Have to be honest I am not sure why everyone is so fixated on how "smooth" a GPS track is. The main issues for me are in following order of importance with respect to GPS accuracy:
Distance Accrual Overall Accuracy
Lap Distance Accuracy
Pace (Lap and Instant, but with Stryd Instant less important)
These are the key things that affect my training and race performance, not how smooth a track looks. Given everything else equal, track accuracy might have some importance to me, but to be honest if it did not affect any of the above items I would not care much.
As a competitive runner I couldn't care less about smooth tracks either but that's been discussed a few times already. To try to sum it up : -> Multiple observations : Overall distance, laps and instant pace are off compared to FR235/FR735/FR935 -> Why is that so? let's look at the tracks -> tracks show general "wobbliness" and some significant "jumps" due most likely to the classic "GPS multipath" problem as well as some "cut corners" -> extra distance added/removed here and there
So while smooth tracks are not a guarantee of accurate distance/laps/pace you can't really hope to get accurate measurements with "wobbly"/"jumpy" tracks.
Then you have two camps : - it's good enough, some people have too much time on their hands - it's good enough but why upgrade/pay more when I can get better accuracy/consistency from my FR235/735 or the 935 ?
@Webvan, it is not clear if you are presenting a conclusion or a hypothetical analysis. If it is a conclusion, then I would disagree in that now I can say in at least a few tests the f5 performs on par on all key metrics with the 735XT for me now as it relates to GPS Accuracy. I am aware of some others testing that does show some of the issues you are referring to, but have not seen them post head to head comparisons post Beta or latest update.
Then you have two camps :
- it's good enough, some people have too much time on their hands
- it's good enough but why upgrade/pay more when I can get better accuracy/consistency from my FR235/735 or the 935 ?
Will be doing my a club race on Sunday, steady 10 miles at about between 7 to 8 min mile pace. With new update, GPS only and SMART recording. Will see how that goes. Out on country roads and trees probably.
If you want to try to see what's going on don't use "smart recording" ;-)
@Webvan, it is not clear if you are presenting a conclusion or a hypothetical analysis. If it is a conclusion, then I would disagree in that now I can say in at least a few tests the f5 performs on par on all key metrics with the 735XT for me now as it relates to GPS Accuracy. I am aware of some others testing that does show some of the issues you are referring to, but have not seen them post head to head comparisons post Beta or latest update.
It's a summary of what led people here to spend more time than they should have to looking at F5 tracks instead of focusing on their training :cool: ...and answering your question about why smooth tracks are important.
There's been at least one F5/FR935 comparison with v2.90 posted and it doesn't seem much has changed. I'll be carrying out mine shortly.
Would agree with your general comments regarding why Smooth Tracks become the focus I suppose, but was merely commenting that a lot of people seem fixated on this aspect while not commenting on what is really important (at least for competitive runners and cyclists as you say).
Have now convinced myself the issues with GPS Accuracy are not a major topic for me, but Ant+ connectivity is now. Will be running with 2 watches again today as I want to be sure I have my running power data and metrics from the Stryd and cannot trust f5 yet on that so can also post additional GPS accuracy data as well, but do not expect it will show anything new that my earlier tests have not shown.
Updated 935 vs fenix 5, both updated to firmware 2.9. GLONASS on, 1 second recording. Again, pretty close but the 935 has the edge.
http://www.mygpsfiles.com/app/#BhzEsqxU
My last 935 vs fenix 5 comparison, both at firmware 2.9 (GLONASS on, 1 second recording). A mix of open air and trail running –
http://www.mygpsfiles.com/app/#BhzFsxBY
