• We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas from all at Golf Monthly. Thank you for sharing your 2025 with us!

New Shotscope X5

Reading these reviews I’m kinda happy I stuck with the V3 but with no subscription fees I suspect ShotScope need the X5 to be a success. Hope they get the bugs ironed out.
I’m sure they will but they fully launched it too early. They should‘ve stayed with the upgrades on the understanding that the discount is to help iron out any bugs.

Personally, a high annual subscription puts me right off arccos.
 
For the X5 I think it also depends on the price you paid. I got it for £179 with their existing customer discount and whilst the bugs are annoying I’m happy to be a Guinea pig whilst they get them ironed out. Had I paid the RRP then I would be more frustrated.

Bar the issues with firmware downloads when connecting to the watch I’ve actually found it a very reliable product and have been lucky enough not to encounter the long GPS waits and the mid round crashes. I know SS are releasing a firmware update shortly to address both of those issues.

I do also like the customer support from SS. Their reps are very active on their FB page and the American forum so you are kept updated with their activities.
 
Did they state the discount was because you were a beta tester of an unfinished product, or was it a recognition bonus to its existing customers, and means of getting satisfied customers with previous models wearing the new one and doing some soft influencer role ?
If so, fair enough to be an early adopter of a work in progress. If not, then Shotscope bad.

Customer support being good means they are at least reactive and communicative in managing their mess. But its still an inexcusable mess.

I have the V3, use it sometimes for GPS, now and again for shot tracking. Its fiddly, but works OKish if you put in the effort. Its still not a polished solution as a tracker. Still prefer my ancient handheld Golfbuddy for the gps and its my daily driver.
 
I’m sure they will but they fully launched it too early. They should‘ve stayed with the upgrades on the understanding that the discount is to help iron out any bugs.

Personally, a high annual subscription puts me right off arccos.
The high subscription cost put me off Arccos as well but ShotScope have ongoing costs of the website, servers to hold and supply the data etc. The only income stream they have is selling hardware as far as I can see so I’m hoping the X5 is a success from a selfish V3 owner point of view.
 
Last edited:
I paid full RRP for my X5, never been a Shotscope user before, and I’m pretty miffed at how bad this has turned out to be. I haven’t yet got to contacting ShotScope to pursue a complaint but I am very close. Latest issues as follows.

I had a chance to play over the weekend and according to the ShotSchope it’s capable of two 18 hole rounds in one charge. Now I was cautious and tried to shutdown the watch overnight between Saturday and Sunday. It wouldn’t, it kept turning itself back on after every attempt. Eventually I shut it down, watched it power off and went to sleep. When I woke in the morning it was on again. Battery lasted 3 holes into my second round.

The new unlock method is no better than the old one. I still have problems navigating around the screens and game menus and I still have problems with it around the greens when putting. It is just unpredictable and I can’t find a method that works. Holding the putter and recording score is just a massive unpredictable faff. When I walk away from the hole the watch will think I’ve gone to the next hole and it’s far too complicated to quickly go back to correct the score because of the lock screen and game menu frustration.

I’ve played with it 7 times now and only have 4 ”rounds” completed in my dashboard but 2 of those are the same single round that are marked separately due to it crashing after 2 holes.

I’ve continually kept it up-to-date with firmware and even being generous the hitrate of capturing 3 rounds in 7 is apalling.

I have 4 rounds coming up this weekend and it’s last chance for the X5 device before I make a formal complaint.
 
As I mentioned before I've sold mine and was happy to get what i did for it. I got it at a discount as an upgrade, and it was a bit of a panic buy to get the discount. Had i known there were going to be so many potential problems, i probably wouldnt have bothered. Having said that i personally havent had any issues at all with the watch, i just don't think, functionally, its really an upgrade.
However, if people aren't happy with it, they can return it for a full refund, and just wait for a 'fixed' version to come out in a couple of months. This would be a good idea for people who paid full whack for it.
 
Well it was attempt 3 for me today and after 5 hole, the fuse blew on my trolley after the wheel sinking into the ground while I was on the putting green! Technically it lasted longer than the round! 😂
 
Can't find the post now but there's a comment in here that the watch moved on to the next hole automatically. That drives me absolutely MENTAL on my V3. STOP showing me the distance to the next hole because you think I've moved there. There is NO reason to show me anything to do with the next hole automatically. Move on once I've completed pin collect, or if I cycle through manually. I don't care that I've bladed my chip over the green and onto the next tee box, I don't need that rubbing in. I haven't putted yet, don't move on.
 
Can't find the post now but there's a comment in here that the watch moved on to the next hole automatically. That drives me absolutely MENTAL on my V3. STOP showing me the distance to the next hole because you think I've moved there. There is NO reason to show me anything to do with the next hole automatically. Move on once I've completed pin collect, or if I cycle through manually. I don't care that I've bladed my chip over the green and onto the next tee box, I don't need that rubbing in. I haven't putted yet, don't move on.
The problem is, some people forget to 'Pin Collect' and might not look at the watch on the next tee. Wheres the cutoff between staying on the current hole or moving to the next one?
 
The problem is, some people forget to 'Pin Collect' and might not look at the watch on the next tee. Wheres the cutoff between staying on the current hole or moving to the next one?
Surely it’s simply gated by confirming a score before next hole.

You’d think it would be a user preference as a minimum.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sjw
The problem is, some people forget to 'Pin Collect' and might not look at the watch on the next tee. Wheres the cutoff between staying on the current hole or moving to the next one?
A lot of the time this is before I've even picked the putter up. If people are forgetting to pin collect, that sounds like a them problem
 
Did you update the firmware and if so notice any improvement with locking onto gps? I played 10 holes today and had no issues, but couldn’t say locating the gps was better than before

New firmware, yes.
Improved GPS, not sure. Took a few minutes but nothing too bad it seems..
 
The one thing I would say about GPS is that I've also got a SkyCaddie LX5 and that can be equally temperamental re. finding courses. I've had to cancel and restart the process and there's been times when I've been midway down the first fairway before it's found the satellites. I've actually had no issues with the X5 finding courses fairly quickly. I've had an update from SS today about my connection issues and they reckon it'll be sorted within a couple of weeks, they've explained what the issue is and what they're doing to resolve it so I'm happy to wait. The work around is no great hardship in the meantime.
 
Top