50 Words or Less
The Shot Scope H50 GPS is loaded with advanced features like green maps and shot tracking. Quick and accurate. Affordable purchase price and no annual fee make it a great value.
Introduction
It used to be rare to see a handheld golf GPS device because they were expensive, the pinnacle of golf technology. Now they’re rare because they’ve been largely replaced by rangefinders, GPS watches, and smartphone apps. The Shot Scope H50 makes the case that more golfers should go back to the handheld GPS. With a large touchscreen, deep feature set, and affordable price, its case is a compelling one.
Set Up & Ease of Use
Like everything in the Shot Scope ecosystem, the H50 requires virtually no set up and is very easy to use. In the box, you’ll find the handheld along with a quick start guide, charging cable, carabiner, and cleaning cloth. Plug it in and let the battery fill up.
Once you’re powered up, connect the Shot Scope H50 to the Shot Scope app. This only takes a couple of taps, and it will enable you to do the firmware updates so that your H50 has all the latest features and improvements. Over 42,000 courses are pre-loaded, but you can check to see if your courses have any updates from within the Shot Scope app.
On the course, the Shot Scope H50 does everything you could want intuitively via the 4.3″ touchscreen. Power it on, tap “Play Golf,” select a course, and you’re on your way. The commands within the round are fairly intuitive, but there are so many features that you’ll need to do a little experimenting. After a few holes, you’ll have nailed down the features that you want to use, and you can get to them all within a tap or two. [See Price / Buy]
Accuracy & Features
Let’s start with the most important basics before diving into the depth of features. As we’ve come to expect from Shot Scope, the H50 is accurate and quick. Compared to on-course measurements, it’s almost always within 2 yards and often right on. The yardages change as you walk or drive, and are always accurate by the time you stop and look down at the device.
What elevates the Shot Scope H50 above their GPS watches [G6 review HERE] and most GPS apps is the depth of features. You can set it up to display simple front-middle-back yardages [apologies for the use of stock photos, but my pictures of the screen didn’t do the H50 any justice]. You can see the entire hole. You get green views for your approach shot. And one of the best features is green contour map display. This gives you a detailed view of the slopes of the green so you can hit a smart approach shot and roll in the putt.
I’m not even close to done listing features, by the way. The Shot Scope H50 can measure the distance of your shot. It can keep your score, and the score of every player in your group. It can give you the distance to hazards. And finally, you can do shot tracking on the H50. It’s a fully manual process and not super fun, but you can do it. If you really want shot tracking, just get the Shot Scope V5 [review HERE].
The device itself is well-designed and well-built. It weighs just 60 grams but still feels sturdy. It’s covered in rubber to give you a good grip, and it’s rated IPX7 waterproof, meaning it can survive full immersion for a short time. The battery life is also excellent, lasting two rounds in GPS mode without shot tracking.
Another nice feature of the Shot Scope H50 is the built-in cart magnet. As the name implies, this is meant for sticking the unit on your riding cart, and that feature works very well. I found a slightly unorthodox use case: sticking the H50 to the clubs in my pushcart.
The only complaint I have with the Shot Scope H50 is that the touchscreen is not as responsive as an iPhone. That’s not a fair comparison – one device costs $200, the other costs over $1,000 – but it’s the standard that most people are used to. The H50 isn’t slow, but you can’t rapidly tap-tap-tap and expect it to respond how you want. Back on the positive, it is bright and easy to read in all light conditions.
Value
The Shot Scope H50 GPS retails for $199. You can support Plugged In Golf at no additional cost by buying it HERE.
Comparing the H50 to the other big name handheld GPS units, it’s much more affordable. At the time of this writing, the current SkyCaddie units are $300 and $350, and the Garmin G82 is $600. Depending on what features you value, those units could make sense, but it’s hard to argue that the H50 isn’t the best value.
As with all Shot Scope products, one of the most important things is that there is no subscription fee. This separates them from virtually every other GPS company or app on the market and makes their products a great value. The Shot Scope H50 also comes with a two year warranty and the purchase includes firmware updates and new features at no additional cost. [See Price / Buy]
Conclusion
If you go to the course to get away from your phone, but you still want detailed course information, the Shot Scope H50 is the best choice for you. This easy to use handheld delivers all the data you need to shoot low scores without emptying your pockets. [See Price / Buy]
The Shot Scope H50 GPS Handheld features detailed hole maps on a large full touch screen. This is the ultimate caddie in your pocket, delivering fast and accurate GPS distances, plus “plays like” yardages to any point on the course, making club selection a simple task.
He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
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