Garmin Approach R10 Vs Flightscope Mevo Plus – What’s The Best Buy?

Garmin Approach R10 Vs Flightscope Mevo Plus – What’s the Best Buy?

We had a lot of fun testing both of these devices. And you’ll see why deciding which was best was very hard for us.

We’ll start with the basics though. Both of these devices are radar launch monitors first and foremost.

While both of them can be connected to apps for a simulated, virtual golf experience, they were both clearly designed mainly as golf launch monitors. They can both be used indoors and outdoors as well.

The Garmin Approach R10

The Garmin R10 is essentially a handheld launch monitor that sets up on a tripod and uses radar for a wealth of shot metrics such as spin axis, spin rate, apex height, smash factor,  carry distance, club head speed, club face angle, ball speed, total distance and more.

It can also record video of your shot, overlaid with real data,  which you can see on your smartphone.

As a radar device, it is certainly more accurate indoors than outdoors. However, we liked the fact that it is very easy to set up and provides so much data.

Garmin Approach R10 Software and Courses

The Garmin R10 is also compatible with one of our favorite golf simulator apps, E6 Connect.

E6 Connect beautifully renders courses like Bethpage Black, St. Andrews, Pebble Beach, The Olympic Club and much more.

There are also some other cool apps you can sync up to the Garmin R10. The Home Tee Hero app, which simulates your local course, was fun. Although, you need to pay a subscription fee for it.

Garmin Approach R10 Pros & Cons

Pros:

• It’s so compact you can easily take it anywhere
• It is very accurate outdoors
• It lasts up to 10 hours
• You can save data from your practice sessions to view any time you like
• It is reasonably priced
• The apps it is compatible with are enough to keep you entertained season after season

Cons:

• It loses accuracy indoors
• You need to pay a subscription for one of the funnest and coolest apps
• It loses connection outdoors easily
• Club head speed accuracy is questionable

The Flightscope Mevo Plus

The Mevo Plus is also a portable launch monitor that you can use indoors, outdoors or at the range. Like the R10, it uses radar technology to track shots.

Unlike the R10, it has an onboard camera which makes aligning it much simpler and easier.

The Mevo Plus offers a wealth of shot data including horizontal launch angle, lateral landing, angle of attack, roll distance, flight time, ball speed, spin rate, vertical launch angle, carry distance, club head speed, total distance and more.

Flightscope Mevo Plus Software & Courses

The Mevo Plus is compatible with the Flightscope Golf app, the Flightscope Skills app and E6 Connect.

The Flightscope apps give you access to 17 practice ranges and 5 simulated courses.

However, the E6 Connect app offers more simulated courses than can be listed here including Stone Canyon, the Sanctuary, Pinehurst, Wade Hampton, Barton Creek, Auburn Grand National Links and more.

Flightscope Mevo Plus Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Onboard Wi-Fi hotspot does a great job of maintaining connection
• Great outdoor accuracy
• A rich collection of shot data
• This launch monitor can really help you improve your game
• The alignment process is very easy
• Fun skills challenges and mini games in the Flightscope apps

Cons:

• It’s more expensive than the Garmin Approach R10
• It also loses some accuracy with indoor setups
• The shot readings take longer to register than with the R10
• Short game accuracy is lacking

What you Get with Each

Both of these devices come with pretty simple setups. With the Garmin Approach R10, you get the device itself, a folding tripod, a carrying case, phone mount, and a micro USB charging cable.

With the Flightscope Mevo plus, you get the device and access to E6 Connect and both Flightscope Golf apps. There is also a phone mount option; but you have to pay extra for that.

Accuracy & Performance Comparison

To give you a better idea of what you can expect from both of these devices, we broke down accuracy and performance into the following categories:

• Drivers – On average, the Garmin Approach R10 was more accurate on drives but the Mevo Plus was not very far behind. Outdoors, the Garmin Approach R10 was very accurate with drives – to within 2 yards on average. The Mevo Plus was accurate with drives to within 3 yards outdoors. Of course, you should keep in mind that both devices lose about 1.5 yards of accuracy indoors with drives.
• Irons – Long iron shots were no problem with either of these devices. We were noticing that short iron shots were sometimes not picked up at all with the Garmin Approach R10. Overall, we would say that the Mevo Plus was more accurate with iron shots both indoors and outdoors.
• Chipping – Chipping was a bit of a problem with both of these devices. They both seemed to get roll distance pretty wrong and the Garmin Approach R10 gave outlandish apex height readings from time to time. The Mevo Plus seemed to be dead on with apex height and spin rates on chips so it wins in this category again.
• Putting – You have to have the Garmin Approach R10 set up just right to read your putts accurately. This is where the alignment camera of the Mevo Plus came into play. Overall, it was more accurate with putts than the Garmin Approach R10. Roll distance was right on target. However, we did like the club face angle readings the Garmin Approach R10 yielded for putts.

Honorable Mentions

Here are some other devices to consider:

• Phigolf – An affordable at-home simulator with a bunch of cool features like online competitions.
• Flightscope Mevo – The predecessor to the Mevo Plus, the original Mevo is more affordable but offers the same stellar accuracy.

Which is the Best?

You are going to pay significantly more for it, but we think the Flightscope Mevo Plus was the better launch monitor overall.

The software quality is just about the same and it’s more accurate than the Garmin Approach R10.