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Garmin Approach X40


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I was looking through the most recent issue of Golf Digest and saw that there is an ad for a Garmin Approach X40 "golf band with wrist-based heart rate" monitor. I tried googling this and it seems like it hasn't been announced yet. It basically looks like vivosmart HR but a little thicker and larger screen. Functionally it seems to be similar to the Approach S20 but without green hole placement, only one button (is it touch based?), and probably no TruSwing integration.

 

I was actually hoping for a "sport" watch with heart rate that I could use more than just for golfing. Maybe this will fit the bill.

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This looks pretty cool. Wonder the actual release date? Trying to decide if the extra $50 is actually worth it over the s20. Not sure I'd use the fitness features but really like the vibrate notification function. For those using an S20, how far away can your phone be and still receive notifications?

No idea, but as the s20 doesn't vibrate I miss all the notifications anyway.

IMO the notifications are mostly useless. Anything more than a short text message and I find myself not even bothering to read stuff from the tiny screen.

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This looks pretty cool. Wonder the actual release date? Trying to decide if the extra $50 is actually worth it over the s20. Not sure I'd use the fitness features but really like the vibrate notification function. For those using an S20, how far away can your phone be and still receive notifications?

No idea, but as the s20 doesn't vibrate I miss all the notifications anyway.

IMO the notifications are mostly useless. Anything more than a short text message and I find myself not even bothering to read stuff from the tiny screen.

 

Thanks. I think the x40 vibrate feature could be a bit more useful. At least to alert me to check my phone if the message is important.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I had this over a week at this point. I bought it at a local Golfsmith which had it in stock almost 2-3 weeks prior to everyone else. Prior to owning this, I had Microsoft Band 1 and 2, Garmin Vivoactive and Vivoactive HR. Out of all 4 wearable's I owned so far, this by far outperforms the rest for golf activities. You can track putts, stroke distance, enter fairway hit or miss (left or right), and later track the entire activities on your smartphone and PC. Simply awesome!!!. Only downside is that the battery will only last about 7 to 8 hours with GPS and Heart rate sensor on. So you will run out juice if you are playing 36 holes in one day (you may need to charge in between rounds). The unit is very slim profile and comfortable to wear. It is more comfortable than the original Vivoactive which I thought was very comfortable for a unit with such a large screen. Yardage is very accurate and you can move the pin placement in 3 positions (back, middle, front). Includes layup and harzard yardage screens.

 

Yesterday I measured my heart rate at a local CVS store and compared the numbers on X40. It's spot on. Very accurate. However unlike Vivoactive and HR, the activities you can track on this unit are limited. You can track golf, run, walk, bike, cardio, and sleep. It also alert you for any notifications that appears on your phone such as calls, missed calls, messages, emails, and other social messenger activities. You can also control music (stop/play/forward/backward). No third party software integration. You can also scroll to other screen while playing golf. With some of the other units like Vivoactive, they lock you into the yardage screen so even if you want to quickly view time or messages, you had to get out of golf activities. Not so with Approach X40. You can scroll to any other screen without affecting the golf game. i found this to be a big plus.

 

If you don't use gps, I can see the unit can last about a week without charging, longer if no heart rate sensor is activated. The screen is simple B&W and is more readable than Vivoactive HR although I think both units are using the same screen technology. Very bright in day lights and plenty ledgeable at night. You can configure it to turn the backlight on automatically when you turn to view the screen similar to the function offered by Microsoft Band 2.

 

So there you have it, all in all, very nice unit and my favorite wearable so far.

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I am getting ready to buy an X40 later today. I've been looking at the S20, but the X40 looks like a better option. Anyone want to talk me down?

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I got one of these as an early Father's Day present and was able to take it out on at TPC Potomac at Avenel yesterday. Here are my thoughts:

 

Physical Design:

- I do not wear a watch, so for me it took some adjustment to get use to it on my wrist. However, the x40 is very light and fairly comfortable once I got use to it. One issue is that it is fairly thick and I'm accidentally knocking into things with it. The thickness prevents it from fitting under a lot of my dress shirts also, which negates its use as an all day fitness tracker..

- Material is mostly plastic. I'm a little worried the long term durability of the center part, but I think the rubbery side band help protect it from bumps.

- Bands do not seem to be easily replaceable but do fit comfortably size wise. For reference, I'm 5'9" and weight 150lbs and my wrists are probably smaller than average.

- Charger is proprietary clip on USB unit, so you can't just use any USB cable to charge the device.

- Screen is super readable in direct sunlight, even at it's lowest brightness setting.

 

Manual

- The manual is very sparse and does not really explain what a lot of the settings do. For example, I still can not figure out what the "Auto Lock Screen" setting actually does. There is going to be some trial and error with the settings until I figure what a lot of what the device does.

 

Device UI Design for Golf:

- To start golfing, just hit the bottom button to access the menu, then tap the golfer icon. The x40 will then locate the course and begin. Simple enough.

- Distances seem accurate. My playing partners were using a Garmin S5 and a rangefinder. Distances between all 3 devices and markers on the course were very consistent.

- The x40 has 3 different golf tracking options that I turned on. After every registered swing, it asks for what club you used, if its on the fairway, miss left, miss right, on green, etc. In the beginning, it was very confusing to use, but I started to get the hang of it near the end. In my opinion, the process is a bit of a manual input overload to do after every shot, so I will probably be turning some of the options off to simplify it all.

1) Stat Tracking - I think this is the option that keeps track of Fairway hits, misses, on green and putts. I'll probably turn this option off since it seems the most useless to me. Oddly enough, the Phone App and Web summaries do not even show your miss left/right, so it seems pointless to have that tracking to complicate the input process. The summary only show percent on fairway, GIR, and putts per hole.

2) Club Tracking - Manual input of club you used after each registered shot. I wish I could edit this list and delete/add clubs I have/do not have so that there are less things to scroll through. I'm also disappointed that it always starts at Driver after every shot. I could be 150ft from the hole, but have to scroll all the way to my 8i (Going past Driver, 3W, 5W, 3H, 4H, and then all my longer irons). Since it has my distance to green, you would think it would auto-scroll to the clubs I'm more likely to use. I assumed this was a feature, since one of the options asks for driver distance and based on that, it wold do the auto-club selection. Can some one else verify that for me?

3) Scoring - I assume this is to input your score after every hole to record and keep track of in the software.

 

Software

- One major drawback I have so far is post round editing. The Android Phone App and the Web page are a bit buggy. Example, on the App, I got a bogey on the first hole (which it shows correctly on the scorecard), but the hole summary shows 6 shots (it somehow double registered my approach shot). I can not delete this duplicate shot, even though I keep clicking and confirming the deletion. I was also unable to move any shots, change the club, edit if it was on the fairway, miss left/right, or on green using the Phone App.

- The web interface is a little better. I was able to at least change clubs and delete shots. The screen does not immediately refresh, so if you delete a shot, it does not "connect" them. You have refresh the page to get it to show correctly. There are still no options to add shots, move a shot, mark as OB/penalty, mark as miss left/right, or on the green. This seems like a bad design, since having the map there makes it much easier to do the post stat tracking feature which I prefer to turn off (the option to mark as miss, on green, putts).

- There also is no summary to see what your distances are for each club. I would love to see what my min/max/avg are for each club, but I can not find that summary in the App or Web page. Hopefully, this is an option to come.

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