The Valentine One’s monopoly on glowing arrows is over. After more than 20 years as the only radar detector that could indicate the location of the radar source, the magnesium box that time forgot finally faces a competitor equipped with directional pointers. The real surprise is that it’s taken this long given that Valentine’s patent on the arrow indicators expired back in 2011. Now Escort Radar’s new Max 360 offers the same core capabilities as the Valentine One with the inclusion of a rear-facing antenna and four triangles to indicate direction.
After more than a week of driving with the Max 360, we can say that’s everything you’d expect given the technology inside and Escort’s history. Combining Escort’s clever filtering technology with the added protection of a rear-facing antenna makes for a powerful yet user-friendly radar detector. But we’re not picking winners here and now. We haven’t performed the instrumented, objective tests on the Max 360 that we used to pick the Passport Max over the Valentine One in our 2014 head-to-head comparison test. This review is based purely on real-world use and subjective experiences with the Max 360.
Whether or not you need arrows on a radar detector is as much a philosophical question as a technical one. Arrows act as a manual filter of sorts. A weak signal from behind that isn’t getting any stronger often can be ignored. A strong signal that moves from ahead, to the sides, to behind means the source has passed (although may still be tracking your speed). But to process a series of squawks and flashing lights at 80 mph requires snap judgments. Most drivers only need to hear the warning of a Ka-band radar alert or a strong K-band signal to hit the brakes. Where the signal is coming from is secondary to the fact that a nearby threat simply exists. In that sense, the Escort 360’s (and Valentine One’s) greatest advantage isn’t the arrows, but the fact that there’s a rear-facing antenna to quite literally cover your ass.
Valentine One acolytes almost universally disagree that the arrows are a luxury. Instead, they insist that the arrows are a critical tool to avoiding the roadside taxman. If you count yourself among the drivers who deem the arrows vital, know that the Max 360’s pointers do it better. Escort’s directional indicators pack more information and are easier to read than Valentine’s. With the directional display configured to “band mode” the arrows illuminate different colors depending on the type of signal received. A green glow indicates X band, blue represents K band, and a red light means Ka-band radar is present.
On the road, the Max 360 demonstrated more-than-adequate range in calling out true police signals. The OLED display is also packed with easy-to-read information. In Spec or Expert modes, it can present either the exact radar frequency or the front- and rear-antenna signal strengths for up to four different radar sources. We have just one chief complaint with the Max 360’s performance: The arrows are slow to react when the radar source changes positions relative to the detector. The “ahead” arrow often remains lit for several seconds after you’ve passed a stationary police car before finally flipping to the rear indicator.
After it’s acclimated to your local haunts, the Max 360 is quieter than most detectors thanks to Escort’s own patented superpower that uses GPS to silence known stationary sources like motion detectors. In a world painted with radar waves, filtering out false alerts is a key part of sniffing out speed traps. Twenty years ago, the greatest annoyance was the automatic door opener at the gas station, but the traffic-flow sensors now lining our interstates and the blind-spot-monitoring systems built into today’s cars can wreak havoc on a radar detector and your ability to use it effectively.
The Max 360’s filtering isn’t flawless, though. Anecdotally at least, the Max 360 seemed noticeably noisier than a Passport Max or a Passport Max 2. That’s the downside of a rear-facing antenna: it also increases the unit’s sensitivity to false alerts. Our test unit was particularly sensitive to K-band radar emitted by blind-spot-monitoring systems. During one morning commute we were antagonized by the world’s most aggressively driven Buick Enclave. No matter how fast we drove, we couldn’t escape the reach of its blind-spot radar and the grating brap of the Max 360.
It’s even worse when your car is the radar source. The Max 360 is virtually unusable in modern Hondas and Acuras equipped with blind-spot monitoring. The constant drip, drip, drip of a weak K-band signal from the rear is the acoustic analog of Chinese water torture. Turning the safety systems off in the car doesn’t help, either. It merely disables the chimes and warning lights while the radar continues to transmit.
We’re also surprised that the radar-detector industry continues to operate as if it is doesn’t benefit from economies of scale or Moore’s Law. While the Valentine One’s $399 price hasn’t moved in more than a decade, the $650 Max 360 does a fine job of making it look like a value. Both strategies seem out of touch with the era when great software is often free. Waze, the Google-owned, crowd-sourced navigation app is shockingly good at outing speed traps. Those who are in the know run Waze and a radar detector simultaneously, but plenty of lead-footed drivers rely solely on the free app. (Escort Live, the subscription-based app that interfaces with Escort radar detectors to mark and share speed-trap locations has too small of a user base to be reliable in most locations.)
If you can afford the price, the Max 360 offers confidence-inspiring insurance against a cop with a radar gun. At the same time, the most expensive, most feature-packed device isn’t automatically the best buy. More affordable detectors like the Valentine One and Escort’s less expensive GPS-equipped units still offer excellent protection for a steep discount.
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