In Search Of: Unbiased GPS reviews

We had Skycaddies for years but let the "subscription" go due to the PITA of downloading courses all the time, limited number of courses on the unit, and the recurring fees that are punishing and not competitive with the rest of the GPS market.

We currently use a laser finder only.  It's great especially for really accurate play - BUT - knowing front/back/middle of greens - and hazard layup/carry info on courses we're less familiar with would be really great.

Almost all "reviews" online are thinly veiled softball sales pitches.  Where is the harsh truth?  ha ha

Things we would like (ideally) -

No Fees - EVER (not even for "enhanced" features)

No downloading of courses - no going to websites - instead, preloaded/auto recognition of courses

Renderings of the shape of greens, widths, and pin location customization

If it MUST be updated online - a user interface for Mac OSX (have PCs too, but really?  yuck)

Rechargeable long life 3 rounds+ Battery preferably with a mini USB port for easy charging universally anywhere

Cool features like - flyovers, touch screen, even color are really just fluff.  Nice if it's there - but don't want to pay another $100 for it.

UnCool features - Stat Tracking, scoring etc. - HATE IT.  It clutters up the unit with nonsense.  Play golf. If you can't hit fairways, greens or make putts - go to the range!  LOL

Garmin, Golf Buddy, Callaway are some brands we've seen.  There a 5 different models of Golf Buddy but strangely they don't even have a model comparison on their own website!  Garmin's website is bit of a mess and Callaway's doesn't even work currently in Safari or Opera!

An extra FWIW, I've tried/used GolfLogix on my phone and while OK, it has two major problems - battery hog - can't even get one full round out of it.  Cluttered user interface filled with unnecessary stuff (stats etc.)

Don't know if I am unbias but have some feedback I can give you.  First off I currently own a Skycaddie SG5 and whole heartly agree that the downloading of course is a huge negative from the unit.  While I don't know all the specific Skycaddie has a new SGX that I think has all courses preloaded and you acutally turn the unit from one side to the other to get different views, which is cool.

I don't know if the is a fee for the SGX, but the Garmin G5 doesn't not have a fee and would meet a lot of your requirements, my brother has one and loves it.  As stated don't think the G5 has any fees, it has courses preloaded, has the green shapes, has a touch color screen, recharge with mini USB (or can use standard AA batteries), and can last 3 rounds with one set of batteries.

However, I think some of your requirements don't exists.  As far as I know there are no units on the market for golf that don't require a hook up to a computer for updating courses.  I know my skycaddie does and I know the garmin does.  And I think they all have the uncool features!

I've just started playing around with the Mobitee app on my iPhone and it seems pretty damn good so far. There's a free version (the one I'm testing) and the website also sells battery-cases for various devices if you don#t want to increase battery life with turning off 3G, Bluetooth etc so it may be worth taking a look at that. No idea the web address but Google will know.

One thing I love the idea of and that they advertise (but that they have yet to confirm is possible on all courses!) is the yardage for all hazards, front and back of greens etc. It'll be especially handy when using the virtual reality function where you point your phone at the hole and it plots arrows to hazards and the center of the green.

I've got a Garmin Approach G3, and really like it. No fees, it's had every course I've played since I got it (including a little executive nearby), it's reasonably small (but not as thin as the Callaway), I get great battery life off a pair of plain old AA batteries and it's durable as hell. I also picked up the carabiner lanyard for $10, and it makes it super easy to clip onto my bag and a lot more secure than the belt clip. It has distances to everything like front and back of greens and hazards, plus it takes about 2 seconds to move the pin to an exact location. My approach irons aren't accurate enough to need to move the pin personally, since I can easily see if it's front, back or center and those yardages are on there. I get as close as my game allows. ;)

It does have some stat tracking and a scorecard, but I use neither. The main difference between it and the pricier G5 is the stat tracking. The only part of it I ever use is shot measurment, to see how long that drive really was.

Thanks for the replies so far - the Garmin are Mac compatible too where I've seem to discover the Golf Buddy are not.  The Garmin 3 sounds interesting - I will have to look again at the Callaway too and just use Firefox.  they changed from an original per course download scheme for Pro mode - to a flat unlimited rate now (one time only I think?)

Meanwhile in my searches I've found a couple of useful sites for comparing units now -

http://criticalgolf.com/golf-gps-reviews/

http://www.golfgpsreviews.com/golf-gps-comparison/

They aren't fully up to date but at least give some good info.  Keep the good inputs coming!  The Garmin 3 is top of the list now.

I use the Callaway Upro MX and also use Mac OSX.  The Upro is ready to use out of the box and includes most of your wanted features without the additional fee.  Scorecard and stat tracking are included but are not cumbersome.  You actually have to make the minimal effort and click over to the scorecard if you want it, otherwise the GPS simply moves onto the next hole.  If you want the extras like flyovers and such, you will need to upgrade to Pro mode which has a one time fee as you have already alluded too.

As for downloading courses... it is web based.  I use firefox and have not had a single issue with syncing my device.  Not always the quickest process, but only minutes depending on the number of courses you are downloading.

Overall I have found the Upro MX to be very accurate.  I have checked distances standing on various yard markers and have been around +/- 2 yds.  Plenty accurate enough for me.

Out of curiosity - does the Callaway Upro MX charge with a standard USB cable (or mini USB)?

(In the past I have used a solar charger on my Sky Caddie and never needed to take it in the house to charge since.)

Still, I hesitate on this unit - the reviews on Amazon are almost universally horrific.

