soupcraze's Full Review: Escort Passport 7500 Radar Detector
The Escort Passport 7500 in the pre-Escort Passport 8500 days sucked miserably. It was put up against the Valentine One, and offered horrible performance, hell, there were a lot of much cheaper detectors that still killed it. Well, after the 8500 came out, Escort gave the Passport 7500 a face-lift, the new model being the Escort Passport 7500S which they call turbo charged. Well let me say this, the Escort Passport 7500S is a much better improvement compared to its predeccessor, but coming in at $229.99, it's one of the more expensive radar detectors out there, so here's what I found with it.
-Price-
*The Escort Passport 7500S comes in at about $229.99. This puts it $70 behind the $299.99 flagship Escort Passport 8500 model offered by Escort. The high price also puts it in tough competition with detectors from Beltronics. Well, overall, it does have some nice features such as the fact that it can track up to 8 bogeys at once, though doing this makes it more difficult to read, but definitely a plus for any major speeded. The Escort Passport 7500S also is shift-link compatible with the Escort ZR3 laser shifter which will allow the detector to show you that the jammer is doing its work. Cool. Well, other than these nice features, the Escort Passport 7500S still lacks the sensitivity that the $400 Valentine One and $300 Escort Passport 8500 have. Well those are drastically more expensive than the Escort Passport 7500S, but it's still out-performed by the Beltronics Bel Vector 985 which costs only about $215 or so. Other than the multiple threat counter and shift-link compatibility, the Escort Passport 7500S poses no advantages over the Vector 985, which down-right outperforms it in battle. Also, unlike the Passport 8500, the Passport 7500S doesn't come with the Smart Cord which allows you to mute the detector conveniently from the cigarette lighter, you'll have to buy it separately. If you're an Escort loyalist, then take the Escort Passport 8500, that thing still smokes the turbo charged 7500S still.
-Performance-
*The first tests I ran with the Escort Passport 7500S in action were against the top-of-the-line Cobra radar detector, but that was a joke since the Cobra was so horrendous. Well, I later tried this out against my dad's Beltronics Bel Vector 985 in K and Ka band territories. The Passport 7500S was slightly behind the Vector 985 in K-band alerts, but I really liked the earlier warning on the Bel better than the Escort. When it came to Ka-band, the Bel smoked the Escort Passport 7500S with far better range. Well, both cost about the same, and the Bel gives out better performance. Well, from Escort, if you're looking for the best possible performance, you'll find it in the Escort Passport 8500, which will give you much better K and Ka band sensitivity over the Escort Passport 7500S.
-Features & Ease of Use-
*The Escort Passport 7500S does incorporate some of the nicer features of the Passport 8500. It has the multi-threat counter which can alert you of 8 simultaneous threats and their strengths. However, this is rather difficult to read, and especially in day light! The Escort Passport 7500S is shift-link compatible so it can be effectively hooked up to the Escort ZR3 for laser jamming abilities. This detector also has SWS (Safety Warning System) alerts which can be rather useful. The LED screen is easy to read, and it's also nice since it's angled to the left, which is where the driver sits. Compared to the Vector 985, it makes it much easier to read if its hanging in the center of the windsheild. The Escort Passport 7500S uses the similar design and lay-out of any other Escort Passport model, it's not difficult to use.
-The Verdict-
*The Escort Passport 7500S proves itself to be an effective detector. It's much improved compared to the previous Passport 7500 model. However, turbo charging it as Escort says really doesn't push it any further compared to the detectors available in the ~$200 price range. If you're already paying this much, just go for the Escort Passport 8500 where you'll already be getting better performance, and it comes with the convenient Smart Cord. If you're not willing to spend more money, you can do better with a Beltronics Bel Vector 985. This rice racer (Passport 7500S) will not smoke the Ferrari (Valentine One/Passport 8500), even with its turbo charger that Escort put in.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.