A Golf Launch Monitor On YOUR PHONE (But Is It Actually Accurate?)

A couple of years ago, I tested a free phone launch monitor app, and that video continues to get lots and lots of views because clearly golfers are interested in data in launch monitors in Sims, but they're more interested in affordable options. It's been a couple of years and obviously launch monitors have gotten better, more affordable, but phones have gotten better. So in today's video, I have a new launch monitor app called Shot Vision, and I want to see just how good it's gotten in the last couple of years and see if it could be a viable, low cost substitute for something like this. So let's get into it. This is all I need. I need a tripod and the app on my phone and Shot Vision recommends a particular tripod and they did send me this one for my testing, but basically it's you need any, any mini tripod that measures 20 to 30 centimeters. So let's just fire it up and see how she goes. I've created my account and all that, and I've hit a couple of shots just to get familiar enough with it. Let's get into it. I'm going to hit an eight iron, but basically all we need to do is set this thing up and let your phone camera work its magic. Don't need a lot of tilt. Line it up straight. And away we go. I'm not going to like link it to the screen or anything because we don't need to do that just yet. You're seeing what the screen is doing. There is a little, there we go. Light comes on. I've got an eight iron. Oh, my microphone got in the way. Let's try that again. Might have to move this up. Let's try that again and not chunk it. Carry 147 yards. You're seeing the data. I can kind of hear it. I, uh, did not hit that well. That seemed pretty hard, right? Like pretty accurate for a crappy eight iron. It reads quite a bit of data, but no curvature, no spin access, but ball speed club head speed carry launch too much of the data points that I think most golfers only need. Carry 147 yards. Ball speed, 108 miles per hour. Hit me is not the best. Carry 157 yards. Ball speed, 115 miles per hour. Pretty accurate. I'm only seeing the carry. You're seeing everything. Do you think the ball speed, do you think the spin, do you think the launch is accurate? Carry 163 yards. Yeah, that is 120 miles per hour. We'll get rid of this little replay of that because that's really good. That again, no spin access. So I definitely kind of hit a push draw there. So you see it going out, but that data looked really good. One thing I do like compared to the one that I tested a couple of years ago is that was a, you had to have a tripod like up here pointing down. This is much more discreet. I don't like that I can't see at least that one up there. You could kind of see, but there are like, there are sim capabilities with this. I could Bluetooth this to my projector so that I could see everything. But if you bring this to the range, you don't look like a weirdo hitting balls. Carry 164 yards. Ball speed, 120 miles per hour. Okay. Let's get the launch pro down and see how close this thing is to it. So I've got the circle B and the shot vision aligned. Took a few tests because one thing, if this angle gets a little off, it does begin to read a bit elevated. So if it's tilted too much, I have noticed it reads a little elevated. So you almost, you don't want it quite at 90 degrees, but you want it just, just a hair under. So we'll record this screen and I've got the iPad to the circle B, five shots. Shot vision says it's within 3%. So they're not claiming this thing is going to replace a GC3. Let's see what we get. Five shots. 154 carry, 155 spins a little off. Carry's pretty spot on, pretty thin. So I feel like thin ones, heavy ones, GC3 is going to be much better. 144, that one say 149. I feel like a thin one on this thing is going to read kind of faster. Hung that one out to the right. I'm staying on the edge of the mat here. This is not the best. 147, 157. Not my best strike. 150, 155, 6,500 spin, 6,900 spin, 114 ball speed. The five shots, I think generally we're within that 3% range. I'm not blown away by what this is doing, but it's not as bad as I potentially expected it to be compared against kind of one of the best mid priced units. But now we've got to take it outside and see if outside is where this thing could shine a little bit more or fall off. Okay, we're ready. We get that little click that we're ready. Okay. I haven't changed the setting to carry. It's on ball speed. That should have been about an 85, 90 yard shot. 81. Not bad. Let's get a long iron going or mid iron, six iron here. We'll change this. I don't think it's going to be the hardest thing in the world to do that, to just move your phone. Yeah, that's pretty accurate. I did not hit that well. 175. I don't think I was in the, in the zone. Got to get used to these, but these sounds, that's pretty good for your phone and not having to change ball setting is nice because it's reading compression. Like a range ball is going to react like a range ball. Let's hit some drivers. So I hit driver in that session and it was not good. The numbers were like ball speed of one high one thirties, maybe touching one 40. I reacted to that. Not good. That was not what we wanted to see. I was done filming. I got in my car, I opened my email and I had an email from test flight, which is the beta that I'm testing through shop with shop vision and an email from shop vision that said they were having glitches on that particular day with high speed reading. So gave them the benefit of the doubt, updated it, went out the next day and hit some driver with it. 154 miles