Garmin Approach R10

Is the Garmin Approach R10 worth buying?

The Garmin Approach R10 is worth buying at £445 if you want one unit that covers the garage, the garden and the driving range, reading ball spin, club head speed, ball speed, swing tempo and launch angle from a body waterproof to IPX7. It runs 10 hours on a charge, and 1,104 owners rate it 4.3.

It is not the buy for someone who wants the figures on the device itself, because the display measures 0.9 inches and the detail is read in the Garmin Golf app on a paired smartphone. It is also not the buy for a golfer who only wants carry distance, since the Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor answers that for £169, which is £276 less.

What does 10 hours of battery mean for the Garmin Approach R10?

Ten hours is the figure that sets the Garmin Approach R10 apart: two hours more than the Rapsodo MLM2PRO at 8 hours and four more than the Rapsodo MLM at 6 hours. In practice that is five or six range sessions on one charge, so the microUSB cable can stay in the bag for a week at a time.

Against the FlightScope Mevo, the Garmin Approach R10 costs £176 more at £445, while the Mevo spreads eight named metrics over £269, which is £33.63 each. What the extra £176 buys here is the 10 hours, a body sealed to IPX7 for wet mornings, and a training mode that keeps its own statistics and chart for every club in the bag.

What comes in the box with the Garmin Approach R10?

The box holds the Approach R10, a tripod stand, a phone mount, a carry case, a microUSB cable and the documentation, with the batteries already fitted. The phone mount clips to a golf bag, so the screen you watch through a session is the phone rather than the 0.9 inch display on the unit.

Setting up takes a tripod placed behind the ball and a Bluetooth pairing with a compatible smartphone running the Garmin Golf app, and after that the unit works on its own while you hit. Every measurement is read on the phone, so the phone's own charge matters as much as the R10's, and the microUSB cable means the wall plug is yours to supply.

What are the downsides of the Garmin Approach R10?

The phone dependency is the first thing to accept: the display on the unit is 0.9 inches and everything useful, from the shot dispersion chart to the per-club statistics, is read in the Garmin Golf app. Turn up without a charged phone and the £445 unit has very little to show for the session.

Virtual rounds and the weekly global leaderboard need an active subscription on top of the £445, so the 42,000 courses are not part of the purchase. The dispersion chart works from estimated ball flight rather than a tracked trajectory, which makes it a picture of a whole session and not a record of one shot.

Is the Garmin Approach R10 better than the Rapsodo MLM2PRO?

The Rapsodo MLM2PRO costs £104 more at £549 and carries thirteen metrics, spin axis and a simulator over more than 30,000 courses on 8 hours of battery. A golfer building a bay at home who wants shot shape and course play is better served there, and the three marked Callaway balls in that box are part of how its spin readings work.

The Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor sits at the other end at £169, which is £276 less, and it suits the iPhone or iPad owner who wants a first set of numbers with a 1920 x 1080 swing replay. It runs 6 hours and records no spin figure at all, so anyone chasing spin gets more from the Garmin Approach R10 for £276 more.