Garrett Vortex VX5 Review: The Entry Ticket Into a Platform You Pay to Unlock

A step up from a single fixed frequency without the fuller frequency menu Garrett publishes for the Garrett ACE Apex. The VX5 listing states a choice between 13 kHz for general use or the MD-MF multi-frequency mode for mixed or difficult ground, which is fewer published options than the Apex's five selectable frequencies plus a dedicated Multi-Salt mode. For inland parks and fields that difference rarely matters. On a salt beach, having only one multi-frequency mode rather than a mode built specifically for salt is the practical limitation, and the frequency chart explains why a salt-specific mode exists at all on pricier machines.

Around that sits a genuinely current feature set for the money: full submersion to 16 feet, which Garrett states plainly rather than qualifying to the coil alone, plus pinpoint mode and iron discrimination built in. That water rating alone puts the VX5 ahead of Garrett's own ACE line, where the control box is explicitly not waterproof.

Published figures only, and the pattern across the range is a paid software ladder rather than three different bodies.

Water is settled in the VX5's favour outright. Frequency choice and what ships in the box are where the comparison actually lives.

Garrett's own listing for the VX5 states that the body transforms into a VX7 or a VX9 through a paid software upgrade. Read that as a genuine convenience if you want to try the platform cheaply and grow into it, and read it as a real cost if you already know you want the VX9 feature set. Software upgrades on gear like this are not always priced far below the gap between the two machines outright, and buying the VX9 body once can land you at a similar total cost with a machine designed for that tier from the start. Confirm the upgrade price directly with Garrett before assuming this is the cheap route to the flagship.

Second, headphones. Every tier of Vortex Garrett publishes, from this entry model to the Garrett Vortex VX9, states Z-Lynk pairs with compatible headphones sold separately. That is consistent at least, but it means the sticker price on this machine is not the price of a complete wireless kit, and a buyer comparing this against a machine that bundles headphones, such as the Minelab Vanquish 540 Pro-Pack, is not comparing like for like.

Third, the frequency menu. One multi-frequency mode and one single frequency is a shorter published list than the Apex's five single frequencies plus a Multi-Salt mode, at a similar price from the same maker. If you already know your hunting includes a salt beach specifically, the Apex publishes a mode built for that ground and this listing does not name an equivalent.

Early published discussion of the Vortex platform centres on the fact that it is Garrett's first fully submersible, Z-Lynk-equipped body at this price, replacing a gap that used to sit between the ACE line and the AT line. Owners moving from an ACE machine report the water rating as the change they notice first, since it removes the constant awareness of keeping the control box dry. The upgrade path draws mixed published comment: some owners like the idea of paying as they grow, others report they would have bought the higher tier outright had they known the eventual total cost.

The consistent request in published owner discussion is a firm number for the upgrade price before purchase, precisely because Garrett publishes the feature as available rather than pricing it in the same listing as the machine. Owners also consistently report re-learning target numbers after any firmware or tier change, which is the same discipline the Garrett target ID comparison recommends for any Garrett machine.

Buy it if:

• You want a current, fully submersible Garrett at the lowest entry price in the range.
• You are genuinely unsure whether you will want the VX7 or VX9 feature set later.
• You hunt inland dirt, parks and fields where one multi-frequency mode is enough.
• You already own or are buying Z-Lynk headphones separately.

Skip it if:

• You already know you want the VX9 feature set, where buying that body may cost about the same as upgrading into it.
• Salt beaches are a firm part of your hunting, where the Garrett ACE Apex publishes a dedicated Multi-Salt mode.
• You expect headphones bundled in the box, which no Vortex tier states.
• You want the deepest published frequency menu at this money, where the Apex publishes more single frequencies.