#Apple watch series 3 gps running portable
#Apple watch series 3 gps running software

Can you find a route that is away from trees and buildings? Maybe a track somewhere? Also, maybe do the tests with and without the host iphone along for the ride.

#Apple watch series 3 gps running software

A way to test all this arm-waving, as suggested by others, is to try different fitness software and to also compare the two devices on different routes. Knowing nothing else, my hypothesis would be that Apple has balanced the radios and built in features of the AW to get the best battery life possible under a wide set of expected uses, and this is impacting tracking performance in some situations. Or, it just doesn't have the computational resources, possibly limited by battery life concerns, to resolve a solid way-point for its path finding algortims when satellite connections get weak or confusing. If you are running a twisty route under trees, then the software may start trying to spline curves around its fixed locations and error in distance estimates will increase. If you are going in a straight line under open sky, it works just fine.

#Apple watch series 3 gps running portable

As such, some portable devices/software will try to minimize polling the GPS to maximize battery life. For instance, Waze will burn through my iPhone battery in about 2-3 hrs. Polling the GPS can impact battery life big time. They base this on polling data from the GPS subsystem. Even very good tracking systems use Kalman filters and data from the GPS subsystem to figure out where it was, where it is likely to be now, and where it will be in the future (wash, rinse, repeat). Tracking software that use GPS are not necessarily getting a constant stream of X,Y locations. Second, how straight is this run? Lots of twists and turns? Which is one reason they aren't the most reliable things in woods and surveyors will often go 'old school' to get points located in wooded areas. trees) can inhibit the signals of the wavelength that GPS uses. Out of curiosity, is this running route tree lined? Big tubes of water (i.e. Haven't had any issues with my AW2 though, it's been pretty much spot on. Examining the tracks showed some really loopy position fixes when near office buildings, but the other watch didn't suffer from those problems.

After a handful of wide variations in distances when I was seeing if I liked my Fenix3 (against my 920xt I think), I returned the Fenix3. So once I'm out in the driveway or out of the office building, I start the run in the NikeRunClub then immediately pause it before starting up music and stretching a bit.Īll that said, it's always possible the watch has an issue or just isn't good for your environment. One thing I do which you might try - since the AW2 has no indicator of getting GPS lock, I just make sure it has a good 30+ seconds to solidify the fix before I start out.

Well within the slight differences from autopause (gotta cross a number of streets on my routes). Differences between the two have varied, typically in the 1-2% range with no consistence of which read more or less than the other. I've done a lot of runs with my AW2 and FR235 at the same time, one on each wrist. I've been running with various GPS watches for years FR610, FR920xt, Fenix3, FR235, and AW2 for the past year. Just curious - what's your data source for the route distances?