Garmin Approach S42 review

Battery

• 10 days standby
• 15 hours of GPS

The battery life of the Garmin Approach S42 is impressive. When you consider this is tracking GPs location, very accurately, shot based motion tracking and pulling in data from a connected phone – and all in a very compact package – this is great.

You get 10 days of standby time, making this a useful day to day watch with smart movement tracking and notifications. Then when you land on the course you're good for a solid 10 hours of use. Of course this varies based on how you play but on average you can expect about that length of time.

A 10 hour GPS tracking time means you can get a full 18 holes in without worrying about battery, even if you are using the watch a lot, checking notifications and have it on full brightness.

When it comes to charging there is a dedicated cable but this plugs into USB so can be charged off a laptop, mobile battery or wall plug easily.

Android and iPhone compatibility

• Garmin Golf works across platforms

The Garmin Golf app is available for both iOS and Android devices. It pairs using Bluetooth so is low on battery consumption for both devices and once paired will auto connect for each use.

As is often the way with Bluetooth you'll likely find it works best with iPhone, since they all have the same hardware. Android devices use different Bluetooth hardware so, depending on the phone you have, there can be the odd connectivity glitch. But, worst case, you simply disconnect and re-pair. 

Data transfers were fast and pulling in weather, calendar and notification data was near instant.