XP Deus II Review

The pitch: a flagship with no control box

The thing that makes the Deus II stand apart, and the first thing owners mention, is that it is a fully wireless system. There is no control box hanging off the shaft. The coil itself does the work and talks wirelessly to a small remote and to the headphones. The practical upshot is a machine that is remarkably light and uncluttered, and that matters more than it sounds. Anyone who has swung a heavier detector for six or seven hours knows the ache in the arm and shoulder at the end of the day. A genuinely light machine is one you can hunt longer and more comfortably with, and long-term users consistently rate the Deus II as one of the most comfortable flagships to carry.

On top of that it runs XP’s simultaneous multi-frequency, it is fully submersible to a serious depth rather than just splash-proof, and XP has a strong track record of pushing out free major firmware updates that genuinely add features over a machine’s life. That last point is worth weighing if you are spending flagship money, because it means the detector you buy keeps improving.

What owners genuinely rate

Beyond the weight, the praise clusters around performance in difficult ground. The consensus from people who came to it off the original Deus is that depth and, especially, separation in trash took a real step up. Why does separation matter so much? Because on the iron-littered sites a lot of us hunt, the good target is usually sitting right next to a nail or a bit of junk, and a machine that can split those two signals apart is the one that puts the hammered coin in your pouch instead of walking you over it. Owners report the Deus II is genuinely good at that, and noticeably deeper in its dedicated deep and beach programs.

The submersibility is the other standout. Being able to fully sink it, not just splash it, opens up wet sand, the surf line and shallow water hunting properly, which is a real advantage if the coast is part of your plan.

The quirks and the gripes

No machine is perfect and the Deus II has a couple of consistent criticisms. The one that comes up most is the target ID. A fair few owners describe it as quirky or jumpy, meaning the number on the screen can dance about more than they would like, so you learn to lean on the audio and on checking a target from several angles rather than trusting the figure outright.

The bigger thing to go in knowing is the learning curve. The Deus II has been fairly described as one of the easiest detectors to actually use but one of the hardest to truly master, because there is an enormous amount of adjustability under the bonnet. Long-term users are clear that getting the best from it takes real time and study, so this is not a switch-on-and-go machine.

There is also a practical durability note worth knowing for buyers: some owners who hunt sand heavily have reported the lower shaft wearing over time and developing a bit of coil flop. It is not a dealbreaker, aftermarket shafts solve it, but it is the sort of real-world detail you only get from people who have used one for a season or two.

And then price. This is premium kit, and the honest community view is that if you already own the original Deus and you mainly care about raw inland depth, the upgrade may not feel justified. Several UK owners reckon there is little the Deus II will find on a normal field that a well-driven Deus 1 would not. Where the II clearly pulls ahead is beach, water and trash separation.

If I were buying one, here is the steer

Because I have not owned it I will keep this to what owners advise, which is plenty. If you buy used, the wireless system is the thing to check carefully: make sure the coil, the remote and the wireless headphones all power up and pair together there and then, because they are the heart of the machine and a pain to sort out afterwards. Ask what firmware it is on and update it before judging it, since XP’s updates change how it behaves. Check the lower shaft for wear and any coil flop if it has seen beach use. And factor the built-in coil battery into your thinking, as with any sealed rechargeable.

As for who it is for, the community steer is clear. This is a machine for the experienced or seriously committed detectorist who wants one light, do-everything flagship that genuinely covers fields, beach and water, and who is happy to put the hours in to learn it. I would gently steer a beginner away, both on price and on the learning curve, and I would tell a happy Deus 1 owner to think hard about whether beach and water hunting are really on their agenda before spending the difference.

As ever, this is me passing on the collected wisdom of people who have actually put the years in, not my own experience. If you own a Deus II and see any of this differently, the contact page reaches a real person.