcraze recommends a Cobra; it must be good.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
xtremeskea
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Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
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