The Garmin Approach S6 has been retired. Check out our current recommendations for today's best golf rangefinders..

First of all, let’s take a look at the features that set Garmin S6 apart from the Garmin S4:

• Dedicated CourseView button. We love the dedicated GreenView button on the S4 that made it easy to see the green shape and adjust the pin location to get more precise distance. The S6 replaces that button with a CourseView button. The first press of the CourseView button shows a graphic view of your landing area. This is pretty cool and important when you are playing unfamiliar courses. You can manually pinpoint and get distance a target, but remember this is a small screen, so not quite as easy as doing it on a handheld unit. A tap on the top of the screen will take you to the GreenView which shows the shape of the green and surrounding hazards. It also allows for manual pin positioning for getting a more precise distance. Although it is only one extra button press to get to the GreenView, we found it a little annoying on approach shots that the green view didn’t come up immediately.
• PinPointer blind shot assistance tells you where the pin is, even if you can’t see it. It’s not as good as having your caddie run to the top of the hill to show you the line, but it’s way better than nothing if you can’t see where you need to be aiming. Since this isn’t a feature that you will use often, the trick is remembering how to get to it! (Tap the screen until it shows up.)
• SwingTempo™ and TempoTraining™. Although some users like this feature, we weren’t sold. We had a five-handicapper with a decent swing test this and the swing tempo didn’t even remotely match with the “average pro” tempo. Do we think our test subject should spend hours on the range trying to create a swing that matches this watch… No! If you happen to be working with an instructor on Tempo, it’s possible that this tool could be useful, but it’s definitely not a feature the would convince us to buy this watch.
• SwingStrength™. We had high hopes for the SwingStrength aspect of the Garmin S6, but in our testing, we just couldn’t get readings that made sense. To set it up, you choose what type of club you are using… for instance “short iron”. Then you hit a shot and if you think it was a great shot, the watch will use that as the baseline swing. For our tests, we used wedges, hoping to learn how hard to swing for those shots closer to the green that don’t require a full swing. Unfortunately, most of our half swings registered over 100% on the SwingStrength meter even though they clearly weren’t going as far as our baseline shot. As much as we like idea of this feature, we’re hoping Garmin will put some more work into developing this technology.

Like the Garmin S4, the Garmin S6 has a glove-friendly, high-resolution touchscreen. Distance to the front, middle and back of every green, plus par and hole number shows on the main screen. In addition to the doglegs and layups already included with the course maps, you can save custom points for future reference. As with most GPS devices, you can measure your shots.

We think the scorecard and stat-tracking features are super easy to use and it can also utilize handicap information. The Garmin S6 can connect via bluetooth to your iPhone and get notifications but we didn’t always stay connected. It comes preloaded 38,000 international courses and never have any subscriptions or fees.

We like the Garmin Connect website and seeing our rounds and stats broken down in different ways, but we do wish that the site provided a way to edit your round information. If you simply forgot to record the last hole of your last round before uploading, you can’t really do anything except delete the round or your stats will be off.

In conclusion, we don’t think the Garmin Approach S6 is for everyone, but if you have the budget for it and frequently play unfamiliar courses, it’s definitely worth considering. The trade off is whether having the convenience of a watch is worth the sacrifice of the larger screen on a Garmin handheld. We lean toward the convenience of the watch and S6 definitely brings something new to the table with the CourseView screen.

If you don’t play many unfamiliar courses or if the S6 stretches your budget a little too tight, you should take a look at our latest picks for the best golf watches currently on the market to see which one suits your style of play.

What users of the Garmin Approach S6 are saying…

• Many users liked the special features on this watch… SwingStrength, TempoTraining, PinPointer and fairwary touch targeting.
• As expected, with all those features, this watch didn’t get the best feedback with regards to ease of use and intuitiveness.
• Many users struggled with getting enough precision with manual targeting. Using a stylus or golf tee was suggested by several users.
• Some users complained about battery life. Although it should get two rounds before needing a charge, we recommend charging it every time.
• A number of users were disappointed in the brightness of the display, but just as many were happy with the high resolution color display.
• Several users felt the swing metrics were worthless.
• The sound for TempoTraining isn’t loud enough for some users to hear under normal range conditions.
• Quite a few users felt that this watch was not worth price.