If you want reliable accurate yardage without paying an annual fee, downloading a course and having to replace batteries in the middle of your round, try the igolf NEO+

Have to disagree. I bought the Neo+ and used it for several rounds. Sitting on course markers it was off by as much as 10 yards. When put up against the laser, I found consistently it was 5-10 yards off on the courses I played.

Put the Neo up for sale on CL...no bites, go figure.

I use golfshot on my iphone 4 and its really good.  Not sure if its pin point accurate but its within 5 yards at least which is fine for me.  There is stat tracking features but you can turn them off in the options if you want.

I use to use the same app on my 3gs but the battery couldn't handle it.  I am usually still at over 50% battery on my iphone 4 after a four hour round.

I have the Garmin Approach G5.  The main difference between it and the G3 seems to be screen size - the G5 screen is  a bit larger.  It does do stat tracking and score keeping, but you can skip it on the first hole and then it just does distance.  It comes fully loaded with everything you need, but if you do get this or the G3, I recommend registering it with Garmin and downloading the latest software and map updates. They are all free, and for mine at least, the software update was more than just fluff.  It added stuff to the hole maps like tree locations, which is a new addition to the unit this spring.

I've been very happy with the Garmin.  I guess the only downside for your wants is that it isn't a rechargeable system.  It takes 2 AA batteries.  I use the new Energizer Lithium and get up to 7 rounds on a pair of batteries.  I always keep a couple of spares in the bag so I'm never caught short.

Another vote for the Garmin Approach G5. Love it, no regrets.

As stated above it takes regular or rechargeable AA's.

The only time you have to connect to your computer is if you want to upgrade your course list. I think that Garmin updates the courses quarterly. Also I heard somewhere that they are updating current courses with trees which they used to leave out.

Not sure why you can't find good reviews. For the most part I find Amazons reviews very honest and informative.

If you have an iphone or an android phone then check out Swing by Swing.  I have a dedicated GPS (Expresso SG1) and it is fine, but when I got an iphone I saw that swing by swing had good basic functionality in its free version and an upgrade called looper that did club tracking, for $47.  I liked the basic app after a couple of rounds so I did the upgrade.  One of the reasons is that if you did the club tracking you could get a visual record of your round, shot by shot, kind of like shotlink on the PGA tour site.  It all worked fine - but I found that the whole club tracking process was a distraction from my focus on playing so after trying it for a couple of rounds I decided I wasn't going to use it.  I emailed them (they have a 60-day money back on the looper upgrade) and the very same day they emailed me back reversing the transaction and crediting my credit card, no questions asked.  PLUS they left the looper upgrade on my phone for the rest of the year!  I still don't use it, but the basic rangefinder has replaced my old dedicated GPS.

BTW the free app came with courses already loaded, with no downloads of courses necessary.  The screen shows the hole off of Google Earth.  It gives you distance to the center of the green, but you can press a "Green" butting and get an enlarged closeup of the green with arcs every 10 yards for fine-tuning even better than front, center, back yardages. You can touch the screen, say at a ravine crossing the fairway, and it will tell you how far to the ravine.

Highly recommended, both for the app itself and the outstanding customer service.  Plus, if you already have an iphone or droid (and I've used both versions for reason I won't go into), it is free.  The guy who runs the company has even been on this board a few times.

I've demoed the Garmin Approach G3 now, and frankly the unit is pathetic compared to running an app on my Android HTC EVO.

This has made me seriously rethink buying a dedicated golf GPS.  Especially at $259+ tax versus an app at ~$20 - or even FREE if you want to put up with ads or limited features.

I've looked at Golflogix (recurring annual fee), Swing by Swing (not bad and only a one time $20 fee) and many others now.

The one I like so far is called nRange http://nrange.com/ - it has a good clear split screen for fairway/green and also allows you to choose fairway only with adjustable targets.  Best of all it's free unless you want scoring and no advertising!  Going to try it out today and see if it drains the battery as bad as Golflogix or not.  Even so, maybe the money for hardware is better spent adding an external battery charge pack for the phone as opposed to a dedicated GPS.  The big bright EVO screen sure makes a difference - also more info is available with a better interface in general.

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The basic Swing by Swing app is free.  The scorecard add-on is $12/yr and the Looper add-on (which includes the scorecard) is $47/yr.  As I detailed elsewhere, I got the Looper add-on but it was too distracting to me (although it did do everything it said it did) and I was able to get a full refund (and they even let me keep it for the rest of the year).  So I am a little confused about the $20 one time fee you mentioned.

Since you said that you want basic functionality I think the free version would suit you perfect.  Plus, I have had excellent battery stamina with it.  I start at 100% and have never been below 50% at the end of 18.

I like Swing by Swing but I may try some other free apps.

PS:  I appreciate you mentioning nrange - it looks nice - but unfortunately they didn't have 2 of the 3 courses I play regularly.

Out of curiosity, what did you find "pathetic" with the Garmin?  All you asked for in you opening post was a basic GPS distance measurer.  I find that the Garmin is exactly that, and that it lets you get distances to any feature on the hole - trees, bunkers, hazards, and to any point on any of those features, as well as to any point on the green.  Not sure what more you need?

Mini USB.

Apologies, I probably should have used a more politically correct word.  The main differences on the Garmins I found wanting were very small screen size (even on the big one), less bright, more difficult to move the layup marker (due to size) than most of the Android Apps.  Then you add in the extra navigation/visual features the apps offer on top like scrolling, zooming and more and ultimately the 10X (or more) price differential - the Garmins really fall short for me.

The good points of Garmins are the heavy duty build and super simplicity.  Side by side though (and I did this quite literally), my preference was the big bright EVO screen - regardless of price or other considerations.