GPS Accuracy

Former Member
Former Member

I am wondering the F6 performance dips when the battery is low. I have a 14 hours left and did a run. The GPS route is terrible. It has been through ponds and shrinks the run down massively. The black line is the route. I have the google gps  map too and it's no better. 

Is the overall distance based on the gps data as my 4 laps are quite a bit shorter than the reality. Is anyone else having gps issues? 

I really felt the F6 was the ultimate outdoor watch but I am a disappointed at the minute, especially given the investment. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Punch
    If you read the whole topic and not individual passages ... you will find that you are wrong!!!
    Many users have compared the entries under poor GPS conditions and have found differences that can only be explained by software correction...So for such an expensive product it is unacceptable even more that Garmin offers cheaper watches with better softwarе, maybe without corrections!
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Punch
    I would forget, not least, that the current pace is just ridiculous regardless of the GPS conditions. Or maybe "It's a limitation of the gps technology"?
  • my pace as well as the gps is correct.

    off course i'm not running in the woods pretending to get good results. 

    you may don't understand that comparing track is meaningless even with the same watch.

    the satellites move in space and time. 

  • A GPS-watch is a measurement device and the result of measurements is always a combination of data with errors. Spoofing and Jamming are different topics - there probably no device has the chance to measure anything correct.

    Nevertheless I don't understand why my statement that an expensive watch like the Fenix 6 has to deliver GOOD results is wrong. GOOD does not mean PERFECT and I wrote GOOD!

    It should be at least on the level of predecessor or competitor models - especially under difficult conditions!

  • Current pace can not be good for running, especially near buildings and in the woods. As you are an expert in the limitations of GPS-technology, you will know that.
    It is much better for cycling because at higher speed the devices can better distinguish between direct and reflected signals and due to the higher speed itself.

  • yes, comparing the same route with different watches at different time is wrong. But there are enough tests with two watches, worn at the same time, same arm, to have some reliable data. And what appears is :

    • The Fenix 6, just like the Fenix 5, is doing some distance adjustments. It's not giving the pure GPS distance.
    • The adjustments make the distance too short, in the vast majority of cases. With the Fenix 6, it's often significant.
    • The live pace is quite crap when GPS reception is poor.

    The GPS of the Fenix 6 isn't bad. It's not excellent, but it's giving quite good results. Maybe Garmin kept the same adjustment than the Fenix 5, which is often less good for GPS data.The problem is really that often, this difference is significant, it can be around 4/5%. But I have recorded enough runs with various watches in difficult GPS conditions to see that it's also giving good results sometimes, shortening just right and not too much. So it's a mixed bag really. Maybe if they change their algorithm, it will be too long in some cases, and new people will complain.

  • There are other cases when the Fenix is really doing good : look at the capture of the start of a recent run. I didn't wait until the GPS signal was acquired, I was in a bit of a rush, so I started my run immediately as soon as I was out. It went all over the place before adjusting. But the distance was not affected, as the algorithm fixed it. Strava isnt as clever, if I ask for a GPS distance, it's not fixing the wrong points. When there is ONE wrong point, it's doing it, I saw it already. But in this case, it's not understanding that it's wrong and is giving a too long distance. So there are real benefits with this adjustments. It can save the day when the GPS reception is terrible like that, and for my city runs, it's often giving a very good correction, instead of giving me a too long distance like other watches before did.

  • I'm the same. Always showing on the left to my actual path. I wear on my left wrist too and will try on my right wrist next time.

  • The Garmin Fenix 6 GPS sucks. Period. Buildings and trees are there also for my Polar V800 and the Polar Grit X, I wear one of the two on the other wrist at all the times and they show a distance and track pretty accurate, while the F6 it’s always off by 2% with horrible tracks. For everything else the F6 it’s a great watch but it badly fails on the main feature of a GPS watch 

  • The Garmin Fenix 6 GPS sucks. Period. Buildings and trees are there also for my Polar V800 and the Polar Grit X, I wear one of the two on the other wrist at all the times and they show a distance and track pretty accurate, while the F6 it’s always off by 2% with horrible tracks. For everything else the F6 it’s a great watch but it badly fails on the main feature of a GPS watch