Side by Side Comparison of: Whistler vs Escort

its working detecting distance is not far according to different research and my own experience. However, since I knew it, I slow down immediately and check out the source of alarm. Tennessee police use K wave and other states used Ka waves. So far it was great. It helps me to be a safe driver. App is useless. The company needs to update all those speed cameras AND RED LIGHTS cameras in NYC.

It's a great detector. Currently running in parallel to my upgraded V1. Like the mileage display, the volume could be louder. Love the programming by the app on my iPhone. It's a Great urban/occasional highway driving unit. If your driving on the highways most of the time the Passport Redline or the V1 is your toy. Between this Max 360 and the V1. For my use the Max is a 5 and the V1 is a 4.5

Wow, this thing is amazing. The arrows are a huge help. Gives hardly any false alarms. If you are on the fence about getting this just pull the trigger and get it. You will not be disappointed. The only issue I have is that its heavy but it packs a lot of technology in it.

GPS works great on this in the mountains where we live. I love the automatic ignore feature of the annoying K band speed limit signs that this detector remembers. The strength of the KA detection is very good, and use with the Escort Live app is fantastic. What an improvement over my Escort 8500!

Very good machine !! I like how it has a lot of technology components. Spots cops couple miles away. Plenty of time to respond and slow down. Way better than the Valentine 1 in my opinion since tech heavy. Performance may be a little lower than valentine 1 but the technology is worth it !!

This thing is bonkers good. Having the directional signaling plus the ease and usability of Escort is a no brainer. Worth every penny more. Do yourself a favor and buy this radar detector. Updates like the magnetized mount and bluetooth connectivity are fantastic. I have yet to use the app with it, but I am so excited!

Well I bought one of these after putting off getting one for my pickup. Latest run in with the "man" brought my focus back on the need for a good quality product to remain in the truck. So far limited use, but I'm used escort products for the past 20+ years so figure out which one you want and that should serve you well.

I just unpacked the escort max 360, it is beautiful. Except for the fact that it's huge! It's going to be tough to find a place where it won't obstruct my view.

Very complex and somewhat confusing! Definitely not for the non tech savvy. It's difficult to remember what sound is for what but I'm sure it's going to take time. Very nice and seems to be very accurate.

I'm pleased with this item. I ran with a Valentine unit for ~10 years and the only reason I bought this (vs another valentine) was due to the patent expiring and having other options. I LOVE the arrows on the valentine and love them on this detector equally. The window mount is an improvement from the V1 from my perspective. It's easy to remove and attaches firmly. The auto-mute feature works very well. Only once or twice have I manually muted it. Some of the features I assumed did NOT require the phone such as the speed limit indicator but that's my bad, not the detector. I'm happy enough with it that I will hard wire it with an after market window mount. Reasons for not giving it 5 stars are price, and firmware/gps update process I find too difficult to complete. The URL's on their website are not provided and I had to dig through forums to figure it out.

So far I love this this radar Detector. The only problem I have with it would be that it needs to be louder. I had to move it more in my view. I love to rock out some Octane and you will not hear it if you are rocking. The direction arrows are the best!

