While knowing the actual elevation above sea level during a ride is interesting, most mountain bikers are more interested in knowing how much elevation change was experienced during the ride. How GPS in your Smartphone works. iPhone X GPS accuracy is the same as iPhone 8, 7, 6S, 6, 5S and all recent galaxy phones. In fact, the Strava app on an iPhone and an Asus tablet reported more accurate data than any of the standalone GPS devices we tested. Below, we’ll discuss why an iPhone or Android is better than a Garmin, and also talk about what Garmin and its proponents will tell you. Support Center Aviation Support. Both devices allow you to save map data for use out in the field, and track your location using satellites. Great comparison review, but I thought you’ve pushed your analysis further and made your own … I guess I’m still not sure how running multiple GPS units on a Strava segment tells you which one is more accurate, if you don’t know the true distance like you do on a track. It’s a shame, too, because in the third test when the GPS actually worked, the Trywin turned out to be the most accurate, off by just 0.3%. In that test we found that GPS apps, running on a smartphone or even a tablet device, can record very accurate data. I have recorded significantly different speeds and distances between Strava and MapMyRide with auto-pause enabled. Since the only comparison that matters to me is among my numbers (i.e. The short version is, while smartphones might not have GLONASS support (the Edge 520 in this test does include it), they’re often able to use additional sensors like Wi-Fi and cell tower triangulation to improve accuracy over a single constellation system. It is a “dedicated” GPS device in that it has NO connectivity to the cellular network. ), I have my answers without any loss. In reality, this hasn’t been my observation, but again, I’d be really interested to test this. Measuring elevation is notoriously tricky for any device, whether the device is using GPS signals, a barometric altimeter, or both. If buildings or trees are in the way of the satellite(s) the reading can be off. I use my iPhone 8 for navigating deep in the rugged New Zealand bush. Singletracks may receive compensation for purchases made through affiliate links in this article. IMBA Epics | Interpolated distance may be about correct just by accident, not because of more accurate raw data. I suggest you read that for a little context. The GPS data, hence the accuracy, is the same for all devices. Your gold standard should have been the track, but you don’t know if it’s 400m or 1/4 mile. However, the same can be said of the Endomondo data, which ended up with the second worst performance in our test. So, my hope is these results convince virtual racers they should stop stressing over virtual race results, since there is no way to definitively say ANYONE’S results are 100% accurate. I quickly learned that the iPhone’s battery capacity is so poor that I cannot use it as the exclusive GPS for hikes over about 4 hours. So I wouldn’t agree that smartphone apps dominate in terms of accuracy. While we did our best to calibrate the Cateye Velo 7, we were unable to get definitive accuracy based on our wheel setting. The Endomondo app had problems as well, showing an average of 12 feet of variation per test. Good points Mike. Enter your email address to receive our top stories via email each week. So trying to measure a distance of 1609 meters, to less than 1% error, with a tool that at worst can be off greater than 1.5% or 30 meters for each measurement is not valid. tagnut69 . We used the same running track as in our 2014 test to ensure a course of known distance in a controlled environment. The good news is your phone doesn’t need a cell signal to find your location. I wish I could dig up the conversation but someone literally suggested that Strava should flag KOMs that were earned using a smartphone vs. “more accurate devices” like Garmin GPS units. Cool idea, but I’d have liked to see some better test cases essentially. The Apple Watch is on my left. what’s my longest one day ride of the year? Singletracks Merch | So, as always, take your ride data with a grain of salt and realize that it will never be 100% accurate, no matter which device you use. Garmin Autoland. See it. S10+ vs 7 Pro vs iPhone XR GPS accuracy test The answer is, it depends on the chipset. The Lezyne Mini GPS had a real problem here, showing wild elevation variations of up to 53 feet in a single test. We believe Gaia GPS is the best app to use your smartphone as an outdoor GPS, but there are dozens of other apps you will likely find preferable to a Garmin, as well. I think the problem is you are trying to make a tool do something it is not capable of doing. And while the Trywin GPS does measure elevation data, we don’t have a way to get the raw data off the device to analyze it, making it impossible to compare to the other devices. While some of the phones with Snapdragon 855 here have their dual-frequency GNSS abilities enabled - the OnePlus 7 Pro and Oppo Reno 10x - they don't necessarily show better accuracy than, say, the Pixel 3 with Snapdragon 845, or the LG G8 with Snapdragon 855 itself. To be fair, your watch does have some great features that a phone simply can’t replicate. What do you use for wilderness exploration? My running club has a mix of fitness watch users. Posted by 3 years ago. We used the same running track as in our 2014 test to ensure a course of known distance in a controlled environment. Any thoughts? 