Home > Consumer Reviews > Cobra ESD 9870 Radar Detector

Got 3 tickets and each time the detector did not make a peep. But it goes off in every parking lot and many stop lights. Cobra support said the the first detector was defective and sent me a newer improved 9870 model and it does not work.

I got prompt shipment, however the product its self was not any good. I was told this was a brand new never out of the box radar detector, however I found out from Cobra that this product was defected. I don't know if this product was defected from the factory or if this product was a refurbish, but Cobra has sent me a replacement for this unit.

So many false alerts you won't know if any of them are real. That is if it detects the real ones. My town uses radar trailers that use the same Ka band as the cars but my 9870 would not detect it sometimes. Then for some reason it would just start going off when I was in the middle of no where. It would seem to cycle through everything "Ka.....K.....X....Train approaching". For some reason there were a lot of trains crossing my paths in places like parking lots. Now I know that radar detectors have false alerts but this thing is horrible!!! Don't waste your money! Invest in another company, Cobra makes horrible radar detectors, this is my second and last one. Don't bother getting help with your detector from Cobra either they just don't care. Check out the Escort Passport 8500 X50 instead.

Please do not be fooled by the high dollar look of this unit! All Cobra detectors are full of software glitches. I started with the older 9550 model and it had so many glitches in it that Cobra kindly upgraded me to the 9870. But guess what. This "new and improved" unit is based off of the same old junk. It uses much of the same software and has many of the same problems. Some problems include loss of "stay set memory", changes in brightness level without command, inoperative "smart power". As far as detection goes, this unit is very lacking. Many times I can see the cop, using constant radar, before this unit does. It constantly falses Ka and VG-2/Spectere/POP (if selected on). The only good thing about this unit is that it is plenty loud. If you dare purchase a cobra, I am sure you will be very dissastisfied and will want to return it. Cobra customer service will be glad to swap you out with a new one with the same poblems. Buyer beware!!

Cobra has you fooled with marketing fluff. There is no such thing as "11 Bands". There are only 3 radar bands and 1 laser band. That's it. They count the different brands of radar guns as different bands, they count the different brands of laser guns as different band, they count VG-2 as a band (it's not a band it's a type of gun). It's all marketing fluff to get you to spend more money.

As far as radar detectors being legal in the United States, that is not completely true either. They are illegal in Virginia and Washington D.C.

Don't waste your money it's all hype. The less expensive brands will give you more bang for your buck and they do the exact same thing.