Barron's
"The 9500ix...learns to distinguish real from false alarms." - September 2008

AskMen.com
"It's all about making good time; whether you're heading to Grandma's for a Thanksgiving feast, to your in-laws for Christmas dinner or to your kid's first dance recital, the goal is to be there on time. Given the circumstances of life, however, punctuality isn't always an option. This is why the folks over at Escort have devised the PASSPORT 9500ix radar detector. Why should a pesky little thing like posted speed limits keep you late and make you a perpetual failure in the eyes of those you care about? Well, as long as you speed in moderation and don't exceed the limits to the point of becoming the reason behind rubber-necking traffic, this little device will see you arriving on time."

Uniqueness
A measure of this gadget's exclusivity, relative to such factors as cost and availability
AskMen.com score: 91

"OK, so Escort's PASSPORT 9500ix isn't the first radar detector to offer laser detection, safety camera detection or speed trap detection, but it is one of the rare few to also include GPS, variable-speed radar performance and auto learn. What's more, the PASSPORT 9500ix also offers five operating bands including X-band, K-band, Ka-band and Laser 904nm. Even with the ubiquitous prevalence of GPS navigation in everyone's car, you're still worried about having a radar detector stuck on your windshield, so you can take comfort in knowing that the PASSPORT 9500ix is simple to remove and throw under your seat. The impressive features, however, are the auto-learn and variable-speed radar performance. The auto-learn on the PASSPORT 9500ix does just what it says; using GPS technology it learns where the false alarms are (which are usually the result of the X-band) after passing by them three times. And with the variable-speed radar performance, the PASSPORT 9500ix automatically adjusts its sensitivity, which means that while traveling at interstate speeds the 9500ix is at max sensitivity, and while you're scurrying through a packed parking lot the sensitivity is set to a minimum."

CJR
"My 8500 was my favorite above all previous radar detectors until i decided to buy the 9500I and then upgrade it to an ix.

I realized after having the 9500ix for a while that it is a totally different breed of radar detector and certainly is in the top 3 if not #1. I have done some pretty extensive testing on the 9500 sires and find it to be very impressive.
The features are truly awesome, and they are what makes the 9500I/ix a top notch choice. From GPS & speed sensitive filtering, Marking of speed traps, to the USB that you can update through.
The 9500I at times is so quiet it's as if the 9500I/ix knows the difference between a real threat and a false alert. Its amazing quietness when driving through towns or through cities and suburbs, insure virtually every alert is real. The key point of the 9500 is knowing that ~9 times out of ~10 a 9500i/ix alert is real means that you will pay attention and react to the alert appropriately and immediately. I had a few instances where i didn't get a single false for a week and when a real alert happened i almost fell off my seat. Don't get me wrong i still had some falses but the majority of them are dramatically decreased.

My 9500ix is mounted straight, level and as centered as possible, and has a partly obstructed view of the sky but picks up the GPS signal easily still."

Laser sensitivity:
"I have had a few laser saves, even though the rule is: if your alerted to laser they already have your speed. Most laser alerts scared the pant off me, wasn't expecting it at all.
I was driving on highway 84 to drop off a friend. I saw a LEO with a customer with no radar on so I assumed he was possibly using laser, so I couldn't wait to see what happened on my way back.
I figured 30 over in a 55 would certainly not give me enough time to slow so I did about 74.
Just cresting over a hill and on my way down I get 'laser alert' from my 9500I and slowed to about 63. about 2 seconds later another laser alert from my 9500I and there he was, tucked into some trees on the right side of the road, and my girlfriend saw him first.
The first alert was about 1/2mi and the 2nd was about 1/4mi. He may have been waiting for bigger fish to fry, or didn't get my speed the first time but I certainly could have been going faster if I didn't have my RD.

Save or luck, I was very happy not getting a ticket and my girlfriends comment "another save that pays for itself again" was priceless."

K & KA Sensitivity:
"The sensitivity to enable saves on the 9500ix is truly amazing. I am always alerted before I see the police car and some times miles before.
A few times I had a KA alert going full on then nothing, full on than nothing about 2mi later around a bend on the highway there was an off axis police car blasting everyone who passed.
I have had a few alerts less than 1/4mi, but as long as I am alerted before the encounter and before i see the LEO i am happy. Terrain and curves in the road will greatly affect your detection range. Weather as well as your area in the US can effect it too.

The bottom line is I really enjoy the quite commute, and I am more likely to react to an alert on a quiet detector than when I had a "noisy" detector. I work with clients all the time and don't need the constant beeping while i am trying to close a big deal. I can always hit the GPS off button if i am in a big rush AND want full sensitivity so I'm alerted to all encounters.

