The GolfBuddy World Platinum GPS rangefinder is one of the few to have no subscription charges and this is a major benefit. The device can also hold up to 40,000 courses so even though there is software to download and connect via your PC, you don't have to use it much after you have set it up. This is good as our gripe with desktop software is that you are tied to a certain PC, but this is minimised with the World Platinum.
The GPS reception is excellent and whenever we took it out and turned it on it quickly recognised which golf course we were on, even when abroad, so there was no searching through menus, although you can do that too.
The screen is bright and a good size but the initial hole view is a little on the small size so you have to zoom in all the time. The targets option brought up more useful information such as hazards off the tee, but you have to get used to the abbreviations and some generic icons would be more user friendly. Touching the distance number in the top right gave you the front/middle/back yardages on the green and this was very good.
Compared to the GolfBuddy World, the World Platinum can record scores for up to 4 players and save them locally on the unit so you can look back at recent rounds for comparison.
The other main difference is that the World Platinum is a little larger and all the controls are on the touch screen.
One of the key features of the GolfBuddy World Platinum is the touch screen control and it is a nice feature, but this is no iPhone and we found if difficult with bloke sized figures to be accurate in moving the cursor around to get a layup yardage or a pin position as the cursor was not always directly under your finger.
You can use a tee or pencil instead, but other devices have a rocker cursor dial and this is a little more user friendly.
That aside the other features on the device such as scoring, distance measurement, custom course mapping were all very good and the power usage was not bad with 3-4 rounds between charges.
The build quality felt robust and it comes with a very good belt/bag clip, although we would expect most people to put it on the bag as the unit is a little chunky for slipping into a pocket or wearing.
Overall this is a very competent GPS with everything the avid golfer would need to get the right distance and record their scores.
Overall Rating - 4 stars: