I have been a happy owner / user of the Sonocaddie XV2 for some time so I didn't hesitate to purchase their new, touch screen color golf GPS as soon as I got their announcement. It has a ton of features but I was especially interested in the ability to get distances to a target by touching the screen. It does this very well and it's a snap touse. Unfortunately, the maps that come pre-loaded are, in many cases, terrible. Hazards are missing and known bunkers are shown as little blotches. This makes it impossible to use the touch screen feature accurately since hazards are not defined as they exist in reality (again, this was my main motivation in buying any new golf gps). Sure, they'll re-map the course once you request it but you don't want to be on a golf trip and then find out a course map is useless. I will say that one local course I play on rare occasions had a very nice, detailed course map. Why this one and not all of them?I also downloaded two satellite images of the two local courses I play most. Absolutely horrible and useless. Washed out, hazy and generally lousy images, nothing like what you see on their website.
If you don't care about the course maps, but just use the basic yardage screens, I'm sure it's fine, but my XV2 does that now. At $400.00 a pop, Sonocaddie should have gotten this right before their release of teh V500. Perhaps sometime down the road I'll demo the V500 again and see what improvements they've made. Meantime, this one is being returned.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Sonocaddie V500 Golf GPS Unit with 3" Touchscreen Display
Product Description:
New V500 Touchscreen preloaded with over 15,000 US Courses in the full 3-D Layout. This model combines the best of: Sonocaddie (3-D interface), uPro (Satellite Images-Flyover), OnPar (TouchScreen) and Golf Buddy (no-fees, preloaded all US Courses). Plus a few features not available from any other manufacturer! Preloaded with all available US Courses - over 15,000 - the standard view will be a full 3-D hole layout showing the yardages to every hazard or target, plus the front, center, and back of the green. Green close-up with the touch of a button with actual size and shape of the green. Sonocaddie's unique "Walking Golfer" icon moves about the screen as you do, so you have an instant and intuitive 'read' on where you stand relative to the green and every hole target. Large 3", Full Color, Sunlight Viewable Screen, Waterproof to IPX3, weighs less than 4 oz. Optional membership upgrade allows user to download hi-res satellite images of each hole with fairway flyover from tee to green. Touch Screen with Touchpoint Technology allows you to touch any point on the satellite image and instantly see the yardage from your position to that spot, and from that spot to the green. Shot tracking- allows user to mark each shot and pull up the entire round for review at a later time. Scorecard and analysis functions.
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