Over all I am very satisfied with my 9500ix and would recommend it to any intelligent RD user, Especially for City & dally commutes."

Franco Caro (Twitter: FCaro82)
"I've owned several radars, primarily they were all high end retail level Cobras, I then gave my old Cobra to my tattoo artist as he was driving to TX and didn't have one. In exchange I picked up a 8500 X50 (Red), held on to it for a couple years and it did AMAZING...My girlfriend has been wanting a radar...so have I...especially the 9500i (at the time) but I didn't have the money at the time to drop to get one. Luckily the money came upon me, I gave the X50 to my girlfriend, and I of course picked up this monster of a radar the 9500ix...and wow!!!

I honestly almost forget I have a radar detector anymore, I almost get kinda lonely at times. I am just blown away by the technology that is wrapped into this thing, its ridiculous!! Its very convenient too, if you have a pocket pc or an iPhone like I do, your mail is in your hands 24/7, it sends you an email and says hey, its time to update you radar again!! You bring it up with you on your way in from work and boom, 5-10 minutes later, your marked radar spots and Escorts spots merge, and you have THE best defense on the street.

The radar and warranty were well worth the $600+ spent on it w/o a doubt...

I used to doubt Escort till I had my own, ask me now, I'll swear by them...Thanks Escort, you guys are awesome!!"

Jorge L
"I've had the 9500ix for a month, and I am very, very satisfied with its performance...and looks. Today I was merging on the freeway on-ramp in my Honda S2000 (cop magnet) when I got a very strong KA alert! Looked back and there was a motorcycle LEO about 4 cars back. He followed me for about 3 miles and kept his radar focused on my car. The Escort was going wild so I hit the mute, got in the middle lane and smiled as he drove by.

This is the second save this month, and this Escort has almost paid for itself.

I am extremely satisfied with the quality of the Escort 9500ix. Great detector that eliminates false alerts. It has all the bells and whistles I could possibly want and is clearly the best detector available. Thank you, Escort!"

R Katchaluba
"I have used many different detectors over the years and consider myself an expert in the field. If you're a long time radar detector user, the Escort 9500ix will completely blow your mind!

First, a little bit of background. For years, the Valentine One (V1 for short) was widely considered the best portable radar detector on the market, therefore it became the "gold standard" to which most other detectors would be compared to. It was a great detector with long range detection and directional arrows which would help the driver figure out where the different radar signals where coming from. It was also able to detect multiple signals at once, a nice feature that cheaper detectors (usually below $200) did not have. The biggest problem with it was the fact that it had so many false alarms (many of which, according to Valentine One's website, are to blame on cheaper radar detectors on the road) that most users would either start ignoring them or they would have to change the detector's settings to reduce its sensitivity (which in my view defies the purpose of buying a super-sensitive detector). I believe that because Valentine One had the main advantage at the time - the directional arrows - they became complacent and didn't work hard enough to find the next big technological improvement that would revolutionize radar detectors. Enter the Escort 9500ix. This detector uses GPS technology to automatically store false alarms so they never bother you again. It also has a pre-loaded database of all inductive loop systems (which are used by many speed cameras). It's basically a system which consists of two wires buried beneath the road surface and a computer that calculates the speed between the two wires, with a camera waiting at the end. V1 and all the other detectors on the market don't stand a chance against those threats. (Thankfully, those types of threats are not widespread at this point as far as I know but with the 9500 even if they were it wouldn't be a problem.)

GPS has made the Valentine One's directional arrows obsolete because now that false alarms have been eliminated on the 9500ix, if it goes off you KNOW it's a threat, regardless of where it's coming from.

Granted, the 9500ix is not for everyone. I would say it's more for the expert user. For most advanced users an Escort 8500 x50 or a V1 will be perfect. For more casual users even a Cobra or a Whistler will do the job (they saved me plenty of tickets over the years). But if you want the BEST protection available with mind-blowing features, spend the extra money and get the Escort 9500ix. You won't regret it. Its features include auto-volume control, which means it "listens" to the noise in the car and automatically adjusts the volume of the alerts. Also, because the 9500ix is GPS-enabled it knows exactly how fast you're going at any given point in time. So the faster you drive the further down the road it "sniffs" for radars, progressively increasing/decreasing its sensitivity as needed. How cool is that? This thing is light years ahead of most detectors in my view. Did I mention it automatically adjusts the brightness of the display according to the amount of light in the car? Of course, all the features mentioned above can also be manually adjusted. I believe that the Escort 9500ix is the new "Gold Standard" that other detectors should be compared to. The V1 just simply doesn't cut it anymore for expert users like myself. I have used many different detectors over the years and all I can say about this one is that driving will never be the same. Try the 9500 for a few days and, believe me, you will never go back to any other detector!"

