Escort

This video featuring Danny from Buy Radar Detectors is a close look at the Escort Passport 8500 X50 Black Radar Detector.

The Passport 8500 X50 Black is available with either a blue or red display. Check out our complete line of Escort Radar Detectors!

NOTE: This offer expired February 16, 2012 and is no longer available.

A radar detector makes a great gift and now you can give more this holiday season for less! the Holiday Drive Event is here, and just in time for the holidays! Choose from select models of Beltronics and Escort windshield mount radar detectors and receive a $50 Accessory Pack , absolutely FREE!

This free Accessory Pack includes a SuperCup Mount and the Direct Wire SmartPlug. This is an excellent mounting solution for your new Beltronics or Escort radar detector and makes a great value added holiday gift at no additional cost!

The SuperCup Mount is designed to move the radar detector closer to you. It is a heavy duty windshield mount and features a quick release suction cup for fast and easy installation and removal of your Beltronics or Escort radar detector.

The Direct Wire SmartPlug allows you to hard wire your radar detector directly into your car, eliminating the need for a cigarette lighter plug and provides a power-on indicator, an alert lamp that warns you of radar and laser, and a convenient mute button!

This is a special promotion from Buy Radar Detectors. To claim your FREE $50 Accessory Pack, order one of the radar detectors from the list below. Your Free $50 Accessory Pack will be automatically added to your order at checkout!

Beltronics GX65, RX65 blue, RX65 red or the new STi Magnum

Escort 9500ix, 8500 X50 Black (Blue Display), 8500 X50 Black (Red Display), REDLINE or Solo S3

This special offer is for a limited time while supplies last.

Escort recently updated their popular, high end 8500 X50 radar detector and re-issued it as the 8500 X50 Black.

While not radically different from its predecessor cosmetically, The 8500 X50 Black does sport a few subtle changes to its outer shell, giving it a slightly sleeker look. And, of course, the formerly silver bodied unit is now black, as its model name implies. However, that's not what sets it apart from the orginal 8500. It's what is under the hood that has improved.

The original Escort Passport 8500 X50 is noted as one of the best high performance radar detectors on the market with great range, reliable detection and quick response time to traffic enforcement radar. In addition to the standard features of this model, the new version 8500 X50 Black now has up to 50% greater range than the original Passport 8500 on K and Ka bands. Its "V-Tuned" radar receiver provides a maximum range of detection on all conventional and "instant-on" police radar, including POP mode and X-Band. The PASSPORT 8500 X50 also includes Escort's Traffic Sensor Rejection software to eliminate false alerts.

The X50 Black also features Escort's own ExpertMeter™ multiple threat display to detect 8 different radar threats simultaneously. It also has an AutoSensitivity™ mode, which adjusts sensitivity levels automatically according to your driving conditions. This radar detector can integrate with the Cincinnati Microwave ZR4 Laser Defense System.

As with the original, the Escort 8500 X50 Black is available in either a blue or red display with three display modes: standard bar graph mode, ExpertMeter™ mode and SpecDisplay™ mode.

The 8500 X50 has been around awhile, but it's not getting older, it's getting better. Escort's recent performance makeover of the X50 merely secured it's reputation as a manufacturer of high end, top of the line radar detectors available on the market today.

Escort is one of the most popular and respected manufacturers of radar detectors in the industry. As an Authorized Escort Dealer we are proud to carry their full line of feature packed radar detectors at competitive prices. Of course, with all the options available, it can be difficult to choose one over the other, however we created this 2011-2012 Escort Radar Detector Comparison Chart to make the decision a whole lot easier for you.

Our handy comparison chart includes all the current Escort radar detectors we currently offer, from the high performance, cordless Solo S3 and the in-dash, undetectable 9500ci to the state-of-the-art, compact Passport iQ that looks and feels like a typical GPS device. We organized all models and their features into an easy to read grid for quick and simple comparison between each one.

Whether you need an Escort radar detector with GPS that installs discreetly in your vehicle or one that you can move from one vehicle to another with ease, the Escort Comparison Chart will help you decide which model to choose without having to hunt around the net to find out.

The 2011-2012 Escort Radar Detector Comparison Chart is FREE to download and print at your discretion.

For an even quicker comparison here is a glance at a few selected features of the Escort radar detectors:

There are numerous devices on the market today that are designed to detect various types and methods of traffic enforcement. Some detect radar signals, others detect laser beams, still others track locations of red light cameras and speed cameras, and a few of them detect a combination these. Some detectors even have GPS capabilities, expanding the scope of the detector as a multi-functional device.

But no matter what features they offer on the inside, from the outside they are all universally recognizable from inside and outside a vehicle as a specific type of device - a detector. No matter how you install or mount it, no matter where you hide it, a radar detector still looks, acts and feels like, well, like a radar detector.

