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Escort Radar Detector, Passport 9500i

Rated by John Turner:

Look Inside the Escort Passport 9500i Radar Detector - A Speed and Location Intelligent Detector The Escort Passport 9500i radar detector provides GPS Location - Some companies incorporate GPS into their radar detector, but Escort took this idea way past what typical manufactures think about. The Passport 9500 teaches itself about false alerts using the GPS locate, and also alerts you to known traps and photo traps. 1stRadarDetectors.com had 4 of the best radar detectors mounted in the windshield of our Mustang GT 40: Escort Passport 9500i, Bel STi Driver, Valentine One and Escort 8500 X50 radar detectors. Escort 9500i Radar Detector Detector Test Results Optional Escort Passport ZR4 Shifter for laser jamming protection

Product Tests

• Radar - During our road testing of Escort's newest radar detector, we logged a typical 10 mile distance detection of Ka radar. This is extremely good and the very best detection sensitivity. False alerts were minimized by turning off X band radar detection, but we also discovered that some police are resorting back to X band radar, knowing that many drivers turn X band off. We suggest that you drive with X band on, just in case. The SWS detector alerts (special K band safety alerts) when turned on and selected, will alert you to road hazards and construction; if the SWS transmitter technology is used by road crews and ambulances. We found that we would often encounter road hazard situations, but sometimes the Escort 9500i did not alert due to the SWS technology not being used by the road crews and ambulances. We noted some POP3 alerts, but the 9500i is very good at alerting you to a real POP3 signal, which is a very fast, (67millisecond) burst radar pulse. Many radar detectors today can detect fast radar pulses, but can not tell if the fast signal is simply a false alert or a real POP3 radar burst. The Passport 9500i can detect POP3 better than nearly all other radar detectors with very few false alerts.
• Laser - During our test, we encountered a few laser alerts from police. Since the Escort 9500i detects laser from the windshield, and laser is aimed at the license plate and headlights, no radar detector in the windshield is effective at detecting laser aimed at the grille. But detecting laser by itself is not sufficient, since detecting laser only tells you that the police aimed the very narrow light beam at your vehicle, you detected it and they have your speed.