GPS accuracy

I bought two identical Fenix 5 plus’s, one for my wife and one for myself. Running for the first time last night we chose a 9 mile route and by the end my wife’s watch had recorded over 0.1 of a mile more than mine.
GPS is set to GPS only and 3D distance is turned off.

I just find that difference strange as our previous 735XT’s stayed within 0.03 of a mile of each other over any distance including marathons.

Any ideas or would that difference be acceptable?

0 Dr Phil over 6 years ago

It's acceptable.

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

Perspective. 0.1 miles over 9 miles is a 1.1%; variation; that's still pretty good in the wrist worn GPS distance recording world.

0 carl.andersson over 6 years ago

It's probably not the answer you're looking for but a 1.1% variation is well within the margin of error.
I'd actually think it was more suspicious that your 735XTs were so close together. A 0.1% difference in distance over a marathon would mean you were in perfect lockstep together with no variations in moving around other runners or how you ran corners or bends. It's unlikely to be that spot on for one run let alone for all your runs unless the 735XT is doing some trickery with it's raw GPS tracks.