New X50 Black... Not impressed.

A little background info: I once owned an S7 X50, well after many years of service it got sick. I really liked that detector. Anyhow, I went detectorless for a while. I opted recently to purchase a Bel V10. I think it is a good unit. I was curious about the newer black X50 but didn't have the extra $110 to spend. I contacted RR about the V10 to see what his opinion was and his exact words were "I think it sucks! It is a cheap imitation of the Pro300. It's performance is sub-par......" So, I get a bonus from work and went and bought the newer black X50. It is the lighter weight one, who knows if that matters. But I can assure you this. That X50 is not any better than the V10. In fact it annoys me in several ways. First I must say, range is identical. But the X50 laser falses often. OK well fine. 2nd the X50 has issues with the signal strength meter matching the tone (I do admit there is a difference in Bel vs Escorts tone rate, but I am cognizant of it). It is when I use Expert mode that this happens. It's as if the unit is plain confused about what to say and what to display (for example, it can be showing two dots and be in what i call a flat-line tone and vise versa, keeping in mind only K-band is shown. Ie no other bands at a different rate confusing me...). 3rd, Automute doesn't work correctly. Many times it will start a fresh alert out in the muted volume level, meaning it hasn't just picked up said alert closely following a previous alert. This not a case of buyers remorse, it is merely my experience with the newer X50. I will be selling it as soon as possible because it is out of the return period for BB. So, in my opinion, if anyone reading this is thinking of a new X50, think again, save yourself some money and get a V10. On a final note I realized why RR said the V10 sucks. It is because he doesn't sell it, only BB does. Thanks Roy, for putting my faith in a sub-par high dollar unit that is a bug filled piece of garbage, that performs no better!!:mad:

You prolly shoulda spent your benjamins on an Escort Redline ,the KING of all RD's.

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Originally Posted by RRedRocket

You prolly shoulda spent your benjamins on an Escort Redline ,the KING of all RD's.

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Maybe so...

They both use the same antenna just so you know.

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Originally Posted by focalcivic

They both use the same antenna just so you know.

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I know. And they are both Rev. 6.5 But it seems to me that there is much more than that to it. I just feel I was mislead. It doesn't matter, it's only money.

I am new to this, but I have been studying all the units for several days

Last night I had my son buy me the 8500 from Best Buy, with his employee discount it was $205. I could have bought the V10 for $150, but after reading, I think the 8500 has the better range.

I took it out for a quick test drive today, in Auto mode, and got a couple hits on X band which were probably garage doors or something.

According to Roy's manual X band is not used in California. So I headed over for a drive by of the police substation, and turned into a parking lot a couple blocks away.

No activity on the 8500. Suddenly I got a strong signal hit on the K band. I looked up and there was a California CHP waiting at the traffic signal about 1000 yards away. So I figured it was coming from him.

I headed home, got one more zing on the X band and that was it. I could have got the 9500 for $339 employee price, but I can get the escort live Bluetooth cable for $50 at a discount , so I figure this makes the 8500 about as good as the 9500.

I will test this unit on my 90 mile round trip to work over the next several days and report back.

X 50 is a good unit. BUT damn, put a paragraph in there somewhere. I did not read the long thing.

I've owned the regular X50 and now have a BLACK X50. Both very good units for the dollar.

I own the Black X50 and it works great. If your unit falses on laser, then your shielding over your laser sensor needs to be tightened. That is a pain but unit laser falses are removed. I had a technician go thru my Black X50 before they sent it out to me brand new. I can tell the difference between a brand new unit without a technician going thru it and a brand new unit that a technician went thru. The old S7 X50 I had good luck with having over 4 miles of detection on k band radar. But some of those older units, you have to be careful with the infamous "Service Required" message coming up on the display. Things start getting expensive when you see this. No problem with this on the Black X50 as of yet!

been driving back and forth to work on the freeway with this for the last couple of weeks, trying to understand how it works and test it. i get a low hit on the X band about 1/2 mile from the house every day right next to a school. not sure what it is but I get the hit each time I pass that spot. i get some hits on the X band on the freeway, but i think they must just be automatic doors opening or something. Today when travelling home in the Toll lane, i was doing about 75-80, I got a solid hit on KA band full spectrum hit lit up all bars and lasted at least 3 miles. I slowed right away to below 60, as soon as I picked up the hit, figured he must be close, but never saw him .

thought I would update my observations on the X50 now that I have had it a couple of months. Its has very good range. I travel the 91 FWY daily for work. Lately there have been a lot of CHP activity, they are driving these new SUV's so they are easy to spot and they are running the KA band, If I get a KA hit I know immediately there is a CHP in the area. It will start out with a weak hit, 1 dot on the screen, then increases as I approach the target. I get the first hits 2-3 miles away. I keep it on auto and get lots of false X and K band falses, but you can lock them out if they are in the same spot every day. I have been alerted to Laser 3 times. never saw a unit and not pulled over. overall I think this is a nice detector for what I paid for it

I picked up a new 8500 X50 Black on Amazon (sold by the Escort store on there) for $199 about two weeks ago. Never saw them that cheap and figured I couldn't miss such a good deal, plus it would be nice as a backup detector while I send my V1 in for the ESP upgrade (should be shipping back to me next week).

Only been driving around with the X50 it for a week, but I am very impressed with the range and ramp up. I can't say how it compares to the Bel V10, but it's actually somewhat on par with my V1's detection range. That being said, I'm willing to bet my V1 was long overdue for an upgrade/servicing and am hoping the new V1C with Band Segmentation will outshine my X50 by a longshot (so I have no discrepancies when choosing which one to use).

But yea, if your unit is having strange automute issues then it could be faulty. Always good to do as much testing as possible before the 30day return period expires! When in doubt, swap and get a new unit.

The OP's unit could be faulty, as I have seen with a previous new Escort unit (my 9500ix had the WORST range).. Best not to judge the model based on a single unit.

The X50 Black is a great performer, especially on Ka 34.7. But like any RD there performance can vary slightly from unit to unit.

ECCTG's testing results: ECCTG October 2012 Radar Detector Test » Radar Detector & Laser Jammer Forum