While music on the golf course remains a hot button issue for many, the options out there continue to be plentiful for those of us who do like to partake in some tunes on the course. However, companies are getting smarter and make things as multi-purpose as possible, so marrying a Bluetooth speaker with a GPS is quickly becoming a trendy thing to do.
Precision Pro is the latest to jump into the fray, but there is no denying they have made the concept their own with the ACE Smart Speaker.
Quick Take
A multi-faceted piece of fun. The ACE Smart Speaker stands alone as a speaker quite well with a serviceable magnetic fastening option. When it is combined with Precision Pro’s golf app, however, it unlocks a lot of GPS flexibility that works well with some fun bells and whistles mixed in. Others are doing GPS speakers for golf, but no one is doing it like Precision Pro.
Precision Pro ACE Smart Speaker
When unpacking the ACE speaker, the quality which Precision Pro has been known for in my past experiences is definitely there. There is nothing about the speaker in hand from size, form, or weight which says anything other than solid quality. Ergonomically speaking, it’s really well done and makes for a visually appealing product.
Pairing is the same as any other Bluetooth device, so I’ll not insult your intelligence there, but for those concerned it’s super easy to setup, just download the Precision Pro golf app to your phone, and pair the speaker (you don’t need the app for the speaker only, but you do in order to use the GPS feature). The LCD display is clear and a solid size. The sound may not wow the audiophiles out there, but it was enough in my testing for me and my high school kids to come away pleased, the speaker is clear and avoids being tinny sounding.
The battery life proved to be very good during review and I put about 16 hours on it after the first full charge before I needed to plug it in again. A nice thing there is the visual battery meter on the screen when it’s on, it proved useful for sure. I was able to utilize all my normal music and podcast services while testing, and the real Off Course with THP’s own Dan Edwards played with no hiccups.
I do want to comment on the magnetic mount a bit. It is solid overall and offers good bite when the speaker is hooked to the cart windshield frame. That said, its width being just larger than the frame means if you get really rough with the cart, it might come off, but it will take some pretty solid effort to make that happen.
Now, where the GPS integration is concerned, the speaker syncs with the app with absolute ease. That is where the ACE Speaker draws all of its data from, so all the bells and whistles which Precision Pro has cooked into their app are applicable here as well. So, if you have set up your MySlope within the app, the unit will take that data into account with the information it gives you.
I had a small hiccup with the unit on one of my most frequented courses where the routing of the course was incorrect, but I have a message into the company and that will be fixed soon. On my other place of play, the numbers I got from the GPS data from Precision Pro were as accurate as other devices I compared it to (within 1-2 yards). Yeah, having to use your phone might be a bother to some, but what I liked is that the phone can just be in the cart or your bag and still work with the speaker.
An interesting design feature is the little magnetic disc remote that the ACE Speaker has. You can operate the unit without it but throwing it in my pocket during the round meant that I could be away from the cart 10-20 feet and press the button for the speaker to give me my numbers loud enough that I could hear them and not have to go all the way back and look. I didn’t think I would use the remote much entering the review, but I really enjoyed it, and better yet, I never lost it which was a win as well. Plus, it can also serve as a ball mark on the green in a pinch. Also, yes, with the press of a button you can have the speaker shout out a “mashed potatoes” or some applause too. Golf is supposed to be fun, and Precision Pro gets that.
Overall, this is a well thought out and designed addition to the Precision Pro lineup. It’s a quality design that in my opinion lives up to the price tag. Plus, the fact that it syncs with the Precision Pro App is ingenious since it will be easy for the company to patch/update as needed without the user ever having to do anything specifically to the speaker itself. Options are always good, and Precision Pro has got a pretty fascinating one on their hands here.
The Details
Availability: Now – Budget Golf
Price: $149.99
