Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Beltronics Pro GX65 Review: Another GPS-Enabled Winner from BEL

Updated: 03OCT 08

I had the distinct pleasure of being able to put the new Beltronics Pro GX65 (BEL Pro GX65) through its paces this past weekend with some real, real-world miles—throughout several states which employ police radar operating at X, K, and Ka as well as police laser (lidar) and my initial impressions are that Beltronics has another winner on its hands.

Expected to start shipping later this month (or early October), the Beltronics Pro GX65 appears poised to sit-atop of the Beltronics professional series of conventional windshield-mount radar detectors and certainly picks up where the Beltronics Pro RX65 (BEL Pro RX65) left-off.

Like the Escort Passport 9500ix—the Beltronics GX65 is also based upon the incorporation of GPS and the North American Trinity Database of red light cameras and speed cameras that are rapidly proliferating in the country—the Beltronics GX65 Pro (BEL GX65) is, I believe, representative of the most sophisticated windshield-mount radar detectors yet conceived which maximize driver situational awareness not only to police radar and police laser, but photo enforcement, as well.

Incorporating some of the nice-touches from the Beltronics STi Driver, like auto-dimming and button illumination, the Beltronics GX65 Pro also provides a more natural sounding male voice alert (as opposed to the Escort Passport 9500 series of natural-sounding female voices).

I would prefer that Beltronics renames the GX65's AutoScan mode since it actually acts in the identical fashion to the Auto Sensitivity modes of the Escort Passport 9500i, Passport 9500ix, and the Escort Passport 9500ci—varying its sensitivity to X-band and K-band radar in real-time depending on the rate of travel. Naming this feature AutoScan may blur the meaning of that function—which appears on the existing radar detector models from both Beltronics and Escort.

Although the performance of the Beltronics GX65 appears similar to the Escort Passport 9500ix (which is a very good thing), it retains enough of the Beltronics "personality" to distinguish itself.

The laser reception performance of the Bel GX65 appears to be noticeably improved over the Bel Pro RX65 which was tested nearly years ago.

As with the Pro GX65's cousin, the Escort Passport 9500ix, the Beltronics Pro GX65 introduces a new auto-muting function which makes the radar detector even more easy to live with around town: If your vehicle is moving at a rate of less than 20mph and you encounter either police radar or police lidar, the Pro GX65 will briefly tone alert with a double-tone which varies based-upon the type of reception.

At first blush, I thought there was an issue with my Pro GX65, until I read page 11 of the owner's manual which describes this new innovative feature.

Unlike the Beltronics STi Driver, the Beltronics Pro GX65 can be directly interfaced to the Cincinnati Microwave Laser Shifter ZR4, externally mounted front and rear laser jammer.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's really wonderful to see both Beltronics and Escort really flex their engineering muscles.

Without a doubt, these two companies are currently producing the most sophisticated radar detectors yet conceived.

My hat's off to both engineering teams! One plus one does equal three!

This new detector is expected to ship within two weeks.

Trustworthy purchasing source(s):


Veil Guy

Friday, September 19, 2008

Beltronics Pro GX65 Review: New BEL Pro GX65 Radar/GPS Detector

beltronics gx65 professional series detector

UPDATED: 27 SEP 08

Beltronics GX65 Review/(BEL Pro GX65) Preview:

In the continuing evolution of high-end radar detectors offered by Beltronics, GPS capability (from the Escort Passport 9500i and Escort Passport 9500ix) comes to Beltronics in the form of the new Beltronics Pro GX65.

The Beltronics Pro GX65 to be somewhat of a hybrid of both the Escort Passport 9500i (which provided GPS capability and manual-marking of false and other noteworthy locations, like VASCAR speed traps) and the Escort Passport 9500ix (which adds the additional capability of autolearning fixed false locations and being able to alert to red light camera, fixed speed camera and mobile camera locations, by incorporating Cheetah's Trinity database).

Currently available with red LED display model, the Beltronics GX65 to slot in between the retail pricing of $449 of the Escort Passport 9500i (Red) and $499 of the Escort Passport 9500ix (Blue) sporting a suggested retail of $469.

For those of us who have valued the performance of the venerable Beltronics RX65 Pro and Beltronics engineering design, the Beltronics to be a natural evolution of "conventional" (ie; non-Spectre immune) Beltronics windshield-mount radar detectors (in contrast to the Spectre undetectable Beltronics STi Driver)

Having become accustomed the auto-learning feature provided by the new Escort Passport 9500ix and Escort Passport 9500ci remote installed radar detector, this feature, if not fully implemented in the BEL GX65 Pro, will be missed.

When one considers the cost differential of just $30 can put you into an Escort Passport 9500ix which provides auto-learning capability along with a cool blue LED display the "positioning" seems pretty tight, quite frankly (especially when $30 historically separated models simply by the display color—red or blue—albeit in the same model line, and did not bring increased functionality).

Perhaps the positioning of this new radar detector is a precursor to the eventual phasing out of the Escort Passport 9500i which remains in the red display model version (purely speculation on my part, but I believe logical nonetheless).

Fortunately the BEL GX65 can be software updated via a PC USB cable and perhaps additional features will ultimately appear on the Pro GX65 via some future update; my vote is for the inclusion of the auto-learning feature.

At any rate, being a long-time fan of Beltronics radar detectors, I am very pleased to see the continued development of the Beltronics Pro series.

They'll be more to come on this exciting new detector once we have accumulated some significant real real-world miles with it and documented in the following: Beltronics GX65 Review.

In the meantime, join our discussion of the new GPS-enabled Beltronics Pro GX65 and other Beltronics engineered products online.

Trustworthy purchasing source(s):

Pro GX65 at Buy Radar Detectors

Veil Guy