Protecting your license is a serious issue in the UK as the number of fixed and mobile speed traps increases almost as fast as the government rakes in the cash, so we were pleased to be able to work with a number of friends and colleagues who use the road angel system and to put together this review.

Now we've reviewed probably the best radar detector on the market the Bel 550 euro but that device can't tell you about the next generation of speed cameras those that use paired video cameras to calculate average speed over a measured distance or SPECS as its now known.

The Road Angel system is a GPS based system using the global positioning network of satellites to keep the unit informed of the vehicles position and to allow this to be cross referenced with a map of the UK's roads and more importantly the location of all known speed cameras. The strength of any database system is the number of cameras in the database and the accuracy, we'll get onto how well the road angel did later but its fair to say that road angel have one of the most up to date and frequently revised databases in operation.

The package comes with a variety of mounting options, either the traditional suction mount which holds the device securely to your windscreen or a nice blue non slip matt which should be fine for all but the most energetic drivers. The laser detector which is shaped like a ball has its own windscreen suckers and needs to be placed in a good clear location to pick up the laser from any speed trap although its unlikely to give you much warning as laser guns acquire their target and issue the ticket in under 3 seconds.

When you unpack the road angel it comes as no surprise that you need to register it online and download the most up to date database version to the device, but the lead supplied surprised us! a serial cable!! now how many how PC's or laptops have you seen with serial ports, a quick trip to PC world later and serial cable to USB adaptor in hand we were soon online and downloading.

So enough excitement this is the part where LP got his hands on one to try, having suckered it to the car and powered the unit up it sat there with 0 Mph indicated and green backlit (safe) start-up can take a few minutes while enough satellites are acquired the road angel needs 3 to accurately position the vehicle.

Off into our local Gatso alley and the speed indication proved quite accurate on the road angels display, just as we rounded the first bend the display changed to red and the audible alert sounded, sure enough one of those yellow cash registers was hiding on the M11 link road and the road angel passed its first test.

This was repeated at ever one of the three sites we tried on this one stretch of road, the accuracy of the system was impressive with the warning subsiding as soon as the camera was behind us, also on our route the unit indicated a truvelo camera, these are head on units which are very nasty. The road angel also shows all of the known specs sites like the new install in docklands limehouse link tunnel.

In fact apart from a few bleeps where cameras have been and are now gone and one spot on the M11 where there has never been a camera the road angel did a remarkably good job in detecting fixed Gatso's and you can mark your own locations into the road angel with a single button push, these are saved to a separate database and you can choose to upload these when you next download the main database.

You can configure the warnings to be speed sensitive so you get the warning further in advance if you are travelling faster these adjustments are accessed from the menu system and are best played with while stationary.

So what is the road angel missing, well not much use we'd like some radar detection for mobile traps and a USB connection instead of serial but apart from that this is a very competent system and priced at £345 including 1 years updates and warranty it has to be highly recommended.

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