Compare Golf GPS – Part 2

This is PART 2 of a four-part series where we compare golf GPS top rated models. We have divided them up into categories, so that you can compare apples to apples.

Our four categories are:

  1. Full-Featured Golf GPS (Part 1)
  2. Mid-Featured Golf GPS (Part 2 – You Are Here!)
  3. Basic Golf GPS (Part 3)
  4. GPS Golf Watches (Part 4), overlaps some with Basic

MID-FEATURED GOLF GPS COMPARISON

The golf GPS devices in our mid-feature category will at minimum show a graphic depiction of each green. They may show hole views and have other advanced features, but do not have the ability to get distances to any point on the hole.

Golf Buddy Tour Review
The Contenders:

Our Pick: Golf Buddy Tour – because it is preloaded and has no annual fees. The SkyCaddie SG5 gets slightly better ratings, so if you don’t mind the annual fees and downloads, it’s also a really good pick.

Check out the comparisons below.

Golf Courses SkyCaddie has nearly 30,000 golf courses mapped, but the SG3.5 and the SG5 will only store 10 at a time. Of course that means downloading them from your computer and also paying an annual fee to do so. The Golf Buddy Tour comes preloaded with thousands of courses. It will hold up to 20,000, but we’re not sure if Golf Buddy has that many in the database. We believe they have about 16,000 courses in their library, but hope to find out definitively very soon.
Screen All three models have color LCD screens and the only one with complaints was the SkyCaddie SG3.5. Some users had trouble seeing it in bright sunlight.
Size / Weight The SkyCaddie SG5 is the largest and heaviest of the three units. Its screen size is the same as the SG3.5 and only slightly larger than the Golf Buddy Tour. The SG3.5 is a little smaller than the GB Tour.
Battery Type The Golf Buddy Tour takes a rechargable Li-poly or three AAA batteries. We like that option the best. The SG5 uses a Li-ion rechargeable and the SG3.5 uses three AAAs.
Battery Life The Golf Buddy Tour and the SkyCaddie SG5 both claim up to 14 hours of battery life. The SkyCaddie SG3.5 make a claim on this, but users indicated that it used batteries quickly and recommended rechargeable AAAs.
Rainproof The Golf Buddy Tour is water resistant and to our knowledge, neither of the SkyCaddies are.
Other None of these units have touch screen, touch targeting, or stat tracking. They all have shot measuring, scorecard, auto course recognition and auto hole advance. The SkyCaddie SG5 offers hole layout views on some courses and QuickVue which gives some indication of the hole shape.
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