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Garmin Fenix 6X - GPS 4.50 continues to disappoint

Alex Kivi
over 4 years ago

After receiving the latest SW update for the GPS, 4.50, I decided to give my flagship device one more chance.

Unfortunately, things have not improved at all. This is despite several SW updates during past six months.

The following images show a comparison between tracks recorded with Fenix 6X Pro with GPS 4.50 (in red) and Garmin GLO 2 Bluetooth GPS (in blue) during a leisurely run. GLO was attached to my right wrist and Fenix, as usual, to the left. Logging was set to one second, GPS setting to GPS+GLONASS.

Performance of the GLO is actually impressive. It pretty accurately follows the true route, even if the logged track is somewhat jagged. Fenix 6X PRO, on the other hand, is struggling, shortcutting corners and constantly being more than 10 meters off.

I mean this is by no means catastrophic GPS performance. It is just bad, lame, uninspiring, disappointing, useless.

You guys understand this better than I do, please help me out. Why is this so? What is this good for? What is Garmin going to do about this?

Why would anybody buy an expensive device that can do ..., well, this?

Regards,

Alex

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Fig 1: Here we go. After soaking for more than 20 minutes and walking for more than 5 minutes before starting the exercise, Fenix gets off the track right from the start. GLO is following the track nicely, maybe three meters off below the trees.

Fig 2: Fenix errs to the wrong side of the street while GLO continues to track accurately. Note wide open skies to the north and west.

Fig 3: GLO continues right on track. Fenix meanwhile cuts some corners and ends up like 15 meters off the real route.

Fig 4: With nothing to shadow the satellites to the east, south of west, GLO is one or two meters off. Fenix continues to impress, NOT.

Fig 5: No surprises here, GLO on track, Fenix hounding trough the bushes.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 7162912

    Has anyone tried things like switching off WIFI or bluetooth? I'm also getting inconsistent results. I recently changed from a Vivoactive 3 which was consistently terrible. My F6S Pro is better but with issues. My old Vivoactive (not 3) is still the most consistent...

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

    @philipshambrook, your gps track is quite good.

    the below is from my run this morning, same out and back route, the return track puts me on the other side of the road, into people's yards and through the houses. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to honza_81
    • The dual band chip has small(er) factor for the accuracy, the most important thing is the good (and strong) antenna (design) and noiseless RF part to the GPS chip. There are many single band chip/device on the market with good accuracy because the antenna and pcb design is flawless...
  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to honza_81

    We are waiting from a long time a dual band GNSS with L1 / L5... But don't underestimate Garmin's capacity to ruin GPS watch accuracy. I am waiting since my Suunto Ambit 2 (2013) a decent GPS watch with an accurate GPS. I will not go for the Tactix Delta solar after reading all issues about the GPS accuracy. If it was a 300 € watch, why not but for a 1100 € watch without even a metal band, no.

    Waiting for the next release if GPS is accurate, I purchased the  5X Plus because it has Galileo capacity but it was just a lie about providing more accuracy. Nobody is using Galileo, just GPS or sometimes GPS+Glonass.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to falconeye75

    With gps path shown on maps being inconsistent across watches, brands and at different locations across the globe I think we are probably getting the best we are going to get.

    though I do wonder what we really expect to interpret from this? If the gps path is perfect where we ran;

    # we had the right pace - it’s averaged over 5seconds in 5second blocks

    # we had the right distance - running 10k or 10.17km does it really matter to our training

    # we just want to know where we were - it’s a good enough approximation for route planning follow, roads, paths or trails

    # we want something better to justify the cost - think this is more likely and with the direction of increased battery life and features so so gps which is probably the most power hungry part of the watch.

    should Garmin allow us to pair with a twice the size GPS receiver for an extra $100 dollars, for probably...