Review: Cobra GPS-capable Radar Detectors

When we tested Cobra's line of new GPS-enabled radar detectors last year there was an unpleasant surprise in store: the flagship dash-mount model, the XRS 9950, was inexplicably struck dumb by two of the four radars we tested it against. Regardless, once this amount of equipment and crew has been assembled for a two-day test in a remote desert location, the show must go on.

For precisely this reason we usually have a backup for each radar detector on the testing schedule, but on that occasion we weren't so blessed. It would be months before we could find time for a re-test of the XRS 9950 and, not surprisingly, when we did test another sample it performed up to expectations.

In the most recent test all of the new Cobra radar detectors acquitted themselves well, showing the best detection range we've yet seen from Cobra against conventional K- and Ka-band radar. (Few detectors are coping well with the new Redflex pulsed K-band photo radar and Cobra, alas, is no exception.)

Since the Cobra lineup of GPS-capable radar detectors had expanded by early summer, we tested four models this year, up from two in the last test. (We missed two more, the XRS 9860G and the XRS 9990 which had been announced but which weren't yet in the retail pipeline.)

After the misfortune last year I feel it's only fair to note that my latest review of new GPS-enabled Cobra "15-band" radar detectors shows all of them to be very class-competitive in performance. You can read the full story on Radartest.com