Garmin R10 Approach Launch Monitor

• Manufacturer: Garmin
• Retail Price: $590
• Smash Factor: Yes
• Club Speed: Yes
• Club Path: Yes
• Club Face Angle: Yes
• Distance: Yes
• Attack Angle: Yes
• Club loft angle: No
• Club lie angle: No
• Ball speed: Yes
• Spin: Yes
• Launch Angle: Yes
• Spin Axis: Yes
• Depth: 14 feet required
• Portable: Yes
• Left/Right Hand: Yes
• Sensor Technology: Mobile
• Outdoor: Yes
• Ball Spin: Yes
• Driving Range: No
• E6: Yes

The Garmin R10 accurately reads 14 data metrics with its doppler radar. In addition, it produces ball and club data, giving you a complete picture of what’s happening at impact.

The primary data metrics it provides include:

• Carry distance
• Total distance
• Ball speed
• Clubhead speed
• Smash factor
• And more…

Also measured by the R10 is club path analysis. The data it shows is as follows:

• Face to path
• Launch direction
• Club face angle
• Launch angle
• Spin axis
• Attack angle

All this data aims to give you a detailed look into how you are striking the golf ball and to provide many different perspectives on potential improvement. 

You can correlate your shot data with a video of your swing for even better potential improvement. Then, at the end of each session, you can save the data and refer to it alongside a video.

Battery Life for Garmin R10

The battery life is about 10 hours on the R10. Taken altogether, this makes for a well-rounded golf launch monitor.

Finally, there is an excellent variety of options available for play. It comes with the ability to play 42,000 different golf courses virtually and comes with E6 compatibility. Virtual tournaments are also available online, where you can compete for cash and prizes.

Pros

• Highly accurate results
• 14 data metrics for club and ball
• 10 hours battery life
• Sleek, portable design
• A large variety of virtual golf courses
• Includes E6 compatibility
• Video capture with swing

Cons

• Better performance with outdoor use
• Not as accurate at the driving range
• Some issues with calculating spin
• No ball normalization feature

The most accurate golf trackers come from enterprise solutions like Trackman and Foresight. However, personal launch monitors have come a long way in recent years.

The Garmin R10 has better accuracy than average for personal launch monitors. The one area it struggles with is calculating spin. This is unsurprising, as all golf monitors at this price point have the same issue.

Another issue of note is that the R10 lacks a ball normalization feature, meaning that some balls can give misleading information. This is particularly true for range balls. 

While the club path data stays solid, the R10 can become inaccurate at the driving range with range balls without ball normalization. This can be a problem if your main use of the device is at the driving range.

Finally, as with most launch monitors, it can’t do accurate putts. This is tricky even for high-end devices, so it should be expected.

The Garmin R10 is one of the most straightforward launch monitors to set up out there. You don’t want to be wasting your time trying to configure and connect this device. Its no-nonsense Bluetooth connection hooks straight up to your phone or tablet.

The placement doesn’t have to be perfect for set up, as long as the sensor can pick up the ball. The stand attaches to the doppler radar easily. Then, once you’ve linked to the app, you’re good to go.

You often get some well-done packaging and accessories with other Garmin products, but nothing too strong. 

However, that changed with the R10. Instead, it feels more like opening an Apple product or other high-end gadget, where the aesthetic experience is part of the package. 

The first thing you’ll notice is the portable case. Right away, you’ll notice the leather case is simplistic, yet sophisticated. It looks and feels good, and I’d expect it to hold up over time.

The molded foam looks and feels very high-end when you open the case. It keeps all the pieces of the tripod and launch monitor together beautifully. 

The design of the Garmin itself looks great inside it, feeling like you’re getting a sleek, perfectly made device. The launch monitor is quite small, standing at about 2×3 inches and about a half inch of depth.

The tripod is sturdy and works well on both grass and pavement with a mat. The charger is a USB-mini and non-proprietary, meaning you can use your cables if you need to replace them. 

Also in the box is a phone holder, which is a helpful addition. For example, with the FlightScope Mevo, you don’t get a good phone holder, making it awkward to figure out where to put your phone.

Garmin created an elaborate set of great features with their app, including many great data features.  

It works as a GPS device, which can be used in conjunction with CT10 sensors to track all the data for your rounds.

Having all your data in one spot like this is pretty useful for correlating different pieces of data.

