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):

• Pro GX65 at Buy Radar Detectors

Veil Guy

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

AutoScan versus Highway Mode...A Closer Examination.

As some of my friends and close followers [of my postings] already know, I recently drove to Atlanta, GA and back from Philadelphia, PA, to attend a conference with my good friend and business associate RadarRoy (of radarbusters.com).

Instead of flying, I decided to drive it -- all in the name of testing the latest radar detectors (including new models from both Whistler and Cobra). I managed to take copious notes on my traveling experiences and will include a summary of them in my upcoming blog postings and our full-review entitled "the ultimate radar detector review 2007." Our trip included a journey through Virginia (where radar detector usage is still banned in Draconian fashion) -- you can guess which radar detector we used for that portion of the trip. We also managed to visit our friends at Cricket Ventures (buyradardetectors.com) in Rock Hill, SC.

It's going to take a bit of additional time to compile all of those experiences and post them. That is something that is in very short supply of late since a lot of things are going on both in my personal and business life. (For example, my sister is tying the knot this weekend and the pre-wedding activities, alone, are demanding on what little time I have).

As you may already know, I recently purchased another retail model of the Beltronics STi Driver, which brings my current ownership count to two units. Once I got familiar with the operation characteristics of both them (on both an absolute and relative basis) I decided to take a unique approach to empirically examining the actual effect of operating the radar detectors in AutoScan mode.

One particular reviewer -- Craig Peterson of RadarTest.com -- has mentioned the use of AutoScan mode (in terms of generally quieting Bel's and Escort's detectors 'even more') but has not gone into depth about its utility and generally recommends to drive with the radar detectors in Highway mode when on the highway -- to maximize their effective performance by minimizing filtering. All other tests with which I have read (such as SpeedZones.com or GuysofLidar.com), either in print or on-line, always focus on performance of their tested radar detectors set in Highway mode (or in the V1's case -- all bogeys mode).

But since the default settings of Beltronics and Escort radar detectors are, in fact, AutoScan mode, I felt it was high time to really explore, in depth, the actual effect of running their detectors in AutoScan while driving on the highway and around town.

And what better way to do this than with two BEL STi Drivers running concurrently.

First things first: Establishing a Base-Line with both BEL STi Driver Radar Detectors

Before I could really explore the effect of AutoScan, I have taken a few weeks and about 3500 miles of driving with both of them in Highway mode. In this manner, I was able to accurately access the intra-model performance production variances of each radar detector.

My conclusions are the latest STi Driver that I purchased is slightly "hotter" on X-band and Ka-band reception (at least on the observed frequencies of 33.8Ghz, 34.7Ghz, and 35.5Ghz) while not being quite as "hot" on K-band reception. These performance variations are relatively small (about 1-2 seconds max between each radar detector) and not completely consistent. In other words, the new BEL STi Driver doesn't always beat my other STi Driver. But, it does enough times for me to draw these basic conclusions.

Empirical Findings of AutoScan mode (BEL STi Driver)

After several weeks of close examination of each radar detector (run in AutoScan and Highway modes) and many additional miles I believe I have formulated some opinions which may be helpful for you to determine whether AutoScan is the right mode you or not.

It appears that AutoScan mode effectively reduces sensitivity to both X-band and K-band by a very little bit and reduces sensitivity to non-police Ka-radar bands while not effecting reception performance to (at least) the three U.S. police radar Ka-bands (33.8Ghz, 34.7Ghz, and 35.5Ghz). To the contrary it appears that reception performance may actually increase (slightly) on those three police radar Ka-Bands relative to their Highway setting counterparts.

