Critical Golf: Unbiased Golf Equipment Reviews

Carved from a single block of aluminum, the GX-3 is Leupold’s top-of the-line tournament-legal laser rangefinder, featuring a red OLED display that can easily be read against any background. While the unit carries a high price tag, the traditional excellent Leupold performance on the course, portability and red OLED display make the GX-3 one of the best options in its class. Read more at our detailed Leupold GX-3 review.
Retail Price: $400
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The Bushnell Pro 1600 Tournament Edition laser rangefinder provides an industry-best 7x magnification, excellent ability to find flagsticks and other targets, large field of view, rapid distance updates and crisp clear display. If you don’t mind the size, the Bushnell 1600 product should definitely be on your short list. Check out our detailed Bushnell 1600 review.
Retail Price: $399.99
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Leupold has topped our list with past devices, and they stay there with their latest release, the GX-1. The smallest laser rangefinder in our test features 6x magnification, panning mode to continuously update target distances, solid ability to pick out flagsticks at long distances, and even a setting to change the cross-hair in the viewfinder. Improvements include enhanced performance in foggy conditions and on flagsticks with reflective prisms. See our detailed Leupold GX-1 review.
Retail price: $375
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The Bushnell Hybrid is the first combination GPS and laser rangefinder on the market. Though the Hybird has only 5x magnification and no panning mode, the benefits of having a built-in GPS (with over 16,000 courses out of the box, and no yearly fees) is clear. Given the size and cost, however, users will likely not only be stacking the Hybrid up against the Bushnell Tour V2 and neo+ (which it essentially is), but also against separate dedicated laser and GPS devices. Read more at our detailed Bushnell Hybrid Laser GPS review.
Retail price: $499.99
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From the best-known brand in rangefinders, the Bushnell Tour V2 offers solid performance in a portable package. Its 5x magnification and ability to target flagsticks at a distance trails the leaders, however. See our detailed Bushnell Tour V2 review for more.
Retail price: $375.99
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The Laser Link Red Hot is a pistol-styled laser rangefinder that can target any object on the golf course (unlike Laser Link’s QuickShot, which can only target flagsticks with reflective prisms). We liked the Red Hot’s point-and-shoot design and its vibrate mode, which vibrates the device when it has locked on to a target. Our concern about the Red Hot arose from the difficulty in getting a confident reading on targets without prisms at longer distances – a problem that was exacerbated by the lack of any magnification in the viewfinder. Check out our detailed Laser Link Red Hot review for more.
Retail price: $389
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The Opti-Logic can’t quite keep up with the rest of the pack. While it does offer the lowest price of any device tested, the lack of any viewfinder magnification (ouch) or ability to scan across objects left most reviewers looking for more. Read our detailed Opti-Logic InSight GL review.
Retail Price: $329.95
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The most simple laser rangefinder in our tests, the Laser Link QuickShot only works for reading distances to flagsticks with reflective prisms. While the QuickShot’s lack of versatility is a bit of a non-starter for us, players who appreciate the pistol-shaped form factor and frequently play on a course equipped with reflective prism flagsticks may be drawn to this device. Read our detailed Laser Link QuickShot review for more.
Retail price: $289
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The Leica Pinmaster II is the supermodel of laser rangefinders. Slim and light, an exceptional form factor. Extremely expensive. You can impress your friends with it. But like a supermodel, it’s blisteringly expensive to acquire, and once you get past the surface, you’ll find it has issues that you really don’t want to deal with on an ongoing basis.
Retail price: $699
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