Review of the Uniden LRD950 Radar Detector

[Radar Roy]

[Vortex]

I wouldn't discount the LRD950 entirely. It's no Redline/V1, but it's definitely better than a Cobra.

Here's a quick test I did yesterday against a Cobra, Redline, and V1 around a bend.



I'm doing a test tomorrow morning against a bunch of other $200'ish detectors, but driving around with it, it definitely seems to be holding its own so far.

For example, in terms of reactivity, it's actually FASTER than the Max/Max2 on Ka. It's neck-and-neck with BS/RDR Redline, only slightly behind a custom swept V1. Amazing performance there. K band reactivity is slower, however.

If you're gonna test this, make sure you avoid any overdriving issues like VG mentioned. If you do that, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with your ATR.



Range is decent. Not the same level as the higher end detectors, but still very usable.





K band blind spot filtering seems pretty good, but I need more time to really get a feel for that.

Its RLC alerts do suck as you found. It's alerted at two intersections that don't have any RLC's (just traffic cams on the traffic light posts), it missed the one legit speedcam I went through, and it also does the Max thing where it will alert to RLC's on parallel surface streets when you're cruising down the highway. The database is updateable online and is currently about 5 months old.

Rampup looks pretty decent as well.

It has built-in manual lockouts which do work, but you only get like 100, so you'll use them all up quick. I think its radius is pretty small though, like I have a false on the highway that I drive past and it looks like I can lock it out and then I'll see the lockout go away as I keep going past. It does stay muted though which is good. More testing needed to see if it alerts from the other direction before I get back in the lockout radius. If so, I'll need to use multiple lockouts for one signal, not good when we're already limited on quantity as it is.

I'll know more after tomorrow's test with a bunch of affordable detectors. It's not perfect, but it seems to be a solid contender from what I've seen so far.

[Marty]

When I saw this on the Webinar today (RE: ESCORT PLACES ROYS ADDRESS AS A SPEED TRAP-For SO MUCH TESTING).....I LMAO!! Poor Roy..NOW ESCORT is bangin on him!! LOL..... "If you are not being shot at--YOU are not close to the target"!!! You are on target-my friend. Thank you...MartytheMortician....

[PointerCone]

We did a bunch of other tests this weekend with the Uniden LRD950 and on Constant on K and Ka it did ok, ranked along with the Whistler CR90.

One thing, this is NOT a $399 radar detector, it should sell in the area of $199 to $225 perhaps....

Its actually selling in the high $100 range, so the price point for its performance is actually pretty good. I haven't spoken to anyone who's paid full retail for one.

[Vortex]

Not sure what's up with your results, Roy, but I've been testing out the LRD950 over the past few months and have been pleasantly surprised with the results.

https://www.rdforum.org/showthread.php?t=44373
https://www.rdforum.org/showthread.php?t=42809
https://www.rdforum.org/showthread.php?t=42737

I've had two of them now so far and both have been competing pretty favorably, consistently, with some of the other high end detectors. A couple other people have been testing them out and have been reporting similarly impressive results as well.

At $200, it's becoming a really interesting proposition. It's got many of the same features as the Max, and actually pretty similar performance, though admittedly it's not as refined as the Max, except you can get it for $200 instead of $550. It's maybe 80% of the Max at a fraction of the price.

It's doing so well that I recently had a LRD450 and LRD750 sent to me to see how they compare as well and see if maybe we can find some standouts in the affordable RD category.

After seeing your I/O tests, I spent some time bench testing the LRD950 and it's very responsive to K band. Surprisingly, this applies whether K band filtering is both on or off. I can't replicate your results with my LRD950.

by the way, the LRD950 does in fact have GPS lockouts. It has the ability to mark a location manually for you to get an alert, yes, and you can also lock out a false manually. Press the Mute/Dim button twice rapidly in the presence of a K band signal and it'll go to "Mute Memory" which is Uniden-speak for lockout. You only get 100 lockouts total and because of the small lockout radius, you may need several lockouts for one K band source, so you're going to run out of lockouts pretty quickly in practice. Like I said, the implementation of some of the features isn't as good as Escort's, but it has the feature nonetheless.

With respect to the LRD950 not alerting if the ATR is shot 5 feet away, that's normal. You're overdriving the detector. That happens with LOTS of detectors. They're designed to detect weak signals far away. If you blast it at point blank, you're going to get missed alerts, delayed alerts, and incorrect alerts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2JeK7QcbPM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlXqZfPjaB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exe4i1WHZnk

[nine_c1]

Thanks for all the hard work and posting the results of your LRD950 comparison testing Vortex. That is how you test a radar detector.

Contrary to the results Roy has posted with his broken unit, the LRD950 is a lightening quick detector with impressive range. The best bang for the buck at $200 with performance that exceeds Escort's M4 detectors that range from $350 to $450. As you've shown, it will even give the $600 MAX2 a run for the money.

Certainly on the Best Buy list.

[Vortex]

Yep yep. Given the affordability of these detectors, more and more people are acquiring them and doing their own testing.

Here's a test where it actually slightly edged out a V1 on 34.7: https://www.rdforum.org/showthread.p...l=1#post593707

Here's another with someone finding it topping their M4's and Whistlers: https://www.rdforum.org/showthread.p...l=1#post592628

Here's another person with good initial impressions of theirs vs a V1C: https://www.rdforum.org/showthread.p...l=1#post593790

Those are just a few examples I pulled up. There's others with these units as well.

We're also finding that the blind spot filtering on the 450, 750, and 950 is very good as well.

I did a quick makeshift test yesterday and it does look like the range of the 450 and 750 is lower than what we see with the 950, V1, M4's, and so on (makes sense given the cheaper units don't have the same LNA the 950 does), but further testing is needed to really get a solid feel for these units. The results continue to roll in...

I'm really starting to wonder if you had a busted unit or something Roy. It may be worth retesting, based on what I'm seeing. Other than your review, I haven't heard anything bad about the LRD950's performance yet. Complaints about its RLC database, yes, but not its radar detection capabilities.

by the way, if you do retest, please don't run the detector next to the Redline like that. Even though it's stealth to the Spectre at normal distances, it still leaks enough that it can be detected at very close distances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qHiydF02yM

[CJR238]

I'm curious how the 950 will stack up against the RedLines off excess sensitivity. That would be the true test in my opinion.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[Vortex]

More test results are rolling in and again the LRD950 is doing a fantastic job. It's often able to hang with the Redline and V1. It's even topping the Max with many of the same features at a fraction of the price.

https://www.rdforum.org/showthread.php?t=45392
https://www.rdforum.org/showthread.p...l=1#post603655

Looks like Uniden is also releasing an LRD850 if you want the performance of the LRD950 but don't need the GPS functionality (ie. lockouts, low speed muting, RLC alerts). It's looking like we've got some solid new performers on the market.

[PointerCone]

I'm curious how the 950 will stack up against the RedLines off excess sensitivity. That would be the true test in my opinion.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

Gleaning HC's results from recent testing, it does NOT do off-axis like an M3 does off axis. Although the LRD does very well on 34.7, beating even the V1C and Radenso in testing.