This New Golf GPS Handheld Is Loaded With Features
Scott Kramer, Contributor, ForbesLife. I cover golf, luxury technology, and the intersection of the two.
The good news? This handheld golf GPS unit works really well. The bad news: You’re going to mistake it for your phone. Frequently. Like I did in the first round I tried it out.
SkyCaddie SX500 GPS SCOTT KRAMER
SkyGolf’s SkyCaddie SX500 is essentially an Android device repackaged with one sole purpose: To run the company’s golf GPS. And it’s a pleasure to use. The buttons are nice and big. It’s lightweight, and has a nice rubbery casing that protects it. The software’s very intuitive, and leads you quickly right down the path to what you’re looking for. It comes loaded with maps of more than 35,000 golf courses. It’s easy to hold in one hand. And maybe best of all, the 5-inch color touch screen is bright and vibrant — a welcome sight under bright sunlight that golfers commonly play in.
I arrived at Pelican Hill Golf Club in Southern California earlier this week, to put the unit to the test. Standing at the driving range, I turned on the device and in roughly two minutes was looking at a map of the first hole on the South Course. The entire round, I compared its yardages to those on the cart’s GPS. They were identical. But of course, I was able to bring the SkyCaddie back to tee boxes that were well off the cart path — to get an exact yardage for my tee shots rather than have to guess, as I would from just using the cart’s GPS display. Today In: Lifestyle
This unit commemorates the 20th anniversary of the company being in business. And officials took the best features of all of the brand’s previous products, combined them along with suggestions from customers over the years, and put it all into this new unit. As a result, the high-capacity rechargeable Li-Polymer battery yields 12-to-14 hours of continuous use. That’s roughly three full rounds. After my 3.5-hour round, the battery had barely dwindled down a notch on the display.
The SX500 lets you look at various views of the hole and green. You can use your fingers to pick specific spots to find yardages to, relocate the flagstick position, and zoom in on holes. You can keep score on it, then synchronize all of your scores to your account on the website via USB or WiFi. Its IntelliGreen technology rotates the green automatically to match your angle of approach, so you have exact distance to all parts of the green from where you’re standing. It also shows the various ridges and tiers of a green, so you know when you have to club up to reach the back of a green from out in the fairway. Of course, it automatically detects the hole you’re on when you step up to the tee. There are many more features and abilities, but it’s easy to see that the company delivered on its promise to include the best of its features.
It makes a great holiday gift for any golfer in your life. Including yourself. Just don’t blindly pull it out of your pocket on the course and try to answer phone calls on it. Like me.