Choosing The Right Radar Detector

Page 11 - Bel vs Escort vs Valentine One

I receive countless e-mails and telephone calls every day asking... "which is the best radar detector made today ... Escort, Beltronics or Valentine"? In fact this same topic is hotly debated among radar detector users on RadarDetector.net, a radar detector enthusiast forum.

If you're in the market for a new radar detector, you're first question should not be who makes the best radar detector, but which radar detector is best for me based upon YOUR driving conditions.

My Recommendations for Road Warriors

If you consider yourself a road warrior, traveling thousands of miles a year on our interstate highway's your detector of choice may had been the Valentine One.

For the past several years the Valentine One has been considered the "leader of the pack" by many radar detector enthusiasts as having the best range and sensitivity.

However that has all changed with the introduction of the new Redline Escort radar detector introduced in August/September of 2009.

The best way to describe the Redline would be to call it a high performance race car stripped of all its bells and whistles.

In July of 2009 I did a head to head comparison of the Redline and the Valentine One during a 8,000 mile coast to coast, border to border road trip which can be reviewed here.

A recap of this test showed:
1) The Escort Redline out performed the Valentine One in over 80% of the encounters. In several of these encounters the Redline alerted a quarter mile prior to the V1.
2) The Redline Radar Detector had double the range of the Valentine One in detecting the low powered K band Redflex photo radar vans operated in Arizona.
3) The Redline is 100% stealth to all radar detector detectors (RDDs) including the Spectre, the Valentine One is not.

Would I recommend the Redline to the average radar detector user? No!

The Escort Redline is designed for extreme range and sensitivity for those traveling long distances via our Interstate Highway system; such as commercial truck drivers. Both the Redline and V1 do not have the extra "bells and whistles" that I've come to enjoy in a radar detector such as GPS filtering and photo enforcement alerts found on the Escort 9500ix.

My Recommendations for Typical Drivers

The most common complaint I hear from radar detector users are "false alerts". If you find yourself in the same category then a long range radar detector such as the Redline or Valentine One is NOT FOR YOU!

What you should concern yourself with then is the filtering capabilities of the radar detector to snuff out known false alert locations through GPS filtering.

Another concern should be the ability for your radar detector to alert to the fixed photo enforcement cameras such as photo radar and red light cameras that are proliferating throughout the US and Canada.

The Escort 9500ix and the Beltronics GX65 is virtually the same radar detector with the following exceptions:

The 9500ix is available with a blue display and the GX65 has a red display. The Escort 9500ix also has the autolearn feature that will automatically lock in known false alert locations while the Bel GX65 does not.

The GX65 also has Ku band. Ku band was authorized for use within the USA over ten years ago, however no police police radar gun manufacture has any plans on utilizing this frequency in the USA or Canada.

Both units also come equipped with the GPS photo enforcement database installed.

A cheaper alternative to the 9500ix and the GX65 are the Escort 8500 X50 and the Bel RX65.

The Escort 8500 X50 and the Beltronics RX65 are also very similar in features and performance with the following exceptions:

The 8500 is available in red or blue display with the blue display at a higher price. The reason for the price difference in the blue display is that the gases used to make the blue cost considerably more than the red.

The RX65 has voice and a better tech mode (display of technical information such as voltage received at the radar detector)

The RX65 also has Ku band. Ku band was authorized for use within the USA over ten years ago, however the band has not used by any police radar gun manufacture.

Neither of these units have GPS filtering or the photo enforcement databases.

But as far as performance, the Escort 8500 X50 and the Beltronics RX65 are about identical.

If your in the market for a good remote mounted radar detector that will not break your budget, then I would recommend the QI-45 from Escort.

The QI-45 Remote is easy to install and the performance and sensitivity is comparable to that of the Escort 8500 X50 and the Bel RX65.

Another plus is that the QI-45 has an optional Shifter pack that you can also install with the detector, to provide you with laser jamming capabilities.

In 2006, a new radar detector from Beltronics was added to the mix, and that is the Bel STi Driver and in 2007 they released the remote version, the STI-r.

The Bel STi and the Bel STIr are the first radar detectors that has been designed from the ground up specifically for the professional driver.

The STi, the STIr the new Escort 9500ci, and the new Escort Redline are the only radar detectors made today that can defeat the Spectre II/III radar detector detectors, which are used by police where the use of a radar detector is illegal.

Radar detectors are only illegal in the USA in Virginia, Washington DC, on military bases, or in any commercial vehicle weighing over 10,000 pounds.

If you do not drive in areas where radar detectors are illegal the added feature of being Spectre immune should not be a deciding factor in your purchase.

The Escort 9500ix and the Escort 9500ci have GPS tracking capabilities that will alert you of approaching traffic enforcement cameras such as red light cameras and also the ability to program out common false alert locations.

The only advantage the Valentine One has over any of these detectors is their patented dual antenna system, enabling its directional arrows identify the direction that the radar is coming from. However all radar detectors today have the ability to detect radar in a 360 degree pattern.

One disadvantage of the V1 is the increase in false alerts, In fact Autoweek magazine dubbed the Valentine 1 the "Chicken Little of radar detectors" in its published comparison of detectors.

As an example, during my head to head comparison of the V1 and the Escort Redline, the V1 falsed 8 times while the Redline falsed only once during our trip through Utah.

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