Hello everyone I am back with another review. This time on the Cobra Road Scout. It should be noted I do not run this RD/DC as my daily and was returned to Best Buy for a full refund which I used on the Radenso Pro-M (which I also sent back, can post a review on this as well).
I. Background:
After watching alot of videos done by none other than Vortex Radar, I decided my Whistler CR65 just wasn't cutting it anymore. I after all drive a Honda Civic Type R and let's face it, driving the speed limit is no fun especially in a car like that. Due to COVID-19 alot of radar detectors were either not available at the time, were more expensive than they should be, or were delayed big time. Luckily I noticed my local best buy had some radar detectors for sale, and they had a decent selection too. I noticed my options really were limited to a Escort Max 360 and the Cobra Road Scout. The Road Scout despite its unusual appearance had a charm to it, that I found hard to overlook. Meanwhile the Escort Max 360 wasn't actually available at the store, and basically if I wanted one I could order it online and have it shipped to my house or pick it up at their store within a weeks time. The Road Scout to my surprise if I ordered it online could be picked up the same day within an hour or so (according to the website). Before placing the order I of course checked some reviews and liked what I saw. The Cobra Road Scout's detector is based off of the DSP 9200 BT which funny enough is the only good radar detector prior to the Road Scout and DualPro 360 with Cobra's name on it. The addition of the dash cam seemed like icing on the cake. At around $250 for the radar, and maybe $150 for the dash cam it seemed like a good value. The Road Scout like the DualPro 360 came with the same accessories.
IIa. Overview - Radar Detector
As you guys can see the Cobra Road Scout features a center OLED screen with a dial switch on the right and three buttons on the left. To access the menu, you had to press the two bottom buttons together to bring up the menu. I found the menu very easy to navigate with the scroll wheel and the center button. Alternatively you can also connect iRadar and change out menu options from there. The screen is very easy to read, and features radar detection signal strength and band in the middle, along with optional readings on the top, and lastly your connections to iRadar, Bluetooth, and the Camera on the bottom. The Road Scout also has Wi-Fi allowing for easy updates. The Road Scout also has K/Ka band segmentation which I didn't know until after I sold it.
IIb. Dashcam
The dashcam itself is controlled by Cobra's app called "Drive HD" which I found just as easy to use and the dashcam itself produced videos of good quality. The app also allows you to download any dashcam footage directly to your phone which I thought was very convenient. It comes with a 16GB SD card, but it can be upgraded to bigger sizes (I used a 64GB). I've seen some people report their unit didn't allow for this, but mine had no issues there and could be a faulty unit or inferior quality SD cards being used.
The Road Scout on paper seems like it offers incredible value in one unusual but cool looking package, and thats exactly what I thought until I used it.
III. Testing
The first thing I noticed about the Road Scout was that it's filtering greatly surpassed that of my Whistler CR65, but honestly at its price point of $450 it should. Lets start with the radar detector first. While driving to and from class or just to do everyday tasks, I noticed it's detection was pretty good. I would always be alerted with plenty of time to slow down if I picked up Ka band, and the K band filtering was decent, but not great as I would still get false K band alerts, but I would lock them out with GPS. I started to notice the detectors detection was severely lacking with I/O detection, on C/O it did pretty good (much better than my Whistler), but with I/O I noticed it would either NOT detect anything or would when it was too late. While driving home from school at night time, the Road Scout alerted me to a Ka band signal (a very strong one, that disappeared). I looked to my right and saw a cop car who was obviously using I/O. My heart sank, but I was driving the speed limit anyhow, but my confidence in the Road Scout took a BIG hit. I took to the forums and saw several forum posts from people who owned the Road Scout and had also sent it back, one guy literally said he got a ticket from a cop using I/O while driving on a back road which I felt could've happened to me. Testing done by Bossdad71 in a simulated I/O test confirmed my worst fears which was that the Road Scout was ill-equipped to deal with I/O, and as a Floridian cops around here love using I/O.
Here is the video: Cobra Road Scout I/O
Moving on to the dash cam, I was mildly irritated that in order to use the dashcam you had to be connected to Drive HD (which I understand), but it had to be done by Wi-Fi. Sometimes my Nokia 8.3 would connect to the Road Scout then drop the connection and re-connect to my homes Wi-Fi. While this isn't really the Road Scout's fault, I still found it a bit annoying as it took a bit longer to be prepped and ready to go. The dashcam also does NOT have parking mode, which kind of surprised me as cheaper dash cams have this feature. Sometimes I would connect to the Drive HD successfully and then lose connection randomly, but this was infrequent. The dashcam footage was again good, but I feel like Cobra could've made the app function a bit better, and at least added parking mode.
IV. Final Thoughts
While I think Cobra made a very functional and decent radar detector/dashcam combo, I feel like they missed the mark on both the radar detector and dashcam just slightly which was kind of to be expected. I look forward to Vortex Radar's review, but I think his review will mirror my experiences to a T. While Cobra made a solid attempt at this product it kind of fails as a RD and a DC excelling at neither. At $450 you are getting the detection capabilities of a very old radar detector platform that competes with radar detectors priced in the $200-$250 range, the dashcam is also pretty basic but works well.
Positives:
Convenient Package Deal
Radar Detector Is Pretty Good
Dashcam Is Solid
Looks Cool
Has Great Mounting System
Cons:
Radar Detector Has Mediocre I/O
Power Adapter Slot Is On The Left Side
DashCam Doesn't Have Parking Mode
Dashcam Is Somewhat Basic/Barebones
Filtering Is Meh
Detection For The Price Is Not Good
Score: 7/10
Edit: I messed up the title sorry
.