The Max360 is basically a blend of the Max2 and the V1. It gives you all of the ease of use and plug and play capabilities of the Max2 with the arrows and enhanced situational awareness of the V1.So I like the 360 more than I thought I would. I've had two so far, compared them to a variety of other detectors, there's been a bunch of tests conducted so far, and it looks like a pretty good overall package with some issues and quirks. There's been some firmware updates since the detector was released which improved some things, but there's still some work to be done. It's not as refined as the V1, but it does do some things better than the V1 as well as the Max2.Performance:In terms of performance, you have a detector with very good range and, thanks to the DSP scanning the entire range very quickly, very fast reaction times without having to rely on band segmentation or custom sweeps like you do on other detectors. Performance will be equivalent to a Max2 which means it's comparable to a custom swept V1 but still lags behind other detectors like the Redline, Magnum, or Radenso Pro SE. It is *NOT* the most sensitive and best performing detector on the market, despite what some have said.False Alert Filtering:This is an area where the Max detectors can do a lot for you without you having to customize and tweak things, rely on a cell phone, etc. There's also been some improvements relative to the previous Max/Max2 detectors. You have GPS lockouts which are automatic and so as you drive around, the detector will learn where many false alerts are located and being locking them out for you so the detector gets quieter over time. Other detectors can do this too, but they may require you to manually press a button to lock signals out (Uniden, Radenso), or they may depend on a cell phone so they're not as integrated (Redline, V1) as what you'll get with the Max detectors.Blind spot falses are some of the most annoying source of falses and not detector can filter them out entirely. Not a single one. With the 360 there have been some improvements to the blind spot filtering, aka collision avoidance system filtering. It now has the ability to filter out many falses without resorting to TSR which will kneecap your K band performance. It's not perfect and you still will get falses, but it's nice that we're getting a more sophisticated ability to filter out blind spot falses now with the 360. This is an improvement over the Max/Max2 detectors which kinda sucked at this.This detector also has the ability to quiet down signals when you're traveling at low speeds. You enable Cruise Alert and tell it to mute signals when you're traveling under a certain speed. You get two attention-getting beeps then silence. Very nice to keep the detector quiet around town. A quick note.. if you pair your detector with your phone and run Escort Live, it will ignore your cruise alert speed and instead use the speed limit that it gets from Live and mute signals when you're traveling under the speed limit. There's no way to disable this if you're running both cruise alert and Escort Live simultaneously. The reason this is an issue is that the speed limit doesn't take into account things like construction zones and quite frankly, it's often just plain wrong. Because of this, you can run into a situation where your detector is actually muting itself while you're traveling above the speed limit. Not good!! Be aware of this if you run the two features together in tandem.Size:The detector is huge. It's the biggest windshield mount detector on the market. It's also the heaviest. Fortunately this isn't too big of a deal in practice, but it's something to be aware of. The design of the mount is more of an issue than the size of the detector.Sticky cup mount:There's been some improvements as well as some new problems introduced with the mount. The sticky cup mount has been updated from what was used with the Max/Max2 to make the detector bounce less. Finally we have a solid and stable sticky cup Max! Finally! Without a button to press and with a magnetic mount, it makes it super easy to attach and remove. This part makes it one of my favorite mounts on the market. I love this aspect.However, there are some issues with the sticky cup. If the mount isn't very clean, it will fall off your windshield! Clean the sticky cup with water and shake dry it and it will become sticky again. The redesigned mounts are also now falling apart. It's happened to me twice now and it's been reported by others where the latch pops off and the spring inside the mount makes the entire mount basically explode off your windshield. Not good! Fortunately it's easy to fix and put the mount back together again, but I'd expect more from what is now the most expensive windshield mount radar detector on the market, you know?Display:The Max360 has a bunch of different ways of customizing the display which is awesome. You get a TON of useful information including not only signal strength and your speed (thanks to GPS), but also the speed limit (when you pair the detector with Escort Live), signal strength now for the front and rear antennas, as well as arrows! There's a bunch of ways of customizing the display to give you just the information you want in the way you want it. See this video for more information on those different options: [...]You get more information than you get with other detectors like the Max2, Redline, or V1, but not as much as you get with the V1 if you pair it with YaV1.Arrows:Yes it's got arrows. This is one of the detector's biggest selling points. Valentine's patent on arrows expired in 2012 so Escort has had a few years to begin developing their arrows. They've done some similar stuff, they're doing some things better, and they've still got some refinement to do (Valentine has had nearly 3 decades now to refine their arrows) so it's a bit of a mixed bag to say which one is "better," so let's go into a little more detail here.The Max360's arrows can show up in different colors and you can customize the arrows to tell you what you want. You can have the arrows work for one signal or multiple, you can have different colors to match your car's interior, have different colors for front or rear, have different colors for K vs. Ka band, etc. Lots more customizability. Again see this video for more information: [...]The V1's arrows work better though. When you pass a source, the V1's arrows flip front to back almost instantly. The 360's arrows take about 4 seconds on average. I've seen some situation where they can take about 8-9 seconds as you can see