We define falses as anything that will set off a radar detector, which is not actually police radar.
I had to give my wife a radar detector to keep our insurance policy at an affordable rate. However every time I got in the car she was completly obliovious to the detector going off. Not that she couldnt hear it, but she was so used to it going off all the time she just simply learned to tune it out. She is a prime example of why a long range detector with little falsing is important.
Detector manufacturers do have a way to cut down on falses, almost every radar detector has a feature of some sort that cuts down on calses. Almost all come with a feature called 'City' mode (or something relative to that name). But what does this mode really do? Reduces sensitivity and range. Plain and simple
What sets apart the Escort 9500i is in addition to its extremely supurb radar sensitivity along with the USB port for user firmware updated, it is equipped with a unique built in GPS to locate and eliminate falses all together. This means that the 9500i has the ability of keeping that long detection range without using the 'City' modes which reduce sensitivity (If you are a Beltronics fan, they have an identical detector called the Bel GX65).
But all this comes with a price. With the addition of the GPS into the 9500i, the detector becomes one of the most expensive dash mounted detectors on the market. However, price is not the only thing that you sacrifice with this unit, but we will get to that in a minute.
The GPS functionality of this detector is controlled by the user. (where as the newer 9500ix can lock out locations on its own) The user is to drive to a known false, and manually "mark" the location as a false. From that point on, instead of an alert, the user will receive a spinning satallite icon on the display letting the user know that it is detecting a signal, but supressing the alert. You will be able to unmark the location the same way you marked it. This time you will just have to wait for the spinning satellite.
You also have the ability to mark speed cameras, speed traps, and any other location that you would want the detector to warn you about. The 9500i will take the geographical locations of the location, and store it in its database so it will not alert you to this frequency in the future.
Needless to say, that with the incorporation of a GPS into a detector, gives in plenty of flexibility. For example, the detector is able to give you a readout of your speed on the display during an alert (handy to know what the cop tagged/is tagging you at), or when the detector is not alerting.
The 9500i also has the ability to automatically reduce its sensitivity based upon your current speed. This is basically switching between a much wider ranges of 'City' modes for you automatically. Its safe to say, driving through a parking lot at 10mph you do not need the detector alerting. It is also safe to say if you are driving above 55mph on the highway, that you want the sensitivity of the detector to its full potential.
With driving about 1000 miles with this unit in my personal vehicle, I can honestly say that I have never been in love with a detector as much as this. After locking out all the falses in the area, this gives you the ability to always respond to REAL threats and not falses. The range is comparable to the Escort 8500 x50 red or 8500 x50 blue (same detector, just different color displays)
However, it seems with every detector now a days there is always some sort of downturn. In this case, the GPS 'True Lock' feature can only do so much, but in the real world there is a slight chance that marking a location, may in fact block out a legit police radar signal in that area if it is within ~15mhz of the police band. I have not had this happen to me personally, but scouring the internet there are a few cases of this reported. Though, my memorable experience with the 'True Lock' is nothing but bliss. I marked a location on main stretch of road by a mall, later that week- I got an alert on the same band I locked out, and sure enough it steadily ramped up to a full blown alert. LEO on a side road, constant on K. Probably not caring to much about detector users since he was sitting by a mall.
To me, the 'True Lock' issue that a few have reported is an acceptable trade off for peace and quiet in the city for me. My reasoning for this is, any other time with a sensitive detector (in my case, the x50 red & the Valentine 1) a detector would constantly be going off in the city. Thus, the alert would be ignored. At the very least, if you decide not to use 'True Lock', the automode does a pretty darn good job with the ratio of sensitivity vs speed.
USB. That word will be the new standard on the new high end detectors released today. Escort has done an excellent job allowing the users to update their detector without having to send it in to the factory. When I first got a hold of my 9500i the ramp up was struggling. Alerts would skip from half strength to full alert on encounters. Escort released a fix for this, and I simply downloaded the firmware, plugged in my detector, and flashed it to the latest and greatest. If that is not impressive, I dont know what is.
Overall the new Escort 9500i is one impressive detector built on a solid foundation. This quite possibly could turn into the perfect detector.
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