Undoubtedly, the first thing you will notice about the GolfBuddy Voice is its size. It's tiny! Similar size in diameter to a golf ball, the device can be clipped to your bag, bag strap, cap, belt or even on the side of a laser. It is not designed to be a hand-held device, but rather attached somewhere and stay relatively hidden.
The Voice automatically locates the course you are playing when you turn it on so there is no course downloading required and the pre-round preparation and loading takes a few minutes. Once set up, you simply press the button and a nice lady's voice announces "Hole number one, 360 yards to green centre".
The Voice can also be set to give you readings to the front or the back of the green and if you need more than one of these numbers you have to press and hold the main button. This is not very user friendly as pressing and holding the button for each yardage is time consuming and really all 3 yardages need to be shown on the screen or spoken to you at the same time in your preferred order.
If you have a laser rangefinder then setting the Voice to speak you the back of the green yardage whilst you zap the exact distance to the flag was probably the best setting, otherwise stick to the middle of the green yardage.
The volume can be easily adjusted in case you are worried about disturbing fellow players or other golfers. In fact, we actually enjoyed using it on mute, and simply glancing at the yardage. Having the Voice on the side of your cap whispering in your ear was also good fun.
One nice feature on the GolfBuddy Voice is the shot measurement feature. Hit a shot, press the "P" button on the side of the device and the device begins measuring. Press it again when you reach your ball and you discover just how far you are overestimating you are hitting the ball.
The upside of the GolfBuddy Voice is the price and its ease of use. No annual fee or required membership is a blessing, and you don't need to worry about plugging in the course the night before, the satellites will do that for you. It is also cheap enough to consider buying with a laser to get the best of both worlds, which we feel is the way to go until someone makes a decent combined device.
The option of having the voice talk to you is a cool feature and will be a taking point in your foursome, even if it takes a few more seconds that just looking at the screen.
Truth be told, this is definitely a first-generation gadget as there are other small wearable GPS devices in this price range that display front, middle and back at the same time, which we feel is a basic must have.
However the concept is on the right lines and the size is ideal for clipping anywhere so we look forward to hopefully seeing a second generation GolfBuddy Voice with these and other features.
Overall Rating - 4 stars: