Playing golf with the Galaxy Watch 4 is an eagle, but the apps always live up to the course

I have had my Galaxy Watch 4 for a month now, and while I have never been so sure that I made the right choice in purchasing this watch, with my own money I had some misgivings about the idea. to recommend it to my family. Battery life and charging speeds lag behind the competition, and some of my colleagues have returned theirs after experiencing overheating issues.

My finicky approach to buying anything tech-related comes from my dad, who is even more selective than I am when it comes to his phones, laptops, and accessories. He’s been asking questions about the Galaxy Watch 4 since its announcement in August, but I didn’t want to tell him to buy a $ 250 watch if it wouldn’t do the one thing he wants in a smartwatch: work with his. golf app. Now he’s tested my Galaxy Watch 4 while golfing and playing around Walt Disney World with me, and while the watch has performed quite well, its app still lacks some important features.

GolfPad is one of several golf apps that provide GPS shot tracking, help suggest clubs and distances, and with the tags it has attached to its clubs it can automatically track which club it is using. while clubs are talking on his phone during a match. GolfPad already had a Wear OS app – and a Tizen app with more features – before the announcement of Wear OS 3, but it was a dull experience with a lot of lag and difficulty navigating.

When GolfPad was mentioned by name on Google I / O as one of the apps Google was working with to improve the Wear OS experience, I was hoping it would finally bring the smartwatch experience my dad wanted. Surely with Google helping GolfPad developers guide a watch app with wider functionality and smoother performance.

Well, my dad found the GolfPad app on the Galaxy Watch 4 to be smoother and more consistent than ever. Unfortunately, the functionality is still lacking.

I’ll start off by saying that my dad has been using GolfPad for over a year and often had issues with the app when it comes to pinning and exiting the app when he needs to. ” access another application. With previous watches, GolfPad had be pinned and open on the phone the entire game. On the Galaxy Watch 4, this is not the case. He could start the round, look at the app when he needed more info, then switch to the watch to add strokes and putts as he went through each round.

However, the GolfPad Wear OS app can only save the score for now. He can’t keep up with golf clubs. Therefore, if you add shots on the watch, you need to go back and add the club you used while walking between holes or waiting for the group in front to clear the fairway. This means that you will always remove your phone at least once per hole, in fact, probably more than once.

The lack of a map turns GolfPad’s watch app into an afterthought.

There is no way to see a course on the watch, nor can you determine how far you should hit safely away from hazards or where the course is turning. And because you can’t see or touch a card for ideal shooting distances, it’s one to three times longer that you’ll have to pull the phone out per hole. Since there are four option tiles to the right of the main screen for each hole, it’s weird that you can’t even get a hole base map on one of them.

The lack of a card also makes the “Set Flag” option on the watch completely unnecessary, as it drops the flag where you are standing rather than the hole you are trying to hit.

After playing two tricks with the app installed, my dad definitely felt the missing features here. GolfPad says club tracking will be available soon, eliminating the current need to add clubs afterwards, as well as a standalone mode.

What GolfPad really needs to add – and hasn’t announced plans to add – is a way to see distances to hazards and where you can reasonably hit the ball. Seeing that the green is 300 or 400 yards on a Par 5 with a water hazard is not at all helpful unless you are on a straight hole with no big obstacles. You shouldn’t have to take out the phone for the first three shots and then maybe use the watch once you’re within range of the green.

Speaking of unnecessary, the GolfPad sticker that you can add to the right of your watch face is pretty much unnecessary. It just shows the course you are currently on and your overall score. If you’re not actively playing a turn, it doesn’t show much. You can’t even start a tour from it, as tours need to be started on the phone, except for a standalone mode which is not yet available.

This lack of real functionality is something I’ve seen in far too many apps on Wear OS. Accuweather has no way of switching between locations or seeing detailed conditions. Google Keep is great once you’ve opened your note or shopping list, but the constantly updated list of notes makes it difficult to use the one you want. There’s also no way to send a note from Google Keep’s Android app to open it on Wear OS – you have to find it in the compact list every time.

Even productivity and media apps are ridiculously limited in Wear OS 3. The current lack of Google Assistant on the Galaxy Watch 4 means that while your watch app has controls you can use to access a feature faster, they are not available correctly. now. It’s a shame because the apps work better on my Galaxy Watch 4 than on any smartwatch I’ve ever used.

Samsung has earned Watch 4’s place as the best Android smartwatch, but no matter how good the hardware is, without the apps and experiences to add value and utility, it still won’t win over people like my. father without a personal test drive or a compelling reason to upgrade.

My dad is much more likely to buy the Galaxy Watch 4 now than he’s tried it, but the lack of features in GolfPad and other apps means he needs to focus more on future features than current features. . Well, that and the fact that the Fitbit Charge 5 is more than 2/3 the price of the Galaxy Watch and doesn’t support GolfPad or a consistent touchscreen user interface at all. However, I could recommend a screen protector if he has to wear it to work in the yard.