Eddie S
"My interest in radar products (such as a radar detector or a radar jammer) had started in 1994. There I was, cautiously driving my car at night, well within the speed range, when suddenly, a police man signals me to pull over. "Is there a problem, officer?" I politely asked? Apparently, he was checking cars for speed - and he accused me of going over the speed limit. Regardless of how hard I attempted to persuade him that I didn't, he wouldn't let me go. And why would he?

What specifically irritated me is that I was not going over the speed limit - not at all. I wasn't even close! It appears that his radar gun was not working properly. I did a significant amount of research on the subject, studied the way radar guns operate, read tons of radar detector reviews, and found out that often there is an error in the speed the radar gun measures. Of course, the vast majority of drivers who receive a speeding ticket simply pay it when in fact they should argue their case in court (which is aware of these problems, but who has the time and patience to do this? I never did either.

Since then I've become somewhat of an expert on radar detectors, and in fact, dedicated much of my time to obtaining the best radar detector (in my opinion, the Passport 9500ix). Yes, it allows people to speed, but many people will do it anyway. What I consider its main strength is it shields us from being falsely accused of over speeding. Until more accurate radar guns are manufactured, I believe this is our only way of protecting ourselves from getting speeding ticket without over speeding."

James
"I recently purchased a Passport 9500ix and can honestly say it is by far the best detector I've ever owned. As a previous owner of several other brands including Cobra, Whistler and a V1, this one is light years ahead.

From the moment I mounted it in my car, (which was super easy with their mount) I knew this one was different. I proceeded to mount it on the glass and started driving it without even looking at the owner's manual. As I began to drive, I was alerted to several door openers that my other detectors didn't even see, which to me indicated that it was far more sensitive. On my way back home, along the same route, I was alerted once again to these same door openers. At this point I began to remember why I quit driving with a detector many years ago...false alarms! Now that I had a more sensitive detector, I was wondering if I could stand to hear all of this noise every day.

The next day I went to work, (close to the same route as picking up my kids) and I was pleasantly surprised when I passed these same spots again. The 9500ix beeped once and displayed the word "stored". Not reading the owner's manual, I had no idea what this meant. When I arrived at work I grabbed the owner's manual and read it at lunch. To my surprise it meant that the 9500ix had locked out these locations, knowing they were false alarms. How cool is that? Now that they were locked out, I couldn't wait to drive by again and see what it would do. On my way home, sure enough no alerts. Only a small indicator in the upper right side of the display rotated, indicating it saw these false alarms but no audio alert was given.

The following day I was in route home from work enjoying my new detector when it began to register a Ka band radar alert. I'm not completely sure what the difference is between all of the radar bands, but I began to take notice and checked my speed. I drove almost a mile wondering if this was a false alarm. Sure enough, as I turned the corner, there was one of our local police officers sitting along the side of the road. I had sniffed out my first alert, and in plenty of time to check my speed.

As someone who has used several other brands and grew accustomed to false alarms, let me assure you this one is different. Better sensitivity without the constant beeping. I'm not sure why it took me so long to try a Passport, but I will say that I will not be driving without one ever again."

Emma R
"The Escort 9500ix is amazing! Quietest detector I've ever driven! I've had other top detectors over the years and my biggest complaint has been annoying false alerts all the time.

But the 9500ix (using GPS) remembers all the false alerts on my route to work and automatically blocks them out. I can also lock out the local bank or 7-eleven that made my old detector beep. When the unit goes off, it's ACTUALLY a patrol car shooting radar.

The 9500ix comes with an awesome power cord that puts the mute and volume controls right on the plug in my console. And I love the bright blue display! You'll have to logon to the Escort web site to register and download GPS updates for red light cameras, but no big deal. Again, extremely quiet and high quality construction. Looks great, too!"

Michael I
"Over the years I have owned several radar detectors all the way back to the original Escort which was state of the art back in its day. Unfortunately, speed trap technology seemed to advance at a much faster rate than detector technology. In recent years, the 8500 spent most of the time in the trunk as things like speed cameras became the bigger threat and the hassle of listening to false alarms was more hassle than it was worth. The arrows on the Valentine are nice, but were not enough to bring me back to the fold. Reality is that the basic technology of detectors has not changed in 20 years...until now.

