Unicorn Smartboard
£169.96
www.unicornsmartboard.com

Items like this are the real perk of this job. Unicorn has been a leading name in darts for over 75 years, so getting to play with their aptly named Smartboard – a dartboard that keeps score for you via an app – was a treat that we were all excited for. This is no toy-looking approximation of a dartboard – the Smartboard is a full-on, traditional bristle board, complete with steel-tipped darts for a proper, good old fashioned feeling game - but one with a fast and handy modern twist.

With the Smartboard, Unicorn gives you six steel-tipped darts (three for each team) and even an Oche Mate measuring tape, which enables you to set up your dartboard at the right height and distance for correct play (including instructions on how to do this). This was a very thoughtful and helpful touch. Whilst darts are provided, any steel-tipped darts are compatible, so you can use your own if you prefer.

The only struggle in set-up that I experienced was finding the Unicorn ScoreBuddy app in the Google Play Store in the first place. One thing I discovered whilst searching for it is that there are a LOT of darts scoring apps! However, without the Bluetooth linkup to a smartboard, there’s only so much they can do to help you in comparison.

Once you actually find the app, the rest is smooth sailing. Using the Smartboard is fast, seamless and effortless. It gave me a bit of a nostalgic feeling for bowling, as that's a social sport that we’re much more used to having electronic scores. What I was very impressed to see were the number of play modes that the board and app are capable of – you can play with up to either eight people playing doubles or four playing singles, and on top of that, the app recognizes the scoring and rounds for all of these game modes:
01 Games;  CountUp; ShangHai; Cricket; Halve It; Around the World; Killer; and Shooting. If, like me, you didn’t realise that darts HAD all these variations, then it’s also a great way to learn.

This board is wireless and thus easily transportable, which makes it awesome as a social game to bring with you when you visit your friends. The app is fun and easy to use, the scorekeeping is fast and accurate, and you can run the app from a tablet or link your phone up to a TV for a bigger, more social read-out. When you don’t have a group to play with, you can practice by challenging a fictional opponent generated by the board, just to keep that broody lone dart-throwing that bit more upbeat.

Using this board is a lot of fun and keeps the maths of your scores consistent no matter how many pints you’ve had. As for the quality of your throws, that unfortunately still depends on you!

4.5/5

Pros:

Traditional bristle board

Steel tipped darts included

Any steel tipped darts compatible

Easy-to-use app

Lots of game modes

Can play in singles or doubles

Oche Mate measuring tape included

Connectivity and score keeping work well

Cons:

App is hard to find