15 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
Good basic detector but lacking in critical areas
Date of Review: Apr 11, 2006
The Bottom Line: This detector would get a higher rating if it performed as well with photo as it does with conventional radar threats. For less money, the Passport does a better job.
The Solo S2 is a good, tough, reliable radar detector which keeps false alarms to a minimum and provides good versatility and performance on X, K and Ka radar bands. Distance seems to be equal to or better than a corded Bel model with fewer false alarms.
The Solo S2 is easy to move from one vehicle to another or take on a trip where one will be renting a car. The no-nonsense mounting arrangement is sleek, practical and effective. The suction cup mount is small and unobtrusive compared to others on the market. It does not lend itself to adapting to the curvature of the glass, so some users will find that it needs to go right in the middle of the windscreen where that may not be the first choice. This also takes control out of the user's reach.
I have been pleased with the overall performance of this product except when it comes to the photo radar or "Robocop" vans. These use a narrow beam of high frequency, low power radar emissions specifically to make detectors useless. In the case of the Solo, this works but in an odd way.
The Solo S2 can "see" photo radar vans at a comparatively long distance, well before they can "see" an oncoming car but ONLY if one of the buttons is pushed while moving in on the signal. For some reason, pressing any of the control buttons will enable the Solo S2 to detect photo radar at up to a block away but if a button is not pressed when encountering the radar signal, it won't see a thing even when driving by the photo radar van. It will remain silent the whole time.
To be honest, I had this exact same problem with a batter-powered Beltronics unit but the Solo can be tricked into seeing photo radar while the Bel cannot.
This is a moot point really because if one can see the van and press the button, the driver has already done the job for the detector. This exercise only proves that the detector can indeed detect. Why it cannot do this on its own, I have no idea.
Manually-operated radar is becoming less of a threat at least in my community, as police officers are replaced by photo radar and the pavement-based physical speed sensors of the intersection cameras (which no detector can detect). The most often encountered radar threat is a van discreetly parked in a row of parked cars or behind bushes where it cannot be seen until it is too late. This was the primary reason why I purchased the Solo S2 and it does fail to deliver the way a corded detector does. If detection of Robocop is of importance, select the Passport corded detector which does a far better job on this type of threat. If conventional, human-operated radar is the primary threat, this will do an excellent job.
