uPro Golf GPS

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Brand: uPro
Category: Sports

Buy New: $399.94

New (10) from $399.94

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

17 reviews
Sales Rank: 18679

Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Size: Each
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 10 x 6 x 9

MPN: 1998
Model: 31000-01
UPC: 894376002009
EAN: 0894376002009
ASIN: B001D7517Q

Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Features:

•	Captivating hi-resolution aerial photography and satellite imagery
•	Video flyovers featuring aerial photography and satellite imagery
•	No membership fees, only purchase the courses that you want
•	Thinner, sleeker, and half the weight of other golf GPS devices
•	Quick start up, the GPS locks quickly and stays locked even under extreme conditions

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

uPlay uPro Golf GPS System features:

Easy to understand graphics display golf hazards such as sand traps and bunkers, as well as your current location on the golf course

Large 2.2", high-resolution 320 x 240 color screen is easy to view outdoors in bright sunlight

Transflective screen designed to provide optimal bright sunlight viewing when the sun is shining directly into the screen or at a slight angle

SmartView technology gives you information based on your next potential shot

Thinner, sleeker, and lighter than any other product on the market

Fits easily in the pocket or on a belt without obstructing your swing

GPS technology programmed in the uPro provides an automatically sorted list of golf courses closest to the current location of the user

Super fast GPS locking allows for the quickest startup time and remains locked under the most extreme conditions

uPro GPS includes:

Includes lithium-ion rechargeable battery
One free Pro Mode™ download of any golf course
USB cable for connectivity with your PC
Wall adapter
User guide

Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A few bugs, but overall an excellent experience September 28, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I've now played 30+ rounds with the uPro. Its got some good points and some bad, I suppose this is like any new device, especially one that is from a brand new company.

The Good
- Distances are right on.
- Basic mode gives you a quick, easy to read view of distance to the green and distance to reach and carry hazards.
- Mark feature allows you to measure the length of your shots. Sometimes gives erroneous readings. However, this only happened when I kept the uPro in my pocket, so maybe buttons were being pressed by accident.
- Aerial view of the hole is awesome. Like looking at a yardage book, with continuously updating distances. There is a small red diamond that marks your position on the hole and moves with you. I almost ran into a 150 yard pole because I was so fascinated with watching the little diamond track my position on the satellite view! Hazards like bunkers are marked front and back and also update continuously.
- Measure Mode lets you get a measurement to any point on the hole. I have used it to find the distance back into the fairway, but you really need a tree or something on the satellite image to reference. I have also used it to find distances not mapped by the company, like a layup distance to the front of a creek.
- Trans-reflective screen is easy to see in Basic View even in bright sunlight. However, in Pro Mode, it can be difficult to see. You need to experiment with the viewing angle to get it right. I've found that in bright sunlight, you can see the screen best if you are angling it just off where the sun would be reflecting into your eyes. Or shade the screen with your hand.
- No subscriptions! You pay only for the courses you want. Courses cost the same no matter where in the country (and eventually the world) they are located. You never have to buy a course twice, even if you upgrade the device or have to replace the unit (lost, stolen, broken). Courses are expensive if you buy them one at a time. One course costs $10 (3 credits), but if you buy 150 credits ($120), that comes to only $2.40 per Pro course. I bought 150 credits, and I probably won't ever have to buy credits again (at least not for a very long time).

The Bad
- One course had strangely mapped points on a couple holes. Some don't make sense (you can tell they haven't played the course!) However, I sent an email to support and they corrected the problem in a couple weeks.
- Sync is VERY slow. I timed it, and to sync and download 1 course took over 10 minutes. Be patient.
- When syncing, the status box shows up in front of all other windows (on Windows XP) and cannot be moved to the back. So your computer is effectively stuck doing one thing for 10 minutes.
- No subscriptions. I put this item in both The Good and The Bad because it depends on your point of view. If you play a whole lot of courses (more than 50), then it could get quite expensive. But I play only about 15 courses on a regular basis, plus about 3 or so each year on a vacation trip.
- Distances do not automatically update if you are using the measure function in Pro Mode. You have to either exit measure mode, or switch back to basic mode to get an update distance.
- Not all courses are mapped yet. In Denver, about 70% of the courses are mapped. But of the 15-20 I play regularly, about 95% are mapped. Many of those that are not mapped yet are scheduled to be mapped in 2008. There is a schedule on uPro's website (www.uprogps.com). And if you choose an unmapped course as your home course, they will have it mapped in 4 business days, guaranteed. I would recommend checking all the courses you play before buying this device.

