Garmin R10 Portable Launch Monitor Review

Garmin Approach R10

One of the most popular and important trends in golf today is the ability to analyze and fine tune your golf swing and equipment. Launch monitors have been accessible for awhile now, but you often have to reserve time with professional fitters or drop $20k for a top-end model. Garmin has already earned the trust of countless golfers and outdoor enthusiasts with their world class GPS technology. Now, they’re offering players an affordable, versatile, personal option with the new Garmin Approach R10 Portable Launch Monitor.

Out of the Box

From my mind, any consumer electronic needs to look good from the second you pop open the box. For instance, I finally got my hands on a PlayStation 5. From the moment I hooked the thing up, I was in awe. Note, I’m a big nerd, so this stuff is a foregone conclusion, but the folks at Sony made sure that the initial minutes and hours with my new console were going to be memorable.

Same thing goes with the Garmin Approach R10 Portable Launch Monitor. It comes in a sleek box, with a hard shell plastic case that comfortably holds all the accessories. You have the monitor, the stand, and the phone holder which snap together effortlessly, and you’re off and running in seconds.

To set up on the range, grab a club or alignment stick and line the red line on the back of the monitor with your target and place it about 6′ behind the ball. I’ve been able to use a few other personal launch monitors before, and the biggest immediate hassle has been having the unit detect the ball. With other units, sometimes you’ve got to shimmy it around or “finesse” where you place the ball. That’s annoying. With the Garmin, it takes a second. The green flashing light on top tells you to start firing your missiles. To add to that, you’ll notice that by the time you’re done holding your finish, the data is already up on your screen. The only lag should be in your swing…

Key Features

The the Garmin Approach R10 was built for indoor OR outdoor use. With it being summer and me living in Chicago, I’m going to use this thing outdoors until the seasons force me into the dome for a few months. All of my uses so far have been outside, so we’ll have to see how well the monitor does inside later on. Either way, I like the versatility.

The radar metrics provide data on:

clubhead speed
face angle
path angle
angle of attack
ball speed
launch angle and direction
spin axis
spin rate
apex height
smash factor
carry and total distance
deviation distance (aka dispersion)

All the same data points the fancy pro line units will give you, and Garmin claims +/- 3 mph in club speed and +/- 1º in launch, and +/- 5 yards in carry distance. I’ll take that tolerance. Besides, if you’re carrying it 332 (like I most certainly do in real life) and it only says 327, does it really matter?

For each Range Session, they present this all in easy to see and colorful pages. You have options to record your swing with video, all while compiling data (don’t forget to use the included bag mount). There’s the simulated ball flight page that you can track from address or from down range. I find this to be pretty close to what my actual ball flight looks like, but again, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Then there’s the data page with all of your relevant info. It’s quick and responsive, so you don’t have to wait forever.

Other Features

Garmin has included a few extra features to make the R10 more fun and useful. They offer up Home Tee Hero, which allows you to play your actual shots on any of the 42k+ courses they have saved. Want to play your dirt track home course? Ok. Want to play Pebble Beach? You can do that in the same range sesh! The Connect app even lets your buddies join in on the fun. Garmin will also host a Weekly Tournament where you can play with your competitors along the way.

The better option in my opinion is the ability to tap into the E6 Connect app. E6 essentially offers up digitally recreated courses you can play. The features are similar to Home Tee Hero, but the graphics and interface look exponentially better. You’ll have to download E6 separately, and all these extras do cost money. The Garmin Golf premium content is $99/year after a free trial. E6 will come in more expensive, but could be well worth it if you’re a Driving Range Hero and want to get around…but stay at your home range at the same time!

On-Range Performance

The cool thing with the Garmin Approach R10 – and a big selling point for me – is that I don’t need 100% perfect readings but I do need consistent readings. From there, I can calibrate my swing. For my testing, I didn’t have other launch monitors to put the R10 up against, so I’m going to approach this with a lot of “eye test” comments. Does what I’m seeing with the ball flight and feeling with the swing match what comes up on the screen?

For irons and shorter shots, looks good to me. The carry and total distances seem to match what I get on an actual course. That data is pretty vital, as we need to hit to specific numbers with our irons. It also feels like there’s good parallels with the angles I’m coming into the ball. Again, I don’t need “perfect” right now, but I need to know “face angle is open, swing path is inside or outside.” I can make my adjustments from there.

On longer clubs, I feel we’re close. I’m not a bomber. Swing speed can get up to 107mph or so if my back decides to work that day. Most rounds I’m happy with a smooth swing that gets me out there 260. Some of my testing shows that if I’m hitting it solid and straight, those expected numbers will show up. When I’m hitting a bit sideways, there appears to be a drop in club head speed and the spin data can be exaggerated. Is this indicative of just how it reads the long clubs? Am I totally off? Don’t know, but after a good few sessions that’s my observation.

Other golfers might disagree with me here. They want “perfect” numbers out of a device like this. I want something to calibrate, and this gets the job done for me. The R10 is coming with me on every practice session from now on.

Final Thoughts – Garmin R10 Portable Launch Monitor

Being a big gadget guy, I love this kind of stuff. In the end, I want something that’s easily accessible and reasonably accurate. To me, that justifies the $599 retail price tag. In the coming years, golfers are going to be expecting something comparable to the performance of the top end launch monitors. As a long time user of a variety of Garmin products, I feel they iterate and improve with every new release. Look at their GPS watch line for example. The previous models were good, but they continued to refine it into the S62 GPS Watch, which in my opinion is the best golf accessory out there. The Garmin R10 works well for today, and moves us one step closer to the performance of the pro line products on a more affordable budget.