Bought an R10. Software Engineers Feedback

Hi I've been a software engineer for about 20 years, with a background in building apps for Android and ios many years ago before I moved to backend and cloud to focus on site reliability work.

I've been golfing since I was a kid but started taking it seriously about 3 years ago.

Picked up an R10 and also a Lenovo Tab M10 3rd gen. And I have to say, the software seems to run like an absolute dog on android. I also has a garmin venu for on course so I am fully a "committed garmin customer"

I had to sideload the APK which is completely ridiculous. On the Lenovo, I did get it running, but when it tried to render shots, it would lag out and crash half the time. Terrible.

I ran it on a new iPad pro for comparison, and besides it actually being possible to download, it ran as smooth as could be. This enraged me. Why the h*ll does this bloody app run like racecar for iOS and run like a total dog on android

Customers are forking out 850+ dollars for the r10, and you can only use it on a crappy 3.5" screen, or so some song and dance to project it to a screen? Who thought this was acceptable performance?

I also shelled out 250 bucks for a new tablet, just to run the garmin golf app. The garmin site is completely unclear and obscure that it doesn't really support tablets for android. This is CRAZY. I REPEAT THIS IS CRAZY.

YOU NEED TO SUPPORT BOTH ANDROID AND IOS TABLETS, AND IT NEEDS TO RUN RELIABILY AND SMOOTH. Anything less is a complete comprise of garmins values, it's commitment to its customers, and ultimately, will impact its bottom line.

GARMIN PLEASE FIX THIS.

It is crazy to me that a my old Samsung S7 can run garmin golf simulator with my r10 better than a brand new 2022 Lenovo tab M10 running android 12.

You are alienating thousands of current customers qho bought the R10 and expect the outstanding hardware to have similarily outstanding software.

You are alienating many multiples of that who are potential r10 customers who will figure out the r10 software is not anywhere close to where it needs to be, and will return the r10, or not buy it when reviews become more honest.

I WANT TO LOVE MY R10. PLEASE LET ME LOVE IT. invest in your mobile development team and give them the support and resourcing they need to make the garmin golf software good.

  1. You are tarnishing your brand with the current usability, reliability, and performance of this app. 
  • We currently do not have any announcements regarding the option of offering tablet compatibility with our Garmin golf app. The Garmin Golf app is not compatible with iOS/AndroidOS tablets. 

    Please refer to our support page article regarding the compatibility here: Garmin Golf App Minimum Device Software Requirements

    You can mirror your screen to the tablet or larger screen devices like smart tv's wirelessly, or through a corded connection. This product is meant for pairing through a compatible smartphone for use. 

  • Hey Cody appreciate the response.

    This really needs to change...the fact that you can't  use a tablet is really going to hamper your market penetration.

    Companies like mevo and others are hot on your tails.

    If you want, I can load up android studio and send you crash/ANR reports and work with you or another developer privately to understand what some of the limitations are.

    My guess is some memory issues based on the way it was behaving. 

  • Those can be submitted through the ideas form on our site, where you can outline wanting tablet compatibility offered with the Garmin Golf app, and ideas on making it would optimally here: Garmin Ideas

    APK use of the app ensures the app download to the tablet was from an unofficial download source and not from the google play store, so the logs from that would not be something I could gather and report, as we officially do not support the use on that sort of Android platform. 

  • Cody, the crash reports/ANR reports would be identical to reports from a play store installed apk. 

    I would think the engineers would benefit from the reports regardless of if their is official support, as it's almost certain the Android team has been playing around with testing tablet support internally.

  • I understand what you mean, and we would need your suggestions uploaded through the Garmin Ideas site though. 

    Tablet use is not compatible by design, and has been discussed and customer feedback has been forwarded to our design team already from past inquiries on this. 

  • Tablet use is not compatible by design,

    That seems an... odd... decision.

  • Sure. Not a problem.

    When you say by design, can you clarify what you mean? Surely the product design team wants this to run on tablets. It would be crazy not to.

    Do you mean that the engineering team indicated there were limitations with how the app was implemented that make it not performant on tablets? Because that seems correct.

    This app has been out for years now though...the R10 absolutely needs to run on tablets using the golf app.

    Have you ever mentioned this to your support manager or has your support manager ever surfaced with the product manager for garmin golf directly? 

    This lack of tablet compatability is going absolutely kill your competetiveness in the market...

    And do you mind me asking, how come the product managers don't reply in the forums ever? The people on here giving feedback are literal gold for the product. These people are going out of their way to report feedback, bugs and feature gaps. It pays to engage with them.

  • Hi.

    From my experience here the developers don't read this forum, and we have no idea what, if any, is communicated within Garmin.

    Basically the standard phrase here is that "we are gauging interest", which goes on for years, or "no info if this becomes available".

    So I would not have any hopes on anything happening based on suggestions here.

  • Tablets use with the Garmin Golf app is not, and has never been supported for use with the Approach R10. The Garmin Golf app offers multiple options to use the features on a larger display. 

    As administrator for the Golf forums, I moderate, relay and gather info to/from users to submit feedback, concerns, etc. and report to the specific team responsible for further review. Posts are seen through my reporting by the teams responsible for considering or implementing any changes as needed.

  • There has been extensive feedback considered, and implemented resulting in a change based on submission from users here in the forums. 

    Not everything submitted has been implemented, and much is still under review...since you do get to see from my side, it's easy to simply think things are being ignored...however, much is in process of potentially being offered. We appreciate the patience.