here:[...] Arrows are very helpful to locate the threat, know if you've passed it, locate a blind spot falsing car, figure out if that unmarked crown vic was the source, and so on, and if the arrows are pointing in the wrong direction, they really start to lose their value. See this video to see a Max360/V1 arrow comparison in action: [...] Escort claims this lag time is there to give the 360 enough time to process the change. I don't totally buy it. The other explanation is to avoid the bounciness that we sometimes see with the V1 where the arrow sort of bounce front/rear as you get close to a signal source. The 360 gets confused less in this regard, but it's more laggy. I prefer a little bounciness (which doesn't always happen) because that tells me that I'm passing the source versus an arrow that takes a while to flip around.Compared to the V1:We might as well talk about how it compares to the V1 since that's an obvious direct competitor.Basically the idea is that the Max360 has copied a lot of the V1's features, improved on some things, but is still a bit unrefined compared to the V1 as I mentioned previously. However, the idea is that you get more information from the detector's screen (signal frequency, for example) and you aren't reliant upon a cell phone for many of its most useful features (ie. GPS lockouts). The Max360 has more to offer than a standalone V1. If you pair your V1 with an Android phone and run the free app YaV1, you'll get more useful information (ie. Seeing every single signal plus the direction, strength, and frequency of every signal instead of just the main one or two, the GPS lockouts are less likely to lock out a police officer, and you have far more control and customization available. See these videos for info about the app, setup guides, explanations of the features, etc.: [...]The V1/YaV1 is a better overall package if you pair it with a phone and take the time to set it up. The Max360 is an easier to use package if you want something simple, plug and play, and self-contained in one integrated package.I like both for different reasons.Improvements over the Max2:We might as well talk about how it compares to the Max2 as well, the detector that it evolves from and effectively replaces. For an extra $50 (retail pricing), you get a rear antenna as well as the arrows. Performance is the same, it's physically larger, you get a less bouncy mount, an improved false alert filter without needing TSR, and there's been some small little improvements as well. For example, the high pitched annoying beeps that you get on startup and when going into the settings menu have been changed. It's a lower pitched beep now which is much less ear-piercing. Hooray! The build quality of the detector is better and there shouldn't be any more issues with the condenser lens falling out or the detector splitting in half thank to the redesigned detector.Bugs:There are some new bugs that have been introduced into the 360 that we didn't have before. For example, the buttons are kinda cheapy and there's a textured paint on the plastic buttons that's kind of see-through so the buttons actually glow when backlit at night. They shouldn't do this and it looks like a poor design. Both of my 360's do this and other people are reporting this issue as well. There's also been a few reports of the text fading off the buttons. Like the sticky cup mount separation issues, this seems to be symptomatic of Escort's cost cutting we're seeing lately across the board. Quality is going down, they're switching over to cheaper components (using a new cheapy plastic shell for their Redlines for example), while simultaneously raising their prices. It's not a good combination and doesn't bode well for the future of Escort. Seems to be a common trend when a company is bought out by an investment company that's looking to milk as much money as they can out of a company...There were 33.6xx falses with the Max/Max2 that usually happened in the presence of K band falses. It's really annoying because the detector is now producing high priority Ka band alerts when there's actually just low priority blind spot K band falses. No other detector has this issue and it's really annoying. So you get these new falses, plus if you have your detector paired with Escort Live, it drops Ka alerts on the map and now everyone else running the app has to deal with your false alerts too. Awesome... Not. On a positive note, while Escort has acknowledged the issue with the Max/Max2 but has done nothing to fix the issue, it looks like they have done something with the 360. The 33.6xx falses seem to be mostly gone, but instead now we get 33.4xx falses, so they've made some changes but they haven't truly fixed the issue. The word is that they're looking into fixing this with a future firmware update, but Escort's history of firmware updates and fixes over time is pretty lackluster at best. They'd rather you spend $$$ buying a new detector a year or two down the road rather than fully support their old products. I don't like that... To be fair they have fixed some issues like speeding up the initial alert time from when the detector goes off to when the frequency and arrows pop up so there are improvements being made, but there's a lot to be desired nonetheless.Update: 5/17/16: Escort has since resolved this issue as of firmware 1.4. Upgrade to the latest software using Escort Detector Tools https://www.escortradar.com/productregistration/ and this will no longer be an issue. :)Is the Max360 worth it?Maybe, depending on what you want. If you want arrows, you want the detector to do just about everything for you without you having to set things up and muck around with pairing it with a phone every time or manually locking a signal out every time, this is a great plug-and-play option jack packed with features and is very easy to use. If you do wind up getting one, here's a walkthrough I put together going through the settings and menu options and helping you fine tune the detector to exactly how you want it: [...]What are some other options you should consider? Well if you like the idea of arrows and want a better all around package for less money and you don't mind pairing your detector with an Android phone and setting things up, take a look at the V1 with YaV1. It's what the Max360 is designed to target.If you want maximum performance, look at a detector like the Escort RedLine,Beltronics Magnum, or Radenso Pro SE.If you want an easy to use, plug-and-play windshield mount radar detector with all the bells and whistles, the Max360 is a great choice.

