With over 70,000 units sold and 300 million shots hit over nine years, SkyTrak is the world’s best selling consumer launch monitor. As the first affordable and comprehensive personal launch monitor, it opened in-home simulation to a much wider group of consumers than seen before, and eventually paved the way for the technological explosion we’ve seen in the segment in the last five years.
Still, a lot can happen in nine years, especially when we are talking about technology. The company decided to harness the expertise they invested so heavily in when designing their newest personal launch monitor, the SkyTrak+. The original SkyTrak isn’t going away, but consumers seeking an expanded and enhanced simulation experience will now have a premium option to consider.
Hardware Improvements
SkyTrak+ will offer several hardware upgrades, designed to demonstrably improve the user experience at every level. Before we dive into the specifics, it is worth nothing that the actual construction of the case has been fortified, and the unit can now be positioned 1-1/2 inches further away from the ball. The company is still offering a protective case, and it’s likely a good idea to invest in one, but their internal R&D testing showed SkyTrak+ is very durable, even when dealing with unintentional impacts.
Dual Doppler Radar
While SkyTrak+ is bringing with it an enormous number of upgrades, maybe the most exciting is its inclusion of dual doppler radar. Unlike some of the lower-cost competitors on the market, SkyTrak+ will only be using doppler to capture club data. While doppler is a popular, and sometimes affordable, option for capturing ball data, the SkyTrak team firmly believes cameras provide the most accurate ball data indoors. They chose to utilize what they believe is doppler’s strength – capturing club data indoors.
That means club head speed can be accurately recorded and smash factor can be accurately calculated, giving users the ability to truly measure their speed and the efficiency of their swing. In addition, SkyTrak+’s advanced machine learning, designed by an actual “rocket scientist”, enables the unit to provide increasingly precise club face angle and club path readings. At launch, the company states they can come within a degree of matching industry leaders and anticipate quickly being able to decrease the margin of error by half.
A nice footnote to this is that SkyTrak+ works without requiring special club-head stickers. While stickers aren’t a dealbreaker by any means, they are a slight irritation associated with using other units.
Improved Photometric Camera
SkyTrak+ features an improved camera system, though we don’t have a full technical rundown to share with you at the moment. The company supplied compelling third-party analysis showing the new unit’s accuracy, which shouldn’t be surprising considering the first generation’s reputation. Some changes were specifically geared towards outdoor use, making outdoor practice more practical. It should be noted that the company still recommends outdoor use is done on mats to avoid issues created by flying grass, dirt, and tees.
As noted earlier, SkyTrak is fully invested in camera-based collection of ball data for indoor use. In fact, they don’t even think there’s a debate as to whether it outperforms radar for this purpose. While we aren’t privy to the type of data needed to verify that claim, we’ve often discussed radar’s limitations indoors. Compared to doppler, camera-based units like SkyTrak+ don’t come with the same space requirements, don’t experience the same amount of interference, and generally just aren’t as quirky when dealing with indoor environments. For example, when asked about space requirements, the SkyTrak team really didn’t have any, other than to say you need to safely be able to swing a golf club. In contrast, the minimum depth needed for radar units tends to be around 14’ to 15’ feet from unit to impact surface.
Like golf clubs, no golf ball stickers are necessary for using Skytrak+ indoors, and neither are specially marked or manufactured golf balls. Users are free to use their ball of choice.
Enlarged hitting area
SkyTrak is aware their customers wanted a larger and more forgiving hitting area, so they have enlarged it almost 50%. This reduces the irritation of having to precisely place each ball, though there still are reasonable requirements (considering the need to place the ball within the camera’s view) to consider. We are hearing the visible circle approaches 3 inches, and from observing a demonstration it appeared the placement of balls was a painless process. The company notes that some of the workarounds required with the first-generation units are no longer needed. For example, users previously had to place driver and wedge shots in a slightly different location to get optimal results, but that should no longer be the case.
In addition to the larger hitting area, manufacturing improvements have led to tighter tolerances with the hardware. This means alignment should be more precise and intuitive.
New Onboard Processor
SkyTrak+ has expanded processing power that reduces the “shot-to-show” time user experience, which should please first generation SkyTrak users. There were definitely complaints that the older unit had a longer-than-optimal delay between the time the ball was hit and the shot was displayed on screen. SkyTrak+ can display the results of each shot in just over two seconds. While our modern world seems to lead us to believe two seconds is a long amount of time, we observed a number of shots being hit on the new unit and the delay was almost unnoticeable.
