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For the money you pay it has a decent range. I mainly bought the cobra SLR-500 because I figured the big screen would look cool in my car. I don't really speed or do anything crazy I got it for the looks of all the gadgets in my car. If you are buying this product for its efficiency of giving you a good warning for cops I wouldn't recommend it, it would be better to save up money for a good one.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I bought this simply because it looked cool and the price was low. I now understand why. I figured I would try it and if it worked I would buy the newer model but this thing well It has a mind of its own and that just doesn't work for me. My license is suspended for yet another month (Had one beer but told the cop I would blow in his ear before I blew in the machine) so I don't risk speeding, I just like to know where the boogers are and well this radar at times it will pick up the signal from a decent distance and other times it won't pick it up until the cop is right up on me. In my lifetime I had had 5 different Cobra radar detectors and I have to say this one is the worst I've ever owned. It does look cool tho I will give it that but the whole 30% better then the other cobra radars yeah I don't think so. If you do buy this style buy the newer one and be sure to leave a review. Me I think I'm just going to get the Cobra 360 again. (Had and was stolen) that was a pretty decent one. Not great but good enough for where I live and it never let me down. Good luck out there and remember to always watch the road and be alert.. Lots of dummies doing dumb things.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I purchased this unit because it said it picks up all bands, and was unhappy when I found out the Vedetta 650G, is the only unit that will pick up all threats, red light cams, ultra Low K band, which the radar vans in Arizona use, but for the price it is a very nice unit, which will out preform most radar detectors in this price range, It has a full color screen, which is pleasant to use and scroll through to set it up for personal taste, I put this unit in my wife's car and spent the money on the Vedetta 650g. and if you are serious about radar detection buy the better unit, this one will do the job in most of the cases, but it doesn't come with the Aura map data base. but for the price I have found it to be reliable, and a good deal for the money
I’ve had Cobras for over ten years. I have trouble with my battery because of all the electronics in my little red Celica GTS. BTW red is a prime target for bleeping lasers. This unit has a built in volt meter that gives it some stealth by not looking much like a radar detector. I’ve been stopped and explained it was a volt meter and it worked. The volt meter is very useful in troubleshooting the electrical system since it is on while the car runs. You get to know what looks right and wrong. The display can flip up or down with the image rotating to fit the orientation. I can imagine this unit my seems to somewhat big to some. The controls are a good balance of convenience versus complexity. You can customize the operation in many ways in regard to bands, muting, display and features. You can pretty much take it out of the box, stick it on your windshield and go. The mount is one of those super sticky, soft suction cups that never come loose. How does it work when it come to avoiding tickets? Being an engineer / IT guy I wonder how Cobra managed increasing sensitivity yet cutting down on false alarms. The unit can be switched from silent to voice to just beep. Pretty much, if it pins on five bars you better damn well slow down. The rear view seems to be as good as forward looking. In short, we all, that is, detector users just gained a major technical advantage over speed traps mongers. Overall, I would give this unit 6 stars out of five or the highest of ratings. That was no typo BTW. A bit on the down side... The first unit I purchased had a problem with overheating causing the display volume to self trigger. I returned the unit to Cobra and had a replacement in a few days. They replace my SLR-500 with a super high end Cobra SPX-7800BT. Thanks Cobra, you guys are the best. In the mean time I bought a second SLR-500 thinking I might have to wait a while. Simply unheard of customer service these days. The old unit had a defect known as a thermal window. It worked OK over a wide range of temperatures but on this unit it would fail between 80 and 85 degrees only. I can’t fault Cobra for such an obscure defect. The replacement unit has been rock solid for two months which is near the end of the infant mortality curve. The previous Cobra unit I had worked for ten years and is still ticking. Just that I went for a technology upgrade. On the other hand the Cobra SPX-7800BT is truly an advanced unit. The SPX does everything the SLR does in a much smaller form factor. However, this unit has a blue tooth interface that can hook to your phone. As it learns about traps and red light cameras and uploads this data to the Cobra Cloud for other units to share. That means that as the community of these smart detectors grows there is up to date reporting of all sorts of violation hazards. There is even a compass on the SPX to enhance the stealth of this unit. Yes this unit warns you about stop light camera based on their sensing device. If someone from Cobra happens to read this... Might I suggest you partner up with Garmin and release a GPS/Radar Detector combo unit that compares your speed with the posted limit and suppresses any warnings if you are not over the limit. The GPS can provide more accurate location information when reporting the traps and cameras to the cloud server.Read full review
Long story short I have a Beltronics Vector 995 and RX 65 and the Cobra SLR 500 works just as great as the name brand ones I have for a fraction of the price. I was actually looking for a different Cobra model but stumbled across this one and did a couple reviews [Most videos are in Russian fyi] and was very impressed by the performance I decided to give it a shot and I am glad that I did. Great distance even with traffic but without traffic one late night I was able to peg a cop shooting radar 1.25+ miles down the road. I have had this one for 2 years now and it is still working great. I even bought my father one for his birthday this July. I highly recommend this product and would hesitate to buy another one once the beltronic ones die out.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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