Garmin Approach S40

[emo]

Today I just broke my Apple watch 2, used it with The Grint Application and was pretty happy. I am now looking at other options has anyone here reviewed the Garmin S40?

[Stuart_G]

It's a pretty new release and I haven't seen one yet. As far as golf functionality goes, looks like a cut down variant of the s60 with a few of the more advanced features trimmed off: no swing tempo training, PinPointer, PlaysLike distances. Biggest loss (IMO) is no touch targeting - getting a distance to an arbitrary point on the map - but to be honest that was always difficult anyways on the s60 with such a small display and trying to touch an exact point with a big finger. So maybe not all that big of a loss. But other than those functions, I suspect the base software is the same so s60 reviews will give you a good idea about this one as well.

 

Biggest benefit I see is that there is only one button on the side that can accidentally get pushed during the swing - instead of the 3 on the s60. That was my biggest complaint with the s60. The metal bezel makes it look a little nicer as well.

 

A more comprehensive list of trimmed down functionality compared to the s60 is available on the Garmin web site. Some of the other 'smart' watch and activity tracking functionality was trimmed down as well:

 

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/catalog/product/compareResult.ep?compareProduct=635923&compareProduct=554662

[Steelhead]

I have one and have four rounds on it. Had the S6 since new and never thought I needed another. I passed on the S60 because It felt "too busy" for my needs. S40 looked like the replacement I wanted. Simple to use. Better screen. FAST acquiring of satellite. Automatic distance function. Truly useful distances to hazards. If you’ve avoided golf watches, now is your time to try. Easy, FAST, seamless and everything you might need! No regrets!

[Dalle84]

Steelhead, could you (or someone else) please tell me how the autoshot function is doing? Is it working any good at all? I just know many had some issues with the function when s20 was just released.

 

And how is putts detected? Only read that putts are entered manually. If so, do you manually need to push a button to state that you are on the green? How else will the final approach shot be measured correctly?

[Stuart_G]

> @Dalle84 said:

> Steelhead, could you (or someone else) please tell me how the autoshot function is doing? Is it working any good at all? I just know many had some issues with the function when s20 was just released.

 

It's interesting - with my x40 - it wasn't half bad - as long as you keep in mind that they are only really supposed to detect full swings - not the short shots around the green - or putts. There are some occasional missed shots or false detection (easy to edit out post round online). Even partial shots around the green (which are not technically supposed to work well) was better than advertised. Which means it actually correctly picked up some even though it wasn't supposed to.

 

However, when I changed to the s60, it got a lot worse - maybe only 1/2 to 2/3rds' of the full swings were detected. I think that has to do with accidental button presses happening during the swing on the s60 interrupting the detection process - at least with my cuppy swing. I've seen reports from many others that haven't had that issue so it could be particular to the swing - or glove.

 

When working it gives some interesting data - but doesn't really come close to the accuracy of a system that uses manual shot tagging.

 

> And how is putts detected? Only read that putts are entered manually. If so, do you manually need to push a button to state that you are on the green? How else will the final approach shot be measured correctly?

 

At the end of the hole you simply enter the total number of putts. There is no on course way to tell it "I hit one from here" - or where the hole is for that matter. So don't expect much in terms of putting stats other than the total putt count.

 

 

[Dalle84]

> At the end of the hole you simply enter the total number of putts. There is no on course way to tell it "I hit one from here" - or where the hole is for that matter. So don't expect much in terms of putting stats other than the total putt count.

>

>

Thanks Stuart!

One additional query about the putting/approach shot. Greens can be pretty deep, 30-40 meters some times. Will the approach shot length be measured at all if you hit the green? If yes, how will the garmin watch know where on the green you landed?

It would be nice to measure the approach shot correctly, as they are roughly half the shots you make, hopefully ? (except putts of course)!

 

 

[Stuart_G]

> @Dalle84 said:

> Thanks Stuart!

> One additional query about the putting/approach shot. Greens can be pretty deep, 30-40 meters some times. Will the approach shot length be measured at all if you hit the green? If yes, how will the garmin watch know where on the green you landed?

> It would be nice to measure the approach shot correctly, as they are roughly half the shots you make, hopefully ? (except putts of course)!

>

>

 

I agree it would be nice but your concern is valid. Since it technically only officially detects full swings, it mean the approach shot distances may not be accurate. It may pick up some of the chips and pitches around the green (maybe about 1/2 to 2/3ds) but doesn't pick up location where you putt from very well - so post round editing would be needed to clean up the accuracy of the approach shots. And until they add a way to manually enter a point during the round, I don't see that changing.

 

But FWIW - in my opinion - those approach distance stats really are not as useful as they might seem since there is no way to really to factor in - wind and weather, elevation changes, type of shot - full or knock down or some type of partial shot, etc...

 

 

 

[Dalle84]

> @Stuart_G said:

 

> I agree it would be nice but your concern is valid. Since it technically only officially detects full swings, it mean the approach shot distances may not be accurate. It may pick up some of the chips and pitches around the green (maybe about 1/2 to 2/3ds) but doesn't pick up location where you putt from very well - so post round editing would be needed to clean up the accuracy of the approach shots. And until they add a way to manually enter a point during the round, I don't see that changing.

>

> But FWIW - in my opinion - those approach distance stats really are not as useful as they might seem since there is no way to really to factor in - wind and weather, elevation changes, type of shot - full or knock down or some type of partial shot, etc...

>

>

 

Yes I see your point and that is true of course!

I had a tomtom golfer 2 and I loved the interface and the feature to easily add strokes in game, as puts and chips that wasn't detected. But unfortunately the overall quality wasn't that great (my watch stopped working after a few rounds) and now tomtom stopped producing watches overall.

 

Thank you so much for helping me with this! Tried asking my local golf store but they had no clue ?

>

 

 

[sheppy335]

If I don't use the auto shot, I don't with my x40. The rest of the watch is nice?

[TerpFangolfer]

Question for s40 users - I've had mine since last May. When I first started using it I rarely had issues with it "detecting" my shots. But recently it seems to have more & more issues. I'm a fairly easy swinger - it always detects my tee shots, but I would say it happens to me 5-8 times per round with it not detecting approach shots. On full iron swings from the fairway. I look down and it didn't detect my shot...frequently I've already started moving, so its pain to do "Last SHot" and manually enter the shot. Don't want to walk back to the actual spot.

 

Just wondering about the technology - it must somehow detect the vibration of a shot? Because it doesn't detect practice swings. 

 

The recent update did change the way it reacts around the green...it used to be whenever you got too close to the green it automatically changed to the green view (score +/-). So if you were hitting a pitch and walked up to the green, well just lost the ability to enter that pitch shot.

 

Not a big deal, just wondering if others have experienced similar? And any way to fix it?

[Stuart_G]

10 hours ago, TerpFangolfer said:

Not a big deal, just wondering if others have experienced similar? And any way to fix it?

 

Not going to be much help but I've always had issues with my last two garmin's detecting shots.   My x40 did better than my s60 but even that wasn't great.   But I think that has to do with my glove inadvertently hitting buttons mid-swing (less then ideal wrist action in the swing) - screwing up the processing.

 

But then I also gave up on the usefulness of the shot tracking.  Since it can't really get the short game or find the ball around the green, it never really can get any useful data on any of the approach shots.