The biggest problem with Garmins and presumably all GPS watches is the corner cutting under obscured sky conditions (usually trees). The example below is from one of my runs with the 235. It usually measures between 0.5% and 3% short on every run and of course the pace is correspondingly inaccurate. The instantaneous pace is just pure gibberish so I have removed that from the screens.
Luv2Run wrote:
SouthernFriedRealist wrote:
Wheels aren't 100% accurate either. Walking it in a straight line is near impossible and you'll get some side-to-side movement with bumps in the road.
What GPS is off by 200-300m in a 6-8km race? I use the Forerunner 620 and during my last three races on certified courses, it came out to be 6.23 (10k), 13.15 (half) and 26.4 (marathon).
He did not say the 6-8K was a race
He stated how inaccurate he believed a GPS to be, along with a distance. I brought a certified race into it because you know it's the actual distance.
When he said, 6-8km, he meant an actual distance... A certified race is an actual distance.
If accurate GPS is your priority, then you shouldn't get a Garmin. Suunto, Polar, and TomTom (leaving the market, but still available) are far superior. My Garmin tracks, and I've had a lot of Garmins, look like a 2 year old trying to trace. I've tried the other three brands, and the tracks pretty much followed exactly where I ran, even showing things like when I jumped from sidewalk to street because there were too many pedestrians. I stick with Garmin just because they have a lot of other features I like and a better UI. I personally don't care that much about GPS accuracy. It's nice to track my overall mileage and see where I did my runs, but I would never use it for pacing a workout.
800 dude wrote:
If accurate GPS is your priority, then you shouldn't get a Garmin. Suunto, Polar, and TomTom (leaving the market, but still available) are far superior. My Garmin tracks, and I've had a lot of Garmins, look like a 2 year old trying to trace. I've tried the other three brands, and the tracks pretty much followed exactly where I ran, even showing things like when I jumped from sidewalk to street because there were too many pedestrians. I stick with Garmin just because they have a lot of other features I like and a better UI. I personally don't care that much about GPS accuracy. It's nice to track my overall mileage and see where I did my runs, but I would never use it for pacing a workout.
Interesting. I'm of the same mindset as you, I don't and won't use it for pacing a workout as I'll rely more on the timer for that than the GPS data or pacing features. It's more about tracking overall mileage for me.
800 dude wrote:
If accurate GPS is your priority, then you shouldn't get a Garmin. Suunto, Polar, and TomTom (leaving the market, but still available) are far superior. My Garmin tracks, and I've had a lot of Garmins, look like a 2 year old trying to trace. I've tried the other three brands, and the tracks pretty much followed exactly where I ran, even showing things like when I jumped from sidewalk to street because there were too many pedestrians. I stick with Garmin just because they have a lot of other features I like and a better UI. I personally don't care that much about GPS accuracy. It's nice to track my overall mileage and see where I did my runs, but I would never use it for pacing a workout.
Funny you say that cause everyone who has a garmin thinks their UI sucks but better than what you listed.
If TomTom was so great the Spark 3 would have sky rocketed them to the top..Instead Tomtom is pulling out of wareables.
I have my 235 set up to use both GLONASS and GPS, recording every second. Accuracy is much improved
SayWhat2 wrote:
Funny you say that cause everyone who has a garmin thinks their UI sucks but better than what you listed.
I'm confused. Are you disagreeing with me? I said Garmin's UI was better than every other brand.
SayWhat2 wrote:
If TomTom was so great the Spark 3 would have sky rocketed them to the top..Instead Tomtom is pulling out of wareables.
I never said TomTom was great. I said it had fantastic accuracy, which it does. In any event, TomTom's leaving the market doesn't mean they didn't have a good product. They were actually quite popular in Europe, but they had essentially no distribution in the U.S. At the budget end of the market, that's a problem because people buying cheap wareables don't do a ton of comparison shopping and research. They end up with Fitbit or Garmin by default because that's what's in their face.
TomTom's other problem was that they had a terrible web platform and their form factor featured a big "GPS bump" and a very wide strap. Those features were great for GPS and heart rate accuracy, but it made the watch ugly and uncomfortable for 24/7 use. Most people in the last couple years who buy budget GPS watches want something slimmer that they can wear all day.
