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A beast on the beach, overmatched at the park. This detector has a small cult following but it is not close to the level of other SMF metal detectors.

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Depth: Solid but unspectacular. The Viper coil is 6 by 11 and that is smaller than the standard set in the industry. There are replacements available but there is a cost for that.

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Separation: Nope! Mediocre! What is more troubling is the iron allergy that the APEX seems to have. This detector was overmatched in NYC parks. In fairness, we have hundreds of thousands of bottle caps in the dirt and sand.

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Sound Inference: Garrett has a solid following of users who could infer about targets with sound. I am not one of them who could really talk on this yet. Once I saw how overmatched The Apex was compared to other detectors in parks I stopped using it. Having that said, AT-Max is legendary for sound inference and this is a more recent model.

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Target ID Inference: Target ID is solid. I am yet to do a Target ID Bible but I think that accuracy is not an issue..

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Ergonomics: Very light. Well balanced. This is a strong point for this detector.

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Build Durability: I used it heavily at the beach with no issues. Garrett detectors have proven to last for a long time. I have seen 10+ year old At-Pro's still in action.

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Battery Life: The Garrett Ace Apex has a battery that is similar to most rechargeable metal detectors. 12 hours without the backlight.

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Swag (Add On's): There are camouflage versions of this detector and multiple coils.

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Pinpoint: Solid pinpoint. Meat and potatoes.

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Navigation: Super easy menu to navigate.

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Handles EMI: It was really good in regions of high electromagnetic interference.

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Utility In Water: Not waterproof. Water resistant. At a price point that is around $420 (without headphones), why not just get a submersible Legend at $500 (without headphones)?

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Saltwater Beach: A beast at the beach. I had some of my best days with the APEX at the beach.  I do feel like I am giving up depth compared to an Equinox, Deus 2 or Legend, but this is a very solid beach machine because it is multi frequency and separation and iron spacing is not an issue on a beach.

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Trashy Park: Horrendous (at least relative to other SMF Simultaneous Multi Frequency machines.) in trashy parks.

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Handles Iron: Horrendous! This machine gets overpowered by iron compared to other detectors.

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Relative Value: A beast at the beach. A flop in the park. Not waterproof. The Legend checks all of those boxes for 80 dollars more. The Apex is a decent value if you want a light detector only for the beach (and you don't plan on submersing it). The value isn't there compared to the competition. 

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