Red Light Camera Detector & Evo GPS Speed Camera with Inbuilt Mobile Laser Van Detection. Free Lifetime Database Updates, Black

This is a neat, inconspicuous and good value little device which does everything claimed for it. The display is small by modern standards, but large enough to read clearly. It chirrups away on the dashboard, warning you about speed camera locations and beeping angry if you don't slow down enough. You can choose not to receive some warnings, but this would rather defeat the purpose. My wife thinks they're intrusive, but this is the woman who was told off for speeding on her own speed awareness course! The database for fixed cameras seems to be good. Where cameras work in one direction only, it doesn't give an unnecessary warning when approaching from the "safe" direction. SPECS (average speed) cameras seem to be reported simply by distance, leading to false warnings on adjoining roads. These can be reduced by reducing the warning distance from 600 to 400 meters. Warnings of known mobile speed camera locations are by their nature a bit hit and miss, but even one real warning will be enough to forgive any number of false alarms. It's unclear how useful laser protection is, as by the time it's pointed at your vehicle any warning will be too late. However, it may apparently sometimes detect scattered beams directed at other vehicles. Even that is worth having. The technology feels a little dated, but it's simple and clear, which is a welcome change. The instructions, both for the device and for downloading updates, could be better written and and actually make it seem more complicated than it is. I would strongly recommend buying the mini magnetic dashboard clamp. This is MUCH neater than the awful supplied mounting bracket, with its three windscreen suction cups.

Lots of critical reviews for all the speed detectors advertised, so bit the bullet, went with the majority of 5 star reviews for the Evo. So far very pleased with performance for all categories of laser, the only one not yet tested is the mobile van . I am not expecting a reliable response to this category as NONE of my expensive detectors in the past ever got this right. BUT it has proven completely reliable to warn me of known mobile detector locations I've seen in the past, so the data base is ok to my experience so far. The unit is direction of travel sensitive so that is good and I've not yet had any false warnings due to shop security lasers etc that some reviewers report. Yes the voice warning is a little high pitched but volume on level 4 of 5 is clear and just right with decent radio volume on. I have found the settings using the buttons is a bit fiddly to start but easy with practice. The unit is a discreet size on the dash and looks good. I have hard wired to car 1 and tried with the cigarette jack on car 2. Each time the ignition switches on the unit fires up with my correct settings still in place. This unit has by far the fastest satellite recognition of all the units I've had, about 15 seconds versus my old Pogo of 2 to 3 minutes. I can recommend ,and if it proves reliable over time will buy a second unit for car 2 ( Pogo stopped updating ages ago so has to go ).

It struggles to get a GPS lock, which means it's either not reporting GPS based info at all or it's misreporting that you're speeding when you're not. It does detect cameras, though, so I can't complain too much. Useful for reminding people that don't knowingly speed about the odd aberration, and reducing the chance of getting unlucky. I'm not sure I'd trust it to "bomb around" relying on it to report on every camera and speed trap, if that's your intention.

Let’s quickly talk about RADAR/LASER/GPS detectors. Radar detectors are not terribly useful on UK roads. The reason is that the cameras which use radar (GATSO) are static fixed cameras. They are much better reported with a GPS database. No false alerts and pinpoint accuracy. In the UK mobile camera vans use LASERs. So a LASER detector is potentially useful. All radar detectors really do in the UK is give you lots of false alerts and tell you about static cameras that the GPS database already knows about. This model in the Drivesmart range includes laser detection but not radar detection, so should be ideal. So far I’ve never had the laser warning go off when driving past a mobile van. This could simply be that they’re not pointing the gun at me, or the laser beam is so narrow that they’re reading my speed from the front of my car (they aim for the numberplate area) but the beam is not spread out enough to trigger the LASER detector in the windscreen. I suspect for a laser detector to be more efficient there needs to be sensors down on the front of your car. The other problem with LASER detectors is that when you see the mobile van, they can see you, and when your laser detector goes off they’ve already read your speed. So they don’t give you much warning- if any! I’ve also had a few false alerts from the laser detector. I’m not really sure what has set it off? So this leaves the GPS database. The big selling point from Drivesmart is that updates are free for life. No monthly subscription! This is excellent, and probably the biggest reason they sell compared to the competition. However it’s only as good as the database. Unfortunately, the database is not the best. They seem to be particularly poor at removing cameras that are no longer there. This is particularly obvious with the SPECS (average speed cameras) that go up with roadworks. My updated unit was telling me about cameras that were removed 2 years ago!! I even emailed the company to tell them with specific examples. They told me they would pass it on to the manufacturer. Couple months later and several updates they’re still on there! So reporting it was pointless. There are so many false average speed camera alerts I have to disable that feature. The unit also allows reporting for potential mobile camera sites. Sounds like a good idea, unfortunately there are so many that it’s going off all the time and you start to ignore them, thus defeating the point. So I turned these warnings off too. One good thing I can say about the camera database is that it only warns you of cameras that apply to your direction of travel. Not many people know this, but GATSOs only ‘ticket’ you from behind (though they will still flash you head on) and TRUVELO only ‘ticket’ you from face on. The database only alerts you for the correct direction, and some may think it’s missing the camera -but that’s not the case. A few negatives about the device itself. Whenever you update it, it loses all your settings (such as turning off SPECS cameras etc) which is annoying. It also looks and sounds a bit 80’s with it’s old style led display. The speaker inside is small, low quality and ‘scratchy’. It does the job but they could have added a better quality speaker. The device does feel very cheap. The unit also seems to ‘radiate’ in that it kills my DAB radio reception for some reason? On the positive side it has a power button on the back of the cigarette adapter power connector meaning you can turn it on and off without having to unplug. Useful. Also the windscreen sticker mount, though very basic works fine. It holds the device securely and doesn’t rattle. When it comes to speed cameras, unless you’re very unobservant or really reckless the static cameras are not a major worry. You get good enough warning from just seeing them. It’s the mobile speed vans that will get you! These are the ones you need warnings for. Unfortunately for the reasons outlined above this unit doesn’t really help you. There’s a much better, more accurate and free method for detecting them and regular cameras. It’s called WAZE and runs on your phone. If you have Android Auto or Apple CarPlay then really easy to use in your car. I have to be honest. Save your money and use WAZE.