Review: Escort Passport 9500ix GPS-enabled Radar Detector

When the GPS-enabled radar detector arrived, the thorny question "What's the best radar detector?" became vastly more difficult to answer. Here's one example: In a recent conversation with a fellow named Leonard, a customer in bucolic Williston, North Dakota who'd just ordered an Escort Passport 9500ix, after an exchange of pleasantries he immediately steered the conversation to that very question. "What do you think," he inquired. "Is the 9500ix right for me or should I get the Escort RedLine instead?"

The short answer is "it depends", but that's hardly what he wanted to hear. So I asked him many of the same questions found in the automated DetectorSelector, our industry-exclusive system that directs you to the best radar detector suited for your driving environment, price range and driving style.

The Escort 9500ix is the best defense we've tested against red light and speed cameras, but North Dakota has neither. The Escort RedLine has slightly better sensitivity (radar-detection warning range) but as a non-GPS model, it hasn't the immunity to false alarms offered by the Escort 9500ix. But with 70,000 square miles of lightly-populated moonscape, there are also fewer of the common sources of false alarms—primarily radar-controlled automatic door openers—in his region. So I opined that despite its relatively higher propensity for urban false alarms, the RedLine's greater range might give it an edge as the best choice for his driving.

But it transpired that Leonard is ex-law enforcement—and also an astute observer of national traffic-enforcement trends. "No red light cameras here yet," he admitted. "But I know they're coming."

He's right. Unless the economy magically executes an abrupt about-face, cash-starved municipalities in North Dakota are certain to jump onto the extremely lucrative automated traffic enforcement bandwagon. Plus, Leonard admitted that he hates enduring frequent false alarms from a radar detector.

Armed with this knowledge, my response to his query was simple: "You got it right, my man, the 9500ix was the correct choice."

Still, there are other GPS-enabled radar detectors on the market, most of them less expensive. These include the Cobra XRS R10G and its electronic twin, the Cobra XRS 9970G. And there are two close relatives of the Escort 9500ix: the Escort Passport 9500i and the Beltronics (BEL) GX65. The obvious question is whether the lower-priced models can compete with the Escort 9500ix for there are significant differences in their appearance, utility and performance.

Escort Passport 9500ix Smart Cord combines status and alert LEDs with a dual-function mute button. It allows more latitude in mounting locations and gives the driver fingertip controls for primary functions.

Backlighting aids in locating and operating the Escort 9500ix controls at night.

Unlike the competitors', the top-mounted controls of the Escort 9500ix are backlit in soft blue, making them easy to find at night. The standard Smart Cord combines a control/display module with the power plug. A blue status LED glows to verify that the unit is powered-up and ready. An amber LED flashes during alerts. There's also a mute button that doubles as a control for the Mark Location feature. During an alert a double-tap allows you to lock-out the signal, adding it to the database. When not alerting, pressing the button adds a location to the alert database, along with the choice of four types of location tags.

The Cobras permit the user to add a location to the database and will subsequently issue a generic User Location alert at these coordinates. However, it's up to the user to remember the location's significance: there's no way to denote whether it was a red light or speed camera, a speed trap or another threat. In contrast, the Escort 9500ix allows a location to be tagged "red light camera", "speed camera", "speed trap" or a rather non-specific "other". No guessing about what you're up against the next time you drive past the location.

But the Cobras can't tell the difference. Approach any type of photo enforcement camera and they produce the same alert: "Photo Enforcement Area". This generic warning is sufficient, but a more detailed description would help the driver formulate the appropriate response. For example, a red light camera wouldn't seem to pose a threat if you don't plan to run the red. But many are set to Speed on Green, functioning as full-time speed traps. Cruise past at extralegal speed and you're toast. Cameras can also monitor permissive left turns and right turns on red, triggered by the merest hint of forward movement if the vehicle doesn't come to a complete stop first. The Escort 9500ix identifies and warns of these threats.

Low-speed camera alerts begin at about 400 feet. The warning distance rises in proportion to vehicle speed, giving enough warning but without being unduly intrusive.

The Escort 9500ix trumps its 9500i sibling and all Cobra GPS models through its directional alerts. Many intersections have only one or two approaches of one street monitored by cameras, making them a non-issue if you're cruising on the cross street. The Escort 9500ix (and the Beltronics GX65) knows which approaches are covered and alerts only when a camera genuinely poses a threat. The Cobras alert regardless of one's direction of travel.

The Escort 9500ix and BEL GX65 vary camera-warning distance according to vehicle speed. Below about 45 mph, camera alerts begin at 400 feet; at higher speeds the distance rises to 800 feet. Both distances offer enough advance warning but without unduly pestering the driver with lingering alerts.