The display is not very bright hard to read while driving during daylight hours

Very expensive radar detective. It is huge. Works fine most of the time but sometimes he can miss a cop right in front of you.App is junk I don't use it very often.

The radar detector itself is amazing but the IPhone app is pathetic for such a top quality radar detector. I had a $100 Cobra and the Iphone app blew away this pathetic attempt at a smart phone app. For $600, Escort should be providing a top quality radar detector with a top quality app but the app is just an afterthought. I couldn't even create a new account using the app and had to login to their website to create. Afterward, the app said I had until March of 2018 and then expired the next day and I had to purchase a new year long subscription.The idea of the app integration with the radar detector is awesome and the data the app provides is amazing but it needs serious work. I am removing two stars because there is simply no excuse as to why Escort has not fixed and cleaned up their app yet. Otherwise, I would have given it a 5 star review because the radar detector itself is absolutely amazing and detects radar over 1 mile away. It's one of the best detectors I have used.When they fix the app - if they fix it - I will come back and change my review to 5 stars. Until then, it stays at 3. I am extremely dissapointed with such a low quality app for such a high end radar detector. Are you telling me Escort doesn't have the money to hire a couple more good programmers? Come on! I work in IT and could fix this app in 6 months max.

This detector is not worth the money. This detector is overpriced for what it is IMHO. Sometimes the voice is very low and sometimes it is a good level and sometimes it is to loud. I have updated the detector. I liked the GPS feature for the red light cameras but that does not work well either. It will work but sometimes only when you approach the intersection from one direction and not from the other 3. This is with their database not my own marked location. Intersections for red light cameras are not in their database for the most part in El Paso, TX. I have a detector which is years old and most all the intersection for red light cameras are marked for El Paso, TX and several other towns I have driven through and marked no mater what direction the intersection is approached. This detector has many features which I think most are just hype. I would not recommend this detector to anyone for the price charged.

---Updated review---Dec 2016---Display becomes garbled under cold temperature (usually below 20 deg F). Will eventually fix itself once the car warms up. E-mail to Escort asking if this condition is normal, and if there will be a software fix has gone unanswered for over a week. I guess they don't care about their customers once they get their money.---Original review---Good: • Good detection range, especially on K and Ka bands. • Linear signal strength meter. • TSR significantly reduces false K band detection. • Arrows respond quickly as I pass the threat.Bad: • Cheap sounding buttons. • Auto brightness does not work when RD is mounted high. • OSP portion of display is wasted when OSP is turned off. Either make other display content wider, or show other information, ie. compass. • Owner's manual is poorly written, I ended up watching YouTube instead. • Signal strength meter is the same color regardless of the incoming band. Would have preferred unique color for each band type (similar to how the arrows work in the band mode). • TSR is not bulletproof. • Paint applied to the unit is uneven. Looks like someone applied it with a spray can.Missing: • Auto volumeOverall:Solid RD with good performance, although some of the implementation and HMI could use some improvement.Background:Over twenty years of driving with Bel and Escort.

Front receiver seems weak. Detection range much less than max2 in same location. Rear receiver seems fine.

I missed the return by one day. I don't like the 360 compared to my 9500ix.

I had to return it in the 1st week. Used it for several days and it kept giving false Ka alerts, but only on the rear facing antenna.

Unreliable. Goes off when there isn't a soul around on the highway.

Nice unit at first glance. Lots of false k band alerts even using it along side with the app. The arrows are slow the change direction with a known threat insite. They need to figure out how to filter out the other vehicles using k band radar for collision avoidance.

Bought this radar detector Aug 30th. When it arrived it came nicely packed with a carrying case and warranty paper. Had it hard wired to my car since I got it. The range is decent. I keep getting lots of false K band alert saying its from the otherside of the highway. I hear it's from other cars lanes assist. If a cop is sitting at a hidden patch with the radar facing perpendicular I would only be notice 20 feet away from where he is sitting. I drive a very fast sports car for me not enough time to react. As of today the speaker blown out on me so I am sending for repair. For a radar detector I spent $650 for I expected way more. But it goes to show you it always doesn't meant it's better if it costs more. Now seeing the price dropped not too long ago to $538 still wouldn't buy it. I am disappointed. I purposely bought this unit so I wouldn't have to deal with the speaker being blown out on the redline which I hear is really great.

