Some thoughts on Ultratrac mode

Hello everyone

Just bringing my two cents on the Ultratrac mode.
Before anything else I just want to say I'm very happy with my Fenix 5S plus, even with the battery life (getting approx one week with two to three hours of GPS activities + daily smartwatch mode). But as most users I was expecting a top range device like the fenix 5 to manage a full day of GPS, for trekking or ultra trail, software wise - with a decent compromise between GPS accuracy and battery consumption. Unfortunately the consensus is that Ultratrac mode is VERY far from that.
I would be happy with a drop in accuracy if the GPS data was still a little relevant, but all the reports I've seen give distance gaps of more +50% (33 km instead of 24 for example) and GPS tracks look like drawings of my 2 years old boy
Competitors have developed similar modes which are much more intelligently coded (Suunto 9 ultra mode ?).
So to me, Ultratrac is just a marketing name, not yet a feature I'm even considering to use. I prefer packing a small power bank in case I run out of juice during a trek or trail race.

Has anyone got a positive experience with it? Any setting or type of activity where it gave relevant information ?

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0 JanH over 5 years ago in reply to Tcornall

No way. I am not at all happy with the quality/price ratio of my Fenix 5+. Neither with the way how Garmin reacts to the bugs/problems I'm reporting to them (major issue being maps/the navigation on my F5+).
I won't be buying another Garmin device any time soon.

0 Tcornall over 5 years ago in reply to JanH

Yes, there is that. I can just imagine forking out 1500 AUD for the F6x and still being frustrated by the same bug-hunt as happened/is happening with the F5. I think I'll wait a bit...

0 Tcornall over 5 years ago in reply to Tcornall

Ooh, I see from the F6 manual that the GPS interval IS adjustable (In Expedition mode, not Ultratrac). Nice.

0 Dr Phil over 5 years ago in reply to Tcornall

I don't believe that's the case:

"Data Recording: Sets how the device records activity data. The Smart recording option (default) allows for longer activity recordings. The Every Second recording option provides more detailed activity recordings, but may not record entire activities that last for longer periods of time."

If there's something else in the manual that shows otherwise please point me in that direction.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Heres a snippet from a hike over the weekend. Most of the trail was spent hiking through valleys or up inclines sheltered by rock walls, thus there was a fair amount of reflection. In this scenario, the GPS sample taken in one minute may be wildly different from previous due to the reflection. This makes it near on useless for calculating total distance and wildly inaccurate for navigational purposes. At best, it's useful for showing an very approximate location on a zoomed out map.

It's a little bewildering as to why this hasn't been addressed as the watch knows my approx stride distance for both walking and running. Its honestly not that difficult to implement an algorithm which will attempt to take another location sample if the distance from the last sample is deemed to be impossible given the step count and compass bearing.

0 JanH over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Many things are not too difficult to implement, I believe. See e.g. my latest issue concerning workouts with a target pace: https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-5-plus-series/172039/pace-target-data-screen-showing-not-actual-pace This would be super easy to fix. In theory.

Garmin just doesn't care. They put many features in these watches, but don't care too much if they actually work / are useful or not. I guess that this will continue until people stop buying their products.

0 nmyeti over 5 years ago in reply to JanH

JanH said:
Garmin just doesn't care.

That is not a fair statement. I've interacted with several people at Garmin over the years and I've yet to met someone that doesn't care about the customer experience. There may be reasons that things don't get fixed or features don't work a specific way, but Garmin not caring is probably not on that list.

0 JanH over 5 years ago in reply to nmyeti

I am happy for you that this is your experience. Mine is different... I spent 10 e-mails once back and forth to explain an issue I had with an activity. They were not even trying to understand the issue but instead just answered me with standard text blocks. This is my experience unfortunately.

I also don't see why I need to send in my watch (at my own costs) to fix something that is most probably a software problem.

0 Tcornall over 5 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

Sorry, I was talking about Expedition mode. The manual for the F6 is here Changing the recording interval

0 Dr Phil over 5 years ago in reply to Tcornall

Wasn't aware of that so thanks for the information. I automatically thought of data recording.