The Cobras have a different alert strategy. Like the BEL and Escort, both vary the onset of an alert according to vehicle speed. but each arrives at a far greater distance At 65 mph and over, a visual alert is generated at an average of 2,900 feet. When the distance closes to about 1,200 feet an audible alert sounds. Visual alerts begin at about 2,400 feet at 55 mph, 1,900 feet at 45 mph and 1,150 feet at 35 mph; audible alerts begin at the same 1,200-foot mark regardless of speed. These distances are about triple what's needed and make for needlessly extended alerts. They also induce alerts to distant cameras on surface streets when driving on camera-free urban freeways.

The ability of the Escort 9500ix to mark and lock out nuisance signals, coupled with speed-variable radar sensitivity, creates a supernaturally quiet radar detector and gives this GPS-enabled radar detector a significant competitive advantage. We've quantified that value previously, once in an urban false alarm test, the other in a freeway-trip false alarm test, and can only say that the difference must be experienced to be appreciated.

The camera-alert strategy of the Escort Passport 9500ix is identical to that of the BEL GX65. Warning distance to the camera varies according to vehicle speed and it accurately spells out the type of camera: red light or speed. If a red light camera is set to Speed on Green and also monitors speed, the detector warns, "Caution, Speed Camera Ahead." Distance to the camera is displayed in 100-foot increments, counting down until mid-intersection when a female voice announces, "You have reached your marked location." (Tones rather than voice alerts are a menu option.)

Escort developed and patented most of the key GPS-radar detector technology and declines to share it with anyone but Beltronics. This leaves competitors nibbling at the fringes of the market, unable to fully capitalize on the advantages offered by GPS. Competing models don't offer an integral GPS receiver, for instance. To avoid patent infringement they must use an external antenna, usually a thumb-sized module with a mini-A USB connector that plugs into the side of the detector. In the Cobras this module not infrequently falls off when the detector is handled, forcing the driver to keep a sharp eye on it.

An additional example is something Escort calls TrueLock, the ability to lock-out a signal based on its GPS coordinates and frequency. Yet another is variable-speed radar sensitivity where the detector automatically dials back sensitivity at low speeds, knowing that a driver trapped in rush-hour traffic doesn't need eight miles of radar-detection range. This lowered sensitivity means fewer alarms induced by the ubiquitous radar-controlled automatic door opener, not to mention the local oscillator of a nearby radar detector. Combined, these features are the secret to the extraordinarily high resistance of the Escort Passport 9500ix to false alarms, particularly in town. In back-to-back comparisons with the Cobras, Escort's technology is clearly the more effective.

The advantage also extends to its performance against radar. In two different tests the Escort Passport 9500ix exhibited class-leading performance at each of our test sites on the critical K and Ka bands. These include the comparatively easy Straightaway Test, a 5.4-mile-long straightaway site. It's composed of a pair of long straight sections of county road that are offset by 0.5 mile and run parallel to one another. The test isn't particularly difficult for a well-designed detector but some still experience difficulties here.

The other test is at the fiendishly difficult Curve Site where the odds are stacked heavily against the detector. Instead of looking down the throat of the radar gun, it's looking for a sharply-angled radar beam crossing its path. This test separates the star performers from the wannabe models and the Escort 9500ix delivered a stellar performance.

It proved equally adept at detecting the most widely used types of photo radar, leading the pack in one test and trailing the BEL GX65 by a few feet in the other. Along with the latter, it proved to be the only GPS-enabled, windshield-mount radar detector we've tested that offers reliable protection from Redflex photo radar vans, an increasingly common threat. These use ultra-low-powered radar aimed at an angle across the roadway, greatly hampering detection. (We were able to motor past these speed vans without either of the Cobras alerting to them.)

Watch the Escort 9500ix in action as it spots red light cameras and identifies, then locks-out spurious signals automatically.

We also checked the ability of the Escort 9500ix to outwit the radar detector detector (RDD) used in Virginia and other areas where detector use is forbidden. We squared off against both a Spectre (Stalcar) Mk IV and the latest Mk IV+ and found that neither could spot the Escort Passport 9500ix from more than 40 feet away under ideal conditions. (This virtue is shared by the BEL GX65.) Although not 100 percent undetectable like the Beltronics (BEL) STi Driver, its performance may be good enough for many drivers. This is the best protection we've seen against radar detector detectors by a GPS-enabled model, an attraction for those who drive in Virginia and want protection from cameras, but without becoming fodder for the RDDs used there.

The Escort Passport 9500ix also benefits from its Defender camera location database, which our first-ever review and comparison test proved to be the most reliable and accurate available. While Cobra's Aura camera database proved to be 66 percent accurate, it still missed one camera in three. In contrast, the Escort Defender database was 95 percent accurate, a remarkable achievement.

This array of advantages—coupled with its superior sensitivity, user-friendly nature and extreme resistance to false alarms—makes it the best GPS-enabled radar detector on the planet.