Expresso AG1 GPS?

[turtleback]

Anyone have any experience with or know anything about the Expresso Ag1 GPS unit?  It is supposed to be the first GPS that does both golf and navigation.  It uses the igolf software for the golf part.  It is tempting because I've been thinking about getting a navigation GPS for the car, but this would kill 2 birds with one GPS.  It would also make it much easier to justify to the wife.

[vuga]

I just got one about a week ago.  I have used the navigation twice and the golf gps once.  The navigation works great, although it does take about 5 minutes or so to pick up the stailite signals to get started.  The golf GPS seems to be very accurate and easy to use.  The software automatically moves from hole to hole as you play, and the yardages update almost instantaneously as you move around the course.  I would stongly suggest that you pay for the premium membership on Igolf so that you can download course maps.  If you dowload maps than you can view, and zoom in on the entire hole on the device.  Your position is shown on the downloaded map, and you can use the touchscreen to find the distace to anywhere from your position, i,e distance to, and carry distance over bunkers, lakes, ect.  You can also estimate where the pin is on the green and find exact distance rather than the front middle and back shown on the regular screen.  The membership is no too expensive, about 40 bucks for a year, but once you download the maps you get to keep them forever, even after your membership lapses.  You get 50 dowloads, which for me is more than enough for all of the courses I typically play..

The only complaint that I have is that the device is pretty big, and is somewhat akward to carry around if you dont have a cart.  There is no belt clip or holster or anything.  I ended up keeping it in the outside mesh pocket of my bag.  I also had trouble getting one of the maps to function once I downloaded it.  However, I contacted Igolf and within two days I had an e-mail from an IT guy that was working on fixing the problem,  They also redownloaded the map for me without using on of my remaining credits.

All in all I am happy with the device so far, and for the price it is really hard to beat,  If you end up purchacing one, spend some time looking for a good price,  I found them as high as $250, but ended up getting mine for $189 with free shipping from Golfsmith after usuing an online coupon code.

[turtleback]

I ended up getting one and I pretty much agree with your review.  I got the igolf upgrade but so far I haven't really used the interactive maps, although I have downloaded it for my home course.  I'll have to try it out.

One of the things I really like when using it in standard mode is how easy it is to set it to measure your shot distance.