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Smart recording vs 1-sec in 2021

SpikySimonW
over 4 years ago

TL;DR: in 2021 is there any benefit/reason to ever use smart recording over 1-sec recording intervals?

Back in the day the choice was simple:

1-sec = most accurate recording (every second) at the cost of larger files (which sometimes mattered back then) and reduced battery life

Smart recording = device decided on how often to record based on activity/movement/direction change to reduce file size and battery usage, at the cost of accuracy (to a greater or lesser extent depending on the device and its programming).

There were also nuances with fitness metrics: 1-sec gave more data points, in fact I seem to remember if a power meter was connected 1-sec would be used regardless of this setting.

Has anything moved on? Ie. has smart recording got any smarter, or is it now irrelevant due to virtually non-existent file size limitations etc?

Over on the GPS handheld side of the fence, it was put forwarded smart recording could be more accurate for activities where you are stationary for a period of time (eg. hiking with a lunch stop) as the device would not log lots of unnecessary points each with a degree of error thus might look like movement. I'll be honest I hadn't really considered this before as most of the activities I do involve constant movement, or I pause the device manually.

  • +1 over 4 years ago

    IMHO, there is absolutely NO reason for anyone to be using Smart Recording on a Fenix. It was a strange decision for Garmin to even include Smart Recording as a function, and an even stranger decision for them to make it the default recording setting. The Fenix is perfectly capable of handling the larger file sizes that result from 1-second recording, even with extremely long activities. IMHO, Smart Recording offers only a downside (less accurate tracks), with zero upside.

    I think it's just a relic of older Garmin GPS devices that had small storage capacity and/or processors that couldn't handle larger file size. It's a non-issue, as far as I know, on the Fenix.

    For activities where you're stationary for periods of time, Smart Recording can help reduce the track "scribbles", but those scribbles aren't really included in the distance measaurement anyways, it's just an aesthetic thing, for people who want prettier looking tracks. But like you said, using the Pause function solves that anyways.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to C.sco

    Agreed - indeed it was the fact it is still is the default option that caused me to consider the question!