Until now.

Recently, Escort introduced the PASSPORT iQ.™ Yes, it's a radar detector, and Escort takes it to the max, integrating the latest radar/laser detection, speed camera and speed limit information and 3D GPS navigation technology and rolling it all up into one compact device that mounts on your windshield. But it doesn't look like one.

It looks and feels like a GPS.

The Passport iQ is reminiscent of your typical TomTom or other GPS navigator, complete with a 5" touch-sensitive LCD display for access to all of its radar/laser/red light camera detection/GPS navigation features. It's a bit larger than a typical GPS unit and about twice as thick, which is understandable given what is inside the shell. In fact, it's an all-inclusive, all-in-one unit, with the radar and laser detection lenses built in so discreetly you may not recognize what they are at first glance.

Given that, it's actually kind of amazing it is that small. Unless you're looking at it up close, it is difficult to tell it's a radar detector. From inside and outside the vehicle, and at just about any angle, one would think it was a GPS device. And it is, yet it's more.

Once you actually turn on the Passport iQ and begin to study the screen, you will begin to notice that it isn't your typical GPS device. Sure, it has GPS capability and can help you find The Way to San Jose, or anywhere else in the country. But that's only the beginning.

The PASSPORT iQ monitors all radar bands, including X, K, Superwide Ka, Ku, and instant-on POP modes with long range warning. Built-in front and rear laser sensors on the Passport IQ offer wide view 360-degree laser protection.

If all these features aren't enough, there are more. Escort added a Micro SD Card slot, a standard 3.5mm audio jack, and a USB port to connect the unit to your computer, making the Passport iQ easy to update. It even has a reset button to clear the device from a lockup if necessary.

All of these features sound great on paper, but does the Passport iQ really deliver them according to expectation? To find out, I set one up and put it to the test.

First, I mounted it in my car. Escort calls their windshield mount an "Easy Mount bracket", and it was. It stuck instantly to windshield the moment it was in contact with the glass and did not let go, even before I engaged the locking clamp. The Passport iQ slid onto the bracket and locked into place easily. I plugged in the power cord, and that was it. All the features and sensors are discreetly embedded into one single device, so there was nothing else to install. The entire installation took less than thirty seconds.

The first time the Passport iQ was turned on it took about thirty seconds to boot to the initial setup screen. I was prompted to choose my preferred language and one of three voices for prompts and alerts. Once those settings were chosen and saved, it presented me with a safety warning.

The touch screen did not seem very touchy at first. It required more of a tap. It took a few taps to get used to it, but within a few moments I was moving from screen to screen with relative ease.

Once the initial configuration was complete, the Passport iQ went to the main menu, which consists of three primary options: Detector takes you to the radar detector mode, Map goes to the GPS display and Goto... provides options for GPS navigation, such as address entry, recent destinations and favorite locations.

The user interface itself is interesting. The button graphics and interactive icons are generally distinct, self-explanatory and easy to understand. The screens are simple, uncluttered and easy to navigate. This is especially important while on the road, as this simple layout allows you to keep up with the display on a given screen with a quick glance. Escort clearly designed the screens with this in mind.

Escort touts the ability to select multiple screen options. This is true. However, this ability is limited to use of the screen in Detector Mode only. You can choose from two different styles, Classic and Digital, each in two different layouts. There are also options to choose between three colors: red, blue and yellow. The color changes are rather subtle. The only items I could tell that actually changed color were the speedometer readout and portions of the background. Everything else, including buttons and other graphics, stayed the same.

You also can change the wallpaper on the main menu. There are eight different backgrounds to choose from, some of them quite scenic. Between the Detector Mode screen options and the wallpaper, I could make customization of the iQ somewhat more personal than the average radar detector, which is a plus.

Operation of the iQ GPS is not much different from a typical GPS device such as a Garmin or TomTom. If you are already familiar with such devices , the procedure for entering an address and calculating the quickest or shortest route to get there is about the same on the Escort.

Most of the other standard GPS features are included in the iQ as well, such as stored favorites, recent destinations, the ability to browse for restaurants, ATMs, airports and other points of interest and other popular bells and whistles.

However, unlike a dedicated GPS such as a TomTom, the GPS capabilities of the iQ seem a bit rough around the edges. The 3D graphic maps were okay, but did not look quite as polished as my dedicated GPS. During the test drive on a clear day without a cloud in site, the response on the GPS side seemed somewhat sluggish. It also seemed to have some trouble finding and staying locked on GPS signals in some areas, although that could have been due to interference and other factors within the area in which I was driving.

