Our dashboard space is being fought over by a whole range of gadgets and we all know that these should all be removed when leaving the car. Some say you should even remove the holders or windscreen suckers so that optimistic thieves don't break in just to check the contents of your glove box. This for us was the main reason for reviewing the new TR20 Lite camera detector, which is possibly the smallest most discreet unit on the market.

The unit itself is less than the size of the Garmin i2 SatNav at 3mm x 71mm x 19mm and can be placed almost anywhere you choose. We found a very natural spot for the TR20 in our test vehicle and also managed to route the power cable neatly out of sight under the door flashing / rubbers up to the dash where the receiver sat snugly right in the corner of the windscreen. Despite initial worries that the corner position would impair the GPS reception the 12 channel GPS receiver built into the TDS system, it soon had a full house of satellites and we were ready to test. TDS supply a comprehensive mounting kit which tilts through a range of angles and can be attached via a sturdy base  to the windscreen, but the unit doesn't weigh much so there is hardly any pressure on the mount.

We set off towards a local Gatso site to see what the TR20 would do, en route the small unit sat with the backlit display showing our current speed and direction of travel and time which gives confidence that the unit is working. As we approached the Gatso site the unit leapt into life with a spoken warning of the camera type, in this case "Gatso" which sounded a little like "Fatso" causing an amount of amusement within the test team whole claimed it was highly accurate (LP was not amused). Following the type announcement the unit then starts to beep more frequently and change colour to red backlit as you approach the trap and then clears as you pass. On the return pass we checked and proved that the unit is directional and so does not alarm for cameras that are not pointing in your direction.

As we headed for an area packed with cameras (the A102 Blackwall tunnel approach) the alerts started to come thick and fast, each one very accurate and reliable. We noted that the TR20 has a speed filter so that it gives a soft alert if you are under the posted speed for that road, this is great if you are just pootling along in traffic and don't want the mad beeping as you crawl up to the camera at 10 miles per hour.

Our next journey took in the some motorway and a set of roadwork's on the M25 where Specs has been installed, at first we got no warning despite Specs being a supported speed camera type.  It turned out to be our fault as we were still using the database that came pre loaded and not the latest version which meant using the USB cable to connect to the Quantum database and get the latest update after which the Specs cameras appeared. A point to note here is that TDS say that the TR20 is only compatible with Windows at this time and does not have Mac support.

Alerts are not just limited to speed camera types (Gatso, truvelo, Specs, mobile) but also for the congestion charge zone and accident black spots. It is also possible to add your own points (up to 50) through a slightly fiddly process on the small unit. The screen is quite good considering its lowish 128 x 64 pixel resolution, it is bright and supports a 2 colour scheme, blue for no warnings and red for warning mode.

The TR20 lite is as its name suggests a cut down version, so items like the Laser detection are an optional extra, as it a separate GPS antenna, you also loose the ability to download voices and only have 2 colours (the other models have more colour choices). That said we were still surprised that this small unit can be hard wired to your car stereo so that it can mute the radio when there is an alert, this isn't a bad idea as the speaker volume is a little low.

Sadly the one element missing from the TR20 compared to the TR30 model is the average speed calculation for Specs zones. This feature keeps a tally of your average speed within a specs zone and alerts you if you are above the speed between specs cameras. A great feature but one that the TR20 does without.

Priced at £199 we do think that this is a bit OTT for such a small unit, especially this "lite" model". You must also consider that it ships with a 6 month database upgrade subscription after which you are looking at a £50 per year subscription for updates or a 1 off £99 for 3 years. This brings the total cost of ownership to a shade under £300 for 3 years. Not really that lite after all!

Our test period proved that the TR20 Lite was as good as similarly priced units like the Road Angel compact, but much smaller making it easier to fit and hide in your car. Its size does mean that volume is low on warnings and this is the only real negative we could find, perhaps it may be worth spending a bit more on the TDS TR30 if you intend to be using motorways or areas with Specs frequently.

Published - 21/01/2007

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