Bluetees Ringer Review

[Drrussell]

I haven’t seen a review of the Bluetees Ringer so I thought I would drop in and give a short review. 

 

About me:

I have been playing to a 3-5 handicap for the past few years. 50 years old, which means I have been playing golf for about 15-16 years now. I am a tech geek and love using technology to improve my game (or make the game more enjoyable). 

 

Why I bought the Ringer:

I already have Bluetees Player+, a couple of the older Player GSP speakers and a couple Bluetees range finders (though I haven’t used a range finder in a couple years). Last year, I primarily used the Bushnell Ion Elite watch for distances. Prior to that I used Arccos extensively to track all of my distances, keep my scores logged and used their smart caddie with the Apple Watch. When I changed clubs I was also changing to larger grips and I loved the Arccos built in sensors…didn’t want to return to the screw in sensors. 

 

After working on swing changes over the winter and buying the Player + I thought the Ringer might be a good way for me to track my shots during a round and not have to wear a watch. I only wear a watch for playing golf so sometimes if I am out and go directly to the course, I will forget the watch. 

 

Results

For shot tracking the Bluetees Ringer is a terrible device. There’s no part of their shot tracking that is useful for tracking every shot. Heck, it will only let you record up to 4 shots on a hole. However, much like the Bushnell Ion Elite, it is useful for occasionally checking a shot distance. If you want to spot check distances, it’s fine. For the use case I was planning on, the device is a fail. I suspect, however, most people will have a different situation.

 

When is the Ringer useful? 

This is a down and dirty gps rangefinder. That’s really what it is and what it does well. No need to use a range finder and shoot flags or hope you shot the back of a bunker accurately. No trouble seeing how far to the water. The Ringer shows that information pretty easily. It generally shows how far to an hazard and how far to carry the hazard. Attach it to the cart using the magnet and just like that you have a nice visible screen for GPS distances. Added benefit you can grab it off the cart and walk away to the ball and have distances without needing to wear a watch or mess with your phone.

 

If you already have a Bluetooth speaker and it’s not a GPS speaker. Or maybe you have the original Player Bluetees speaker, not the new plus with the touchscreen. In that case, you can simply mount the ringer above your existing speaker and bam, you have a nice screen on the cart that shows clearly the distances, front, middle, back. You can go to the green view and change the flag location for more accurate distances. For this simple use case, the Ringer works well. 

 

As an example, I already have a couple of the Bluetees Player speakers. I can link the two of them and have a speaker on each arm of the cart. I bought the Player+ thinking it would be nice to have the distances on the display. I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t be able to link the new Player+ to the older Player. In this case, it would have been a far better and cheaper alternative to simply buy the Ringer and continue using the old speakers for music. 

 

If you either don’t like wearing watches, or if you have a watch you wear, but it’s not a golf GPS watch, this is a good alternative. It works for the simple things. 

 

Other than being a simple rangefinder, the other features are a bit gimmicky and not very user friendly. You can use the Ringer to skip a song on the Bluetees Player+. You can use the device to track shot distances. You can use the device to record scores. However, the implementation is not great. Here’s an example. By default, the button on the screen will allow you to click and lock the screen. That’s great because if you are going to throw the device into your pocket it stops any unwanted screen touches. 

 

However, I changed the button so that when I click it, it goes to the score entry screen. Instead of swiping around, just click the button and you are on a score screen. Great. It’s pretty slick. You can track fairways hit, greens hit, number of putts and score.

 

Problem, now that I made the button the quick path to enter scores, there’s no easy way to lock the screen and the first time I used it, I recorded by scores for the first few holes and it was pretty nice. Then on the third hole, I pulled the device out of my pocket and the round had shut off. Oops. Accidental pocket screen touches…Ok. SO, if you are going to put the device in your pocket, it’s better to use the button to lock the screen so that doesn’t happen…if you are going to use the as the shortcut to score entry…then don’t put the device in your pocket. Instead, get your distance, drop the device on the ground. Pick it up and click the button…enter your score data as you walk back to the cart. 

 

Ultimately, I would say that’s not a problem, just know that there’s a learning curve if you want to use the additional features.  Once you get used to the routine, it’s going to work easily. 

 

Overall, I would say the device is nice. If you are in the market for a GPS rangefinder that has a few other useful pieces of information then this absolutely a good device to consider. I am going to use it a few more times and see if I can finish my learning curve and will report back on what I see is really good or bad. 

 

 

[BigGameDb]

Have you bought the magnetic hub they sell?  Just wondering how the quality is and if it can be trusted attaching the Ringer to it.  Some of the reviews I could find seem mixed.  I would get nervous putting the Ringer or anything else magnetic to a hub.

 

The Ringer is fairly accurate, but I still use a rangefinder on Par 3's and when I am 200 yards in, just for more accuracy.