 Just got my 9500i Friday
This is my first RD since I bought a Uniden from QVC 15 years ago! During that time laser had JUST come out. It could detect X,K,Ka & laser. It's performance was OK, but it would false so much I lost all trust in it. Sometimes it would just go off for nothing while the car was in the driveway!
After the Uniden experience I decided that I was out of the RD market. But, it appears in my area the LEO's must've decided, "... let's increase our speeding ticket revenue...". So I decided last week to start my reseach on the latest RD's. I figured the technology should be top notch 15 years later.
From what I could tell from my research via the Internet Beltronics, Escort, and Valetine were tops. Beltronics and Escort have been the "big dogs" since the mid '80's, but I was in college then and couldn't afford "jack"!!!
I decided on the 9500i because I am a gadget kinda guy and I love electronics that think "outside the box" and the 9500i met that criteria. I remember when Valetine came out in the early '90's and it was all the rage with the arrows and sensitivity. The price reflected it's top performace too, I believe back then it was the most expensive. Even still today, most opinions on the Valentine were very positive, but it's high sensitivity equals many false alarms. That brought back my Uniden experience which drove me nuts! Of course, the Uniden couldn't come close to the V1's performance, but with todays avaliable technology it seems to me that filtering out "false signals" more effectively would be tops on the "to do list" for RD manufactures. Even though the 9500i is not perfect, yet, in this category it meant alot that they were giving it some effort. Therefore, I dropped $455 at my local Best Buy for the 9500i.
My manufacturer date is 4307. I believe mine should have the new firmware..am I correct??? I've not had it long enough to comment on the performance, but I look foward to seeing it do its thing! |