Radar Detectors

Escort, aka Cincinnati Microwave, has been producing a wireless Detector for sometime. The first wireless too was a called the Solo. The unit used a 9 Volt battery and a Security Key to operate. The Original Solo Detected only X and K band, and was good at it.

After Escort took over Cincinnati Microwave, they produced the Solo 4 and followed Solo 5. These units featured X, K, and Ka detection. X and K were respectable, but Ka was highly limited.

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ESCORT markets this unit for having the following key features that set it apart from other detectors: (1) It has the ESCORT name [Big deal if it’s a poorly made device]; (2) it’s cordless [This is a good AND a bad feature about the Escort Solo. It’s good because it’s a snap to pull this bugger down when I get out of the car, but because it has such a great power consumption, I found the estimated battery life in the owner’s manual to be totally fallacious]. (3) The ESCORT SOLO has programmable features where you can set things like the DIM level, or VOLUME level, etc. and have them remain set regardless of power-on or power-off. [This feature is highly overrated. First, the method of programming features on the SOLO is counter-intuitive such that I ALWAYS had to go back to the manual to program something. Secondly, the unit allows you to set the volume by using the dual function POWER/VOLUME bottom. Well, I found this way to set the VOLUME rather awkward since many times when I was trying to set the VOLUME the unit thought I was trying to turn it off and instead of accomplishing what I wanted, the unit did what it wanted].

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This unit is hardly worth the estimated price of $330 (or the $210 retail price I paid for it). It performs much more

like a $50 detector . In highway mode the range is fair. A state trooper running high power X-band radar is picked up for a good distance, but locally the detector’s sensitivity to instant-on that hits traffic up ahead is fair to

poor. I’ve never gotten a radared speeding ticket with this unit (I was paced and ticketed once), but I find that the unit is not very durable at all. Technically, if it was durable, it would be a great detector, but it just does not last so I can’t justify recommending it to new detector buyers !

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I’ve had it for 1 year and 9 months, and it failed to operate at about 1 year and 7 months. The manufacturer agreed to fix the unit for $50.00 (which is about 25 percent of the original purchase price), and they did fix it; but just 2 months after being repaired it suffered another electronic failure. This unit was never dropped and fresh batteries were always used with it so undue carelessness can’t be blamed. If I were to spend $50 every two months to repair this unit, I would soon deplete any funds budgeted for gadgets like this. The unit also, though touted for its cordlessness, puts a heavy load on batteries, even if it’s used in full DIM mode. The gain achieved by having a

cordless unit is negligible when the workmanship of the unit is so poor. It’s more of a conversation piece that it’s cordless. I hear that other models made by ESCORT are good, but because this unit failed to be reliable for the long-term I would NEVER buy an Escort detector again. Since this one is now broken, I purchased a cheaper Radio Shack 22-1693 [which features the full radar band coverage, Laser detection and VG2 protection]; after a while I will probably review its performance as well. I hope it works better.

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Note: This review was written during the summer of 2002 and not published until yesterday, but I still believe this is a pretty accurate review after having almost a year of experience with the 985.

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There seems to be a lot of debate as to whether or not the cordless Escort Solo S2 delivers the same degree of protection as the Escort 8500 or Valentine One.

(The debate between the Valentine One and 8500 rages on so I won’t address that issue other than to say that currently the edge in reviews ,for good or bad reasons, seems to be going toward the 8500.)

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Over the years I have had radar detectors by whistler, Uniden and Cobra. The Beltronics 940 surpasses all previous detectors. I have gotten fewer false signals, greater range and earlier warnings with the 940.

The Beltronics 940 is what I consider a mid-priced detector. It surpasses less expensive detectors as expected. One great aspect though, is that the 940 keeps pace with more expensive detection units. I have a friend with the Beltronics 985 and we ran the detectors simultaniously and we found no real detection advantage of one over the other. Sometimes his 985 picked up the signal first sometimes my 940 was first to the punch. Considering the 985 retails for $100 more, that the 940 keeps pace is really nice. My brother has an Escort. The same test was done with the same results. Considering the Escort is $100 more expensive it is a feather in the 940’s cap to keep up.

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