Shot Scope X5 GPS Watch Overview
For golfers seeking to mix shot monitoring and GPS data in a wearable, Shot Scope has at all times made compelling merchandise, and the brand new X5 appears to construct on what was on provide by the spectacular Shot Scope V3. The brand-new watch is sleeker and presents extra off-course enchantment without sacrificing its common shot-monitoring functionality, which comes from new and improved lightweight second-generation monitoring tags that screw into the tops of your golf equipment.
To cowl every little thing this watch presents would take nearly an eternity, such is the extensive-ranging performance inbuilt so this evaluation will look to cowl very powerful areas golfers think about when selecting a golf GPS watch.
The arranged course is fairly straight ahead though to enter the statistics you’ll have to screw the tags into the tops of your grips, which takes a while. The X5 must be worn in your lead arm and since it must be inside 10cm of the tags to select up pictures, count on it to overlook a number of if you happen to wish to grip down on the membership. On arrival on the course, the X5 took around 20 seconds to find the course – you get the choice of GPS or GPS+Monitor relying on if you happen to be utilizing the tags. Hit a shot and the membership used can be proven in the primary show. The house display additionally reveals the entrance, center, and again distances, opening quantity, and par in addition to your present rating if enabled.
The lock operation comes enabled as commonplace, which I’d suggest turning off within the settings earlier than you play as it’s annoying to should manually unlock the X5 each time you wish to use it by twisting the crown button 360° or urgent and holding the center of the display.
Swipe left and also you’ll see the distances to achieve and carry hazards, which I discovered is significantly helpful and isn’t one thing most of the greatest golf watches provide. Swipe properly and also you’ll see a map of the inexperienced you’re approaching and the flexibility to maneuver the pin place, which works effectively when adopting a dragging approach somewhat than a tapping one. Different options embody shot distance measurement, doglegs, layup distances, and the flexibility to add penalty pictures. Full gap maps are at the moment not obtainable however as a consequence of being added sooner or later in 2023.
This brings us to the contact display navigation which, on the entire, labored fantastic however it wasn’t as responsive as I hoped for – swiping left and properly didn’t typically work the first time, and a few swipes up or down on the settings resulted in choice choices I used to be making an attempt to scroll previous, presumably due to the comparatively small display. You do have the choice of rotating and urgent the button within the high proper nook, which works higher and the watch will even vibrate on every setting as you scroll by way of. It’s also possible to press this button to scroll by way of the sport menu in golf mode as a substitute for swiping, so there are alternate options that permit you to get to the place you wish to go. It has to be mentioned, although, that the display itself is crystal clear and really simple to learn whatever the gentle situations you’re enjoying in.
While you end every gap, the display will immediate you to faucet the pin gather button to mark the pin place in addition to entering your rating and the variety of putts taken if you happen to’ve elected to take action. After your spherical, you must sync the watch to the Shot Scope app for the info to be transferred, which takes a number of seconds. After my first spherical utilizing the X5, the general rating and shot places had been fairly an approach off in some instances, and so some modifying was required – which isn’t any totally different from when utilizing the Arccos Sensible Sensors. Nonetheless, that is fairly fiddly and time-consuming to do on iPhone – Shot Scope recommends doing this on a desktop and I can see why. Though maybe I’m simply extra used to doing it on the Arccos app.
As soon as the modification is accomplished, you get free entry to over 100 efficiency statistics that incorporate Strokes Gained. Sadly you may solely examine yourself to handicap indexes in increments of 5, which is comparatively imprecise however the data nonetheless is displayed clearly by way of varied pie charts, line graphics, and color-coded graphics damaged down into six key efficiency areas.
For £279.99, you’re undoubtedly getting rather a lot in your cash and whereas the person’s expertise wasn’t excellent, it was actually a fulfilling product to make use of that has the potential to enhance decision-making and membership choice. It appears at a residence away from the course as a sports activities watch (it’s going to monitor your steps and inform the time) and is available in seven color decisions to fit your visible choice.
