Golf GPS Device Reviews: SkyCaddie SG5
SkyCaddie bills itself as “the #1 rangefinder in golf,” and its polished interface and functionality make this claim credible, at least in the past. We’re not so sure it’s as clear cut for here on out. While the SG5 features an unmatched number of user settings to controls views on the device, the device lacks key functionality available in other GPS devices – namely the ability to record additional targets for existing courses, as well as entering scores and statistics.
At $519.80, the SkyCaddie SG5 is by far the most expensive device in our analysis of the three-year total cost of ownership (which includes required annual subscription fees or per course download fees). It’s very good at what it does, but newer devices have passed it in terms of “wow” factor. SkyCaddie is promising a software update that will bring in nifty new features, so stay tuned for an update in April. However, with its current feature set, the SkyCaddie SG5 is a bit pricey, and we think consumers will want to take a long look at the other premium golf GPS devices before committing to this investment.
[Editor's Note: After a long, long wait, SkyGolf has released their latest features for SkyCaddie members with their v3 software (available for an additional $20 to older SkyCaddie SG5 owners; included with new purchases). New features include a graphical image of the hole, preview of the safest path from tee to green, and at last...a scorecard! For those focus on the new IntelliGreen Pro (displays green contours) and their HoleView (overhead graphic of holes), make sure to check out the SkyGolf site to ensure these features are available on the courses you play before purchase - they are NOT available widely yet. Our review of these new features will be available shortly.]
Pros:
- Bright and easy to read color screen
- Easy navigation
- High level of user customization
Cons:
- Highest priced unit in our test
- Heaviest and one of the most bulky units tested
- Can’t add targets to existing courses
Retail price: $399.95
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Setup
The Good: Detailed step-by-step instructions via their new course management software make setup a snap. SkyCaddie has been doing this longer than most of its competitors, and it shows in their customer support materials. We also appreciated having a light that indicates when the unit has finished charging.
The Bad: Not much – the entire process is well laid out and is simple for even the non-computer savvy. While it would have been nice not to have the additional step of moving courses to a “Favorites” folder, this is necessitated by the maximum of 15 courses (10 SkyCaddie-mapped courses and 5 user-mapped courses) that can be stored on the device.
Details:
- Required steps. Setting up the SkyCaddie SG5 is similar to most other devices we tested, and involves:
- registering on their web site to create an account;
- choosing and purchasing a membership plan (ranging in price from $29.95 to $59.95);
- installing course management software (CaddieSync) on your computer;
- searching for and selecting the courses you want to load to the SkyCaddie and adding them to your “favorites”; and
- connecting the SkyCaddie to the computer via a USB cable and “syncing” the courses to the device.
- Time required for setup. The entire set-up process took about 15 minutes in total. This included 5 minutes to download the course management software, install and then restart to finish the installation. It took us another 4 minutes to create an account online and launch the software. Selecting a membership plan, and thereafter searching for and transferring 10 courses to the SG5 took another 6 minutes.
What’s in the Box: The SkyCaddie SG5 comes with:
- USB cable
- Wall charger
- Belt clip
- User Guide
- Quick Start Guide
- Quick Setup Overview
- Installation CD (note that Mac users will need to download the software via the SkyCaddie website as the included CD is not Mac-compatible)
Required Downloads: Mac users must download:
- CaddieSync for Mac course management software
Course Availability
Critical Golf Test: The SkyCaddie SG5 sported an excellent 97% coverage in our course coverage test, finishing a strong second. Coverage is solid across all regions of the United States and about even across all course types, though it missed out on an even stronger finish by striking out on a couple of Top 100 courses.
Manufacturer’s Claims: SkyCaddie claims to have over 23,000 courses available in its course database, placing it second among the devices we tested. As detailed in “Talladega Nights”: (Ricky Bobby) “You can’t have two number ones.” (Cal Naughton, Jr.) “Yeah, ’cause that would be eleven.”
Ease of Use
The Good: The device has an intuitive interface – methinks that SkyCaddie is smartly leveraging its learnings from customer feedback on prior iterations of their devices. The SkyCaddie SG5 is also smart enough to stop showing you the distance to a target once you have proceeded past that target.
The Bad: The SkyCaddie SG5 is the heaviest device in our test, and feels rather bulky in the pocket during play.
Details:
- Buttons. The device features a scroll pad (which you would expect to be able to depress, but rather only lets you navigate menus up and down and position the crosshair when in green view – actually selecting any option must be done with the buttons), two soft keys, and buttons for power, mark shot, information, menu, and hole selection.
- Screen. Although the SkyCaddie SG5 screen is only average sized, it is bright and clear and makes good use of the accompanying graphics (although sadly there is no overhead picture of the entire hole, which would really look nice on its color screen). There was an unusual amount of scratching and scuffing to the screen through normal use, much more so than other golf GPS devices. While this had nothing more than a cosmetic impact, it was still odd to see on a high-end unit.
- Form Factor. As mentioned above, the device comes in at 5.5 ounces, making it the heaviest device in our comparison. SkyCaddie aficionados can take heart that the SG5 is actually lighter than its older sister device, the SG3 (which is not in our comparison since it is being phased out).
- Starting a Round. The SkyCaddie lists all the courses loaded onto your device in order of distance to your location so you can quickly select your course. After selecting the course, the user must also select the hole on which to start the round (we’re not sure why it necessarily makes sense to cater so strongly to people who like to play just the back nine or in shotgun tournaments).
Course Detail and Mapping
The Good: Solid detail is provided on most courses, including distances to the end of the fairway on doglegs (which we have not seen in other course databases). The SkyCaddie SG5 features the ability to have an amazing 40 points mapped per hole (although we rarely saw more than 12 points actually mapped). An excellent pictorial of the green rotates based on the user’s position and provides precise data on the distances to the edges of the green closest and farthest from the user (which is far more useful to those of us who occasionally spray the ball off the fairway than just data to the points of the green closest and farthest from the tee box).
