Rapsodo MLM2XPRO Review: Faster, Now with Putting, and a New PC App. Is It Worth $899.99?

When I reviewed the Rapsodo MLM2PRO, I came away a big fan.

But that didn’t mean I loved everything about it.

I couldn’t see all of my data during a session. It came with only three RPT golf balls, so I spent a lot of time fetching them. Little touch chips inside about 15 yards often didn’t register. It didn’t read putts at all. The delay between shot and show was on the long side. The sim course play experience was fine but not necessarily remarkable. And most of what made the device special sat behind a subscription, which gave the whole thing a bit of a bait-and-switch feel.

But overall, for a $699.99 launch monitor, the MLM2PRO was (and still is) pretty killer.

Now, we’ve got the MLM2XPRO. It’s $899.99. And it’s more of a refinement than a reinvention of the MLM2PRO.

Most importantly, this new evolved launch monitor promises to address several of the nitpicks I had about the original.

So I’m not asking whether the MLM2XPRO is good. I’m asking this: How good are the upgrades? How much value do they add? What’s the new software like? And is the whole thing worth the asking price?

As usual, I tested it all. Indoors. Outdoors. The updated mobile app. The brand-new PC app. The upgraded sim experience, including putting and the new Rapsodo Studios courses. All of it.

So settle in.

What Rapsodo Changed, and What It Wisely Left Alone

If you set the MLM2XPRO next to an MLM2PRO, you’d mostly have a hard time telling them apart.

They both have the same basic shape, the same tripod-mounted design, and the same combination of Doppler radar and dual cameras doing the tracking.

And that’s mostly a good thing.

The changes are real, though. Here’s what’s new:

• Putting. The MLM2XPRO reads putts, so simulated rounds can play all the way to the cup. Rapsodo says putting works on all 30,000-plus of its standard courses with a Core membership.
• Faster shot feedback. Rapsodo claims connection and shot-to-show times are twice as fast.
• An adjustable tripod leg. The back leg adjusts, so you can level the unit without having to wedge something under it. I’ll discuss more as we go.
• An on-device screen. A small display on top shows battery life, connection status, and a leveling guide. Don’t mistake this for data readouts on the device. This is not that. Still, it’s a useful upgrade.
• A dozen RPT balls. Up from three. This is a legit value add.
• Revamped mobile app and all-new PC app. Rapsodo reworked its mobile app. And, for the first time, you’ve now got a PC app version that adds a lot more opportunities when it comes to sim golf, including Rapsodo’s all-new Rapsodo Studios marquee courses.

 

 

As for the faster shot-to-show time, meaning the lag between when you hit the shot and when the ball flight shows up on screen: I didn’t put a stopwatch on it, but it feels at least twice as fast. It went from a noticeable lag with the MLM2PRO to almost instantaneous. That’s a very nice upgrade.

The extra RPT balls may sound like a small thing, but those things ain’t cheap. Whether you choose the Titleist Pro V1, Pro V1x, or Callaway Chrome Tour, you’re looking at 70 bucks a dozen for those golf balls. To get a dozen included is really nice and takes some of the sting off the extra price of the MLM2XPRO right out of the box. Mostly, I love this because it means you can hit balls without having to stop and collect them after every three shots like with the old factory-issued setup.

 

 

What Rapsodo didn’t touch is probably what I care about the most.

When I tested the MLM2PRO head to head against a Foresight GC3, the two read carry distance, ball speed, smash factor, and launch angle nearly identically. Spin was very close, too. For a launch monitor at this price, that was remarkable.

Nothing in my time with the MLM2XPRO suggested any of that has changed. The data was outstanding and consistent, shot after shot. I’m impressed, too, with how accurate the club path readings seem to be.

And that’s exactly what I was hoping to find. Rapsodo already had accuracy figured out. Overall, there wasn’t anything that needed fixing in terms of that technology.

So the fundamentals carry over. The MLM2XPRO directly measures ball speed, launch angle, launch direction, club speed, attack angle, and club path. With an RPT ball, it measures spin rate and spin axis, too. Carry, total distance, apex, descent angle, side carry, and smash factor are calculated from those measurements.

A few limitations carry over as well.

You still need RPT balls for measured spin indoors. Club data still stops at path and attack angle, so if face angle, face-to-path, or impact location are what you’re chasing, you’ll need to look at something like the Square Omni.