Still, the NAVTEQ powered 3D maps are easy to read and the clear, voice guided directions with lane assist help keep you on route without having to constantly refer to the screen. In addition, the current location and route, safety cameras and speed traps can all be marked and tracked on the map and managed for future reference. Polished or not, the Passport iQ GPS is quite functional.

Where Escort shines is in their specialty: radar and laser detection. The Passport iQ is no exception. Escort's feature packed, award-winning all-band radar detection is all there, on display and instantly accessible. It has the technology and performance of the highly rated Escort 9500ix, just stuffed in a different package. For all intents and purposes, it is a 9500ix, only instead of an LED readout, it has a full graphic user interface. It is also quite configurable.

With Detector View I could track up to four different radar signals on multiple screens. I could also mark locations of safety cameras and speed traps and manage alerts along commonly traveled routes. The Passport iQ also uses Escort's Defender Database to provide both audible and visual alerts for red light cameras, speed cameras and known speed traps throughout North America with pre-loaded data.

The Detector Settings allowed me to adjust sensitivity, enable or disable detection of specific bands, change alert tones, set cruise alerts and enable or disable alerts when entering states where radar detectors are illegal. You can even turn radar detection off in the Sensitivity Settings when driving in such a state (cough cough - Virginia - cough cough).

Then there is the Meter Setting. Change this setting from the Standard Bar Graph to SpecDisplay and the Passport iQ displays the numeric frequencies of detected radar and laser signals onscreen. If you like to get techie with detectors, this is very cool.

As a top-of-the-line radar detector, the Passport iQ worked as expected. Overall it performed very well in my tests, accurately detecting radar signals from all directions.

To turn off the iQ, there are a couple options. Sliding the power button to the right puts the Passport iQ in suspend mode for approximately two hours, so subsequent startups within that time are nearly instantaneous. Holding the power button for two seconds shuts the iQ down completely.

As far as the total package, Escort didn't leave anything out of the Passport iQ. The complete package includes everything you need to set it up and go: the 5" GPS/radar/laser detection device, a SmartCord, USB cable, mounting bracket, owner's manual on CD, and a Quick Reference Guide. Escort even throws in a 90 day trial of Defender® Database to get you started.

The concept of combining GPS with radar detection and disguising it as a GPS navigator may not be new, but the fact that someone actually did it is novel, indeed. Best of all, it actually works. Minor points about the GPS aside, it's a good combination, and I would trade up a Beltronics RX65 and TomTom for one that does the work of both without hesitation.

Escort calls the Passport iQ the "Ultimate Driving Companion." While I think that claim is a bit presumptuous (my wife claims that title but I'm not going there), the iQ does offer enough bang for the buck to be considered, in my opinion, a fairly close second.

The Escort Solo S2 radar detector is not only a top performing model it is also cordless! If you need a top performance model that you can take anywhere, along with Escort's renowned performance and features, this may be the detector for you. The Solo S2 is the king of wireless radar detectors.

We consider the Escort 9500ix radar detector to be one of the best models around. Compared to other top end models, this is the only radar detector that offers so many useful features balanced with such high levels of performance. While others in the same price range exceed it in one or two areas, none of them offer such a complete package. With excellent radar detection range and reaction time, red light and speed camera notifications, software updatability and phenomenal filtering, the 9500ix offers the most for the money compared to its competition.

The Escort 8500 X50 radar detector offers great performance, and it comes loaded with some very useful features. The Escort 8500 is available with a stylish blue display or an intense red display and comes with a SmartCord and travel case. The 8500 is a radar detector for serious drivers, so please show a bit of respect.

UPDATE (1/6/2012): This article previously referred to the original Escort Passport 8500 X50. This model has now been updated and replaced with the Escort Passport 8500 X50 Black.

The Escort Redline radar detector is almost too sexy to make a video about. The unrestrained, all-out performance has already made it a legendary radar detector. Just looking at it is an indecent act!

The Escort Redline radar detector may be the world's most hyper radar detector. If you have any questions about the Redline, give us a call and we will do our best to put into words the power and fury. Escort was being naughty when they designed this obscene detector.

UPDATE: This promotion expired July 18, 2010 and is no longer available.

Purchase any windshield mount Escort radar detector and you qualify for a free accessory pack (SuperCup Mount and SmartCord)!
The accessory pack is valued at $50. Celebrate summer with Escort in this limited time event.

Escort radar detectors are some of the best around. There is a reason they are preferred by serious drivers worldwide. So avoid a ticket this summer with an Escort radar detector!

This offer is fulfilled by Escort directly, so you will need to visit their official website to register. Offer valid until July 18, 2010. All accessory packs will be shipped by Escort. Estimated deliver time is 4 to 6 weeks.