Saphe Drive Mini traffic alarm | real-time speed camera detector and warning system | Car Alarm System | Colour display | Works across all of Europe | The Car car electronics starts automatically

Product Information

Like our previous Saphe One+ review, the Saphe Drive Mini adds a screen to help keep you safe while on the road. As I mentioned earlier, I have noticed battery usage increase while using the Saphe devices; on my most recent two-hour drive around the edges of London to Sussex, the Saphe Link app used roughly an extra 20% battery, I left home with 100% and got to my destination with around 70%. The Saphe Drive Mini does the same thing as the Saphe One+ but adds a small portrait colour LCD screen between the two reporting buttons. Alerts are actually delivered via your mobile smartphone, which uses its GPS to detect your location and speed while the Saphe One+ effectively acts as a Bluetooth speaker with added flashing lights for the app. This makes for very simple operation, and many drivers appreciate not having any additional touch screens to distract them from the road.

Inattention is associated with 61% of all road traffic fatalities. Inattention in traffic is also connected to speeding. In fact, a report from the Danish Road Directorate shows that you are inattentive up to 30% of the time you sit in the driver's seat of a car. This applies to both you and me. Apparently the battery will last around two years, and with the CR2450 being cheap enough to replace, you should have the One+ for several years. That is where the Road Angel and Saphe’s live-updating databases establish their value (a value which Road Angel are not shy about charging for). The Alpha X allows users to update their database by connecting to a Windows computer via USB lead, but that’s not a tempting option for Apple devotees. Here the GTX80’s addition of Bluetooth, from which iPhone users can make free database updates whenever they choose, makes a convincing case for this option over its competitors.

Come on Saphe, please speed up both this critical update and the time it takes to update other areas of your database (eg. the M4 Slough area average speed road works were removed weeks ago and yet the database is still claiming it’s 50mph when it’s not. Pretty annoying after 20minutes of false alerts... In terms of our main matter here, it isn’t as easy to fit as some of the others, but the Aura speed trap database is good and it’s certainly not the most expensive. For European speed alerts a Here® database is included. The display is very clear (a green ring around your current speed if you’re not in trouble). The real question is the relative value of the device, even if you are looking for a dash-cam, and although the G-force is enough to turn on the dash-cam, the GPS can be a little slower to get the location right for the speed database.

If Saphe could display Waze alerts. Obviously a few commercial and technical options to make happen. Alert distance can be changed for the accident and congestion warnings, but the speed cameras can’t. It includes your typical fixed and mobile speed cameras, as well as average speed cameras. They could also warn you about those subtle cameras mounted on traffic lights, and so forth. This will be important, given that there are over 7,000 speed cameras that are strategically placed throughout most British roads. Yet, how does it actively warn you about it? Be Aware Of Your Surroundings The battery inside is one of the chunkiest coin cells I’ve ever seen, a CR2450. It is user-replaceable, but the manual doesn’t allude to this. You need to gently prise apart the top and bottom sections of the One+; you can then slide the battery out. I have asked Saphe about this data limitation via their support and they answered in about 36 hours. They replied;

While that keeps prices of the units down as they don’t have to have complicated GPS chips, radar and laser scanners as some bespoke speed camera devices do, you’ll notice how much phone battery you’re getting through. More on that later though. Key specs – Size: ‎75 x 40 x 60mm; Cameras detected: Fixed and mobile, traffic light, variable and average speed; Updates: OTA; Power source: Rechargeable battery; Accessories supplied: Mains plug, USB adapter, USB cable, dash mount The reason I proceeded, in the Q&A another UK user claims Saphe uses Waze data, and they verified by reporting a ghost speed camera on Waze, and then passing the location a few minutes later and alerted on the Saphe. I tried the same, and I am sad to report that doesn't happen. I never used the Saphe Link app to give me on-screen phone alerts, so I can’t vouch for how well it works.