Best Price Callaway Golf uPro Go GPS

Best Price >>Callaway Golf uPro Go GPS

Best Price >> 15 new or used available from $129.99

Callaway Golf uPro Go GPS is my 2nd golf GPS. My first was the Golf Guru 002 which I thought was a pretty good unit. After using the uPro Go for one round, I'm very happy I've moved on. I am a 5-handicap so accurate, timely information is very important to me.

First off, I refuse to pay an annual subscription for a sky caddie and would never pay for individual courses (uPro Regular) -- I play too many different courses and I like to play in different states too. I also believe in having as much information as possible as long as it is easy to get to while playing. I do see the benefit of having full hole mappings (garmin G5, etc), especially on courses that are new to me. That being said, I'm not willing to pay double for that little extra bit of info. I also want a unit to be as small as possible (cell phone size is as big as I'm interested in) because I like to keep the unit in my back pocket.

The Callaway Golf uPro Go GPS has a great value proposition since it is pretty inexpensive (I paid $150 with Go-mode activated post rebate) and it's pretty feature rich for the $$$. I love Go-mode -- the right mix of important info and the flexibility to move the pin to the right spot. The graphics are great. The shape of the green and traps around the green make the info worthwhile. My previous golf GPS (Guru 002) had Intelligreen but the graphics were so weak that putting the pin in the proper spot was not possible. I also never trusted the accuracy of the Guru's reading to the pin since I would often measure the distance to the pin w/my Bushnell laser rangefinder and find the Guru off by 5-10 yards. Therefore, I had to carry my Rangefinder in addition to the GPS for pin-distance info. I cross referenced the uPro Go on most holes today and found it's yardages to be spot on w/my laser. It could just be that the course I played today was mapped better than the Guru's so I'll have to play a few others with the laser/GPS combo as well before I leave the laser in my trunk.
Here are my pros/cons so far:

Pros
- Size is awesome -- actually smaller than my HTC Hero Cell phone
- Screen is great -- very readable on the course (not sure why anyone is having issues)
- Go Mode -- fantastic. I think it's a very average GPS without Go Mode. Well worth the $50.
- Accuracy is great so far
- Course availability here in Colorado is great - I couldn't find any courses that I play that aren't already mapped.
- Cost is very reasonable
- Pretty intuitive interface -- easy to go from Hazard Mode to Go-mode.
- Was a little tricky the first time I wanted to load the course I played ...
- Auto hole advance works most of the time
- Unit build quality seems very solid
- Very easy to mark your shots for distance tracking
- I like the joystick -- not sure why others dislike
- Syncs easily with my Macbook Pro (Snow leopard)

Cons
- Would like to see scorekeeping on the unit
- Would like a hole view option
- Hazard info a little spotty (front/back of the trap/water is open to interpretation as to where they mapped it)
- Battery life may be iffy (not sure if I can get two full rounds -- had 40% left after one round)
- When you move the pin on the green in Go-mode, the other info around the green disappears (Why ??)

All-in-all, I'm happy with my purchase Callaway Golf uPro Go GPS so far. Hopefully, Callaway will add some more useful features in the future. I'm not sure why Callaway doesn't just add $50 to the price tag and sell it with Go-Mode already activated (or just ditch the rebate). Without Go-Mode, the unit is similar in technology to devices that are 3+ years old. I'll try to update my review in a couple months after I've had more experience with the unit and played more courses.

Best Price uPro Golf GPS by Callaway Golf

Best Price uPro Golf GPS by Callaway Golf

Compare Price >>12 new or used available from $217.68

A few bugs, but overall an excellent experience
I've now played 30+ rounds with the uPro. Its got some good points and some bad, I suppose this is like any new device, especially one that is from a brand new company.

