Rating  - The best there is - when it works.
I have owned this detector for about a year and a half now. When it works, it is simply awesome.
I've driven with a couple BEL's, an old-school Passport (Circa 1989), and a Valentine One.
The V1 has the best build quality and the coolest Bogey counter, but it has a major downfall - it squawks so much because it is so sensitive that you learn to ignore it.
That is where the 9500i takes the cake - especially when you drive the same route over and over - you "train it" where the false alarms are, and the GPS that is built in ignores the false alarms. So...if a Police Officer parks next to one of your "trained" locations - it will still go off! It is so smart it knows there are two RADAR signals there and not just one.
I have two beefs with the device and I have had to send it back to Escort twice already for repair. This is unsatisfactory.
One of its downfalls (but I guess they all do this, even the Valentine One) is they false alarm for LASER. The V1 falses when you are behind a vehicle with really bright LED taillights - like a Cadillac Escalade. This will do that as well - but this also false alarms in bright sunlight. I asked Escort about this and they said it could be the light is being reflected so that it is hitting the frequency of the Laser. Hmmm.
Either way, it is annoying.
But...the reason I sent mine back twice is the GPS tracking failed. It would say "GPS SIGNAL ACQUIRED" and then a minute or so later it says "GPS SIGNAL IS LOST". And repeat. And repeat. Very annoying. This is in clear skies with good satellite coverage - my Garmin Zumo which was also in the car / motorcycle with it had no problem tracking.
The first time I sent it back they fixed it up...and it worked great again for another 4 months, and then it started happening again. It went back again this week, and I paid the extra $125 for the 9500ix upgrade, so we'll see what that does.
Anyway, when this thing works, there is nothing better - because when it goes off, it is the real deal (except for the aforementioned bright sunlight LASER false alarms).
My advice - Buy the extended warranty just in case, based on my experience. It is called the "Escort Service Plan" - ESP. In my case, it gets me a fixed detector, vs. a $450 paper weight since I am beyond my one year warranty period.
UPDATE 10/11/2008:
Just got it back...paid an extra $125 to get it upgraded to the 9500ix version...and....drumroll please...it still will not get and hold a lock on the GPS satellites...so it is going back again on Monday. So...as of this point, it is now a $575 doorstop until they get me a working version.
Rating  - radar detector
this detector is fabulous. it is not noisey like the others. It does what was advertized. It works!
Rating  - Damn Laser!
My last detector was a Cobra 9930 and it was great for the money. For a great portion of the time, the Cobra served me well; the Ka band detection was at 80% of what the 9500i could do. But the big difference is the 9930 would have 1 bar up to right when I pass the cop before going into 5 bar, the 9500i was much more confident in showing the range of signal. The last time I encountered Ka band, it was over several incline and decline straight road. The Ka band went from 1 to 5 in a matter of seconds, then drop back to 3 when I was in the lower end of the road, then 5 when I was on top. Then it stopped. I thought to myself at that moment that it maybe have been a false alarm, but it was too rhymically synchronized that it couldn't be. that's when I passed the cop who has already pulled someone to the side of the road and stepping out of his cruser.
The other reason I upgrade to the 9500i was it's range in both X and K band. But that would have been a double edged sword as in the case of the X50, which I owned briefly via eBay buy and then sell, because there are so many false alarms. The GPS feature of the 9500i make it bearable.
Up till now, I've been pretty positive about this device. And don't get me wrong, I think it's the best detector out there. But the achilles' heel for my 9500i is the laser detection. This topic is of course about false alarms. The Cobra 9930 gave me a good dose of false pop alerts, but this Escort 9500i gives a lot of false laser detection. And it's not random. I get a laser detection every time I accelerate hard from a dead stop. If I pull some G higher than a certain point, it'll go off. I push on the gas, beep! I enter the freeway, beep! damn that laser. Although I can't imagine that it's the electronics that reacts to acceleration. I really don't know what it is. My latest theory is that it's the clear suction cups acts like a prism and refract the light next to the senor at the top. But it's just a guess.
Overall, I would still recommend it. I like it so much I bought one for my wife. Market rate when I purchased brand new on EBay and Craigslist is $340.
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