I'm a professional caddie, and need a reliable, accurate GPS watch which doesn't go wonky during my loop. Although this is the most accurate of the 4 or 5 Golf GPS watches I've owned, it also has some annoying quirks. Here's my list of Pro and Con attributes of the Garmin Approach S42:
Pro:
1. The Approach S42 is by far the most accurate of any GPS watch I've ever used. I've compared yardages to both sprinkler head and laser rangefinder readings, and it's dead on. This is especially helpful when I'm caddying at someplace other than my home course for a USGA tournament or qualifier. During a practice round, I can make notes in my yardage book knowing that the distances are 100% good.
2. I'm able to caddie for 36 consecutive holes and still have plenty of battery charge left.
3. The readout is very visible in every light condition, and the graphics are razor sharp.
4. The watch band is comfortable and fits over shirt, pullover, and rain jacket sleeves.
CON:
1. Initial Set-Up was a painful experience. Included instruction manual isn't well-written, and lacks sufficient detail.
2. This watch is NOT good during a rainy golf round, unless set to lock screen all the time. When worn under the sleeve of my rain jacket, the GPS signal is blocked, and it starts defaulting to weird screens, like a close-up of the green when I'm still 200 yards out. Even worse, I have a heck of a time getting the watch to go back to the regular yardages screen. When I wear it outside of my jacket sleeve, the raindrops cause the touchscreen to change randomly. I've had to set the watch to automatically lock during the round, which makes it slow to display yardages to hazards...but that doesn't matter much, as I explain below.
3. I'm not a fan of the way this watch shows distances to hazards, as it includes bunkers, etc, on adjacent fairways which aren't in play. I've stopped using this feature as a result, instead relying on my yardage book and laser sighting, or memory on my home course.
4. I wish that this watch showed the time on the screen during the round. It's a pain to switch screens, when all I need is a quick glance to see how our group's pace of play is going. Plus sometimes when I switch to another screen, it won't go back to the regular yardage screen.
5. The Bluetooth linkage with my computer and mobile phone was erratic, randomly choosing to display text message or email alerts sometimes, and then nothing 5 minutes later. I have noticed improvement after I switched to a higher-end iPhone with a lot more memory and battery capacity. To be honest, this isn't an essential feature for me.
Bottom Line: If there was a way to have this GPS watch's amazing accuracy, easily-readable face, and comfortable band without all of the not-so-helpful features, plus display the time during the round, and work effectively in stormy weather, I'd be a happy caddie! (NOTE: I've owned lower-end models of Garmin golf GPS watches, and they've lacked the outstanding accuracy of this model. I'm willing to put up with the quirks, because precise yardages are much more important than anything else to me.)
| 商品尺寸 | 4.32 x 4.32 x 1.17 cm; 41 克 |
|---|---|
| 产品颜色 | 青铜陶瓷边框和黑色硅胶表带 |
| 特殊功能 | Golf, 户外 |
| 屏幕尺寸 | 1.2 英寸 |
| 容量 | 64 MB |
| 型号 / 款式 | 010-02572-10 |
| 包装清单 | Approach S42; Charging/data cable; Documentation |
