PRGR Portable Launch Monitor

Is the PRGR Portable Launch Monitor worth buying?

The PRGR Portable Launch Monitor is worth buying at £170.14 if you want five numbers after every shot without pairing a phone, and 1,200 owners rate it 4.2. It suits the golfer who practises alone on a range mat and wants swing speed, ball speed, carry distance, total distance and smash factor club by club, read straight off the unit. It is not the buy for anyone chasing spin, shot curve or swing video, because those figures need a different machine and more money.

Two things make it easy to live with. It needs no Wi-Fi, no download and no app, and its radar picks up nearly every shot without fussing over exactly where you place it. A 12-month warranty covers the unit, and spare parts stay available for seven years, well past the point most players upgrade.

What do five metrics for £170.14 work out at?

Five metrics on a £170.14 unit works out at £34.03 per figure, the second cheapest data of the ten launch monitors here. The FlightScope Mevo edges it at £33.63 each for eight figures, so the gap is 40p per metric, or £98.86 more on the till. Nothing on this page gives you speed and distance readings for less per number than the PRGR does.

The five are swing speed, ball speed, carry distance, total distance and smash factor, and the one to watch is smash factor. It compares ball speed with clubhead speed, so a drop from one session to the next points at the strike rather than the swing, which is exactly the sort of thing you can fix on the next twenty balls. Distances are read over a 300 measuring range, enough for a driver and a wedge in the same session.

What comes in the box and how does it live in a golf bag?

The unit weighs 139 g and measures 7.7 x 4.3 x 14.3 cm, so it slips into a side pocket next to a glove and a couple of balls. The body is IP54 rated, which shrugs off dust and a light shower but will not survive a soaking in a wet bag. Inside the box you get the monitor and the manual, and a camera screw on the base takes a standard tripod if you want it off the mat.

The LCD shows each result as you hit, a flight distance button toggles between carry and total, and a scroll button walks back through your history on the screen. Four AAA alkaline cells power it and they are not in the box, so add a set before the first session. There is no pouch, which matters more than it sounds once the unit is rolling around loose among your irons.

The radar is not golf-only. It measures the same speed and distance figures for tennis, football and baseball, so it earns its place in a kit bag beyond a round of golf.

Where does the PRGR Portable Launch Monitor fall short?

There is no spin rate, no launch angle and no apex height, so the unit cannot tell you why a ball curves, only how fast and how far it went. Every figure you get is a speed or a distance, which is fine for grooving a strike and limiting for anyone building a shot shape.

It also keeps everything on its own display. There is no app, so there is no session history on a phone, no video and no course play to fall back on when the range closes. What you see on the LCD is what you get.

The extras are the second gap. With no carry pouch in the box and the batteries bought separately, the £170.14 grows a little before the first shot, and the Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor at £169 lands £1.14 cheaper with a case and swing replay already included.

How does the PRGR Portable Launch Monitor compare with the Rapsodo and the FlightScope Mevo?

Against the Rapsodo Mobile Launch Monitor at £169 the PRGR costs £1.14 more and stays independent of a phone, while the Rapsodo turns an iPhone or iPad into the sensor, replays swings at 1920 x 1080 and carries 2,384 ratings at 4.2. Buy the Rapsodo if you want video and a carrying case and already own an iPhone or iPad; buy the PRGR if you want the numbers on the device with nothing to pair.

The FlightScope Mevo is the other way round, at £269 and therefore £98.86 more than the PRGR. It names eight metrics, including spin, apex height and flight time, weighs 49.8 g and returns £33.63 per figure. The Mevo is the better buy once you want spin and shot height, and the PRGR remains the one to take when you want five figures, four AAA cells and nothing else to think about.