The integration of GPS into a radar detector is probably the most significant innovation to this market, and is a game changer. A drive through places like AZ, where they have placed cash registers (er, speed cams) every 10 miles or so, instantly triples the value of a product like the 9500ix. On a recent trip to AZ it picked up every one of them (note that the fixed cameras do not rely on radar so a traditional detector is useless). It also noted the red light cameras, although in my opinion if you run red lights you deserve a ticket and a suspension.

Just as important as the alerts is the learning capability. In areas around Philadelphia, the noise pollution drives most other detectors crazy. The 9500ix has worked just as advertised, it spots the false alarms until about the 3rd pass when it recognizes them and marks them so that you are not getting beeped every time.

I was concerned when I saw a eviewer whining about having to pay for the data updates. Get serious, it is $30 for a 3 year subscription. if you can't afford that, then you should be buying a Whistler or some other $50 piece of junk."

Pirate
"I'm here to answer simple questions... "How well does the Passport 9500ix work on a daily basis?" or "Is it better than a Valentine One?" or "Is it worth upgrading to?"

In a word. I love the 9500ix. I have been using it in my Explorer for weeks and I am beyond impressed. What really rocks my world is the GPS feature. Besides being able to manually "mark" a spot as a false alarm, speed trap, or bogus signal, the 9500ix actually learns false signals given off by bank alarms, grocery stores, porn emporiums, via "artificial intelligence" and after about 3 passes it stores and remembers them by exact location and frequency. Damn! And that's only icing.

I experience almost no false alarms (unlike the Valentine which goes off when the wind blows) making it the most unobtrusive detector I've ever seen. On one 15 mile stretch of urban driving that I do on a weekly basis, my V1 would give no less than 14 false alarms. The 9500ix... 2. At first I wasn't even sure the Passport was working properly as it's so damn quiet, but I quickly realized that it's just that good in filtering out bogus signals. No more reaching for the mute button every 2 miles. Sweet.

There's more... Each model is shipped pre-loaded with thousands of speed camera locations stored in its memory. As you approach these locations, the 9500ix will alert you in advance with a female voice (like a Garmin GPS), keeping you informed and ticket-free. The first day I used my 9500ix I was on the interstate and got a verbal warning that I was approaching a speed trap. It then counted down the distance on the face of the detector... 1500ft... 1200ft.. 1000ft until I had safely passed. Very cool. Put all this in one package and you have arguably the most advanced radar detector on the market offering the most accurate long-range protection in the industry. As for the aforementioned 3 questions... Yes... the Passport 9500ix is super easy to live with. It's become my best friend. Yes... it is better than a Valentine One although I miss the directional arrows of the V1. and Yes... it is worth upgrading to."

Zac N
"I have been driving with the 9500ix for about a week now and I do not know how I have lived without it. While I was debating taking it back to purchase a RedLine, the GPS features have absolutely floored me as we have speed cameras all over the place here in Baltimore, MD and the features have been phenomenal. The concept of using GPS/satellite feed for radar/LIDAR/VASCAR/photo detection is not a new idea but one which has never been successfully implemented, until now. I was a V1 driver for a while until you released the 8500 and I was amazed how far ahead both the 8500 and X50 were of both the competition and the companies producing speed monitoring devices. I admit that I did not think anyone would be able to implement a GPS system successfully yet but you did. I do not know how you crammed such a sophisticated machine into the same compact casing used for standard detectors. And I do not know how you made the entire system function so smoothly when I still can't buy a PC with Windows that doesn't crash on a regular basis. Most GPS systems even have issues... But you did it all and you did it unbelievably well. Pioneering any new technology is impressive but achieving perfection on the first product to utilize any new technology is practically unheard of. You have also produced a system with a near theoretical unlimited capacity which allows it to address limitations and aspects that radar detectors were never capable of. The GPS system allows the alert/detection of VASCAR (through user programming obviously) which is also very prominent around here and something that no other system would ever be able to detect for obvious reasons. Even if the 9500ix has a lesser range than the Redline, the features it offers allows users to customize it to minimize the loss in range. The ability to drive through a strip mall and not get a single false is also amazing. The people you employ in your product development team are among the smartest people in our entire society and they have earned both my respect and admiration. Congratulations on making such a great product and thank you!"

Laidback - MFest Forum
"...don't get us wrong we love V1 but imho we've outgrown it and Escort is the new kit/ age and if you want something ahead of the game Escort just takes the cake when it comes to radar/laser detectors."