And, yes, the subscription is still part of the deal. The math on that deserves its own section, which I’ll get to below.

First, let’s talk about what you’ll notice when you get started with the MLM2XPRO.

Rapsodo Launch Monitor Setup Went from Easy to Easier

Setup was never the MLM2PRO’s problem. In fact, it was one of the things I liked most about it.

But the MLM2XPRO makes it even simpler.

You place the launch monitor about 7.5 feet behind the ball, aim it down your target line, and open the alignment screen in the app. A live camera view shows you the hitting area with a box-within-a-box for capturing club data. Set the ball inside the box, and the MLM2XPRO displays a green light that tells you it’s ready to read the shot.

One thing I really like about this launch monitor is that you get that live camera view and box on the screen before every single shot. Between that and the green light, it’s always extremely easy to know when you’ve got the ball correctly positioned.

 

 

The new piece to this whole setup process is leveling.

With the old unit, if your hitting surface wasn’t flat, you were on your own. Now the back leg of the tripod adjusts, and the small screen on top of the MLM2XPRO shows a leveling guide while you dial it in. You just crank the scrolly wheel until the marks turn green. In the app, the alignment screen won’t even let you continue until the device is level.

It works really well. It’s simple, and it’s one of those small upgrades you’ll appreciate pretty much every session. Especially outdoors, where the ground is rarely perfectly flat. And it plays into one of the MLM2XPRO’s strengths, which is that it reads shots off natural turf just as reliably as it did off my studio mat.

But I will say that I wish Rapsodo had gone a step further and made all three of the tripod legs telescopic. That would give you even more versatility for compensating for side-hill slopes, too.

Still, I’ll take what we got. It’s a definite improvement over what we had.

 

 

The MLM2XPRO connects to the new Rapsodo Golf mobile app via either your Wi-Fi network or Direct Connection, where the unit broadcasts its own signal and your device connects to it. The small screen on top of the launch monitor tells you which connection is active and how strong it is.

For the PC app, it’s wired only. You connect the unit to your PC with a USB-C cable.

Because the MLM2XPRO sits behind the ball, it needs some depth to work with. If you’re using it indoors, Rapsodo calls for at least 8 feet from the ball to your net or screen, plus the 7.5 feet behind the ball. So while those are the same general indoor-space challenges as you’d get with any radar launch monitor, there’s nothing new here compared to the original MLM2PRO.

Automatic Video Replay Is Still Rapsodo’s Biggest Separator

It had been a while since I’d used an MLM2PRO, and I’d forgotten how awesome the automatic video is. And on the MLM2XPRO, it’s outstanding.

After every shot, without you doing anything, you get a video replay of your swing and the option to toggle over to see a close-up of your club contacting the ball. There’s no external camera to set up or anything. It’s just there automatically after every single swing, and I think it’s an amazing feature.

Rapsodo isn’t the only brand with video replay. But between how well it works, the quality of the video, and how idiot-proof the whole process is, I think it’s the standard at this price point.

And it’s extremely useful to be able to see if the video matches up with what you’re feeling in your swing. Plus, the quality of the swing video is pretty remarkable, actually. It’s very clear. You can scrub, meaning you can move back and forth within each shot as fast or slow as you want to. It’s awesome.

That said, swing replay and Impact Vision do require a Core membership, which I’ll talk more about as we go.

The New Rapsodo PC App Is the Star of This Show

The MLM2XPRO hardware is a nice step up, but Rapsodo’s new PC app is the biggest leap in this whole launch.

It’s outstanding. Really.

It does run on Windows only, and it requires a Core membership to use, meaning there’s some additional cost that’s unavoidable. But it also works with the original MLM2PRO, which is great news for current owners.

If you’ll mostly use the MLM2XPRO with your phone or tablet, hang tight. The mobile app is a different story, and I’ll get to that.

But for the PC app, the first thing that struck me is how intuitive it is. Rapsodo even walks you through it with a welcome tour when you start, but I found my way around quickly without needing much help.

Everything is packaged and presented really well. And no matter where you are in the app, whether that’s the driving range, the target range, on-course practice, or sim play, you always have the same options to pull up your swing video replay or Impact Vision replay, watch a shot tracer replay, drill down on a specific data point, and a lot more.

I also like how on the side of the screen, you can choose to display no data at all or up to 10 of the 15 metrics the MLM2XPRO captures. You pick which ones. That alone fixes one of my biggest frustrations with the original.

