What They Have in Common
Both land at $199.99, both pull from databases of 40,000+ preloaded courses with free updates, and both give you front/center/back yardages with hazard info and green views — no subscription required. Neither offers slope, virtual caddie, strokes gained, or heart rate. You're getting core GPS functionality at a budget price with either.
Where They Differ
Form Factor: Speaker vs. Watch
These two products aren't really competing in the same lane. The Blue Tees Player+ is a 800g cart-mounted speaker first and a GPS device second. The Garmin Approach S12 is a 34.1g wrist-worn watch. That weight delta — 800g vs 34g — defines the entire experience. The Player+ sits in a cupholder or clips to your cart via magnetic strip. The S12 goes on your wrist and stays there for the whole round.
If you walk, the Player+ is basically a non-starter. You'd be carrying a speaker around the course. If you ride, it's much more sensible. The S12 works for both, and the fact that it weighs nothing means you never think about it mid-swing.
GPS Features: What Lives on the Device
Here's the key comparison, and it's where the Player+ comes up short given its price. The S12 handles everything on the watch itself: front/center/back distances, hazard view, hole maps, green view. You can leave your phone in the car.
The Player+'s GPS features are split. FCB yardages, hazard detection, and the audible yardage callouts live on the device. But full hole mapping, proper green view, and the flyover feature require the Blue Tees app on your phone. That's a meaningful dependency. If you're walking, your phone needs to be accessible. If it's charging elsewhere, you lose those features. My read is that splitting functionality between device and app feels like a workaround rather than a feature — you're paying $199 for a device that needs a $0 phone app to be fully useful.
Battery Life: Not Even Close
The S12 gets 30 hours in GPS mode. The Player+ gets 11 hours (at 50% speaker volume), dropping to 4 hours at full blast. The S12 will outlast the Player+ for battery life by a factor of nearly 3x. Granted, the Player+ doubles as a phone power bank, which partially offsets this — but the Speaker's battery dying mid-round is a real scenario. The S12 will handle multiple rounds on a single charge without thinking about it.
The Speaker, Though
To be fair to the Player+: 30 watts of 360° audio with a 30-foot Bluetooth range is legitimately good for a cart setup. If you and your playing partners want music on the course, the Player+ handles that plus GPS, charges your phone via USB, and keeps everything in one place. The S12 cannot play music. Full stop. This is probably the most compelling reason to choose the Player+ over the S12.
Display
The S12 is monochrome, button-only, MIP display — no touchscreen, no color. The Player+ has a 3-inch color touchscreen. If you've ever tried to read a GPS screen in bright afternoon sun, MIP displays actually perform extremely well — they're specifically designed for sunlight readability. The Player+'s color touchscreen is nicer to look at, but the S12's display is arguably more functional in direct sunlight.
Who Should Buy Which
Get the Garmin Approach S12 if:
- You walk the course, or want a device that works independently of your phone
- Battery longevity matters — you're playing multiple rounds a week or playing in all-day formats
- You want a watch you can keep on after the round without it being embarrassing
- You're fine with monochrome and button navigation in exchange for 30-hour GPS life
- You want GPS your buddies won't hear you fidgeting with mid-shot
Get the Blue Tees Player+ if:
- You ride in a cart and want music through the round
- You're comfortable keeping your phone in the cart for the full hole-mapping features
- The power bank feature appeals to you — you'd otherwise be carrying a separate battery pack
- The speaker replaces something you'd buy anyway, making the GPS portion essentially free
The Bottom Line
For most golfers, the Approach S12 is the better call. It's a cleaner, more self-contained GPS device — everything you need to read yardages lives on your wrist, no phone required, and the 30-hour battery life is genuinely impressive for $199. The Blue Tees Player+ is a great cart speaker with GPS tacked on, which isn't a bad thing — but the phone dependency for full mapping is a frustrating limitation at this price point, and it's not a walking-round device by any measure. Pick based on one question: do you primarily want a GPS device or a cart speaker? The answer tells you everything.
Get the Garmin Approach S12.