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Rating: - 2nd best radar/laser detector on the market
I couldn't be happier with this radar detector. I think for the money, it does a great job in detecting all forms of radar. For the short time I've been using it, the detector has alerted me to police with radar....wherever they are hiding. I have to say a word about the user friendly features on this thing. It won't drive you batty with false warnings. There are plenty of high end radar detectors out there (the Valentine One is considered one of the best detectors on the market, yet is notorious for giving false alerts) crying wolf. I knew one person who got so upset over this that he threw his detector out the window. He's been happy ever since. I've spent many hours looking at the top review/testing radar sites on the web, and all of them said that the Cobra 9860 is one of the top models for not giving false alerts. The exception is with X radar signals from micowaves. No radar system can eliminate these. But this one does an incredible job doing it. So if you're driving and you hear it go off with a signal strength over 3 bars, you can take it seriously. Another cool feature is the smart mute; it detects the RPM on your car so if you're stopped, the X radar signals that go off occasionaly will not bother you. I believe this has to be the MOST user friendly radar detector out there...it allows you to enjoy it that much more. A word on laser, NO radar detector out there can give you total immunity against it. If you hear different, they are full of it. The explanation is simple, if a cop chooses your car and no other ahead of you, by the time the laser beam hits the front of your car..YOU'RE DEAD! The Valentine 1 and Passport 8500 are the best at only alerting you if they detect a laser being used on cars ahead of you. The Cobra 9860 doesn't do as good a job as they do, but if the laser is close enough to your car, then it will go off. So if you're concerned about the laser end of it, spend the extra $2-300 to get one of the 2 I mentioned. Luckily, police don't use laser on the freeways in the southwest, so I don't have to worry about it. The 2 signals that are used are K and Ka. You can't go wrong with this detector. Hope this helps!