The Bad: No ability to edit existing course maps with additional targets. Users are able to map an entire course and save it, but only distances to the front, middle and back of the green can be mapped (there is no ability to custom map hazards, layup points or other targets).
Details:
- Views. There are six different views available – four different “target” views (standard, graphical, expanded and big number), a “green” view and a “center only” view. Users can cycle quickly among the target views, and the Skycaddie SG5 even goes further to allow users to customize the rotation and remove any views they don’t utilize.
- Standard target view – This view always shows the distance to the center of the green and also shows distances to the next three targets that the user will approach. The targets are identified solely through text (i.e. BkrLtCy would appear indicating the distance to carry the left bunker). Users can choose to have the SG5 automatically move through the targets as they or passed, or to manually scroll through the list.
- Graphical target view – Similar to the standard target view, the graphical target view always showing the distance to the center of the green plus the three targets that will be next encountered, but adds small graphic representations of the green and target. These graphics look a bit hokey, but help clarify exactly what the indicated target actually is (i.e. in the example given above for BkrLtCy, there will be a small graphic of a bunker, with a line across the top indicating that it is the carry distance).
- Expanded target view – Displays more detail on any target selected from the standard or graphical target views, showing in larger print the distance to that target with the accompanying graphic, and additional provides the distance from that target to the center of the green. This is great information for players who want to plan one shot ahead.
- Big number target view – Displays in a very large font the distance to a target selected from the standard or graphical target views, with a graphic of the target and the target descriptor (ie BunkerLt). Users can cycle through different targets while remaining on this view.
- Green view – Shows a map of the green, along with the distance to the near, center and far points of the green (and dots on the green map to indicate the location of those near, center and far points). Our reviewers loved that the green shape and distances are relative to where the user is on the course, which provides the most relevant data. Using the movable crosshairs, users can also select any point on the green to find the distance to that point. Note that these features are unavailable on approximately 10% of courses in the SkyCaddie database.
- Center Only view – Those who want to simplify the views to the hilt can select the “Center Only” view, which only shows the distance to the center of the green. But why anyone would pay top dollar for this device and then only utilize bare bones functionality is beyond us.
- Hole Information. The hole number, par and hole handicap are all readily accessible by pressing the dedicated “info” button.
- Custom Mapping. As mentioned above, the SkyCaddie SG5 has an unusual approach to custom mapping – limiting users to mapping an entire course and saving it, but not allowing users to edit the existing maps created by SkyCaddie. Unlike some other golf GPS devices, when mapping an entire course with the SG5, the only points that can be saved are for the front, middle and back of the green (there is no ability to map hazards and other targets).
Suggestion Box: We were disappointed to see that the course detail for one resort course that hosts a PGA tournament omits key targets, and had older markings for a bunker configuration that had been renovated over a year ago. One last unusual target marking was to a “layup” point, but gave no reference as to the layup distance (or why the location was chosen).
Features
The Good: The SkyCaddie SG5 provides most of the general features you would expect to have in a golf GPS device, and has an unmatched number of user-adjustable settings.
The Bad: The device doesn’t have any cutting edge features that provide a real “wow” factor, such as course layouts, and also cannot keep score or track statistics (such as fairways hit, greens in regulation and number of putts), which we think should be baseline functionality in premium-priced units.
Details:
- Shot Tracking. The device has a nice shot tracking interface for measuring the distance of a user’s shots.
- Scores and Statistics. These can be tracked only if you purchased the optional “Old School” upgrade kit that consists of a wooden pencil and a paper scorecard. All kidding aside, we were disappointed that the SkyCaddie SG5 does not track user scores or statistics.
- Auto-Advance. The device will automatically advance to the next hole, or users can elect to manually advance between holes.
- Preferences. SkyCaddie provides a wealth of settings that can be adjusted on the SG5, including whether to show detailed green targets, whether the front or the center of the green is the green reference distance, the distance at which the device will automatically switch to the green view, the distance at which the device will no longer show a target, power save functions (auto power off and backlight), and even the color theme.
For more details, check out the Critical Golf comparison of golf GPS device features.
Accuracy
Device Accuracy: We experienced no distance accuracy issues in our test of device accuracy, with all distances within the acceptable range of plus or minus 4 yards.
Mapping Accuracy: We tested the SkyCaddie SG5 on a variety of courses and had no problems with the accuracy of the course mapping either. Distances readings are available at any distance from a target or the green (some devices stop showing readings within a certain number of yards of a target or the green), thus we were able to develop confidence in the SkyCaddie SG5’s displayed distances even at short range.
Cost/Value
Retail Price: The SkyCaddie SG5 comes in at a retail price of $399.95, putting it in the most expensive third of the devices tested.
Fees for Access to Course Database: SkyCaddie owners must choose one of three membership plans to access the course database, which are priced at $29.95/year for unlimited courses in one state (each additional state costing $10/year), $49.95/year for unlimited courses in the United States, and $59.95/year for unlimited courses worldwide.
Three-Year Total Cost of Ownership: Our test of the three-year total cost of ownership, which makes assumptions on the number of new courses a user will want to access each year, found the SkyCaddie SG5 to have the highest three-year cost, at a steep $519.80. This was more than $70 higher than the next most expensive device. Ouch!
Value: The SkyCaddie SG5 is a very good device with solid accuracy and user settings, but comes at a steep price. We wonder how much of the premium cost is feeding the SkyCaddie marketing machine and the endorsements of Natalie Gulbis, Jim Furyk, Peter Jacobsen, and Hank Haney.