The Ugly
- The software needs a little work--freezes up from time to time. During the first two rounds, it froze up once in each round. While annoying, all you have to do is hold the power button down for 8 seconds to force a power-off, then turn it back on. Of course, the re-boot process and getting back to your current hole takes a couple minutes. Their customer service department claims a firmware update will be available "in the next few weeks". I turned off the "automatic hole advance", and this seemed to fix the problem. The last 25+ rounds were freeze-up free after changing this setting. The automatic hole advance is unnecessary in my opinion. From the "Green View", you can simply press the up button to advance to the next hole, or press the down button to go to the previous hole.

Suggestions
- Create a graphical overlay for the aerial views, or figure out a way to make them higher contrast. The Pro Mode can be somewhat difficult to see in bright sunlight.
- Faster downloading/sync
- Find and fix the bugs in the software that cause the freeze-ups
- If the upcoming software can mark every ball location, its only a matter of time before it will keep your score, shot-by-shot. On the uPro website they state that additional software to keep score will be available by late summer 2008. Of course, if it freezes up and you lose data then such a feature is worthless.

The Bottom Line
This is a very new company and a very new product. Like most new products, they have a few bugs to work out. I'm going to stick with them and hopefully they will be committed to fixing the problems. If a year goes by and the same problems exist, I might regret this purchase. But right now I'm pretty darn happy with it!

2 out of 5 stars

Don't Go There... September 19, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I started working with my uPro a week ago. I still am. It freezes, it won't load. It stops working the middle of rounds. When I want service, I get runarounds. I have my club championship this weekend, and one of the courses was not mapped. Well, it got mapped, but is not accurate. I wanted to return the device...upon the advice of one of the service guys, who promised me next day shipping...and found out two days later that the manager would not allow next day shipping due to costs. (I think he would have liked to avoid this review...I hope it costs him far more than the seventy dollars he was too cheap to spend to get me happy) Is this the way to keep a disgruntled customer happy? I am going to buy a backup gps of some other make this afternoon so that I won't be stuck on the course with the uPro. I will try the replacement, but am not going to get my hopes up.The uPro is very much like a beautful but unreliable woman...she looks so damn good you keep going back, hoping for different results, but she never changes. Right now, I'm kind of stuck with the thing. They take a lot of your money before they will actually return the thing. My word of advice....DON'T GO THERE!

5 out of 5 stars

Simply Amazing! August 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Amazing accuracy! It blew me away,I could not believe how accurate it was! I used to have SG4 and the accuracy was horrible.

I did have one minor issue getting it to sync, but I called support and they were great and helped me out quickly.

I think it's a great GPS and I would definitely recommend it to my friends.

5 out of 5 stars

Great new product! August 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I have now played about 8 rounds with my uPro and couldn't be happier with it. The video flyovers are really nice and seem to get mentioned in reviews a lot. However, the real images of the course with the distances updating based on your location are the real key and make it so much easier to get the distances you need. I was skeptical at first because I assumed that much of what they had on their website was simply for marketing purposes and that the courses would look much different on the actual uPro. I was also concerned about the number of courses available. However, the product really does what they say it does and my concerns about courses has not been a problem. It seems like the website is being updated with new courses in my area everyday. Now almost every course near me is available.

The only negative that I have to say about the product is that the documentation could be improved. The uPro was easy for me to get started with but the documentation could have been better. I see that they have made some updates already which is helpful. I have also called their customer support number and been really happy with their service for what its worth.

I would highly recommend the uPro. I have tried the new Sonocaddy and looked at the other GPS products out there but there really is no comparison.

1 out of 5 stars

too good to be true August 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I was excited to receive this little gadget but was quickly disappointed when I began having issues just connecting to my PC. I am running Vista on a new Lenovo laptop and at first the device couldn't be recognized. The trick is to turn it on first (after it's been charged) then the device boots up and runs the software so Vista can see it. None of this was on the manual of course.

My second issue, and the reason I returned the unit, was that I could not download my home course. The download would progress about 80% of the way there then crash. I got in contact with their support folks (which were very helpful, btw) and they tried to resolve the issue to no avail.

I agree with the below review that the user interface is monolithic and non-intuitive; you'd think in 2008 we'd have UI down..

I suspect that the positive reviews are probably being sent by Upro people because this device was shipped before it was ready.

A great idea, I do hope they fix the issues in coming versions, but today this device is not ready for prime time--especially at $399.