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yardage apps with gps and hole maps - Good? bad? data usage? and vs rangefinders?

SuperStroke
I use apps on my phone, but have never owned either a laser or stand-alone GPS. I find no issues with opening my phone quickly (I have an iphone 6 plus with fingerprint sensor) and I allow the apps to keep updating in the background. I have a battery that I used to take with my old phone, but there's plenty of battery life in the 6 plus. On a bad day it uses half the juice in a long round.
 
Phone is more hassle than it's worth for me. GPS watch is perfect. Quick and convenient and it's always with me (and not a big heavy chunk of plastic in my pocket).
 
rollin said:
I would imagine one must keep the phone on continuous and unlocked or not to be timed off between shots. Hence my question for battery juice swallowing.
As for size of phones. its funny that not many years ago we all wanted the smallest, thinnest, least noticeable phones available, and manufacturers actually marketed how sleak and slim there phones were, however that was when phones were nothing but phones. Nowadays they are traveling computers and for most people quite a different need and usage is now requiring larger and larger devices. if it keeps going this way pretty soon we'll be waking around with backpacks basically carrying desktop units on our shoulders . LOL
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Yea, having it lock and refresh upon unlock is a problem app to app. Skydroid was the best golf GPS I found, and I've used half a dozen different brands at that time. Battery life consumption is right around 50% for 18 holes.
 
Used to use Swing By Swing, but it became less accurate and battery greedy after their big update last year. Now I use GolfPadGPS. It's quick, accurate, easy to use and keeps a ton of stats. They are constantly improving their product and as soon as their Golf Tags become available in the UK, I'll be purchasing them too. It's pretty light on battery usage too (maybe 20% per round), but my trolley has a USB port anyway.
 
rollin said:
I think we may just be misunderstanding each other. where did I say phone app is like a scope?
What I mean is this.
I currently have a gps (bushnell xgc+) rangefinder.
Not a scope, not a laser. Just a screen displaying yardage via gps and also has hole map where I can get yardage to hazards doglegs etc and some other features.
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Yeah, it's just a communication issue. What you have is what I simply refer to as a "GPS". I have a laser, and I call it a "rangefinder".

When people say "GPS" I think it could refer to either a standalone unit, a phone app, or a watch. When people say "rangefinder" I always envision a device that you pull out, point at an object, press a button and get a "distance to X" reading.
 
tahoebum said:
I played a round with my wife's apple watch yesterday and the Golf Now app on Sunday. I've only played a couple rounds with a Garmin GPS watch and never owned any golf GPS device having always preferred laser. The app worked perfectly and it didn't' bother be to wear the watch like I expected it would. I left my phone in my bag and had 65% battery life at the end of the round. The accuracy was like the Garmin watch I had used - within a few yards in most cases but on a course with deep greens it sometimes made it difficult to estimate the distance to the pin any closer than 6-8 yards. Since Apple just bought a company that specializes in GPS accuracy down to inches rather than feet I would expect the accuracy of GPS on the iPhone to improve in the very near future. I can definitely see the benefit of using this on unfamiliar courses to supplement my laser.

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Looks very similar to GolfPadGPS that I'm running on my Android Wear watch. How was the battery life? The only complaint that I have about mine is that keeping it in always on mode so that I can just glance down to see the yardages kills the battery pretty quickly. I can't make it through 36 holes. When I turn the always on mode off, it's not an issue but I have to tap the watch face to see the yardage.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk
 
not much talk (but only from a couple of you) as far as data usage with these golf apps. has that been any issues?
of course if one has unlimited data nothing matters but most people don't this could be a real negative.
though, someone did mention that it doesn't use data so that part is a tad confusing
 
Data usage is minimal to nothing on every one of them that I've tried.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk
 
what about any annoyance with advertisements?
Is that something you deal with only on free apps or are paid apps guilty of this also?
 
I used apps for a long time and it kinda stunk when my battery went dead after 9. I bought a Nikon cool shot for 175 bucks and have never worried about my battery again. its probably the most useful item in my golf bag
 
rollin said:
what about any annoyance with advertisements?
Is that something you deal with only on free apps or are paid apps guilty of this also?
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If you have advert's with a paid app, it's a sucky paid app. Typically that's why you move to the "paid/pro" version, to get rid of those annoying adverts.
 
I've been using the paid version of Shotzoom's Golfshot app for over a year. Works great; it's accurate, fast, has a ton of stats to track, has pretty much every course you can dream of, free of adds, and it only costs 8 bucks a year.

In terms of data usage: On my last 6 rounds it used 47 MB of data in total, so nothing to worry about.

I think it's faster and easier than a rangefinder. I have my phone fixed to my ClicGear pushcart, so as soon as I touch the screen I have all relevant information and I'm ready to go, plus you have the added bonus of the hole lay-out. If I use a rangefinder, I have to grab it, shoot it, put it back, and if you don't have a clear line of sight, you have a problem. So that's why I'm sticking with the app for now. Only downside is the fact you can't use it in tournaments, but I borrow my buddy's GPS watch when necessary.
 
I have used a laser, gps watch and apps and I have a strong preference.

I have ZERO use for the apps. I hate having to get my phone out all the time, unlock it, see text messages, how many emails are piling up etc. It also uses up the battery. It is a pain, plain and simple.

I regularly use a GPS watch as well as a laser range finder. The watch is great for figuring out layups, no line of sight, and just a quick check on distance off the tee. I also really like the fact that if I hit one that goes in the crap, I can hit a button that tells me yardage I have traveled from where I hit it, so I can find my ball much easier. If I hit a 8 iron into some trees or bushes, I know that I should find it about 160 yards from where I hit it.

I use the rangefinder when I want to see exact distance to the pin. My depth perception is not what it used to be so gettign a real reading on the pin is great. I also like to look at the front and back points on a bunker, how far out a tree is etc....

If I lost either my GPS watch or rangefinder, I would go replace it immediately.
 
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