If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? What about if you hit a clean 180 while playing darts by yourself with no one around to see it?
In today’s review, I’m going to go over a product that won’t do much to answer the first question but does wonders for the second.
Today, we are going to talk all about the Gran Board Dash, what it is, how it works, and whether you should consider giving it a try. Is it the next generation of electronic dartboards? Here is our
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Review of the Gran Board Dash
The Gran Board Dash (from Amazon) is one of the newest entries in the highly successful line of products by Gran Darts, a company whose philosophy aims to bring the excitement and dynamism of the bar and tournament scene straight to your home.
This means that Gran Darts products, such as the Gran Board Dash are specifically designed to allow players to set up a dynamic environment at home, record their results in detail, play remotely against other players, and participate in online tournaments.
Gran Darts products are the perfect marriage between a genuine, joyful passion for the game of darts and a mastery of modern technology. The Gran Board Dash is the latest and perhaps greatest example of what the company has to offer the dart players of today and the future.
What Is The Gran Board Dash?
The Gran Board Dash is a 15.5-inch Bluetooth-enabled dart board for playing soft-tip darts online.
The Gran Board Dash is also the latest and most affordable online board from Gran Darts, which immediately makes it an interesting proposition in terms of value and levels of fun to be had.
In essence, the Gran Board Dash is a soft-tip dartboard that ultimately allows you to play darts online with players from around the world.
What’s In The Box?
In terms of value, the Gran Board Dash offers a pretty good value proposition.
In the box you will find:
- The dartboard
- 2 full sets of soft-tip darts, including the flights
- Screws and sheetrock anchors required for installation
- Instruction booklet
It might not seem like much, but considering that the Gran Board Dash costs significantly less than the other Gran Dart dartboards, the spare content starts to make a lot of sense.
Build Quality
The Gran Board Dash is a high-quality product, made out of durable plastic polymers. The segments fare well, even after extended playtime.
The Gran Board Dash is a fairly small and compact board. The 15.5-inch play area is found inside a slightly larger and fairly robust casing, which measures 21-3/4″ tall by 19-3/4″ across. The board is impressively slim, measuring about 1-3/16″ deep.
As a result, the Gran Board Dash is easy to carry around when necessary. The whole thing weighs in at about 5.5 lbs.
The App Makes It Special
The Gran Board Dash can appear fairly run-of-the-mill at first glance, especially when compared to the hundreds of other soft-tip dartboards available for purchase. It is Gran Darts’ seamless integration with modern technology to truly elevates this machine to new heights.
You see, the Gran Board Dash is designed to be used alongside a professionally designed App that tracks player scores, and can keep several player profiles in tandem.
The app, which is fully compatible with Android and iOS systems, also comes preloaded with an impressive variety of classic games and practice drills.
Players will be able to play games of 301, 501, 701, 901, 1101, and 1501 with ease. There are also 4 different variations of Cricket, including standard and hidden versions. As if that weren’t enough, there are also 3, 5, and 7-leg Medleys.
The app is also capable of enabling gameplay against AI opponents (some of which can offer quite a challenging match).
And because nothing is loaded onto the board itself, the folks at Gran Darts are able to update the app from their server and add even more games and modes over time. This is truly an unprecedented level of flexibility, and what separates these boards from the rest of the competition.
The app’s performance is snappy, with plenty of quick-loading animations. Results are delivered almost instantly and player data is kept in the app’s memory without a hitch. I’ve played hundreds of hours on the Gran Board Dash and I’ve yet to encounter my first crash of the app.
Protip: while running the app on your phone or tablet is a fantastic experience in and of itself, streaming it to your flat screen tv takes the experience to a whole new level.
Downsides
The Gran Board Dash is a fantastic product, worth every penny. However, it is not a perfect product and it would be unfair of me to ignore its most glaring downsides.
For example, the board can be a bit too loud. Especially when compared to the higher-end Gran Board 3s dartboard. However, I’ve found that placing a foam or rubber insert behind the board will reduce the noise level significantly.
Another potential downside is that the included darts are a bit finicky, with a higher predilection to bounce out. To be fair, though, this is in line with most soft-tip darts I’ve played. (I am really not a soft-tip guy)
The mounting hardware also leaves something to be desired. The screws and anchors included in the box are not the best. If you get the Gran Board Dash, If you can, get some higher-quality hardware from your local hardware store and something to dampen the sound before you get started with the board’s installation.
The Gran Board Dash is fully battery-operated and cannot charge via other means. While the device’s power consumption is very low, and the battery life is very respectable, an internal battery with a USB charger cable would have been great.
Finally, the Gran Board Dash is not yet compatible with Amazon’s Fire service. Not a deal breaker for most, I admit, but it is something worth mentioning.
Final Thoughts On Gran Board Dash
In my opinion, the Gran Board Dash presents one of the best, if not the best, value propositions for soft-tip lovers. There is lots of fun to be had here.
It provides you with the ability to connect and play darts with thousands of people across the world, while giving you the flexibility to play exactly what you want, when you want, in a seamlessly online and hassle-free way.