So I had really high hopes for this unit and was pretty excited when it was delivered. According to the printing on the unit, mine was manufactured the 46th week of 2015. The bottom showed "4615" and according to escort that is what that means.Initial impression upon unboxing it:1. Felt cheap, especially the buttons. Not that it matters for overall performance, just expected it to feel more sturdy.2. Brand new out of the box it appeared the paint on the grey buttons was wearing off as the blue light was shining through them.The first thing I wanted to do was hook it up to a PC of mine and see if there was an update. I grabbed a USB 2.0 cable that was lying around (since they don't supply one with it) and plugged it in. Immediately got a warning that said low voltage warning, please power off. After calling Escort support I was told to try a different ISB cable. This makes sense as some USB 2.0 cable provide better current then others, however if the 360 needs a specific cable to run it in USB mode while connected to the computer, Escort should have provided it, and the tech support agent on the phone agreed. She actually sent me a cable free of charge and in the meantime I found one that worked. Very disappointed that a $650 dollar radar detecter isn't packaged with the cable it needs to run the updater.Once I got it hooked up to computer and working, the Escort program ran a check and told me my firmware was current, so good to go.Time to try this thing out.... Suction cup worked great and was rock solid. While using this, I made several road trips. Several on I-80 in between Reno, NV and Truckee, CA, and a 4 hr trip on I-80 from Reno to Santa Rosa, CA. I felt that was plenty opportunity to test actual functionality.I ran the unit with TSR, X, and POP off. I got lots of K band false's that would pop up for a couple seconds and then disappear. No biggie, I can deal with that, and the unit hadn't learned to lock them out yet. However driving on straight open HWY, I only encountered a few CHP's running Ka, and was only alerted about 100-200 yards away from the threat, very disappointing and luckily I wasn't speeding.Using it in town, GPS lockouts worked, and after the 3rd identical alert in the same GPS location the 360 did what it was supposed to do and locked out the false alert.So yes, I had high hopes, but feel pretty let down. Maybe my unit was defective? Don't really feel like giving it a 2nd chance yet, but maybe later after some refinements. I think i'll end up going with the Valentine, just wish they had the bluetooth dongle built in. I expected much better performance from a $650 dollar detector.

Bought this product with great expectation and never once went off even after I called customer support and we went over all the settings. The police will be right next to me or passing by and it would not even beep.

I bought this detector because it has a GPS chip and able to detect Red Light cameras. After setting it up, I passed 2 known red light cameras and it did not go off. When I got home I tried to call but Escort was already closed. Their customer service/support is only available M-F from 9 to 5:30 so basically useless if you work until 5:00. I had to call while at work and the rep tells me that I need to update my detector cause it doesn't know where it is (I thought that that was what a GPS does). He also told me that you have to update your detector every 2 weeks. After doing the updates, I passed the red light cameras and still nothing. It has an auto learn feature, what does it learn? Should has bought a Valentine. It is a superior detector in all test I have seen but does not have the red light detection. But then again, neither does the Max 360 unless you pay $49.99 a year for Escorts database which is totally separate from the Escort Live. This will be the LAST escort detector I ever buy.

Pass this one up and buy the NEW IX.This one was $ 649.00 the other day.AMAZON just took a whack of 150.00 on this one.The thing is huge, as in HUGE.The buttons on the top are SILVER so they will constantly reflect off the windshield...( Golly, whose idea at Escort was that?).The display uses the same tech as the MAX 2 and the New IX, but the display on this one is DIMMER than anything weve seen, and we ordered three of them, so the findings are consistant.The GPS and BLUETOOTH connections and information are SPOTTY.The ARROWS ain't worth it.The new IX is trimmer, thinner, has black buttons on top, but also suffers from a LOSUSY GPS antenna that Escort has not fixed.Unless the units have a totally clear shot to the sky, it will not get a signal.We Velcro-ed it to the top of the dash in clear view of the sky, and it still blinks in and out...................now this is less expensive than the IX.Maybe it is being recalled.The MAX 2 is the best option.

lack of shield is a issue. what's the point with all the new features if COPs can detect this radar using their RDD..Escort get your features aligned in the order of importance to the end-user.. not what your marketing chick thinks flashy

HORRIBLE,My 9500xi is MUCHHH BETTER!!! I was told the false alarm due to my car's safety systems was fix!! It was not and now the K band goes-off anytime I lose GPS, like in my own grage or any place. I am HIGHLY disappointed, I truly thought this was a major upgrade to my 9500XI but it is not, it is actually a downgrade

The suction mount is TERRIBLE!! It continues to drop off the windshield. I have finished remounting for the 4th time on this 1 1/2 drive. Very poor performance for such an expensive product.