Home page » Car Tech

Search:

Refine search for Car Tech

There are two ways to mount the Road Angel Professional Connected in your car - it can ether be placed on your dashboard, or suspended from the windscreen. The dashboard mount was a no-no for me, since it involves attaching a sticky pad to your dash, then sticking a mounting plate to that. The second option on the other hand, works brilliantly - the windscreen mount is secured using two suction cups, while the device itself is then clipped into the cradle. You just need to make sure that the Road Angel is properly engaged with the mount in the cradle before driving off - I was a little careless when installing the unit and halfway around a roundabout it flew off the cradle and landed in my passenger seat!

The Road Angel Professional Connected has one last cool trick up its sleeve though. You can also use the device as a tracker, so if you want to keep tabs on your other half (because you're concerned for their wellbeing obviously), you can simply logon to the tracking portal on the Road Angel site and find out exactly where they are in real time. If the Road Angel is switched off, you'll be given the last registered location, which will usually be the location of where the user's car is parked up.

And as if that isn't clever enough, once you've tracked the location of the unit on the Road Angel web portal, you can then type a quick text message and send it directly to the device. This is particularly useful if the user doesn't have a hands-free kit in their car, especially if you just want to ask them to pick up some milk on the way home.

Any product that redefines the market sector isn't going to be cheap, but Road Angel hasn't gone overboard with the Professional Connected. In fact even though the £299 asking price looks steep compared to other high-end speed camera detectors, there simply isn't another device that offers these features. There's a monthly subscription charge of £4.99, which gives you full access to the Road Angel database, and in the case of the Professional Connected, you'll be making very good use of that database with the unit updating regularly without any intervention from the user.

The tracking/text message option carries an additional monthly charge of £5.99, but you do get a month free with purchase, allowing you to try it out and decide whether it's worth that extra cost. Personally I can live without the tracking, but the rest of the package is pretty close to perfect.

Verdict

With more and more speed cameras appearing, it's never been easier to lose your license, even if you're not a speed demon. The Road Angel Professional Connected will protect drivers from the fixed position cameras and, for the most part, mobile vans as well. The accident black spot warnings also give drivers a heads up to particularly tricky stretches of road, allowing them to take more care and avoid any unpleasant incidents.

The real party piece here is the fact that this unit downloads all its database updates automatically, without the need for hooking up to a computer. This means that you're simply always up to date, and you're unlikely to come across a camera that the Road Angel hasn't warned you about. The ability to tell other users when a camera van is parked up is also a great and very satisfying feature.

If you haven't used a camera detector before, the asking price and the ongoing subscription cost may seem a little steep. However, compared to getting a fine, points on your license and an increased insurance premium, that cost is minimal.

Add your comment

© 2003-2009 TrustedReviews & IPC Media
About Us | Contact Us | Legal | Privacy | RSS