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Fenix 6 Pro - Wrong distance calculation and pace is just broken

Former Member
Former Member over 5 years ago

Hi,

So two weeks back, I decided to buy a fenix 6 pro, coming from a FR235 which I have been very satisfied with for the last few years.

I have done a few runs with it and from the very first one I noticed multiple issues that I did not have previously. I tried various combinations of 1s / smart recording with GPS only / GPS + GLONASS in parallel with my FR235. I'll use this run to illustrate the two main issues that I have: connect.garmin.com/.../4732899849

- Distance calculation (/!\ this is not about GPS accuracy): my fenix6 consistently cuts 6 to 8 % from the distance reported by my FR235 & Strava after distance correction. Here for example I got 7.39km vs 7.88km, a 6.75% difference !

- Pace: this is where it gets from bad to horrendous. If you look at the activity I posted above in Laps, you'll see that my fenix6 reported an average pace of 7:32 for the first km. Now look at the Pace graph for that first km. Except for a few seconds it NEVER gets above that pace of 7:32 and is most of the time far below it in the range of 9:xx. This just makes absolutely no sense!

When buying the fenix6 I expected a clear step up from my previous FR235 and I am very disappointed with it for now...

Sure all the metrics are cool and all, but are inexploitable because the data is so off...

Is that a known / common issue with this product ?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Just done a trail run on twisty tracks with lots of overhead tree cover with a F6 and a 935 - F6 5.20, 935 5.18. Pace was fine. My wife had a 945 and also got 5.20km

    What software and GPS versions do you have.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

    Latest: 8.10 with GPS 4.10

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Yes for many of us that is a known / common issue with this product !!! Almost always under poor conditions for GPS - trees, buildings, etc. Unfortunately there is no solution yet ...

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Yesterday we had a virtual competition here where you run 5 km alone and upload your results afterwards. Current pace on my watch was consistently wrong, on my 4th km current pace was around 4:00 according to the watch while it took me 4:30 to complete the 4th km...

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    So, I did another run today, with both my FR235 & F6:

    F235: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4746424121

    F6: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4746418234

    And again, >6 % error in total distance, which is even more frustrating considering that if you use the "Correct Distance" feature on Strava, or export it to a 3rd party, it gives me the almost same distance as my FR235 (6.2 vs 6.18).

    As for pace, once again unusable from almost start to finish, always lower by 1 to 2 min / km...

    The F6 seemed to use almost exclusively the accelerometer for the pace, which is why the results are so off considering how imprecise it is.

    As for the GPS trace, although it is not that bad considering the far from optimal condition (city), it is still clearly inferior to my FR235 especially in corners...

    After reading all the similar threads, I'm 99% confident that this is just a software issue (well more by design actually, even if in my opinion this is a terrible one) regarding when the accelerometer takes over the GPS to evaluate distance and thus pace in difficult conditions.

    It could be easily solved by giving the user the choice for this strategy in the settings, but that's a 700€ bet that I'm not willing to take.

    As far as I'm concerned, I'll just return the F6 and stick to my entry priced, 4 years old watch that is actually usable for the primary use it is designed for...

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    I have the same issue as well, I switched from a Fitbit ionic to the F6 thinking it was going to be a major upgrade however I’ve left every running activity disappointed as the pace is extremely slow to react and more often than not inaccurate. Not only that, I used the PacePro functionality which is pretty cool in concept however the pace on the PacePro widget and the pace on the main running widget were completely different. Seriously considering returning it at this point. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Same issue here also with my week old F6 Pro. I've tried different combinations of GPS + Glonass / Galileo and also tested beta firmware 9.95 (with GPS 4.40) but I'm getting the same issue (My Forerunner 935 is still spot on). Another run today that's 11.45 km measured only 11.27 km on the F6. Today it was on GPS only and I left it aquiring the GPS signal for 10 minutes before I pressed start to see if that helped, which it didn't. It's very dissapointing.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Same issue. On trails, distance is consistently off by about 5% when compared to either Strava corrected distance or my another watch (Suunto Ambit3 Peak). The distance would be acceptable if the watch just reported GNSS distance (the actual distance on the recorded track).

    And the pace on trails is consistently slow even compared to already shortened distance. For example, I can run a mile, and not once I see pace faster than e. g. 10:20/mile on the watch. Then at the end the mile split is 9:40. Often I see the watch reporting pace that is 2-3 min/mile or even more slower than my perceived pace. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I haven't noticed this - when I got my F6 Pro about a month ago, I ran it with a Polar V800 for comparision, then with a Forerunner 245 (if I cycled I'd have all 3).

    Distance wise everything was pretty much always within 0.01 of a mile - and that was over a 30 mile bike ride. I should say I'm in the Lake District here in the UK, so I don't really have any talls building (or many buildings at all) and generally have open skies.

    I did notice some 'wobbles' from the F6 Pro that the other devices didn't have - enough to miss a Strava segment at times vs. the other two.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to 5135968

    I don't know if you've seen the topic ... but we're talking about a problem with distance and pace when running and only when running, there is no problem when cycling!