Bushnell Neo+ GPS - REVIEW

[GolfSpy Dave]

Bushnell Neo+ GPS – REVIEW

An Official MyGolfSpy.com Review

 

 

It Knows Where You Are, From Space!

Have you ever really stopped and thought about the wonder of GPS technology? You have a little device in your hand that tells you where you are by communicating with satellites that are in space orbiting the Earth. The electronic communication covers thousands of miles in seconds, letting you know where you are or where the middle of the green is plus or minus a yard or so. Awesome technology.

 

I bring this amazement up in this review because the Neo+ GPS from Bushnell is marketed as a basic GPS unit. Bushnell states on the Neo+ product page that the Neo+ is ”one of the simplest and easiest to use”. But even the “simplest” of GPS units still is inherently amazing in my opinion.

 

Bushnell Neo+ Review

Style (20 Points)

As advertised, the Neo+ is a small unit. It is very light. Has only six buttons.

 

Its monochromatic display is good sized for the unit, with the middle, front, and back of green distances readily displayed. It comes with a plastic, clip-in belt holder that firmly holds on to the unit, but also readily releases the Neo+ when one wishes to remove it.

 

Somewhere in the tiny unit lives a rechargeable battery that is easily recharged by the included USB cable and plug adapter. Connecting the unit to your computer and the Neo+ online support is accomplished using the same cable.

 

All in all it is a very sleek looking, compact, attractive unit.

Style Score= 20/20

 

Performance

One of the advertised claims of the Neo+ is that it is simple and fast to use on the course. I definitely agree with this statement with a couple of caveats. The unit is simple to use. You press the ON button and wait for it to find the satellites. Bear in mind that this is not an instantaneous process. If you are too antsy with the unit, it will ask you to select the course you are at by an alphabetical search. At the courses I played with the Neo+, this search prompt just means that you didn't wait long enough for it to find the satellites. Once it finds them, finding your course is just a matter of scroll and select. Very easy.

 

From here, the unit has a very RonCo feel; you “set it and forget it”. The unit does a great job of following you as you move around the course, almost always changing holes when you do. Crazy, off target shots may cause it to think you are on the next hole, but a simple press on the scroll button puts you back on track. There is a slight lag in getting the final reading as you approach your ball, but just a few seconds as it fine-tunes your distance to the yard. I found the time to be totally acceptable. I was walking the courses though, so those of you in high speed riding carts may need a few more seconds for the unit to take the final reading. This is just speculation on my part though.

 

As I used the unit, I double-checked the distances provided with a laser rangefinder. I do trust my laser for accuracy more than any satellite based GPS. That being said, the Neo+ provided excellent numbers. They were not always the same as the laser as the greens keepers will move the flags around, but the number was always within a couple of yards at most. Never would the laser vs. the GPS readings have caused me to hit different clubs.

 

The strength of the Neo+ is also its weakness; it is a simple unit. While it does a great job at giving you front, middle, and back of green, that is about the functional limit of the unit. If one scrolls to a secondary screen, there are more mapped points for hazards and such, but not many. Do not expect hole flyovers, club selection suggestions, every point mapped, and so on. This is a basic unit, and as a basic unit it is great. One wouldn't expect an economy car to have luxury car features though. The Neo+ is about getting you from point A to point B on the course. Ultimately for me, I wished there were more intermediate points and a few more options.

 

The Neo+ does give you the ability to mark additional points on the course and to map the green locations in person. While this is a nice feature, I found the navigation menu a bit cumbersome and I quickly lost interest in this feature. I did have a few holes on one course where the self-mapping may be critical. Looking at the photos below, you can see that the distances may be a bit off. In all three photos, I was facing the front of the green. I am not sure how the front and the back can be the same distance. Maybe that green is in some kind of wormhole. Regardless, a few minutes to self-map greens like this should fix the problem for future rounds.

 

 

One feature I do like is the shot-tracking feature. Although this is a common feature on GPS units, it is a strength of the GPS vs. the laser. Hit your tee shot. Press a button. Walk to your ball. Rejoice at a 280 yarder. I feel better about reading distance like this, rather than lasering the group behind me back at the tee box. Lasering people on the course is wrong (even if you make sci-fi laser sounds when you do it).

 

One other minor criticism for the unit comes from the belt clip. I wish that the clip was a bit tighter so that it could clip to a bag strap rather than only to my belt. I just couldn't find the right spot on my belt where the unit felt comfortable, even knocking it off once as I pulled on my bag. Because it easily detaches from the clip, a bag-mounting strap would be a great addition. I may actually see about attaching the unit to a carabineer-type clip to attach it to the bag.

 

 

Performance Score= 48/60

 

Value

The Neo+ excels in the value arena. Its $145 price tag makes it very competitive with other GPS units having similar features. In addition, the Neo+ has some other value adding characteristics.

 

• No Annual Fees
  
• 16,000 Pre-loaded courses
  
• Built-in battery that holds a charge for 16 hours (manufacturers claim, I did not play for 16 hours)
  

I may have wanted a unit with a few more features, but such a unit will easily cost more than double the price of the Neo+. For what it does, the Neo+ really does not have a competitor in the value department. And yes, it does perform much better and faster than the app on your phone.

Value Score= 20/20

Total Score= 88/100

 

Summary

The Bushnell Neo+ is as advertised. It is a small and simple unit. For someone seeking basic GPS functionality, look not further than this unit. You turn it on, it gives you yardages on the course, then you turn it off and drive home. Simple indeed.