The Good
- Distances are right on.
- Basic mode gives you a quick, easy to read view of distance to the green and distance to reach and carry hazards.
- Mark feature allows you to measure the length of your shots. Sometimes gives erroneous readings. However, this only happened when I kept the uPro in my pocket, so maybe buttons were being pressed by accident.
- Aerial view of the hole is awesome. Like looking at a yardage book, with continuously updating distances. There is a small red diamond that marks your position on the hole and moves with you. I almost ran into a 150 yard pole because I was so fascinated with watching the little diamond track my position on the satellite view! Hazards like bunkers are marked front and back and also update continuously.
- Measure Mode lets you get a measurement to any point on the hole. I have used it to find the distance back into the fairway, but you really need a tree or something on the satellite image to reference. I have also used it to find distances not mapped by the company, like a layup distance to the front of a creek.
- Trans-reflective screen is easy to see in Basic View even in bright sunlight. However, in Pro Mode, it can be difficult to see. You need to experiment with the viewing angle to get it right. I've found that in bright sunlight, you can see the screen best if you are angling it just off where the sun would be reflecting into your eyes. Or shade the screen with your hand.
- No subscriptions! You pay only for the courses you want. Courses cost the same no matter where in the country (and eventually the world) they are located. You never have to buy a course twice, even if you upgrade the device or have to replace the unit (lost, stolen, broken). Courses are expensive if you buy them one at a time. One course costs $10 (3 credits), but if you buy 150 credits ($120), that comes to only $2.40 per Pro course. I bought 150 credits, and I probably won't ever have to buy credits again (at least not for a very long time).

The Bad
- One course had strangely mapped points on a couple holes. Some don't make sense (you can tell they haven't played the course!) However, I sent an email to support and they corrected the problem in a couple weeks.
- Sync is VERY slow. I timed it, and to sync and download 1 course took over 10 minutes. Be patient.
- When syncing, the status box shows up in front of all other windows (on Windows XP) and cannot be moved to the back. So your computer is effectively stuck doing one thing for 10 minutes.
- No subscriptions. I put this item in both The Good and The Bad because it depends on your point of view. If you play a whole lot of courses (more than 50), then it could get quite expensive. But I play only about 15 courses on a regular basis, plus about 3 or so each year on a vacation trip.
- Distances do not automatically update if you are using the measure function in Pro Mode. You have to either exit measure mode, or switch back to basic mode to get an update distance.
- Not all courses are mapped yet. In Denver, about 70% of the courses are mapped. But of the 15-20 I play regularly, about 95% are mapped. Many of those that are not mapped yet are scheduled to be mapped in 2008. There is a schedule on uPro's website (www.uprogps.com). And if you choose an unmapped course as your home course, they will have it mapped in 4 business days, guaranteed. I would recommend checking all the courses you play before buying this device.

The Ugly
- The software needs a little work--freezes up from time to time. During the first two rounds, it froze up once in each round. While annoying, all you have to do is hold the power button down for 8 seconds to force a power-off, then turn it back on. Of course, the re-boot process and getting back to your current hole takes a couple minutes. Their customer service department claims a firmware update will be available "in the next few weeks". I turned off the "automatic hole advance", and this seemed to fix the problem. The last 25+ rounds were freeze-up free after changing this setting. The automatic hole advance is unnecessary in my opinion. From the "Green View", you can simply press the up button to advance to the next hole, or press the down button to go to the previous hole.
Suggestions
- Create a graphical overlay for the aerial views, or figure out a way to make them higher contrast. The Pro Mode can be somewhat difficult to see in bright sunlight.
- Faster downloading/sync
- Find and fix the bugs in the software that cause the freeze-ups
- If the upcoming software can mark every ball location, its only a matter of time before it will keep your score, shot-by-shot. On the uPro website they state that additional software to keep score will be available by late summer 2008. Of course, if it freezes up and you lose data then such a feature is worthless.

The Bottom Line
This is a very new company and a very new product. Like most new products, they have a few bugs to work out. I'm going to stick with them and hopefully they will be committed to fixing the problems. If a year goes by and the same problems exist, I might regret this purchase. But right now I'm pretty darn happy with it!

Best Price Garmin Approach G5 GPS-Enabled Golf Handheld

Best Buy Garmin Approach G5 GPS-Enabled Golf Handheld

Compare Price >> 37 new or used available from $299.90

Awesome increase in enjoyment of Golf game
My son and I used this on a local course for the first time and it performed great. No more looking for markers or taking the time to walk off an estimate (er, OK - especially when I'm not in the fairway). We have some large greens thankfully and being able to simply move the flag on the device for a much more accurate reading is super. Also, those few great drives I had - the G5 made it simple to get the exact yardage (did not break any records though). Only 1 of my 7 (regular home area) courses is not programmed in yet but I see it's on schedule in the next update. If yours isn't, simply let Garmin know like I did. Great unit, now if only my golf got better :-)
Update note: Today (4/26) I downloaded Garmins latest course database to the device and now all my courses are available.