Radar Detectors

Cobra ESD 9870 Radar Detector Technical Details:ESD 9870 Key FeaturesDetection Area:Front / RearVG-2/VG-3 Alert:V...

Capable Detector Cobra ESD 9870 Radar Detector I've had this detector for almost 3 months now, and honestly, I can't see why everyone dislikes it so much. It se...

While looking at car electronics at Best Buy, I looked at the radar detector selection. So, what was that right next to the Escort Passport 7500S, it was the Cobra ESD-9870 going for an insane $189.99! Well, with such a high price tag, I wondered how this thing would stack up compared to the cheaper Cobra ESD models and other detectors in the same price range. So I bought it and rturned it, and here’s what I found with the Cobra ESD-9870.

-Price-

*Whether you buy it for $189.99 in the store, or for much less online, it’s still a rip-off, even at $50 if you were given such a choice. If you’re buying it solely in a store and not on the internet, you’d be much better off buying an Escort Passport 7500S for $229.99 from Best Buy, or better yet, a Beltronics Bel Vector 940 for $199.99 from Circuit City. Both would offer clearly superior performance. Then, you would still get much better performance for less if you bought a Whistler 1763C for $129.99. Well, all of these prices are in stores, you can buy for much less online. You can get a Beltronics Bel Vector 985 for only $30 more than the Cobra ESD-9870 in a store, but if you’re even buying the Cobra ESD-9870 online, you can get a Bel Express radar detector for the same price or less of around $129 and even less which would offer clearly superior performance compared to the Cobra. Yes, you do get X, K, Ka, and Laser bands on this radar, but you also do on other detectors, and at least other detectors such as the cheaper Bel Express line and even others offer clearly superior performance. Well, the Cobra ESD-9870 does offer some cool features like a digital compass and text display, but you can get that with Whistler, for less money, and with far better performance. But a radar detector is built solely to detect police radar, and the Cobra ESD-9870 fails miserably.

-Performance-

*I took up the Cobra ESD-9870 in K and Ka band territory. Cobra has something called Ultra Performance which supposedly gives it great sensitivity, what an interesting(?) feature. I had it mounted on the windsheild for the first part of the day against the Valentine One, and then I borrowed my friend’s Escort Passport 7500S. The K-band performance was only mediocre, having the Valentine One surpass it drastically. The Escort Passport 7500S also offered better range than the Cobra ESD-9870 on K-band sensitivity. Then the part where the Cobra failed most miserably was on Deerfield Road in Riverwoods where there was a stationary police SUV running on Ka-band. The Cobra ESD-9870 started to go off with a warning when the cop was in clear view, and I was already within range of the radar gun. The Valentine One gave me Ka warning over a mile back which gave me time to adjust my speed from going 15mph over and giving a couple minutes or so before I was clocked doing the speed limit of 40mph. The Escort definitely gave me adequate time to slow down, but not like the Valentine One. However, if I was driving solely with the Cobra ESD-9870, then I definitely would’ve succumbed to the Ka-band radar gun. Well, the Cobra ESD-9870 does fail miserably at providing good sensitivity, but it does have some cool features. It has a digital compass and easy to read text display, however you can find these features on a cheaper Whistler and would definitely be getting better performance from the Whistler. Also, like the Cobras, the new Whistlers look pretty sleek and sexy too, and even better! Overall, you can be getting much better performance from other detectors.

-Features %26 Ease of Use-

*The Cobra ESD-9870 is a pretty easy to use radar detector. It has all of the features you’d need such as a mute button, dim settings, City/Highway mode, etc… The Cobra ESD-9870 does come with SWS (Safety Warning System) and Strobe Alert warnings which can alert you of emergency vehicles and other such things. The Cobra ESD-9870 also has a digital compass, which can come into handy sometimes. Even though the Cobra ESD-9870 does have these nice features, they don’t make up for the poor performance.

-The Verdict-

*The Cobra ESD-9870 is a very sleek looking detector that fails miserably at detecting police radar with efficiency. Especially with its high price tag, the Cobra ESD-9870 is easily beaten by any other radar detector in the similar price range, and the Bel Express models which are cheaper and the Whistlers which are also cheaper easily beat out the Cobra ESD-9870 in performance. If you’re looking for a detector with excellent range, you won’t find it here.

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Tags: Beltronics, cheap, Cobra, Escort, Valentine One, Whistler

Filed under: Radar Detectors Reviews