GPS Accuracy

freeheeler

@stefan-sheriden
that’s sad to see, also that Suunto couldn’t convince you.
Refurbished products are tested afaik and shouldn’t have any technical restrictions. maybe only few signs of wear.

anyway, I hope you’ll be happy with your new watch and enjoy the nature

Tomas5

@sartoric I had similar result with S5 multiple times. I compared to my parents cheap watch and my wife smartphone. All of them had similar distance around 8.5km. It was almost identical with hiking map distance. But my Suunto 5 (most expensive from all of them) measured more than 10km. Lot of that difference happened because i didn’t use autopause. And while we had break for lunch or break for photographing, it measured distance around my position because GPS was jumping randomly and get few hundreds meters every time we stopped. But I don’t use autopause, because when hiking in steep climb, watch constantly pause/unpause because i walk just around threshold value 3km/h. So now I try to pause manually every time. But still it is annoying that I have most expensive watch from my relatives. And still they don’t need to do anything and it measures correctly but I must remember to pause / unpause manually.

Tomas5

And another thing from my observation is that with slow walking, track usually looks like this:

Even i walk in strait line, it is zig-zag on map so it adds up to real distance. It would be great if there was some smoothing algorithm applied. This doesn’t happen with cross country skiing, cycling, and possibly running. It generally is like this when I walk (3-4km/h or slower).

freeheeler

@tomas5
it looks like this is an activity in the forest.
since I am a veeery slow skitourer, I just checked one of my activities for reference.
I see the same behaviour when going thru a forest but it becomes better once I leave the forest…

DMytro

@tomas5 can confirm this on my s9. Not just slow walking, 6 kmh also looks like this.

Tomas5

@freeheeler yes in this particular part there was trees around, but sky was visible.

When on open area it is usually much better, not smooth but better. But this doesn’t bother as much. It adds up to real distance maybe 3-4% which is not so much. And hiking maps can have some error in distance too so comparing is hard. I just wanted to point out that this is maybe not just S9 issue but more overall. But still I don’t understand why cheap amazfit has it usually better. But i think there must be some algorithm included for smoothing this kind of measures.

surfboomerang

@tomas5 Slow speeds and rough terrain can be hard for every GPS device. Faster speeds and open terrain works always better.

I can’t complain about the S9P if it records running tracks like this:

Tomas5

Only autopause could somehow combine speed + stepcounter so it would allow walk slower than 3km/h. It would make it much easier. Since only big issue with measured distance is when i have a break in forest, under some high rocks etc. Than i must pause manually or reconcile that measured distance would be longer. As it circle around when not stopped.

Stefan Sheriden

Just to let you know the outcome.

I received a prompt refund from Suunto (less cost of return postage)

My new watch (Garmin Instinct 2 Solar) arrived on Thursday. Used it today on a 5.7 mile walk. Also had Komoot recording on my phone and a Satmap GPS recording in my backpack, All three recorded distances were close and the track from the watch was relatively smooth even when walking through woods and stopping for a 10 minute break without pausing the watch.

I have to say that Suunto service was excellent and I did like the Peak 9 but for my use case having 10% error on distance was not acceptable.

freeheeler

@stefan-sheriden
Suunto customer service is one of the best services I’ve ever experienced

I think we did not dive into settings like energy savings, gps settings etc… but that’s too late now
have fun with the instinct 2

babychai

Hi, as I know Best GPS accuracy is 1 second.
How about Good accuracy under Endurance battery mode? Is it 2 seconds?

Spree

@babychai EDIT, I replied about Suunto 9 Peak Pro.

isazi

@Spree this topic is about the S9P, not the S9PP.

Brad_Olwin

@babychai For 9 Peak it is 1 minute.

babychai

@Brad_Olwin yup, i asking S9P. Thanks for the information.

Wilson75

I know we cannot talk about war here.
But I found this article do you think we will have some issues with the accuracy?
https://www.wired.com/story/gps-jamming-interference-russia-ukraine/

DMytro

@Wilson75 not unless you leave in russia, I suppose

isazi

@Wilson75 it’s not only in war areas, GPS jamming exists, and you can buy jammers online (it’s illegal to use them almost everywhere though). Apparently they’re popular among truck drivers, to avoid being monitored by their companies.

thanasis

@isazi gps jammers are popular for illegal activities as well and are related to health and security concerns also .
In any case let’s focus on the actual capabilities of the devices we have and how to get the most out of it .

So far I feel the gps of the S9p is really good .