 

 

And you’ve just got so many choices for customizing your experience, seeing the information you want and not the stuff you don’t want, and all kinds of various configurations within the practice features. It’s impressive.

Display options are just as easy. You can extend your screen so your laptop and your projector show different things, or mirror them. It works really well, and I love having that flexibility.

You’ve got a bunch of ways to practice in the app:

• Driving range for open-ended practice with full data and video.
• Target range with 86 green targets and 8 fairway targets, plus Strokes Gained scoring. Awesome feature.
• Bag Mapping to build out your carry distances club by club.
• Wedge Matrix to dial in your wedge distances.
• On-course practice (Studios membership required), which drops you onto any hole in the course library so you can practice pretty much whatever shot you want whenever you want. Another awesome feature.

I love how they’ve incorporated Strokes Gained into the target range. You choose your handicap, and the app grades every shot against it with Strokes Gained.

I also loved spending a lot of time in on-course practice, including shots from a tee box. I worked on par 3s of different lengths, sometimes hitting 10 or 15 shots from the same spot. Whenever I felt like it, I could tap the dispersion graph button and get a quick pop-up showing where all of those shots landed, with my most recent shot color-coded so it stands out. It might be my favorite feature in the whole app.

 

 

 

Sim Golf With the Rapsodo MLM2XPRO PC App

When it’s time to play, the PC app gives you two course libraries: Rapsodo’s 30,000-plus standard courses and the new premium Rapsodo Studios courses. I’ll go into more detail about the difference in the next section, and I’m going to get into the new putting option as well. But first, the general experience of playing the courses, no matter which library you choose.

On every course, a mini map is always on screen (unless you prefer to hide it), and it’s really handy. You also get a whole menu of camera views: a drone view, a flyover, an approach cam, and a green cam. They’re all different looks, and they’re all cool.

You can move the ball wherever you want on a hole, including around the tee box.

 

 

I love the little details, too. If your ball ends up in deep rough, the app tells you exactly what you’re dealing with, like the speed penalty (maybe it’ll be something like 80 percent when you’re in really gnarly rough), the spin penalty, the uphill angle, and the side-hill angle.

And if you want some competition, there are tournaments available.

Rapsodo Studios Leaves the Standard Courses in the Dust

So as I mentioned, you’ve now got two very different ways to play simulated golf. That’s one of the major new developments with the MLM2XPRO.

With a Core membership, you get Rapsodo’s library of more than 30,000 courses. You can play them in the mobile app or the PC app. And while you can now putt on these courses (more detail on that in a moment), the overall experience is pretty much the same as it has been with the original MLM2PRO.

As far as I can tell, these courses look about the same as they always have. Which is fine. They’re not bad at all. They’re just not in the same visual class as software built to take advantage of a gaming PC.

The holes themselves are accurate. I pulled up my home course, and the shapes of the holes, the bunker positions, and even the cart paths were all where they should be. Even the placement of some of the trees was pretty good. Each hole plays at the same length and shape as the real thing.

The surroundings are another story. On my home course, the first two holes run alongside a road. In Rapsodo’s version, there’s just open green space there. Where there are houses behind the second hole in real life, the sim shows a forest. So the scenery around the holes is generic filler.

Anyway, the standard courses are useful if you want to play your home course or preview a course before a trip. Or if you’re not going to use a PC and you just want to have some fun using a mobile device.

But they’re not why you’d get excited about this launch.

Rapsodo Studios is.

 

 

These are Rapsodo’s new premium courses, precision-scanned and licensed so they carry authentic course details and branding. They run on the PC app only, and they require the Studios membership, which costs $399.99 a year and includes everything in Core.

Right now, there are about 30 Studios courses, including some big names like Bethpage Black, Sweetens Cove, Quail Hollow, Tobacco Road, and Payne’s Valley.

I also like that you get a good number of par-3 courses. They’re really fun to zip through for a quick nine, with dramatic layouts over water and down big cliffs with major elevation changes.

And the graphics on these new Rapsodo Studios courses are legit. These courses are immersive, detailed, and high quality. I don’t know that I’d put them quite up to the level of something like Foresight’s new software, but they’re very, very good. They are absolutely premium enough for someone to feel like they had a high-end sim experience.

The physics impressed me, too. The way the ball bounces, rolls, and spins seems impressively accurate.

Studios also adds some extras for families and groups, including profiles for up to four golfers, junior tees, tournaments, and leaderboards.