3. Yet, the summation for the year’s total was not the same. Our cyclocomputer, the Cateye Velo 7, doesn’t measure elevation data, so it’s not included in the test results. GLO 2 can receive position information from both the GPS and GLONASS satellite constellations, allowing it to connect to up to 24 more satellites than devices that rely on GPS alone. Best MTB Gear | The biggest problem I have is with the “auto-pause” feature. For the devices we tested this time around, the Strava and Endomondo apps on iPhone reported the closest average elevation to actual (1014.4 and 1013.5, respectively) while the Bryton Rider 330 reported the least accurate elevation, averaging 733.7 feet across the three rounds of testing. Hi all, I'm curious to how accurate Strava is on my iPhone SE. The most common objection to using a smartphone for backcountry navigation is, “Where I hunt there’s no cell signal”. The map … We believe Gaia GPS is the best app to use your smartphone as an outdoor GPS, but there are dozens of other apps you will likely find preferable to a Garmin, as well. My understanding is that the accuracy of Galileo with a single frequency is similar to the accuracy of GPS with a single frequency. Given the rapid advances in phone technology, we decided to test if your iPhone could really give you the same accuracy as a GPS watch on the trails. Garmin’s tracks are by far much more consistant between each test, with least variation. Thinking I had somehow left out some small ride in Strava, I searched in vain for the discrepancy. DISCOVER . Blog Careers. When I had my iPhone 6 I noticed on my best time on some sprint KOM was 16s and to this day my overall (everything) has improved yet my best time is 18s and I cannot beat it no matter what, even if I physically feel much faster. However, if we are talking about the product line, Garmin wins as the more diverse. Rather than being an all-purpose communication … The cost, ease of use and battery life are probably more important. Your mileage may vary. I totally agree that we shouldn’t expect any of the GPS devices to be perfect. … auto-pause turns on & off. Well, the map quite clearly shows that iPhone recorded GPS tracks are all over the place. For this measure, we would expect elevation variation (that is, the difference between the minimum and maximum elevations) during the tests to be essentially zero since the track is flat, though to account for a slight variation in elevation around the track, we’ll say that 1 foot of elevation variation is just as accurate. Every lap as you turn around the track you are making many measurements of location but each one can be off by 30 meters and the quality of your satellite lock is changing as you turn. Just … Where it says “point to point mean square error” would be better understood if it says “point by point mean squared error” so the error of each GPS point is averaged, and not the error in distance between two inaccurate GPS locations. I was actually pretty shocked to see how well each device did in our test. But any device can be in the shadow of satellites due to ground based objects and therefore it doesn’t have a good reading for that last measurement or a satellite it was using sets and it needs to acquire a new bird coming over the horizon. The Accuracy of GPS and GLONASS. I put all my rides into both Garmin Connect and Strava. Where it says “WAIS” should be “WAAS” The satellites rise and set constantly and the quality of the lock changes as one satellite sets and another becomes visible. I placed my GPS on a few caches (everyone does when they get a new unit ) and it was in the 2-4 ft range. Close. It seems that the new Sony GNSS chips used by Garmin from 2019 onwards can only use the E1 frequency (Galileo) and the L1 frequency (GPS). That second part blows my mind. However, a lot of mountain bikers are attempting to use GPS for virtual racing (Strava) where accuracy counts, and even being off by 1% is a big deal. Garmin vs IPhone: Accuracy. Also sometimes only … There was some question last time as to whether our track was a metric, 400m track or a quarter-mile track. The wheel-based cyclocomputer we used for this tes… So can the device get the data from the satellites. I use MotionX GPS extensively and the accuracy is always much worse than every other iPhone in my family (iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 5). I will now run home from work … SALES AND PROMOTIONS . The more satellites and the better quality signal the better the accuracy. A: Great question because everyone gets this one wrong. That is because none of the smartphones come with a GPS chip in them. Fenix … Along with a paper backup map and awareness of my surrounding, I always get where I want in the woods, and I always come home again. After reading through all the comments on our previous test, we knew we needed to perform a follow-up test, and since it’s been more than two years since the first test, we would need to bring in a new crop of GPS devices. Gps device or smartphone? This allows GLO 2 to lock on to satellites approximately 20% faster and remain connected even at high speed. Errata: In my previous post, where it says “number of revolutions” should have said “number of wheel revolutions”. But I would say that GPS technology is changing so fast, and improving, that buying a fixed cycling device as opposed to using your smartphone is leaning towards the smartphone, in my opinion, because they incorporate new GPS tech each release and you replace your smartphone more often. If you’re just using GPS for navigation, I totally agree that any unit you chose will be more than accurate for that purpose. Posted by 1 year ago. 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