Summary: Arguably the best price-performance ratio. Whistler has always made solid products, and the 1793SE is a great detector. It has a lot of features and options found only in the most expensive detectors (ability to turn individual bands off for example)
MOUNTING:
The windshield bracket is solid steel, the suction cups are small, and only 2 are included, but they have very good adherence. The mounting bracket has a rubber bumper that sits on the windshield, and the detector never touches the glass. This is important in my eyes as you reduce vibrations going into the detector.
FEATURES:
Packed. Besides the regular bands and pop detection, the detector has a text compass that even shows degrees, has a message recorder, voltage meter, and something whistler calls the "stay alert". The compass, voltage meter and message recorder are very useful, but the "stay alert" is not.
Because of all the features packed, you need the manual the first times to know what buttons activate what special features. Ironically, programming is kind of intuitive. Just press and hold QUIET to go into programming, press QUIET to toggle selections, use the volume UP and DOWN to change the value.
DISPLAY AND VISIBILITY:
It is a red VFD text display (regular) with decent daytime brightness, DIM mode is good for dusk, and dark is perfect for night. I have 2 dislikes here. You cannot blank the display, and in dark mode, during an alert the display goes blank. In addition, to change dimming in the 1793SE you have to press and hold the power button.
AUDIO AND ERGONOMICS:
The volume level is weak, and if you have a loud cabin you need level 8 all the time. Autoquiet goes to 1, very quiet. Voice alerts are a female voice, and are OK. Ergonomics in not intuitive because of all the features.
FALSES:
Falses are part of a radar detector. Unfortunately, you cannot reduce the sensitivity for K band in city mode, only X band. Using city2 mode disables X band, so no X band falses.
On the highway, some cobra models are well know for setting Ka falses in many detectors, and unfortunately the 1793SE is affected too. Overall, filtering is very good, and driving in city2 mode totally eliminates X band falses.
PERFORMANCE:
What good is a nice looking detector with tons of features if it doesn't pick radar? In this regard, the 1793SE pleasantly surprised me. X band and K band are not that far from the top 4 detectors (V1, passport 8500 X50, Bel RX65 and Bel STi). Ka band is not as good, but it still provides plenty or advanced warning. Laser is stellar, but because of the laser dangerous nature, a laser notification will often be a ticket notifier, no matter the detector. Anyways, it is good to know if you have been hit.
OVERALL:
Well balanced detector. Very good detection range. Very strong X, K and laser. A lot of features. Ka band not as impressive, but still quite good. Very nice looking.
COMMENTS
- The performance and features at this price is a steal. This is the one to get for budgets around $100, and will hang out quite nicely with the sub $200 crowd (Bel V895 / v955)
- The compass has odd convention for the degrees numbering. North is 0, and the measurement is done clockwise.
- The startup sequence shows all the setting
- Excellent mid-range detector. 85% of the performance of the top ones, at 30% of the price, and more features than any of them
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