If I were paying for a membership and using the PC app, the Studios courses are the ones I’d care about. I’d still pull up a standard course to play my home track or preview a trip, but by and large, I’d be playing Studios.

 

 

 

What Kind of PC Do You Need for Rapsodo Studios?

Rapsodo publishes requirements for two graphics tiers:

• HD: At minimum, Windows 10, an Intel Core i5-6600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, an NVIDIA RTX 3060 (8 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and 16 GB of RAM.
• 4K: At minimum, Windows 11, an NVIDIA RTX 5080 (16 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, 32 GB of RAM, and an SSD.

Both tiers need at least 50 GB of free storage.

I tested on a SurfThing M3H golf simulator laptop, which has an RTX 5070. That puts it comfortably in HD territory but short of the 4K minimum. Even so, the Studios courses look badass.

It does feel a little lopsided, though. My laptop costs several times as much as the launch monitor plugged into it. I wonder how many golfers will buy a sub-$1,000 launch monitor and then spend more on the computer to run its best software.

To be fair, the HD tier’s minimum is a much more modest machine than mine. And you don’t need a PC at all to use the MLM2XPRO. But if Studios is the draw for you, budget for a computer, too.

The courses look great. But one of the biggest pieces of news with Rapsodo’s new sim experience is what happens when you reach the green.

Putting Makes the Rapsodo MLM2XPRO a True Tee-to-Hole Simulator

This is the upgrade a lot of MLM2PRO owners have been waiting for.

And, I gotta say, it’s nice.

The MLM2XPRO was completely responsive to putts. It read them with great consistency, and I was impressed with the accuracy. The ball rolled where my putter face was pointed, and the speed seemed to be spot on.

I still consider putting the least realistic part of any simulator experience. That’s just the reality of sim golf. It’s the part that has the furthest to go, in my opinion. But with that limitation in mind, the Rapsodo system does a pretty darn good job.

Because the MLM2XPRO is primarily a radar device, it tracks the ball for several feet after it leaves your putter. So your putting experience will vary depending on your setup and the surface you’re putting on.

One quirk worth knowing about: You need to make sure you have a putter in the bag that you build when you set up your MLM2XPRO account. That took me a while to figure out. When I first played a hole of sim golf and got to the green, it wouldn’t let me select a putter. It turned out I had to build my bag in the app and include a putter. Once I did, problem solved. It’s an easy fix, but a little confusing the first time.

And if you’d rather skip sim putting altogether, which I totally get, you can still use auto-putt and set your own gimme distances.

Putting works on all 30,000-plus standard courses with Core, and it works on the Studios courses, too.

So, really, there’s nothing but good news here. For the first time, you can play a full round on an MLM2-series launch monitor from tee to hole.

Also, on the subject of short game, I noticed a nice improvement with short chip shots. With the MLM2PRO, little touch chips inside about 15 yards often didn’t register. With the MLM2XPRO, at least for me, short chipping was actually an overall strength. I still got the occasional no-read on very short touch shots. Sometimes they were perfect, and other times the unit missed them. But for the most part, this was a big improvement.

The Rapsodo MLM2XPRO Mobile App Is a Refresh, Not a Revolution

Pretty much everything I’ve covered so far except Studios also lives in the new Rapsodo Golf mobile app. That means the 30,000-plus standard courses with putting, the driving and target ranges, Bag Mapping, the Wedge Matrix, and your automatic swing video.

You’ll need the new app. The old MLM2PRO app doesn’t work with the MLM2XPRO. The good news for current owners is that, according to Rapsodo, the new mobile app supports the MLM2PRO, too.

The new mobile app is an improvement. It’s solid. It’s just that I think it’s the least exciting part of this launch.

And, keeping it real, it was also the most frustrating part for me personally. Though, full disclosure, I was testing a beta version that has likely been smoothed out by the time of release.

During my early testing, I ran into some hiccups like a handful of dropped connections and an occasional blank alignment screen. Again, I think those things are probably non-issues at this point or will be increasingly fixed as we go.

But the bigger point is that the hardware upgrades, the new PC app, and the Rapsodo Studios courses are true breakthroughs for Rapsodo. The mobile app is more of a refresh.

For a lot of golfers, especially those who use their launch monitor mostly at the range, the mobile app will be their primary way to use the MLM2XPRO. And it does the job well. I’m just saying that if you’re hoping for the same leap forward you get on the PC side, temper your expectations.

