GPS accuracy very bad !!

Thanks for your feedback. I hope I am the only one that has a problem with his watch... I will try my new onewhen I will receive it. However there is another thread on Fenix Plus with some other people complaining about their accuracy too.

Maybe the watch behaves well when it is in wide area withour any building arround. I've just made some tests in town, may be it's the reason about the low quality I obtained.

It should be great if you could post the link of your activity to see in details your trace.

Here is an example of the trace in a 3d video https://www.relive.cc/view/1731258244
Here is the actual activity. https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2884482980

Note this is a good time to talk about cartography, because the Google maps satellite view is completely off from reality on these peaks. They even place the summit markers in the wrong spot if you look at the actual photos they took. The open street maps and the topo maps on the watch got it right. The topo maps on my phone Thunderforest: outdoor, USFS and Cal Topo all agreed with the watch (as well as the GPS location on the phone agreeing) Google's map is offset slightly.

The maps by Esri used by relive are also spot on.

Here is a longer activity (hike down from the basin) https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2888016998

Note that the trail on the open street map is largely correct, but the trail has been re-routed in some areas since that has been updated. A good spot check is this image showing us going across the bridge. We're in a river gorge with pretty thick tree cover and the track essentially nails the footbridge that isn't much more than 3 people wide. The cut back before the bridge is a switchback. The trace is accurate to my memory of that area.

I just put in 41 miles hiking and peak bagging in Colorado's Weminuche wilderness. I built some courses before heading out and have no complaints about the accuracy of the GPS. There were times where I passed through rather difficult terrain for GPS (granite river gorge, next to and climbing near vertical rock, etc), but overall the Fenix 5x Plus was awesome. I'll probably write up a trip report detailing how I used it, the few places where it did struggle, and where it really shined if I get the time. The bottom line is the GPS and the courses I built, were accurate enough that I was able to navigate in a challenging wilderness area that i'd never visited without getting lost or taking a single wrong turn. I never even had to look at the paper map I carried.

Nice one- I’d love to see your write-up!

NYanakiev7 I'll try to put something together. I made use of the courses, climb pro, Spo2, altimeter calibration, waypoints, etc. It was an awesome trip. The Fenix made it easier.

Thanks Nmyeti for your traces. I couldn't imagine Google could be so wrong... On your trace, even if you are in a wide area without buildings, you also have the "drunk man syndrome" on your trace. They are not smooth and regular. It seems that when you are at a low speed, the GPS is going into trouble. This problem is amplified when we are also in a town.

falconeye75 I think you are doing a few things wrong in looking at my traces. 1. Assuming Google is correct on the trail location. It isn't. in fact the 24k quad from Garmin, and the topoactive map on the watch don't agree with each other. I bought a paper map in Durango and even it shows the trails we hiked in slightly different locations. The OSM based data is better, probably more up to date, but not 100% complete. Fires, mudslides and other environmental factors lead to trails changing all the time in the wilderness. 2. You underestimate the terrain. Some of what you call "drunk man" is probably the way this trail switchbacks down a slope. 3. you overestimate the amount of open sky. There were times we were walking in a canyon, with heavy tree cover and granite walls on both sides. There were other times where we were climbing near vertical rock that looked more like a Jenga pile. The narrow view of the sky in this environment is NOT going to produce pristine tracks. The 5x+ quite well under real world conditions.

nmyeti i'm shopping for a GPS wearable for hiking around Colorado and the surrounding national parks. I live outside of Denver and am very apprehensive of using any technology on my hikes because, as you probably know, AT&T and Verizon mobile service is pretty horrible all over Colorado. I'd like to think these Garmin devices would be better, so really looking forward to learning anything you share about your experiences in CO. thank you sir!

leftheaded i'll write something up in the next day or so. We went to Chicago basin and had to hike quite a bit extra since the train out of Durango wasn't running. We parked across 550 from Purgatory Ski. I'd never been to Chicago Basin. No one in our group had ever been there via Purgatory Flats. We managed to through the almost 16 miles to camp without any drama thanks to the Fenix. Honestly it was awesome. The GPS traces are probably not perfect, but the heading arrow on the watch screen was always easy to follow for the course.

Walking The Catwalk and climbing Mt Eolus was awesome.

Some news about my watch, I returned it last week but they called me today to tell me that they will not be able to give me another watch before August 20th

I will not be able to do any test before this date :(.

Did an 8 Mile run today, basically 2 laps around a local golf course. https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2900281499

Really good tracks, really good altimeter, and stable lap pace for the intervals (wasn't paying attention to pace otherwise)

The track drifts slightly when I'm next to a tall set of apartment buildings and at the start when i was fiddling with my phone in the back pocket of my flipbelt. Other than that, it is really, really good. You can see the detour I made down Spain on the first lap. I didn't want to wait for traffic, so I went west on west for a bit till traffic cleared and I could cross without stopping. I only point this out because some might consider that a GPS anomaly, but it is not. On the second lap, I hit that light just right to cross without stopping.

1 sec recording, GPS+Galileo. Was playing music from the watch. Watch was connected to my HRM-Run and Galaxy S8+ the whole time. The watch recorded power via the combo power data field. I followed a structured workout on the watch that included 3x 10 minute intervals during the workout.

The watch performed brilliantly. The track is a very good representation of where I ran, and the altimeter start, peak and finish are all inside a few feet of each other. Good stuff Garmin.