I write effectively because I believe their is much more to AutoScan than merely "dialing-back" sensitivity to certain radar bands. I believe the detector still receives the signal but it may be doing some additional processing to "squelch" the initial reporting of weak X, K, and non-essential Ka signals that normally would register about a 0-3 signal strength level. It may also be that the (listening) sweeping pattern (remember a radar detector is a very specialized radio-scanner) may be altered so that an AutoScan'd radar detector may actually focus a greater amount of time on Ka (in the case of the STi Driver, at least) at the slight expense of both X and K-bands. Or it may be a combination of all of these. Regardless of how Beltronics actually accomplishes their advanced filtering, the ultimate effect, is slightly reduced sensitivity to X and K and non-essential Ka.

And I do mean slightly...nothing really dramatic...just enough to eliminate some of the observed variance advantages of one detector over the other.

The benefit to all of this advanced filtering is a quieter radar detector! Gone are are a good number of X and K "falses" one often receives with a high-end radar detector when traveling on the highway by interchanges and adjacent shopping centers. Gone too are the occasional Ka-falses which occur from other cheap radar detectors which leak RF (harmonics in the wide Ka-band) at frequencies like (a reported) 33.458Ghz.

AutoScan does not appear to have any adverse impact on the Beltronics STi Driver's ability to report multiple and simultaneous radar encounters. Each radar detector seemed equally adept at identifying concurrent encounters of X and K-band regardless of the filtering mode selected.

So the trade-off appears to be a very slight reduction to both X and K reception -- in some cases -- for getting an even quieter detector which falses even less frequently. Having driving with Valentines for many years, I am really warming up to the quieter nature of the Beltronics STi Driver since it really doesn't appear to come at the expense of extreme sensitivity to real bona-fide police radar traps. Too much sensitivity without advanced filtering becomes painful over time and your mind can start to do its own filtering (eg; ignoring) which may not be a good thing.

Empirical Findings of AutoScan mode (BEL RX65-Pro and Escort 8500 X50)

Over the years I have examined the performance of AutoScan mode relative to Highway mode on both the Escort Passport 8500 X50 and the Beltronics RX-65 Pro radar detectors and although I haven't published anything, I have formulated some opinions which I will share with you now.

AutoScan appears to have a very interesting effect on the Escort Passport 8500 X50 (of which I own four -- two blue and two red). It appears that K-band reception actually improves slightly where X and Ka reception is affected similarly to the Beltronics STi Driver.

The Beltronics RX65-Pro detector doesn't quite seem to be affected to the same degree as the Passport 8500 X50 (at least in terms of K-band reception).

I suspect these performance variations in operating modes may be tied to an altered sweeping pattern for listening. In the instance of the 8500 X50, the detector may have allocated more time to listening to K-band relative to X and/or other parts of the Ka-band that are not police radar. The Beltronics, in general, feels a little quicker and as a result performance changes are somewhat less noticeable.

Conclusion

At least for now, I am going to continue driving with my STi Drivers with POP-OFF and AutoScan on (which is their factory default operating mode). You may want to try the same -- for your own edification -- you may actually prefer it.

Regardless of which mode you use, it's good to know that both Beltronics and Escort are continuing to push the envelope on super-advanced filtering modes -- that have minimal adverse impact of genuine police radar reception -- to deliver their owners the most enjoyable high-end radar detector ownership experience possible.

I can't wait to see how the Escort Passport 9500i matures over time!

Veil Guy

Escort Passport 9500i: Performance Update

Last Tuesday evening when my wife and I were returning home from our Ohio trip (during which time we visited Beltronics, Escort, and Valentine Research), I happened to briefly evaluate the latest version of an Escort Passport 9500i. I have been resisting the temptation to performing a full analysis and review until more time has elapsed since it's introduction at the beginning of the year.

At one point during my travels, the 9500i alerted to the presence of K-band at a point the was farther [away from the source] than at the position than either the STi Driver or the Valentine 1, did.

After that experience, I got to really thinking about this new radar detector again -- the things I like about it; the things that I hope will improve over time as this new model gets "shaken out;" and I believe I am starting to see and understand what Escort is attempting to accomplish with their new flagship windshield-mount radar detector.

