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GPS Accuracy

Former Member
Former Member
Anyone else a little disappointed? I’ve completed at least 20 runs now and the majority have major anomalies in GPS tracking. Just today I’ve completed Leeds 10k and it had a spike in the GPS track that had me across the city. My 935 was much more stable.
  • You can't compare with a smartphone mainly because now they are pure powerhouses at a palm size while activity trackers are the size of two fingers. Top flagships can even match DSLR in day light picture quality due to the superior processing of images. You just can't compare the processing power and the chipsets from devices that have a lot of place on the mainboard with ones that try to squeeze as much possible in the cranked space available. So yeah.

    Concerning Polar v800 , it is using a SiRFstarIV that is known for good gps signal but when trying to do a comparison between the two we should be having the activity recorded at the same time of the day to eliminate some faulty results due to possible gps"positioning". I am really satisfied by my 5s plus , it is clearly better than my former 935 and Fenix 5 on the gps accuracy tests i did.
  • @ClaudiuO that was the point I was trying to make. In such surroundings shown here the only device I’ve seen that can give accurate street location are smartphones, not trekking gps watches. I agree that when comparing two device you have to do it at the exact same time for it to be fair.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    Here i did 3 exact walk tracks with GPS, GPS+GLONASS and GPS+GALILEO, purple track is what i walked.

    >>> Google maps link

    - Firmware 3.53 beta.
    - GPS fix of 32 seconds after green signal.
    - One track after another (24 min between each).
    - Clear sky with sun casting shadows.

    The 3 distances are really close, 2,61km, 2,57km and 2,61km (GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO).
    The 3 elevation gains: 4m, 6m and 4km (GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO).

    So pretty similar results, purple (really walked) track marking 2,55km, but tracks had weird peaks not following my walked track, even when i was bordering the rives (clean of near buildings).
    Curious thing (?) that first track did 99bpm Avg HR and 9,32min/km Avg Pace with 152kcals VS 155kcals of thir with 114bpm Avg HR and 9,17min/km Avg Pace, thus, onlye 2kcals more for 15bpm more AVG and 17min/km less pace....
  • I’ve had my Fenix 5 plus under two weeks, have had forerunners for years. Never seen a GPS track this bizarre before. Has me running a mile out and back into Lake Ontario!

    Looking at it, it didn’t have a great fix on position when I started as in actuality I was maybe 25 yards down the street - but that doesn’t explain the weird blip.

    I probably run by that spot 200+ times a year as it’s my route to the local running path, and have never seen anything like this.

    Heres a link:
    https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2914606821

    On the plus side, the blip didn’t seem to get captured in my totals for the workout - I think the lap was slightly miscalculated but nothing significant, and it was just an easy recovery run.

  • On the plus side, the blip didn’t seem to get captured in my totals for the workout


    I’ve similarly seen these odd ‘blips’ on a couple of activities, but also noted they make no impact on speed/pace nor impact the distance accumulation. So they are just odd blips that make viewing the track after messy, but don’t actually damage any of the data you observe or rely on whilst in an activity.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    In my company we avoid such deviations by combining/correlating the GPS information with the accelerometer, barometer and DHM data. (lots of mathematical theory about that topic can be found on the net ;))
    However it seems they don't do it or don't know how to do it correctly.
  • No posts in this tread for s long time, does this mean that you are happy with GPS performance on the f5+? This is a deal breaker for me before pulling the trigger Coming from a f5 where I was very disappointed on GPS accuracy.
  • No posts in this tread for s long time, does this mean that you are happy with GPS performance on the f5+? This is a deal breaker for me before pulling the trigger Coming from a f5 where I was very disappointed on GPS accuracy.


    I am very happy with the GPS performance. It's not quite as good as my edge on a bike but it's on par with my old fr 735. i've had 3 of the blips described above in about 6 weeks use (4,5 runs p/w).

    I’ve similarly seen these odd ‘blips’ on a couple of activities, but also noted they make no impact on speed/pace nor impact the distance accumulation. So they are just odd blips that make viewing the track after messy, but don’t actually damage any of the data you observe or rely on whilst in an activity.

    same experience here - don't seem to have an impact on pace/distance. very odd...
  • I am, personally, pretty happy with the GPS on my F5+.
    I compared it to a Suunto 9 side by side and ended up sending the Suunto back.
  • I'm also ok with it. I have not seen those "blips" as you call them even once. I'm using GPS only for navigation and Strava. Pace/Distance is coming from my Stryd.

    A trail-run from from last Sunday. Together with a friend on a trail which was fully covered by forest:

    https://www.strava.com/activities/1782750297

    My friend was using a Polar V800. You may select "Flyby" to compare it (it might be necessary that you have a Strava account, I'm not sure).
    My 5plus was for sure not as good as V800 but not really bad. It's just the usual offsetting that I observer whenever the watch seems to struggle with multi-pathing.