If you had to choose between the two and...
1) You could get a brand new 8500 w/ blue led display for $240 through a friend or
2) Brand new V1 for $400 plus tax and/or shipping
What would you do?

I've only considered the financial aspect but I value the performance and quality of the radars equally as high. I was hoping if someone has had experience with both, they could share why they would choose one over the other in terms of ease of use, false alarms/sensitivity, unique features, customizability, accuracy or extent of advance warning, etc. I'm leaning heavily towards the escort but if the V1 blows it out the water in every category except price that I would switch sides in a flash. Any help in deciding would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Get the 8500. Works great, I have never even gotten pulled over, the only difference between the two is the V1 tells you where to radar is coming from, besides that there is no other difference. Radartest.com the ranked the 8500 as #1. Save your money and get the 8500. I love it.

 

I got my Escort 8500 X50 for 200 . Its the best 200 I have spent. Works very well. Avoided about 2 tickets so far. So id go with the Escort!

 

For the extra security and comfort I would go with V1 since it tells you where the radar are coming from, plus the new ones comes with POP mode that is active all the time.

 

do you guys know of a way to get the escort 8500 x50 cheaper than $320?

 

Escort has mode POP too! and V1 isn't active "all the time" its switchable, just like Escort

The only thing V1 really has up on escort is the send in to upgrade. Even then Escort can be flashed when new software becomes avaible.

Go with the Escort, small sexy, powerful, and for you cheap!

 

I have the V1 and the main reasons I got it was because of the directional arrows, bogey counters, and also because I could turn off all the lights on the unit itself and have a remote display installed in my ashtray. I don't like having the lights up in the top of the window advertising that it's there.

Not sure if the 8500 has a remote display and can run in "stealth" mode or not...

 

I would choose Passport 8500 X50, best in the market and #1 rated as well.

 

go with the silver bullet by PNI available at Costco for $85.00 $150. elsewhere. It is as good as the other detectors if not beter. good luckl

 

I just purchased a V1 and it came in the mail yesterday. And it does have the full time active pop mode on start up as the new feature if you go to their website it explains all the functions of it. I haven't owned any other radar detector and the passport and V1 where the two out there that everyone talks about. If money is not an issue, V1 is the way to go. Even people that have owned both the passport and the V1 say the V1 is better with the features.

 

sorry to be a noob but whats the pop mode?

 

Go with the V1: I never leave home without it.

 

You can track multible radar types at the same time with the Escort. It also has a stealth display, ashtray if you want it.

I can't get over how ugly the V1 is.... Oh and if money is no option look into the Escort-Passport SRX!!!

 

The Escort has 3 different ways to display detected radar: single signal strength (default), multi signal strength (shows ka, k, and x on the same display with bar graphs showing strength, so you can see that there's 1 strong ka and 2 weak k's at the same time) (when laser is detected, it takes over the display and just shows "laser"), and the least useful is a display that shows the actual freq. of the detected signal. I have the 8500 and I have no complaints about it. You can get a x50 for close to $200 or a V1 for $400. I agree with Wrah, that you should get the x50 and save the extra cash for the laser shifter that works with the 8500 series.