When a radar detector approaches/exceeds -120 dBm in reception sensitivity, it's going to have a propensity to "false" at a [much higher] rate to legitimate radar signals which are not bona-fide police radar (like X & the K band door openers, other cheaper radar detectors which leak RF, and certain ACC/ADAS systems which utilize either police radar bands or police lidar wavelengths).

This is very true with both the Beltronics STi Driver and the Valentine 1 when operated in their respective "highway" modes -- the modes I generally use. (Fortunately both Beltronics and Escort provide auto-muting -- which successfully mitigates this annoyance to a large degree).

The easy thing for a radar detector manufacturer to do, once they have achieved these sensitivity levels, is to report everyone of those "falses." The problem with that is that the radar detector owner will soon tire of the excessive warning alerts and begin to disregard them (perform his/her own filtering), which can be a "self defeating" dynamic.

This situation is not entirely unlike driving a high performance vehicle which has an incredible suspension and provides stellar handling characteristics (on the track) but becomes punishing to the kidneys on the great public road surfaces of states like PA and MI.

Escort, certainly, is cognizant of this fact and, I believe, is attempting to accomplish a most difficult feat -- providing extreme sensitivity to bona-fide police radar speed traps while at the same time providing the highest levels of signal rejection ever accomplished on a radar detector.

They are, in effect, attempting to climb mount Everest without an oxygen tank or (perhaps a better analogy) are attempting to create an all-season tire which is equally adept in both dry/rain and snow conditions.

The amount of complex signal processing that must take place and in such a short amount of time must be daunting challenge for Escort's firmware designers, indeed.

Without a doubt, this is a bold initiative and not one for the light-hearted.

Given the resources of a manufacturer like Escort and their desire to continue establishing benchmarks by producing radar detectors that are easy to live with, I trust they will "summit"...even if it takes some time to do so.

Kudos to the fine folks at Escort for even attempting such a climb!

Escort Passport 9500i AutoSensitivity Mode Beats a Tylenol

It's just what the doctor ordered.

No, I am not talking about an aspirin, I am talking about Escort's innovative new speed-sensitive sensitivity mode that has premiered with the Passport 9500i.

Maybe, its just me - perhaps, in my later years, I am going soft. I find myself driving automatics more than I am driving stick. I am favoring 'luxury' cars more than hot sports cars at the rental counter. I am listening more to Rachmaninoff than Rush.

...Or, maybe it's the world around me - I find myself among more strip malls, more stop lights, more traffic jams, more SUVs with distracting TV screens in front of me, more drivers on cel phones, more automated door openers.

Either way, I am finding driving more stressful around town than I remember 26 years ago when I first started tooling around with my very first (the original) Escort radar detector. Back in the day, things were simpler - only X & K radar to worry about and in steady-state mode; Instant-on (technically called RF Hold), while available, wasn't readily deployed. And the occasional door openers that were found operated strictly on X-band.

Enough romanticizing about the past, we live in a different world today...Which brings me to the Escort Passport 9500i and headache relief.

For those of you who have read The Ultimate Radar Detector Review 2005, you know that I continue to use the Valentine 1 as our reference radar detector. Its consistently stellar detection performance across all police RADAR and police LIDAR signals justifies it place at the top of the radar detector hierarchy.

However, all the extreme sensitivity and philosophical tendencies to report all X & K signals - a strong asset on the open-highways - can quickly become a liability when driving in more densely populated areas around town. This is not the fault of the V1. If anyone is to blame, its the FCC which allows for all those automated door openers to operate on both X & K-band. If you want to know how many door openers and their approximate locations within any given strip mall, the V1 is the most capable radar detector for doing so.

These 'falses' aren't really falses at all. They are bona fide radar sources. They just happen not to be police radar sources.

Radar detector manufacturers have had to deal with this dilemma for some time...and I would imagine it is one of the most challenging things a high-end radar detector must do - provide extreme sensitivity to legitimate radar threats while at the same time rejecting/not reporting every signal which they receive. It's a complex task of signal processing that takes place to help make that determination and it happens in a milliseconds time. Both Beltronics and Escort have arguably the most advanced 'filtering' algorithms of all radar detectors - manifested in the Passport 8500 X50, Beltronics STI-Driver, and Beltronics RX-65 Pro detectors.

