Mileseey GeneSonic Go Review: Lightweight, Full Color Maps, No Subscription
How Mileseey's handheld GPS stacks up against its top competitors, and which golfers will want it
Not all handheld GPS devices are created equally. Some favor low price and sacrifice maps and a color screen. Some are built for golfers who use a cart or a push cart, without a second thought given to overall weight. Others thread the needle of functionality, versatility, and value.
After testing the Mileseey GeneSonic Go, I’d say it falls into that last category. Here’s why.
How I Tested It
I carried the GeneSonic Go for a few rounds without a push cart, relying on it the way most walkers actually use a handheld: pulling it out of a pocket for approach shots, tapping for a number, putting away. I didn't charge the battery between rounds, and I ran the built-in scorecard feature for one round to see how it worked alongside getting routine distances.
Mileseey GeneSonic Go At a Glance
- MSRP: $229
- Weight: 108g
- Screen: 3-inch full color touchscreen
- Courses: 43,000
- Subscription: No
- Battery: Up to 15 hours
- 10% OFF at MILESEEY: GOLFLINK10
The GeneSonic Go is part of Mileseey's GeneSonic lineup, and it's a unique offering. The handheld GPS is actually the detachable element of the GeneSonic Pro, a premium golf GPS speaker with, you guessed it, a detachable handheld GPS. If you want the handheld GPS without the full range Bluetooth speaker, the GeneSonic Go is for you. If you want the whole shebang, check out our Mileseey GeneSonic Pro review.
Mileseey GeneSonic Pro Review: GPS Speaker Without the App
Setup and First Impressions
When you fire up the GeneSonic Go, it loads quickly. I never had much waiting around on the first tee while it looked for satellites or synced the course. This is a win, because I’ve used units that take forever to find and load a course, and that’s the the last place I want my attention to be when I’m about to hit my opening tee shot.
The size and weight is another win. I put this on my kitchen scale and it checked in at just 108g. That’s less than half the weight of the last handheld GPS I tested, the 270g Shot Scope H50. The GeneSonic Go is sleek and light enough that I never once felt like I was carrying extra gear with it in my pocket during a walking round. I couldn’t say the same of the aforementioned H50.
If you usually walk, and don’t have the luxury of (or wouldn’t be caught dead using) a push cart, I’d recommend GeneSonic Go.
Distances and Course Maps
The core feature works exactly as advertised: the full-color hole map and it gives you a distances to any target you pick. That might seem small, but it changes how you use a GPS. I’ve always found that seeing the target on the map of where I want to hit it, instead of thinking about where I don’t want to hit it, helps me.
Accuracy was consistent and reliable across my rounds on two separate courses.
User Experience
The full color maps are really convenient and easy to use. You can see the layout of the hole, and tap any part of the map to get a distance to that point.
If you want to track your stats, it’s just two quick taps to log your location and club. Shot tracking is straightforward and you can track distances for individual shots easily, but if you want to do it for your whole round, it takes commitment. I personally am not interested in pulling out a GPS device to mark a simple 5-yard chip shot just to collect that data.
There's one annoying quirk I ran into when testing the GeneSonic Go: the scorecard.
Even when I use a handheld GPS, I keep a paper scorecard. But GeneSonic Go doesn't give an option not to keep score at start up (part of the quick process of starting the round that I praised earlier), and it kept prompting me to input scores. So I’d pull out the GPS to get a distance for an approach shot, but I’d first have to navigate away from the score entry screen. I’m still not sure if it triggers automatically when you move to the next hole, or pulling it out of my pocket triggered an overly-sensitive “swipe up” (the quick scorecard access), but the result was an extra hoop to jump through. Not a huge deal, but the more it happened, the more annoying it became.
Battery Life
I didn't top it off or even check the charge level before my last round, and it never became an issue. For a device this size, it’s nice to know you can get a few rounds out of each charge.
Price & Value
At $229, the GeneSonic Go isn't the cheapest handheld GPS you can buy, but when you check out the comps, it packs really good value.
Most cheaper units don’t offer full color hole maps, a touch screen, and shot tracking. And of the two that do, neither offer the full package that GeneSonic Go does. The Shot Scope H50 isn’t ideal for walkers because of its size and weight, and the SkyCaddie Pro 4x is in a completely different price tier at $349.
So if you want full maps, dynamic distances, and the ability to track your game, and you walk enough rounds that a bulky unit is out of the question, the real choice is between this and a $349 competitor.
|
Unit |
Price |
Notes |
Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
GeneSonic Go |
$229 |
Full maps, dynamic distances, shot tracking, 108g |
– |
|
Shot Scope H50 |
$199 |
Full maps, but 270g — too heavy and bulky for walking |
|
|
SkyCaddie Pro 4x |
$349 |
Everything you want, top end price |
|
|
Bushnell Phantom 3 |
$169 |
No color, no maps |
– |
|
Blue Tees Ringer |
$149 |
Distances and green view, no maps |
|
|
IZZO Swami 6000 |
$99 |
No maps, no shot tracking |
– |
Who Should Buy This
If you walk and a want full-color touchscreen, dynamic maps with touch-to-measure distances, and the ability to track shots, the GeneSonic Go is the one to get.
It's sleek, it's light, it loads quickly, and the accuracy held up every time I used it. This is an easy recommendation for anyone whose budget doesn't stretch to $349.