elmoebeesn's Full Review: Escort Passport 8500 X50 Radar Detector
I have been using this radar detector a great deal lately because of some troubles I have had with my vehicle which have forced me to drive my friends car a bit. He has owned this radar detector for some time and has said that it generally has done a fair job for him. He has been pulled over once, but he wasn't sure if it was his own fault or that of the detector. I personally have had great experience using the Valentine 1 detector myself and have found that particular model very useful and valuable. In fact, in a recent Epinion, I even called that detector "the best" radar detector I have known.
While this detector is not bad, I do not feel that it measures up for the similar price. There are some good aspects that I should point out though, and I will deliver them first. This detector detect most types of radar quite adequately. In fact, I have noticed that it may be even slightly more accurate than the Valentine 1 in detecting K and Ka bands. It also filters out the radar and generally only gives the user the type/s of radar that he/she is looking to detect. This is very helpful in large cities because of the fact that there may be as many as 100 different streams of radar going through the atmosphere at once. The Passport 8500 does a good job filtering out what the user doesnt need. This, of course, also makes it so that there is not a constant beeping or buzzing noise going throughout your car the minute the user hits heavy traffic. Anther feature of the Passport 8500 is the fact that it gives the user the frequency of the radar being detected. This is fairly standard though and not extremely helpful to the average user.
After these positives there must be some negatives to address as well if I am to review the product. This detector does not measure up to the Valentine 1 because of the fact that this detector does not tell the user where the radar is coming from. This can be very tricky because the user may get several streams of radar that are misleading because they are nowhere near the driver. This will cause the driver to slow down constantly for no real reason if the radar is not in his/her area. Overall, this is an important feature that cannot be found with this unit.
All in all, this is a decent radar detector, but there are much better ones out there on the market currently. I personally recommend the Valentine 1 which works a bit better, has more features and can be purchased at a comparable price.
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