Escort Passport 8500 X50 Radar and Laser Detector (Red Display) by Escort Inc.
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Digital camera reviews of Escort Passport 8500 X50 Radar and Laser Detector (Red Display)
Digital camera Review: Excellent Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I had used the RMR - C450 radar detector and jammer for about a year. That product was way over hyped and had very poor detection range. On the advise of a good friend I sold the RMR and bought the 8500 X50. I never realized how bad that RMR was until I started using this unit. I have picked up police radar close to two miles from me AND have picked up radar over a small hill well before I topped it. Another great thing is that the false alarms are few and far inbetween. The only issues I have with this unit are that POP detection is not turned on by default, the programming innerface is not real easy, and that POP false alarms do happen (maybe this is why it's turned off by default).Digital camera Review: Excellent Radar Detector
Summary: 5 Stars
I researched radar detectors extensively before purchasing this one, and I previously owned a nice Bell Vector.
The Escort 8500 X50 is definitely one of the top detectors out there for a reason. I've found it to have excellent sensitivity and range with a reasonable rate of false alarms.
I'm very happy with my purchase and I'm glad I choose this one.
Digital camera Review: Excellent Radar Protection
Summary: 4 Stars
I have had this radar detector for two years and it saved me at least 5 or 6 tickets. I would give it a 5 star rating except for the constant difficulty I have in keeping it mounted on my windshield, especially in cold weather.Digital camera Review: Excellent radar detector
Summary: 5 Stars
The thing which means the most to me regarding this new detector is the ability to "map" false signals using GPS. In your driving area, if the unit says "K Band" and there are stores nearby, push a button and that false signal location is remembered. No more false signals at that location.
The unit telling you your speed when signal is received is nice as well as being able to "Mark" known speed traps and give an alert as you approach - all are useful features.
Digital camera Review: Excellent, but not awesome.
Summary: 4 Stars
It is a very good detector, don't get me wrong, but here is my experience:
The detector arrived dirty, scratched, and parts of the inside box were broken. It was a factory sealed item purchased new from Amazon. Now, I assume that Escort just mistakenly repackaged a return or something so I sent it back for a refund. No big deal. I am just relaying this as part of my personal experience; I did not factor this into my rating of 4/5 stars.
The 4/5 star rating is a result of the following performance: perfect performance when you are just about to be caught. There really isn't much advance warning here. We're talking seconds. In one case I didn't hear anything until the radar was on me (I know he had instant radar but I still wish I would have got a warning a mile or so back when presumably the cop was gunning someone else with instant-on) but luckily I wasn't going quite fast enough for it to be worth his trouble to pull me over.
There were 2 times on my most recent long road trip where this detector saved me from a ticket for a 100% fact. So, that's great. Hey, it already paid for itself, right? Well, yes, but each of the two times I got the warning literally one long second (seriously, one second) and it took my lightning quick reflexes to slam on the brakes. The next second the cop came into view and his gun was on me. So, I mean, you have to be like me and be quick draw Mcgraw or you are toast. I am only 29 years old. I'm not sure if I could act so quickly if I were, say, 59 years old.
In 99.2% of the other cases where this detector goes off it is a false alarm or some unknown device somehwere off the highway setting it off. The other .7% of the time it is real cops but they are not engaged in speed-trapping (could be already pulling someone over, working a wreck, giving a trucker a hard time, etc) and .1% of the time it is legit like I addressed in the previous paragraph.
Oddly enough I have experienced far more false alarms (like 10 to 1) in the country than in the city. This thing is virtually silent in the city and hardly ever goes off. In the middle of nowhere, however, it throws false alarms at least once every 5 minutes. Seriously. It gets to where you learn the different pitches and know which ones to take seriously. Most cops don't use the old school radar anymore, but things that use that band still set the detector off every few minutes. This can actually get annoying at times, but thankfully virtually all of the false alarms are announced in the high-pitch "standard old-school" radar tone which I have never seen a modern cop even use to catch speeders. So you learn what to ignore by pitch but I still wish I had less to ignore.
So, was it worth the money? Absolutely. Could it be better? Absolutely. 1 second warning time is not enough. It was enough for me but like I said I have a hair trigger on the brake pedal. I kept thinking of the cordless model that everyone says is slower response than this model. If that really was true I would have gotten 2 tickets in the past month. This one barely did the job as a mentioned. So on paper in a purely technical sense it was 2 for 2 which means perfect. I just think it could be a little better for the reasons I laid out.
Remember to unplug your detector and put it in the glovebox when driving through Virginia. Simply unplugging is not enough. They are illegal period, even if not turned on. You will also encounter this in most Canadian provinces. Sorry for the long review but this stuff is really interesting to me and if you have read this far evidently it is to you, too.
Drive safely and observe all posted speed limits!