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City Performance
Now we are down to the nitty gritty, the performance. A detector can have every feature imaginable but if it can’t detect well it’s useless. Luckily the Max does detect well, very well actually.
In the city maximum sensitivity is not nearly as important as reducing the number of false alerts. It’s unlikely you will be going too far over the speed limit so you probably only need a few seconds to check your speed and slow down if necessary. Almost all police have phased out X band so I found that driving in Auto NoX gave significantly less false alerts from doors and such.
As an example, I was driving down a city highway keeping up with traffic doing 52 in a 45 when suddenly I hear a beep, then another, then a voice says “KA Band”. The beeps get progressively quicker for about 5-6 seconds until they became a solid tone and only then did I finally see the motorcycle cop hiding behind a hedge at a gas station. At the next block 3 cars were pulled over. The Passport MAX gave me more than enough time to let off the gas and coast down to 45, preventing a costly ticket.
On routes that I travel often, the AutoLearn feature reduced the false alerts significantly. By using the GPS it can calculate that you are getting hit by the exact same signal, at the same strength, in the same place over and over and knows that is obviously not a cop. After just two or three days of driving my false alerts virtually disappeared.
The red light and speed camera alerts may also be beneficial to some by telling you when you near a known camera location.
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Highway Performance
The highway is where the MAX really shines. Out on the open road you want high sensitivity so you can detect those faint, distant signals, but with that sensitivity you also need to be able to filter out the junk interference and return alerts quickly. I found that the MAX does this very well, giving me plenty of time to slow down and move over, but with very few false alerts. If they were shooting head-on they never stood a chance as the MAX would pick them up a mile away, but even when they got a little sneaky and hid behind cover shooting at the back of cars the Max was still able to pick up those rebounding signals and alert me with enough time to bring it down to the limit if need be.
The overspeed protection came in handy on longer trips in light traffic when your mind starts to wander a little and before you know it you are doing 10-15 over. The onscreen speed indicator will turn red and a voice will say “overspeed” to remind you to scrub a little off. This feature can be adjusted for your preferred speed or turned off all together.
The primary function of a Radar Detector is to alert you to potential threats, and that is where the new Passport Max disappoints. Here is a link to a video where the author demonstrates how Escort Autolearn can inadvertently lock out a legitimate K band speed trap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIoVVSmuAdA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUgLr7xoTU3XgAeLrEYp51sw. The detector in the video is an Escort Redline, but it has the same flawed feature as the Max. You can read for yourself the other problems with this detector on an unbiased forum: http://www.radardetectorforum.org, or even browse the Escort Radar Forum.
For the price, this detector should be perfect. Yet there are numerous complaints of the Max “locking up” and having to be reset, Ka band false alerts in the middle of nowhere, oscillating mount, hard to read OLED display, inconsistent sensitivity to radar amongst similar units, etc. It really seems to be hit or miss if you get a “good” one, with forum members having to send theirs in for service 2 or 3 times to get the problems fixed. Most recently, a software glitch caused all the radar bands to be turned off after an update with the result that you had a “sleeping beauty” not detecting anything. It was only after several forum members received speeding tickets that Escort sent out an email to registered owners warning them of this problem. Bottom line here is not to be taken in by the marketing hype. Do your homework before you spend this much money as the Passport Max is most definitely not the best radar detector money can buy. If you do not need the most sensitive detector out there and do mostly city driving, buy a Whistler CR90. If you want the best, the Escort Redline and the Valentine V1 are the 2 top rated windshield detectors in the world. Given Escort’s problems with quality assurance of late, I would recommend the Valentine V1.
When combined with the Valentine V1C Bluetooth dongle and a new free app on Google Play called “YAV1”, GPS capability to lock out false alerts is added to the Valentine V1. It is so effective at locking out false alerts yet not blocking genuine Police Radar at the same time that most experts are starting to call the V1 + YAV1 the detector of choice in Metro areas. You can read more about YAV1 on http://www.radardetectorforum.org in the Valentine section, or on Google Play. It will not lock out a genuine K band speed trap, and it will not disappoint you.
I wrote my review based on my experiences with the product and I have to say that I never had any of the issues you mentioned (aside from the mount which I went over extensively).
During testing and in the months I have been using it after the review I have not once had a legitimate signal locked out.
I unfortunately don’t have another Max and a radar gun to test the inconsistencies you mention. Obviously if the differences are large then it is a serious problem, but I have had no issues with my unit yet.
I received an email from Escort about the software glitch you mentioned and that is clearly a huge flaw, though it was only an issue in very specific circumstances. Fortunately for me I had been pretty lazy about updates and wasn’t affected.
From other Max owners that I have spoken to since the time of this review, there seem to be some quality control issues where the outer shell starts to separate. I don’t have this problem on mine but those who did sent it off to Escort and had a replacement back in just a few days.
I have a feeling that it’s not that I have a “good” unit per say, just that the people with the “bad” units are the outspoken minority.
For anyone looking to buy this detector I would urge you to do your research and come to your own conclusion, but I still stand by my recommendation as I believe this is still an amazing detector.
All this has been fixed. that is what’s so great about the max you can upgrade it. all is good with v1.6!