This dilemma is not entirely unlike the one that tire manufacturers have to constantly struggle with in their design of high performance all-season tires which need to provide stellar adhesion in the dry and wet, while at the same time maximizing traction in the winter (by balancing two opposing means of doing so).

Escort has devised an even more elegant and effective solution to addressing this long-standing conundrum. By dialing back the 'sensitivity' automatically when your vehicle is traveling at a sedate pace that is common on todays crowded secondary roads, Escort enables its owner to have the best of both worlds automatically - extreme performance when you need it on the highways and a less performance when you don't. In the latter case, less is more.

Which brings us back to the topic at hand.
Emerging from central Florida into the more populated and congested south west coast, the V1 quickly became tiring as did the 9500i to a lesser extent. To quiet down the 9500i, all I had to do was push one button and 'voila' the detector went into its speed-sensitive AutoSensitivity mode. When sitting at long traffic lights in a traffic between two shopping centers, I had to repeatedly reach towards the windshield to hit the manual mute button on the V1. This didn't always work out since the detector would identify additional radar sources (up to a displayed count 9) which would require additional muting. It gets old very quickly, I must say. Most of the time I simply unplug the unit in those cases - you long-time V1 owners probably know what I am talking about.

With the 9500i, all I hit was one button and only once. Sweet.

When I was approaching the cape I was stuck in traffic on the bridge. The V1 rightly alerted to a weak K-band source that was ahead. It turned out the a patrol vehicle was on the center median facing perpendicular (north) to my west-bound approach around and to the left on the road. The Passport 9500i was silent. Aaaah, relief - the sound of silence. When switching the detector back to highway mode, the 9500i alert to K-band. Desiring peace and quiet, I returned the 9500i to AutoSensitivity mode. It remained quiet at even 30 feet away and facing directly at the patrol car. It wasn't until I crossed a 15 foot threshold that the 9500i alerted at a full strength. My approach speed was about 3-4 miles an hour. It feels to me that detector is not actually less sensitive in this mode, but uses a variable squelch mechanism to obtain its silence.

The more I moved at a snail's pace toward my final destination for the evening, the more I appreciated the Passport 9500i's new innovative feature as the detector remained silent with every signal to which the V1 alerted. No need for aspirin with this one.

I am warming-up to this detector more every day, I drive with it.

Veil Guy

Don't stop using the 'radar detector' between your ears

As part of continuing series of road adventures with the latest and greatest radar detectors, we are currently doing a driving circuit in the state of Florida to examine the performance of the top performing radar detectors when pitted against the hands of Florida traffic enforcement. Unlike Pennsylvania, Ka-band seems to be the preferred form of police radar. Today we encountered Ka at 34.7Ghz (Stalker) and 35.5 (Kustom,Decatur) operated in both stationery and moving pulsed-modes.

Both the Passport 9500i and Valentine 1 served our interests well, however while cruising at a steady 85mph on West SR80, south of lake Okeechobee in the center of the state we noticed a white car approaching us from the opposite direction. At about 2000 feet I scrutinized the profile of the car. It was a late model Ford Crown Victoria.

Playing it on the safe side, I got off the gas and slowed to about 65mph. Sure enough as the vehicle passed me, I could clearly see that it was a Sheriff's vehicle with a radar unit mounted inside the vehicle.

The entire time of this encounter, neither detector went off. Rest assured, if I had not been paying attention, my expensive detectors would have more the likely sounded off a full alert of instant-on Ka and I would have been handed a nice fat ticket.

Continuing along my route, I reminded myself that there is no substitute for situational awareness and that no matter how good radar detectors get, they are only a tool. The most important 'radar detector' remains the one between your ears.

Veil Guy