Do you drive with a heavy foot? The cops are looking to get better acquainted with you if you do! As the Paul Simon song says, “Slow down, you’re moving too fast…” (or was that the Sesame Street gang?). You better pay attention to that speedometer, unless that is, your car has a Valentine One V1 Gen 2 radar detector installed in it. (>>>Check the current price on Amazon)
Valentine One V1 Gen 2 Review of Main Specs:
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|---|---|
| Valentine One V1 Gen 2 | |
| Range | Long Range, 360° Protection |
| Built-in GPS | No |
| Display | Multi-color OLED |
| False Filter | K-Verifier technology |
| Red Light & Speed Camera Alerts | Yes |
| Speed-based Auto Mute | Yes |
| Bluetooth connectivity | Yes |
| Price | Find on Amazon |
After 30 years, Valentine One, one of the top manufacturers of radar detectors, has finally released a successor to its vaunted V1. The V1 Gen 2 comes equipped with military-style technology packed into it that allows Gen 2 to pinpoint targets that are farther away then it has been able to do in the past. This new technology helps the radar detector to sort through all those unwanted signals and identify the real threats; those sneaky police cruisers with radar guns pointed your way.
What Makes the V1 Gen2 Even Better
The inclusion of the military-style technology allows the Valentine Gen 2 to perform lightning-fast scans across all the different radar bands (X, K, Ka). It will reach out almost ½ mile to alert you to a police radar gun before that radar gun can analyze its returning echo. It is possibly the best detector on the market for picking up a quick trigger, Ka band radar at long range. This technology is known as Surface-Acoustic-Wave Dispersive-Delay-Line or SAW DDl.
For many radar detectors, increased sensitivity means more false alerts. With the V1 Gen 2 false alerts can be identified by the detector’s audio volume. The weaker the signal, the softer the alert. BSM (blind spot monitoring) filtering is a prime example of this. A BSM alert will be sounded at a lower volume than a police radar or a speed camera alert. Instead of scaring you to death with a loud alert, the Gen 2 will sound off softer alert.
Pros
- Improved detection range
- Built-in Bluetooth
- False alert filtering
- Invisible to RDDs (radar detector detectors)
- BSM and CAS filtering
Cons
- No GPS capability
- Hardware failures in early released models
- No Red Light / Speed Camera alerting
The detector offers several different modes of operation:
A Mode – this mode (All Bogies mode) does very little filtering and will cause the most alerts.
I Mode – a great mode (Logic mode) to use in areas that have a large number of k-band radars in use. In this mode, it will soft mute BSM systems and automatic door openers but if it alerts to a police k-band, it will gradually increase the volume of the alert.
L Mode – recommended for use in urban areas, this mode (Advanced Logic mode) hides weaker alerts but will increase volume as you come closer to the threat. L mode is the quietest operational mode when it comes to alerting in general and false alerting in particular.
A large, easy to read LED display is visible even in direct sunlight. The red only color of the display is also easier to read under nighttime driving conditions. The V1 will indentify the band it is alerting to and has large directional arrows to indicate the direction of the threat along with which band it is detecting.
GPS-Less
V1 Gen 2, like its predecessor the V1 Gen 1, has no GPS capability. Because of the cost of the detector, you would think it should include GPS functions. However, Valentine detectors never have had GPS capability and the manufacturer states the following reason why:
“In yesterday’s world, there was no technical difference between the signals we call “false alarms” and those of real radar. So a location-based blocking system blocks real radar just as eagerly as it blocks unwanted alerts.”
To get around this GPS lack, the V1 Gen 2 has Bluetooth capability with an open API. This allows for third-party apps to integrate and work with the Gen 2. Running an app along with the detector will add to the Gen 2’s functionality.
Conclusion
One of the best radar detectors ever produced just got better. If you want a radar detector you can rely on, the Valentine One V1 Gen 2 is the detector for you (>>>Check price on Amazon). Yeah, it’s not the cheapest detector out there, but what will a couple of speeding tickets and increased insurance premiums add up to?