Even with the old laser technology, without a jammer all the detector was doing was letting you know you were ticketed most of the time. Not enough warning to react, unless you got a *very* lucky reflection when they hit another car further up the road. And yeah, Texas banned laser jammers in 2011 finally.
The upside is that laser is still less common than radar and always will be, so a good radar detector still helps reduce your odds of a ticket. Laser requires the officer to stop on the side of the road and set up with it to get accurate targeting, whereas radar is mobile and easy. I see both around the Houston area, but still radar far more commonly.
The best defense against both has never changed, though: just being more aware. Slow down going over blind hills and be ready to brake if you see a trap on the other side. Watch traffic patterns ahead of you: if you see brake lights on the highway and you're not already in stop-n-go traffic: slow down - either there's an incident or a cop ahead. The other thing is basically don't drive like an a$$. If you speed by reasonable amounts and drive safely otherwise, you're far less likely to draw police attention and they'll let you go even when they know you're speeding a bit. If you're weaving in much slower traffic and being stupid, they'll make a much larger effort to pull you over for a much smaller speed violation than they otherwise would. There's always a judgement call on the officer's part: don't convince him that you're a safety hazard to everyone else on the road
