8500 better than 8500 X50?

[happya$$]

I have read in a few places that the original 8500 performs better than the newer X50, has anyone else other than Stealthjamal experienced this?

[cjs180]

I have an 8500 and love it. I had my father purchase a 8500 X50 and I am not as impressed with the range of it? Not sure why. I never ran my 8500 in A mode, always ran in Highway mode. The detection range in my fathers x50 on a radar sign was about .25 miles compared to 2.5 miles on my 8500 in highway mode. When I put his in highway mode, he only got about 1.5 miles on this sign??? Why is that? After I so highly recommended this detector to him, I do not want to tell him to ebay it and take the one I have. Is there possibly something wrong with it? The V1 i bought picks the sign up at 3 miles so I know that one is working well.

Any thoughts on this?

Chris

[mauiman84]

If this is the case i will probably not buy the x50. From what i have heard it doesn't seem like the detector was changed that much other than the software that they have in them. I think that they just renamed it to make it look better.

[sethy]

They added POP protection ( for what its worth ), the overheating issue has been solved, and the KA range has been improved.

[BiGeAsYgUy]

Maybe the X50 isn't as good as the 8500:

Check Here:

http://www.radar.co.nz/nz/report1.html

"Well, there has been a bit of a rush this past month, for the Escort 8500. The New X50 - 8500 is really just a BEL RX65 in a different housing. Overall performance of the X50 is nothing like the old Escort 8500. Less Ka camera performance, compared to the earlier 8500.
The X50 shares 95% the same hardware and software of the BEL RX65.
This now puts the Valentine 1/CENZ in a league of its own.
Beware of performance claims for the new X50-8500, based on tests that were carried out on earlier 8500.
The X50 is not the same detector.!!"

[stealthJamal]

I only saw improvement in K band range, and it only seems to be for automatic door openers. K band detection between the 2 in my experiences are almost the same except the X50 picking up more junk. When it comes to real police radar the detection it is almost the same unless the K band radar source is straight ahead with the radar gun pointed in my direction, then the X50 will give you a 1 second maybe 2 better than 8500.

For me, I've been through 3 X50's. Ka band detection on my original 8500 is better than the 3 X50's i've had. If the Ka source is straight ahead and pointed in my direction they perform about the same. Now if the Ka gun is pointed any other direction the 8500 definately beats the X50.

For example I gave my X50 another chance the other day. Found a Ka trap on the side of a 3 lane(each way) highway. The LEO's car was parked on the right side of the road on the other side of the wall facing the same direction the traffic on my side of the road is going clocking people from the rear. This is a constant on trap like most in Virginia. Went through the trap with the X50 and it was silent until I was almost to his location then it alerted. Went through the trap again in the same lane with the 8500. The 8500 alerted WAY before the X50 did, at least a 1/2 mile. This was during mid-day light traffic. If this had been an instant on trap and I was speeding it would have been my a$$ with the X50 because it would not have detected the LEO clocking cars ahead of me.

My conclusion is one of the following:
1. The X50 sucks.
2. All 3 of the X50's I received from Escort were defective.

[BiGeAsYgUy]

My conclusion is one of the following:

1. The X50 sucks.
2. All 3 of the X50's I received from Escort were defective.

That doesn't sound like very good reliability. I owned a V1.7 before I got my V1.8 and I considered the 8500 then the 8500 X50 because I thought it might be better than the V1. I sure am glad I stuck with my V1.8 with POP.

[stealthJamal]

My original 8500 is great. It has very few falses and has saved me in instant on traps in Maryland several times. Haven't had a radar speeding ticket since I've been using it.

Just to make clear what I posted above........

My conclusion is one of the following:
The X50 sucks.
***OR***
All 3 of the X50's I received from Escort were defective.

[sethy]

Overall performance of the X50 is nothing like the old Escort 8500. Less Ka camera performance, compared to the earlier 8500.

My guess is maybe you have to have POP enabled to get full KA preformance? But that will mean tons of the pop falsing :cry:

[stealthJamal]

On the X50's I had, enabling POP had no effect on the Ka detection range. I did notice that I would get a POP alert after the X50 detected Ka sometimes.

[nvr2fast]

Overall performance of the X50 is nothing like the old Escort 8500. Less Ka camera performance, compared to the earlier 8500.

My guess is maybe you have to have POP enabled to get full KA preformance? But that will mean tons of the pop falsing :cry:

No one seems to know how POP affects the X50/RX65:
http://www.radardetector.net/POP-mode-on-RX65-X50-affect-KA-sensitivity-748t.php

[mauiman84]

Roy, do you know if belscort has tried to address any of these problems to make me want to get another escort or should i just keep having faith in my original 8500?

[Radarboy12312]

I have read in a few places that the original 8500 performs better than the newer X50, has anyone else other than Stealthjamal experienced this?

I have both the first 8500 and the new X50 and the first 8500 was good but the X50 is the better of the two for sure.

In my opinion the first 8500 had real bad instant on time and this is something that the X50 does a much better job at.

Also I think what Escort did was take everything bad about the first 8500 and made it better with the X50. Iam not saying that the First 8500 was a bad detector its just that I feel the X50 is better.

[cjs180]

I had gotten my father an X50 and it has no where near the range of my old 8500. Today I pulled the 8500 from ebay and told him to test them on a radar sign near my house. He is only getting a couple of blocks notice on HYW. mode! Something is wrong with the one he bought, and since I know my old 8500 will pick up this sign at just over 2.5 miles, I told him to test both on the same sign and then get back to me with which one to sell on ebay. I kinda feel I let him down with this, but sh** happens I guess and you can get a lemon; same with cars or anything else. I will report back on which one does better in his test, however I think I know the outcome already.

Chris