Beltronics Express 920 Radar Detector
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Similar in Radar Detectors
- Mute: With Mute
- Detection Mode: City / Highway modes
- Detection Area: Front / Rear
- VG-2/VG-3 Alert: VG-2 Alert
- Detection Bands: X Band K Band Ka Band Laser
- Alert type: Audio / Visual
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BEL Express 920 sufficient for casual speeders
Pros
Reasonable price, good features. Minimal falsing in town.
Cons
Flimsy bracket.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Good bang for buck for casual speeders. Seems to provide sufficient warning in most situations. Bracket could be improved. Good anti-falsing technology. Lead-footed drivers may want detector with longer range.
I recently was preparing for a 1500 mile trip and wanted a radar detector as a co-pilot. After reading some online reviews, I settled on the BEL Express 920.
During my trip, the BEL worked well and saved me from at least one ticket, so I think it has paid for itself already.
You can pay far more than the $89 price of the BEL, but I am a casual speeder, no more than 10-15 MPH on the road and even less around town. But even those numbers are enough to get you a ticket, depending on a variety of factors. I could not, however, justify $400 or so for some of the supposedly top models, such as the Valentine One.
The BEL is packaged with a visor / windshield bracket, 8' coiled power cord, and Velcro patch for direct dash mounting. The owners manual advises against mounting the unit behind windshield wipers or other obstructions, so I doubt the Velcro method will be usable by many.
The bracket for the BEL is usable but could be far better. It is a metal, flimsy device that switches from clipping on the sunvisor to mounting on the windshield by attaching two suction cups. A button at the pivot point is pressed to allow the angle to be changed when mounted on the windshield to keep the unit level. I found the adjustment not very precise, and sometimes it tended to drop a notch after going over a bump. Not the best, but the suction cups worked well enough to keep the unit mounted the entire trip.
The BEL alerts the driver with a combination of digitized voice alerts as well as a tone and numeric display (1-9) indicating the strength of the signal received. When the unit is turned on, it squawks through all the alerts and beeps, but this can be turned off. It covers all the standard bands in use today; X, K, Ka etc. as well as laser.
The volume control for the BEL is unusual, and involves holding and pressing a button on the top instead of the more traditional thumbwheel on the side. If you are like me and set the volume once, and never change it, this will not be an issue. The unit retains all the settings when turned off and back on.
The BEL has a "highway" mode, and two "city" modes intended to minimize false alerts (especially X-band) caused by door openers at many shopping centers. My experience is that the city mode worked well.
In the real world, the BEL seemed to have decent range. I found that on the open highway, the unit didn't make a sound unless there really WAS something out there. In other words, if the unit started alerting with a signal strength of only 1 or 2, I immediately started slowing down. If you follow this logic, you should have sufficient time to drop speed unless you are going far over the speed limit.
During one encounter with an Illinois state trooper traveling the opposite direction, the BEL started alerting a 1 or 2 signal and I began to drop speed before I saw him. Then, over an oncoming hill, I spotted the trooper, about half a mile away. By then the BEL was squawking away with signal of 8, and the trooper was slowing down to clock me and get ready to turn and pursue. But by then, my speed had dropped well below the limit so he kept going. I think that without the BEL, I would have gotten a ticket!
The BEL advertises "360 degree coverage". On the top of the unit, a small window points toward the rear and is supposed to provide coverage from behind if not obstructed by a headrest or other object in the back. While I can't be sure that it works, on several occasions I received a medium to strong signal and never saw a patrol unit ahead, so perhaps the BEL was picking up radar being used from behind up on an entrance ramp or something. A couple times, I came upon troopers who had someone pulled over and the BEL never made a sound. I can only assume that the officer had the radar turned off or had stopped the person for some other reason.
Overall, I found the BEL to be acceptable for drivers who don't venture far over the speed limit and want a dose of prevention at a reasonable price. In the $100 range, the are many competitors including Cobra and other BEL models. I don't know how many real performance difference exist, your choice may come down to design and features. My research indicated that in this price range, the BEL had the best range. This was my determining factor in selecting this model.
During my trip, the BEL worked well and saved me from at least one ticket, so I think it has paid for itself already.
You can pay far more than the $89 price of the BEL, but I am a casual speeder, no more than 10-15 MPH on the road and even less around town. But even those numbers are enough to get you a ticket, depending on a variety of factors. I could not, however, justify $400 or so for some of the supposedly top models, such as the Valentine One.
The BEL is packaged with a visor / windshield bracket, 8' coiled power cord, and Velcro patch for direct dash mounting. The owners manual advises against mounting the unit behind windshield wipers or other obstructions, so I doubt the Velcro method will be usable by many.
The bracket for the BEL is usable but could be far better. It is a metal, flimsy device that switches from clipping on the sunvisor to mounting on the windshield by attaching two suction cups. A button at the pivot point is pressed to allow the angle to be changed when mounted on the windshield to keep the unit level. I found the adjustment not very precise, and sometimes it tended to drop a notch after going over a bump. Not the best, but the suction cups worked well enough to keep the unit mounted the entire trip.
The BEL alerts the driver with a combination of digitized voice alerts as well as a tone and numeric display (1-9) indicating the strength of the signal received. When the unit is turned on, it squawks through all the alerts and beeps, but this can be turned off. It covers all the standard bands in use today; X, K, Ka etc. as well as laser.
The volume control for the BEL is unusual, and involves holding and pressing a button on the top instead of the more traditional thumbwheel on the side. If you are like me and set the volume once, and never change it, this will not be an issue. The unit retains all the settings when turned off and back on.
The BEL has a "highway" mode, and two "city" modes intended to minimize false alerts (especially X-band) caused by door openers at many shopping centers. My experience is that the city mode worked well.
In the real world, the BEL seemed to have decent range. I found that on the open highway, the unit didn't make a sound unless there really WAS something out there. In other words, if the unit started alerting with a signal strength of only 1 or 2, I immediately started slowing down. If you follow this logic, you should have sufficient time to drop speed unless you are going far over the speed limit.
During one encounter with an Illinois state trooper traveling the opposite direction, the BEL started alerting a 1 or 2 signal and I began to drop speed before I saw him. Then, over an oncoming hill, I spotted the trooper, about half a mile away. By then the BEL was squawking away with signal of 8, and the trooper was slowing down to clock me and get ready to turn and pursue. But by then, my speed had dropped well below the limit so he kept going. I think that without the BEL, I would have gotten a ticket!
The BEL advertises "360 degree coverage". On the top of the unit, a small window points toward the rear and is supposed to provide coverage from behind if not obstructed by a headrest or other object in the back. While I can't be sure that it works, on several occasions I received a medium to strong signal and never saw a patrol unit ahead, so perhaps the BEL was picking up radar being used from behind up on an entrance ramp or something. A couple times, I came upon troopers who had someone pulled over and the BEL never made a sound. I can only assume that the officer had the radar turned off or had stopped the person for some other reason.
Overall, I found the BEL to be acceptable for drivers who don't venture far over the speed limit and want a dose of prevention at a reasonable price. In the $100 range, the are many competitors including Cobra and other BEL models. I don't know how many real performance difference exist, your choice may come down to design and features. My research indicated that in this price range, the BEL had the best range. This was my determining factor in selecting this model.
