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Adidas running app watch6/30/2023 That's only slightly worse than the currently advertised +/-3 meters for GPS watches. The good news is that smartphone technology has come a long way.Ĭurrent models of leading smartphone brands have all upgraded their sensors so that they receive satellite data not only from the U.S.-based DOD system of satellites, but also from the Russian-based GLONAS constellation of satellites, making positioning data that much more reliable.Ī 2011 study of location accuracy for smartphones using A-GPS averaged out a range of 5 to 8 meters, according to the National Institutes of Health. All of your location-based apps are only as good as the GPS sensor in your phone. This is done in order to conserve battery life in your phone, which is often performing many other functions at the same time that it's tracking your run.Īs the support page at MapMyRun says, "GPS accuracy depends on a variety of factors." iSmoothRun takes things even further by saying, "It's not us, it's your phone! We don't gather the GPS data, we just use what your smartphone gives us."Īnd that's the truth. Your GPS watch is continually getting data from the satellites, whereas your phone only gets periodic position updates which are then averaged out. It's that additional relay from tower or hot-spot to the sensor in your device that partly accounts for the inaccuracy. That's why it can take minutes for your watch to locate satellites and get a location lock, while smartphones tell you exactly where you are instantaneously-the towers and hot-spots they connect to are fixed positions that continuously receive data from the satellites above. In contrast, a smartphone's GPS sensor receives data that has been collected from nearby cell phone towers and/or Wi-Fi hot spots (known as Assisted-GPS, or A-GPS). True GPS devices, like the ones in airplanes, your car's navigation system, or in your Garmin Forerunner watch receive location data directly from satellites orbiting the earth. While the signals from space are the same, the way different devices receive and process them is where the potential for inaccuracy lies. You would think that a GPS signal is a GPS signal.
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