per hour. I mean, I hit that off the toe. That's definitely a little low. 154 is kind of low, but not as low as what we saw. Ready? Ball speed 165 miles per hour. That's pretty close. Get rid of this replay so you can see everything. Spin is pretty accurate. Clubhead speed is pretty accurate. Carry is much more accurate. Ball speed, pretty accurate for a rainfall. Ball speed 148 miles per hour. Yeah, that red speed a little low. It seems like maybe it struggles at higher speeds, but what I experienced is they're constantly updating and working on it. He's got a reminder. Ready? This is a phone. Oh, I whipped it. Thank goodness that didn't read. We're running into some problems and this is where I am weary about phone launch monitors. It's hot out here. Ready? The phone is heating. My phone's recording, so that adds to the heat. Is that going to be a problem for a longer session if someone wanted to do a longer session? Ball speed 157 miles per hour. Toe banger. Ball speed 160 miles per hour. Okay. Okay. Better numbers the second day, but the driver definitely leaves you wanting some more. And there's a lot of like in that little box, you better, you need to hit towards the backside of the box. So there's just more time for the camera to read the clubhead and the ball going through that window. If you're hitting in the front of the window, it really will struggle. Hopefully that's laid out in the app as it continues to update, but they continue to update it because I've seen three beta test updates in the last week that I've been testing this thing. So that's very, very encouraging. And that's encouraging to your subscription because yes, this is not free. It's free for 30 shots to try it. And I feel like that's a pretty good value prop to see if this is for you or not. If you want to stick with it, I believe it's $130 for a year subscription to, to use the whole thing and all of the capabilities. And I've hit it more. I've done more with it in here and I'm, I'm more impressed with it indoors than I am outdoors. Side note, you can run music while you use this. The golf boy one that I've tested two years ago, you could not. So that's nice. You can still run music. If you want to listen to music while you're on your launch monitor, which is your phone, that really works. There's SIM capabilities. You could use GS pro with this. You would need an enclosure. You would need a setup. There's a huge flow problem in my opinion on having this there. And you watched me in the video hitting shots and then having to walk and look at the numbers. Yes, it can dictator say a number to you, but it's not as easy as when you hit a shot with a GC three or a launch pro like I have in the dad is there. Or if you're using a rap soda and you have an iPad, the data's right there. The fact that the thing that you're viewing the data on is what is giving you the data. I don't love, but I get it. It's a phone launch monitor. I think a lot of people want this to be as good as a launch pro. It won't be. We're not there yet. I don't know if we'll ever get there, but this has the capability of unlocking data to help golfers get better for a lower price tag because I've been in here and I've used the ladder drills, the target practice. It's really, really good. If you have a setup, even if it's a net, I can, I can, I can get on board with a net. But again, you've got to look when I had it linked up here, Bluetooth or wifi to my projector and I was seeing what was happening with my ladder drill or my target practice or the data that I was getting. The practice was beneficial. All that being said to, to review in there, it's so good to look through your sessions. It's really, really good. The app user interface is as good as the foresight app that I use on my iPad. It looks very similar to it. You can see the inspiration from it. It looks professional. It looks as good as the best apps that integrate with launch monitors. It looks so much better than what I tested a couple of years ago, which was golf boy that just looked like video gaming and I didn't like it. And then trying to find data in there, I didn't like it. There's a lot of great work in this app that I think is for a lot of golfers, but not for a lot of golfers. If you want a full, I'm very lucky. I have a full SIM set up here. If you want this, you're not going to use your phone. Let's be honest. You're not. If you're thinking about using your phone, I think you're misguided. $130 phone set up for your SIM experience. I don't think many are going to go there because if you're already investing five, six, a thousand, $1,500 in a SIM set up, you're going to toss a few more hundred in a launch monitor or 500 in a launch monitor than you are trying to cheap the launch monitor. If you're someone that has a net and you want to get really good practice in your off season or in your backyard, and you don't want to buy an expensive 600, $700 launch monitor for 130 bucks a year. And the fact that it's going to continue to get better. This is a very good value prop for you. I'm not going to say it's great for outside because outside is where we saw the least effective data. So there's good and there's some not so good outs. It's impressive. It's wild to think that this is where we are, where we can get this data on our phone. When just a few, five years ago, six years ago, you were buying a little $500 unit that gave you six data points. Now your phone that you already have, you can get really good data for a very low price. Do you have this? Have you been using it? Sound off in those comments and we'll see you in the next video.