Garmin Approach S50 review: the golf watch most people should actually buy

If you want a premium golf GPS watch but cannot stomach the flagship price, the Garmin Approach S50 is the one to buy. It borrows nearly everything that makes the top-end S70 special — the gorgeous colour AMOLED screen, 43,000-plus preloaded courses, slope-adjusted PlaysLike distances, automatic shot tracking, wrist heart rate, Garmin Pay and music — and sells it for well under double the flagship's price. There are two small catches, but for the vast majority of golfers this is the sweet spot in Garmin's range.

Flagship features, mid-range price

The headline is how little you give up. The S50 has the same class-leading AMOLED touchscreen that, until recently, you had to spend flagship money to get — bright, sharp and a pleasure to read in sunlight. It carries more than 43,000 courses with no subscription fee, shows front, middle and back numbers plus hazards, and adds PlaysLike distances that adjust the yardage for elevation. AutoShot quietly records your shots as you play, and there is wrist-based heart rate on board too. On the course it feels every bit a premium device.

The smartwatch side

What tips the S50 from 'good golf watch' to 'watch you wear every day' is the off-course side. Garmin Pay lets you tap to pay, there is on-board music storage, and the full suite of Garmin health tracking — heart rate, sleep, stress — comes along for the ride. Battery is a solid 15-plus hours in GPS mode, so it comfortably covers a full day's golf and then some. It is light and comfortable enough that you will not want to take it off after the round, which is exactly the point of a watch at this price.

The honest caveats

Two things stop it being perfect. First, it uses a fiddly proprietary charging cable — lose it or leave it at home and you are buying a replacement rather than borrowing any old USB-C lead, which is a genuine annoyance on a device you rely on. Second, some of the cleverest Virtual Caddie club-recommendation wizardry from the flagship S70 is trimmed back here. Neither is a deal-breaker, but you should know the S50 is the sensible choice rather than the maximalist one — and that is precisely why it is the right call for most people.

S50 versus the flagship S70

The question most people weighing the S50 are really asking is whether the flagship S70 is worth close to double. For the overwhelming majority, no. Not long ago you had to buy the S70 just to get Garmin's AMOLED screen — now that same class-leading display is on the S50, which was the single biggest reason to spend up. What the S70 still adds is the fuller Virtual Caddie club-recommendation system, a larger case option and a few range-topping flourishes. Useful to a data-obsessed low-handicapper, largely invisible to everyone else. Unless you specifically want the most advanced caddie features golf has put on a wrist, the S50 gives you the screen, the courses, the slope distances, the tracking and the smartwatch side for a lot less — which is exactly why it, not the flagship, is the one I steer most golfers toward.

Who should buy it — and who should skip

Buy it if you want a genuinely premium golf watch that doubles as a proper everyday smartwatch, and you would rather spend sensibly than chase the last flagship feature. Step down to something like the slimmer, heart-rate-free Approach S44 or the simple S12 if you only want on-course yardages and don't care about fitness tracking or Garmin Pay — there is no sense paying for what you won't use, as we lay out in our guide to how much watch you actually need. And remember a watch and a laser do different jobs; many golfers end up carrying both. See the wider field in our best rangefinders guide.