The Garmin Golf App is also quite user-friendly, with clean and clear data points and a fast and easy-to-set-up Bluetooth connection.

When you first open the app, you’re given 4 options: Driving Range, Home Tee Hero, Weekly Tournament, and TruGolf E6 Connect. We’ll go through these and other features in depth.

Driving Range

The Driving Range option is the simplest to understand, as it is just a tracker for all your data shooting balls at the range. So after you’ve set up your connection from the launch monitor to your phone, just hit Start Training, and you should be good to go.

It’ll ask you which club you’re hitting with, then provide data with every shot. There are five different useful screens to look at for each shot. 

The first provides total distance, carry distance, and spin rate above a visual representation of the shot, which is useful as an overview.

Next is the video page, which allows you to record your shots and correlate them with data for future reference. 

Then there’s a visual metrics page, which shows more detail with pictures of the angles, spin, and drives you’re getting, helping you to visualize what’s going on with each shot.

And finally, there are the metrics pages, which can show you a list of all the different data carefully laid out.

Home Tee Hero

Probably the standout feature of the R10, Home Tee Hero is a virtual golf course app with over 42,000 courses available. It’s simplistic and doesn’t look nearly as realistic as E6, but the courses are fun and easy to play.

Although it doesn’t look as realistic, the courses are relatively accurate to the ones they are based on in real life. It gives you an overhead display of the hole on your phone or tablet, so it’s not a full-on simulator. 

There’s also no putting available on the app. Once on the green, the app will assign you a 1, 2, or 3 putt depending on the distance from the hole. 

The app requires a monthly subscription to use, like most other apps. It’s about the same price as most streaming services, which seems fair and is standard in the industry. Buying the R10 doesn’t lock you into any kind of subscription, so you can cancel anytime.

Home Tee Hero is playable with up to 4 people at once, and it works indoors with a net or outdoors.

We’ll skip the Weekly Tournament, which uses the app to play for cash and prizes, and move on to the E6 Connect.

TruGolf E6 Connect

One of the essential features for most people purchasing a launch monitor is the ability to play a great golf simulator with it, and TruGolf E6 is the gold standard. 

E6 is probably the most famous golf simulator company on the market, and their TruGolf E6 Connect is one of the smoothest and best experiences available.

So, when you get your Garmin R10, you get access to their ios app, which lets you play full-3D, simulated rounds of golf on your phone or tablet.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t come cheap. For the basic version, you’re looking at three times the price of Home Tee Hero’s subscription fee. And then for the expanded subscription, it’s double that. You have to buy licenses to their courses that come in packages, but there is a demo package with the R10 of five complete real-world courses to try out. 

These are amazing courses from around the world, and you can find even more through their packages. The simulator is the real deal, with highly accurate greens that work seamlessly with the launch monitor.

Also to note is that it only works for ios, so it won’t hook up to your PC if you’re looking for the full simulator experience. Something to be aware of if that’s the setup you’re looking for.

There are also a few other features of interest.

Swing Capture

Using the app, you can set up your phone’s camera behind the hitting area to capture a video of your shot. 

Using the captured video, you can overlay it with your stats from the swing. Each clip can then be rewound and fast-forwarded to any point you like. With the Garmin Golf Premium Subscription, you can store video clips on the cloud. 

Club Performance 

You can also monitor different club performances during a driving range session along with video capture. On this part of the app, you’ll see a top-down dispersion map of all your shots in a session with distance traveled, plus data about the number of shots with each club. Different clubs will show up as different colors on the dispersion map.

Then, the app will calculate each club’s minimum, maximum, and average distance. In the long run, this will help you to understand your numbers so that you know what to expect of yourself on the course. In addition, you’ll see improvements over time as well as what you need to work on. 

Scorecards, Leaderboards, and Sharing

One more aspect of the Garmin Golf app is that you can upload scorecards to review your stats and compare yourself to the leaderboards.

You can take a look at the global weekly leaderboards for the 42,000 courses on Home Tee Hero and see them update in real-time. 

In addition, you can create your own tournaments amongst friends to see who does best. 

For a great mix of value, accuracy, and features, the Garmin Approach R10 is one of the best portable launch monitors on the market. 

The best feature of the R10 is its affordable access to a massive selection of virtual golf courses with Home Tee Hero. In addition to this, it’s easy to use, with minimal setup and great portability.

For its price range, it’s one of the most accurate and feature-rich launch monitors available.