What the Rapsodo MLM2XPRO Really Costs

To get the most out of the MLM2XPRO, you need a membership. There are two:

• Core ($199.99 per year): Every metric, including spin and club data, plus the practice modes, swing video and Impact Vision, the 30,000-plus standard courses on mobile and PC, and profiles for two golfers.
• Studios ($399.99 per year): Everything in Core, plus the Rapsodo Studios courses, on-course practice, and profiles for up to four golfers.

Both are billed yearly. There’s no monthly option. Every MLM2XPRO comes with a 21-day Core trial.

Rapsodo doesn’t offer a lifetime membership to new MLM2XPRO buyers. If you already have Lifetime on an MLM2PRO, you can transfer it to an MLM2XPRO bought by March 15, 2027, and add Studios for $200 a year.

In my MLM2PRO review, I said the subscription gave the whole thing a bait-and-switch feel. I still wish more was included out of the box. But the tiers are clearer now, and Core does get you a lot.

The reality here is that for a launch monitor that retails for $899.99, the realistic three-year cost of ownership ends up being $1,499.96 if you add Core and $2,099.96 if you add Studios.

If you skip the membership altogether, the MLM2XPRO still works as a basic launch monitor. You’ll get basic ball data like ball speed, launch angle, launch direction, carry and total distance, apex, and smash factor, but you’ll lose spin, club path, attack angle, swing video, Impact Vision, the practice tools, and course play.

Personally, I think the vast majority of users are going to want at least Core, which is why I bring up these long-term costs and encourage you to budget for them. Then again, maybe you’re cool with keeping it very basic and saving some money. Honestly, though, if that were me, I would probably just strip it down even further and go with an even more budget-friendly option like the Shot Scope LM1.

And if no subscription is a must for you, options like the FlightScope Mevo Gen2 ($1,299) and Square Golf Omni ($1,599.99) cost more up front but come out cheaper over time.

Is the MLM2XPRO Worth $200 More Than the MLM2PRO?

 

 

At listed retail, the gap here is $699.99 for the MLM2PRO versus $899.99 for the MLM2XPRO. But the reality at this point is that the MLM2PRO is more frequently sold for $599.99 or even lower. So, really, the gap you’re looking at is more likely at least a $300 difference.

Here’s what MLM2PRO owners get without buying anything new: the new mobile app, the new PC app with a Core membership, and the option to add Studios. That’s a lot.

Here’s what you only get with the MLM2XPRO: putting, the faster shot-to-show speed, the adjustable leg and on-device leveling screen, and a dozen RPT balls. Rapsodo has said that it doesn’t plan to bring putting or the faster processing to the MLM2PRO.

If you already own an MLM2PRO and mostly practice at the range, I’d hang onto it and enjoy the free software upgrades. If you’re a sim golfer who wants to play full rounds from tee to hole, putting alone makes the upgrade worth it, especially if you can transfer a Lifetime membership.

And if you’re buying your first launch monitor, I think the extra $200 or $300 (however you want to look at it) for the MLM2XPRO is easily worth it. I don’t think that’s very difficult to justify at all.

Should You Buy the Rapsodo MLM2XPRO?

 

 

The MLM2XPRO is exactly what a sequel should be.

Rapsodo kept the accuracy that made the MLM2PRO so good and went after nearly everything I complained about. It’s faster and easier to level, it reads putts and handles short chips far better, and it comes with a dozen RPT balls instead of three.

Then there’s the software. The new PC app is outstanding, and Rapsodo Studios finally gives Rapsodo owners a premium sim experience on its own native courses.

It’s not perfect. You’ll want a membership, and the Studios tier pushes your yearly cost to $399.99. And to make the most of Studios, you’ll need a capable Windows PC. I still wish all three tripod legs adjusted. And the mobile app, while solid, is a refresh rather than a big leap.

Here’s who I think should buy it:

• First-time buyers who want a sub-$1,000 launch monitor that can do it all, from the range to full simulated rounds.
• Sim golfers who want a solid putting solution, especially with a PC to run Studios.
• MLM2PRO owners who care most about putting and speed. Everyone else can enjoy the free software upgrades and wait.

For me, the MLM2PRO was a great launch monitor with a few missing components. The MLM2XPRO is much more of a complete product. And an easy one to recommend.

Marc's Quick Overall Rapsodo MLM2XPRO Rating