Beltronics Express 920 Radar Detector

From Beltronics, the Bel Express 920 is the 2nd best of the Express model line. This is one of the two Express models that I purchased then later returned to Circuit City. After doing intial tests with the Bel Express 930, I decided to save time and in the end compare the Bel Express 920 to the Bel Express 930 since finding speed traps can be time consuming and even difficult to find. So here's what I found with the Bel Express 920.

-Price-
*The Bel Express 920 gets right under the magic number of $100 if you buy it online. This makes it about $20 cheaper than the Bel Express 930. As for Circuit City, the Bel Express 920 sells for $129.99, a little expensive, ay? When it comes down to performance, the Bel Express 920 was just about identical to the Bel Express 930. The main difference between the Bel Express 920 and the Bel Express 930 is the display. The latter provides a nicer red text display while the Bel Express 920 has the icon display linked to a text/number strength indicator. As for the performance that you get, it performs beautifully for the price by giving early warning for radar threats. However, if you pay an extra $20 for the 930, you get the text display which is more efficient in showing you the strength of the threat. Compared to Whistler and Cobra, the Bel Express 920 performs better than them with better sensitivity. For the price, you get what you pay for, a great detector.

-Performance-
*Instead of doing testing in the typical stretches of road that I usually find radar traps on, I took the Bel Express 920 and the Bel Express 920 on a road trip from the north suburbs of Chicago down to the west suburbs. When it came to picking up K-Band, the Bel Express 920 picked it up at about the same time as the Bel Express 930. There was just about no noticable difference. The difference was being able to see the strength-bar on the 930 over the numerical display on the 920. When it came to Ka-Band, the Bel Express 920 once again was announcing the threat at just about the same time. Once again, I found the numerical display to be more annoying than the text display on the Bel Express 930. As far as performance goes, the Bel Express 920 provides the same coverage of X, K, Ka, and laser that the more expensive Bel Express 930 does. Paying slightly less than $100 for all of this makes it a detector that's well worth it. It performs moreover better than the Whistler crowd. If you speed around 15mph above the speed limit, the Bel Express 920 should provide ample radar sensitivity to get you by without a ticket.

-Ease of Use & Features-
*The main difference between the Bel Express 920 and the Bel Express 930 is the display. The Bel Express 920 has a cheaper and less-strategic icon display to show which band is being used, and a numeric text to display the strength of the threat. I like the Bel Express 930 better with the red text display and strength bar where it's much easier to see the strength of the threat. With the strength bar, you can glance at it quickly to get an idea of how strong it is, while you have to look directly at the numeral display to see the strength. Some people might prefer the icon/numeral display, but if you're into text displays, then the extra $20 for the 930 will go a long way. The Bel Express 920 provides voice alerts which many people find to be very useful. They are very audible since the Bel Express 920 has a nice speaker built into it. As for the ease of use, it has four buttons which can be used to access parts of the detector. There is a button which turns the detector on and off. Then there's a button which can dim the display on the detector. Then there's the volume/mute button, and this I find rather annoying since you have only one button to use to either make it quieter or louder. I find it easier on Whistlers to have two discrete buttons to adjust the volume. So some people might find that annoying. Then finally there is a button which allows you to switch between City & Highway modes. Overall, it's a fairly simplistic detector, almost anyone can use it if they have a little bit of experience with radar detectors.

-The Verdict-
*The Bel Express 920 is another fine "economy" unit from Beltronics that doesn't act like an "economy" unit. It provides just about the same performance as the Bel Express 930, except for the main difference being the displays. I would rather go with the red text display on the Bel Express 930 since it's easier to read and gives you better strategics against the cops. In comparison to a lot of other models in the $100-Range, the Bel Express 920 provides overall better performance. It's the worth the money, Beltronics is a name you can trust.

If you want to check out the Bel Express 930, then you can gain some more insight on the model line.

Bel Express 930