Having owned several Radar detector’s over the years, when the opportunity came to review this new Escort iXc came, I jumped on it. Now I was thinking with today Interactive GPS Apps that can identify “Police Reported Ahead” I thought I was covered. But then there’s the times such as this trip, on the road for 3 days, late night hours, no other app users on the road to possibly report the officer. Always the concern. So, we were off cross country. Now the last radar detector I owned was a great Beltronics 880. This new Escort is a far cry from Radar detectors of years past. This is by Far the smartest radar detector I’ve seen to date. How so? Read on.
First it arrived, it’s well packaged, so well it’s like opening a box in a box. Once opened, you can feel the weight and how well designed it is. Several button on the top but I have yet to use ANY of them. I came with its special 12v plug power adapter, a travel case and the windshield (or Dashboard) suction mount. Assembly of the windshield mount is easy, it quick look at the quick set up pamphlet is all it took. Now the detector is designed with the use of the optional M1 Hi Definition Dash Camera. The M1 Camera comes with a longer mounting screw for the hinge point of the Suction cup to allow the camera to mount. The Camera mounts to the Suction cup mount and plugs into the radar detector. The Power plug plugs into the camera so its daisy chained to power both the camera and the detector. The power plug has a USB so you can plug a USB cell power charge cable to it and not require a second 12v outlet and has a mute button. If the iXc goes off, one push mutes that alert one time. The next alert will alert as normal and you can push it again. I did plug my LG V30 into the iXc’s power plug and although my V30 did not show fast charging, it was. My cell reported the same time required to 100% using this charger as the Anker 12v charger that fast charges and displays it on my cells screen. The iXc mounts to the suction cup via a small pad and hidden Magnet! Yes its clips onto the mount magnetically and requires some force to detach them!
Ok, So it’s all set up, I had a business trip pop up from Myrtle Beach to Mesa Arizona, perfect timing to test it over 3 days of travel. Now I’m running my interactive GPS app, leaving the city the detector goes off, yep, soon enough there is the sheriff with his radar gun and nothing on my app! Hmm, off we continue! Now unlike my OLD unit, which would go off quite a bit, you get used to the false alert’s caused by radars used by supermarket doors that open automatically and past other vehicles with radar detectors, this unit did give some false reports but I swear I could count them under 2 dozen. You will think 2 dozen?! Yes but that’s over 3 days of 12 hours a day driving across the country! One the first day we left SC, crossed Ga and was in Alabama and didn’t get a false alert! We were wondering if it was even working but it was. I will explain later how they cut the false alerts and new false alerts in a bit. You’ll need to download 2 apps, Escort M1 Dash Cam App and Escort Live app. It connects Via 2.4 Ghtz Wifi and Bluetooth. To the Escort iXc and M1 Dash Cam.
First, if you use the optional dash cam, you will need to download the Escort M1 Dash Cam App. It does 2 main things. It links your cell to the M1 Camera via Wifi so you can see what the camera see’s to assure proper camera alignment. It lets you adjust the cameras resolution and other features/settings such as, it lets you download the cameras stored video to your cell phone but you can also do so via Micro USB cord or just pulling the micro SD card. The Camera came with a Sandisk 16 GB MicroSD Card. It’s set to video loop every 3 minutes BUT you can change that thru the app. The Camera has a G sensor, on impact such as an accident, it locks the stored video for review later. The video is Hi Def, wide and clear. Night use is excellent as well. See my M1 review for Screenshot pictures.
Now the Escort Live App. This app lets you link your cell to the iXc via Bluetooth and play with the settings. Once connected you have a world of options available from changing the displays colors to fine tuning the radar bands. It just unreal how many settings there are! KA has so many different frequencies and you can check them off or on. The iXc has built in GPS, the display has a screen that is preset to display 70MPH, once you pass this preset speed , you will get an over speed protection warning. This set speed can be change BUT it’s not GPS informed. In other words, it’s not GPS controlled to display the speed limit of where you are. This was a con as unless you drive in a say town that is all 45 MPH and set it to display 50 MPH, it’s really an irrelevant feature. So you can change what speed it displays to warn you when you pass that set speed, but that’s all. Now you can change it to display none and it will display the cars voltage. Now if you do set the speed say to 75 mph as that’s the speed limit, and you are driving cruise control at 75 mph or LESS, the iXc will now its on cruise control as the speed is GPS’d, it sees your under it and if the Escort iXc gets a radar hit, it will be silent as you are under the speed limit but you will still get a visual alert. That makes sense.
Now some other cool features, it has an aircraft setting, if your vehicles 12v outlet is always on, when you shut off your ignition it senses a voltage drop and a timer starts. It will then shut your detector off after 10 minutes. There are so many more features and settings all turned on or off via the Escort Live App.
So, the few false alerts? Well, taking a close up picture with your cell phone will trigger a laser alert! New technology such as Auto Braking on 18 wheelers and vehicles, lane change assist, all these new technologies use radar and are new causes of false alerts. While the iXc does a great job of cutting them down, it doesn’t have a display showing which direction the radar is hitting you on. The iXc is a mid-range priced unit, Escort however does have a upper end Radar detector that does have this feature and uses a distinctive different tone for side radar hits from these lane change assist radar to show you it’s a false. I had cars drive by the opposite lane and it quickly triggered the radar alert. That’s a Con and you may want to spend a few more bucks for the side ID feature on a more expensive model.
Another issue I felt was a Con is the common phone style plug. If you remove the Escort iXc, you need to squeeze the plastic tang to release the plug. We all have had a phone cord with a broken tang, the cord falls out! So you have two options, remove the iXc from the mount and unplug it from the camera leaving the camera and power cord intact or unplug the power cord from the camera and remove both the iXc and camera together. Another thought is the camera is hard mounted to the suction mount. The iXc is magnetic. On impact, the detector may detaches from its mount? I don’t know but if it does, it’s still connected to the camera via a small cable with that phone plug and plastic tang. There has to be a better way such as the new USB-C plugs used in today’s cell phones. This would make plugging and unplugging quick and easy!
My last Con is the OSP (Over speed Protections) doesn’t change when the speed limit changes. Although via the app setting you van select different set OSP limit, it would be fantastic if it did so automatically as it already has GPS. Maybe Escort in the future can do so via tether and its app. Right now you set it at the MAX speed and it just gives you a slight aural warning once its surpassed.
Now the unit has many more features, I can write a book. It learns fake alerts and remember the location via GPS. It reports to a cloud and can learn from other Escort units via Escort Live app much like Waze. I opted to use Waze and the iXc together. While nothing can be 100 %, 3 days of driving across county we felt secure.
All in all it’s a fantastic unit, smart, firmware can be updated via wifi and well-built great looking unit. Coupled with the camera, you’ll be set for sure!
