Whistler DE-3400 - The Poor Man's Remote Unit With The Rich Man's Performance
Written: Jan 08 '04 (Updated Jan 08 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Effectiveness: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
| Durability: |
|
|
|
Pros: Price!, Remote if you like that, Performance, Features, Styling
Cons: Remote if you don't like that
The Bottom Line: The Whistler DE-3400 is the cheapest remote unit out there, but at least offers "expensive" performance!
|
|
|
| soupcraze's Full Review: Whistler DE-3400 Radar Detector |
The Whistler DE-3400 is the cheapest remote detector on the market. I saw this in an average car, a Toyota Camry, not an exotic sports car that you see most expensive units in. The Whistler DE-3400 can be purchased for less than $200, I've seen it going for $180 online. I couldn't believe my eyes that a remote system was going so cheap, but you'd better believe it. Then I had my doubts, but tested it nonetheless, and here's what I found with it.
-Price-
*The Whistler DE-3400 can easily be purchased for under $200, with the lowest prices being about $150. This puts it in the midrange radar detector market. As long as you don't care about portability and are willing to get it installed in your car, the Whistler DE-3400 is gives you way more performance than you could ever expect at such a low price. It's cheaper than the Bel Vector LR Remote which is another cheaper remote unit available. The unit that remains in the car cockpit is very high quality, and doesn't look like crap. It's a very elegant looking unit. The laser receiver is a small unit that is mounted on the windshield. It has three diodes which are meant to improve the field-of-view of the laser. The Whistler DE-3400 did seem to perform better than the Whistler mounted units. I mounted a Whistler DE-1753 and saw the difference in performance. The downside to the Whistler DE-3400 and any other non-K40 2000P remote unit is that it doesn't have a rear-antenna that comes with it. However, unlike Beltronics which is its closest competitor, Whistler offers an optional rear-antenna for over $150. The antenna is used on the 2003 Whistler DE-3300 which is last-years model, but I hear you can use it on the Whistler DE-3400. It's expensive, but having rear-protection can be very important. The car I was in didn't have a rear-antenna. Overall, you get superb performance from a remote unit that's practically free. Whistler really did a great job here combining quality, performance, and price to creat the Whistler DE-3400. If you're willing to integrate a system into your car and possibly pay for professional installation if you can't do it yourself, then the Whistler DE-3400 is the best value that you can get. It'll smoke just about anything else that you can compare it to in the sub-$200 price range.
-Performance-
*The Whistler DE-3400 was tested out in the areas that I usually test out radar detectors. I wasn't doing the driving though, but nonetheless I kept my watchful eye on the detector. The Whistler DE-3400 was tested out against K-Band radar at first. It managed to pull off a warning much sooner than a mounted Whistler could, then being the Whistler DE-1753 mounted on the windshield. The Whistler DE-3400 definitely provided enough time to slow down, and drive a little before seeing the cop when cruising about 10-15mph over the speed limit. When it came to Ka-Band performance, it gave less warning time, but still provided more than enough time to slow the car down. The mounted Whistler again proved to offer an alert after the Whistler DE-3400 did. Later in the day, we decided to mount the Valentine One on the windshield and see how it performed. The Valentine One offered better K and Ka band performance, but the Whistler DE-3400 didn't act like a piece of junk. It provided enough warning for any "fast" driver to slow down. Since you're already installing things into your car, you should consider adding in a laser jamming system. The Whistler DE-3400 detects it, but does absolutely nothing about it! Once you're hit, you're already clocked, therefore you're gone. You've got no early warning. So if you purchase the Bel Laser Pro 904 or Escort ZR-3, then you should be fully covered for protection! For the price you pay, you get more performance than you might expect. However, it's not going to be quite as good as what you'd get from Valentine One which offers rear-protection without any add-ons, however you'd be paying more for that. Plus if you're looking only at remote units, it's like comparing apples and oranges. As for cheap remote performance, it doesn't feel cheap!
-Ease of Use & Features-
*The Whistler DE-3400 has some pretty useful features. They can all be accessed through the main module which can be stowed away somewhere around the dash in your car cockpit. The LED screen is very easy to read, and since it's usually stowed somewhere away from the windshield, it's easy to read since lighting conditions are usually satisfactory. The Whistler DE-3400 offers voice alerts, but an extra module needs to be purchased for about $50 or so. Some people can't live without voice alerts, and this option proves to be pretty good for them. There are four buttons on the unit, which mute it, switch from city to highway modes, dim the display, and other such things. If you want to install the unit yourself, there's a good manual that comes with it which labels everything and shows you how to do it. However, I would recommend professional installation if you have no idea what you're doing. Other than that, the Whistler DE-3400 has everything else you'd expect, X, K, Ka, laser, and SWS all being picked up. There are also other programmable features such as the Night mode for night time driving, and Truck mode for anyone who drivers big rigs in which it is illegal to use radars. You sure get a lot of nice features for the money!
-The Verdict-
*For about $150 or slightly more, the Whistler DE-3400 is an incredible bargain. It costs much less than the next remote unit in line which is the Bel Vector LR. At $150, the Whistler DE-3400 covers all of the bands that you need, and does a pretty damn good job at that! I doubted the Whistler DE-3400 at first because of its low-price, but now I am a believer that you can have an incredibly cheap radar detector that would prove to be very effective in evading cops. So if you want a remote unit because you're afraid of it getting stolen or prefer to keep a low-profile, then the Whistler DE-3400. If you add on a laser jammer, for under $500 you can have full protection from an exceptional system.
Here's some links to helpful laser jammers which can accompany your Whistler DE-3400!
Bel Laser Pro 904
Escort ZR-3
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
soupcraze
|
 - Top 50 |
|
Member: Soup Enthusiast
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Reviews written: 491
Trusted by: 185 members
About Me:
I enjoy many of life's passions... Music, medicine, people, and life itself.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.