We did learn that at times, other unit’s “shot-to-show” times can be sped up, but often that requires changes to the tracer mid-flight. Some users of other launch monitors may recall odd flight-path changes happening on occasion. This is often caused by what we just described. SkyTrak+ was designed with both high processing speed and accurate shot display in mind.
Added 5ghz WiFi and USB C
High-end features aside, stable and fast connectivity is absolutely vital to the user experience with home launch monitor products. SkyTrak+ now incorporates 5ghz WiFi for faster and more stable connectivity. This will be especially useful for simulator use, when large amounts of data are moving between the unit and a device.
In addition, the Micro USB charging port has been upgraded to USB-C. The benefits here are 1) a more stable and durable charging port and 2) rapid charging times.
Software Improvements
SkyTrak has been around for a long time, and one major benefit of that longevity is that the company has developed a software package that is mature, stable, and comprehensive. The company believes a great user experience starts with great software, and their large team of developers has amassed years of experience. SkyTrak has added a number of enhancements to go with the new SkyTrak+, and these upgrades will provide users with even more ways to have fun and improve their game. Players can still use their choice of Windows, iOS, or Android operating systems, with a common UI among all three.
The modes and packages existing SkyTrak users are familiar with (i.e., Skills Assessment, Bag Mapping, Wedge Matrix) aren’t going away, though there has been a slight increase in the Play and Improve subscription price (see why later in the article).
Shot Optimizer Interface
At the heart of the SkyTrak+ user experience is the Shot Optimizer Interface. The exceptionally clean and detailed range offers a variety of ball-flight views, along with a massive amount of both club and ball data.
In addition to displaying all the relevant numbers a golfer may want to see, the Shot Optimizer Interface “grades” a variety of parameters, which allows users to compare their performance against ideal launch conditions. For example, in the Total Spin column above, we see the user’s shot producing 7,256 rpm of spin. Next to that, we see ideal Total Spin numbers for that specific club. Since 7,256 falls well outside that range, the number is highlighted in red, indicating a specific aspect of the golfer’s swing that may need to be looked at. Alternatively, the shot’s 23?launch angle is within the recommended range, so it is highlighted in green. To add to this feature, the interface provides explanations and tutorials from GolfTec’s Nick Clearwater, the #22 ranked golf instructor in the world.
Shot Scoring is a fun and easy-to-understand way to evaluate the effectiveness of each shot you take. It’s often difficult to accurately compare one’s game using metrics like strokes-gained and handicap index. After twenty recorded shots, SkyTrak+ establishes an expected distance for each club (there is a corresponding heat map on the display). Each shot thereafter is compared to the expected number and a Shot Score is formulated. The Shot Score mimics the score from an 18-hole round of golf. Therefore, a Shot Score of 70 would be very good, while a Shot Score of 100 would indicate the need for improvement.
Shot Score is handled somewhat differently with driver shots. Rather than valuing consistency, driver shots are scored on distance and dispersion, so those of you sending 300 yard drives down the middle should expect to score very well.
Expanded Sim Golf
While SkyTrak notes that their core users tend to value the game-improvement features of their software, sim golf is an important component of any personal launch monitor. SkyTrak+ will maintain its existing simulation software relationships with companies like e6 Connect, WGT, TGC 2019 and others. The company is also actively looking to expand deeper and offer its customers every possible available option.
With the Play and Improve package, all users will now have access to 15 free e6 Connect courses and iOS users will still have access to 15 free WGT courses.
GolfTec Integration
In August of 2022, GolfTec acquired SkyTrak. This partnership, along with the SkyTrak+ has enabled a level of integration between golf instructors and home practice that has never been seen before. Nick Clearwater noted he’s already given hundreds of lessons with the new device and the addition of club data has instantly improved his ability to work with students.
Since performance data can be stored in the cloud, GolfTec instructors and students can eventually utilize SkyTrak+ to create personalized lesson plans, practice routines, and provide relevant feedback. This is a feature that really has unlimited potential and we’re excited to see how it develops over time.
Details
- Map Price – $2,995
- Presale begins – May 4, 2023
- Units ship – late May, 2023
For more information on this or any other products from SkyTrak, check out their website at www.skytrakgolf.com. Their presale begins today and you can find out information on their unique trade in policy to be one of the first to grab a new SkyTrak+ launch monitor.
