My non contact voltage tester (NCV)
seems to do a reasonable job, it can also measure current with non contact, and one of these
work very well, seems to detect cables buried over 3 foot deep, there are a whole range of non contact tester, each designed for a different job, but the simple reed switch is well known for detecting even static, with the one I use it has four levels with buzzer and visual display, shown with all four bars showing, it can still mislead, but less likely to.
I think most assume you are talking about one of these,
they are to my mind rather expensive, £25 when mine was £35 seems wrong, for £10 extra I get 4 levels, AC and DC current down to 0.001 amp, digital display, also measures with wired connection ohms and AC and DC volts. Some variants also measure frequency. Plus a hold feature.