Cobra Road Scout Missing I/O
Here is another video of the Road Scout failing at I/O.
I. Background:
After watching alot of videos done by none other than Vortex Radar, I decided my Whistler CR65 just wasn't cutting it anymore. I after all drive a Honda Civic Type R and let's face it, driving the speed limit is no fun especially in a car like that. Due to COVID-19 alot of radar detectors were either not available at the time, were more expensive than they should be, or were delayed big time. Luckily I noticed my local best buy had some radar detectors for sale, and they had a decent selection too. I noticed my options really were limited to a Escort Max 360 and the Cobra Road Scout. The Road Scout despite its unusual appearance had a charm to it, that I found hard to overlook. Meanwhile the Escort Max 360 wasn't actually available at the store, and basically if I wanted one I could order it online and have it shipped to my house or pick it up at their store within a weeks time. The Road Scout to my surprise if I ordered it online could be picked up the same day within an hour or so (according to the website). Before placing the order I of course checked some reviews and liked what I saw. The Cobra Road Scout's detector is based off of the DSP 9200 BT which funny enough is the only good radar detector prior to the Road Scout and DualPro 360 with Cobra's name on it. The addition of the dash cam seemed like icing on the cake. At around $250 for the radar, and maybe $150 for the dash cam it seemed like a good value. The Road Scout like the DualPro 360 came with the same accessories.
IIa. Overview - Radar Detector
As you guys can see the Cobra Road Scout features a center OLED screen with a dial switch on the right and three buttons on the left. To access the menu, you had to press the two bottom buttons together to bring up the menu. I found the menu very easy to navigate with the scroll wheel and the center button. Alternatively you can also connect iRadar and change out menu options from there. The screen is very easy to read, and features radar detection signal strength and band in the middle, along with optional readings on the top, and lastly your connections to iRadar, Bluetooth, and the Camera on the bottom. The Road Scout also has Wi-Fi allowing for easy updates. The Road Scout also has K/Ka band segmentation which I didn't know until after I sold it.
IIb. Dashcam
The dashcam itself is controlled by Cobra's app called "Drive HD" which I found just as easy to use and the dashcam itself produced videos of good quality. The app also allows you to download any dashcam footage directly to your phone which I thought was very convenient. It comes with a 16GB SD card, but it can be upgraded to bigger sizes (I used a 64GB). I've seen some people report their unit didn't allow for this, but mine had no issues there and could be a faulty unit or inferior quality SD cards being used.
The Road Scout on paper seems like it offers incredible value in one unusual but cool looking package, and thats exactly what I thought until I used it.
III. Testing
The first thing I noticed about the Road Scout was that it's filtering greatly surpassed that of my Whistler CR65, but honestly at its price point of $450 it should. Lets start with the radar detector first. While driving to and from class or just to do everyday tasks, I noticed it's detection was pretty good. I would always be alerted with plenty of time to slow down if I picked up Ka band, and the K band filtering was decent, but not great as I would still get false K band alerts, but I would lock them out with GPS. I started to notice the detectors detection was severely lacking with I/O detection, on C/O it did pretty good (much better than my Whistler), but with I/O I noticed it would either NOT detect anything or would when it was too late. While driving home from school at night time, the Road Scout alerted me to a Ka band signal (a very strong one, that disappeared). I looked to my right and saw a cop car who was obviously using I/O. My heart sank, but I was driving the speed limit anyhow, but my confidence in the Road Scout took a BIG hit. I took to the forums and saw several forum posts from people who owned the Road Scout and had also sent it back, one guy literally said he got a ticket from a cop using I/O while driving on a back road which I felt could've happened to me. Testing done by Bossdad71 in a simulated I/O test confirmed my worst fears which was that the Road Scout was ill-equipped to deal with I/O, and as a Floridian cops around here love using I/O.
Here is the video: Cobra Road Scout I/O
Moving on to the dash cam, I was mildly irritated that in order to use the dashcam you had to be connected to Drive HD (which I understand), but it had to be done by Wi-Fi. Sometimes my Nokia 8.3 would connect to the Road Scout then drop the connection and re-connect to my homes Wi-Fi. While this isn't really the Road Scout's fault, I still found it a bit annoying as it took a bit longer to be prepped and ready to go. The dashcam also does NOT have parking mode, which kind of surprised me as cheaper dash cams have this feature. Sometimes I would connect to the Drive HD successfully and then lose connection randomly, but this was infrequent. The dashcam footage was again good, but I feel like Cobra could've made the app function a bit better, and at least added parking mode.
IV. Final Thoughts
While I think Cobra made a very functional and decent radar detector/dashcam combo, I feel like they missed the mark on both the radar detector and dashcam just slightly which was kind of to be expected. I look forward to Vortex Radar's review, but I think his review will mirror my experiences to a T. While Cobra made a solid attempt at this product it kind of fails as a RD and a DC excelling at neither. At $450 you are getting the detection capabilities of a very old radar detector platform that competes with radar detectors priced in the $200-$250 range, the dashcam is also pretty basic but works well.
Positives:
Convenient Package Deal
Radar Detector Is Pretty Good
Dashcam Is Solid
Looks Cool
Has Great Mounting System
Cons:
Radar Detector Has Mediocre I/O
Power Adapter Slot Is On The Left Side
DashCam Doesn't Have Parking Mode
Dashcam Is Somewhat Basic/Barebones
Filtering Is Meh
Detection For The Price Is Not Good
Score: 7/10
Edit: I messed up the title sorry
.
Post automatically merged:
Cobra Road Scout Missing I/O
Here is another video of the Road Scout failing at I/O.
Last edited:
.
