Running with Gear S3. How accurate?

[autonm]

Galaxy Samsung S7
Samsung Gear S3 watch
All updated, no outstanding software updates available.

I having the exact same issue 8 runs out of 10 S Health just stops tracking my distance.
Steps continue to count
Clock conitnues to count

The issue seems to happen when either I stop running - i.e. waiting to cross a road or when I pass under a bridge (bridge is probably 3 metres)... the watch seems to drop out. Only way is to stop and restart.

The interesting thing is if I stop and restart it works straight away - so that tells me I am within GPS signal.

The problem seems to be that if it drops out, it never can reconnect and start again. I have ran 7km, it has dropped out after 2km - yet for the rest of the other 5km - your telling me that I was never in GPS signal to pick up again ??

Can someone confirm that if I have my watch connected via Bluetooth, is the S Health app taking GPS from the watch itself or from the phone?

 

[rindip]

I switched the gps to device only and it works like a dream. Had no dropouts and seems accurate

 

[zac Keegan]

switched gps to device only? do you mean you swapped location from gps and wireless to only gps?? having problems with the s3 inaccurately reporting my runs too and its frustrating getting the messages through with inaccurate times. Have noticed closing all the background programs seems to help a little.

 

[autonm]

I switched the gps to device only and it works like a dream. Had no dropouts and seems accurate

How do you do this?
On my s3 I have settings - connections - bluetooth / wi-fi / nfc / location ??
What specifically are you changing?

Location I can switch to:
GPS & Wireless
Wireless Networks
GPS

Is it this you are switching to the GPS option ?

Thanks

 

[rindip]

Yes thats the one - gps only. Im assuming it works better as it doesnt try connecting to random wifi spots

 

[rindip]

Im using samsung health on the run option with location ticked. Was having trouble with it before but the gps only seems to have resolved it

 

[autonm]

interesting thanks ppl... I'll give it a try Thursday night !

 

[craigyjp]

I just bought the gear S3 to replace a TomTom Runner 2 with constant sync issues. So far I'm more than disappointed with the S3 and it's lack of decent apps for running.

And whats with this countdown nonsense. I regularly attend Parkruns and having to wait 4 secs to start running with 800 people behind you is not easy. Is there anyway to disable the dam countdown so I can just start a run with everyone else.

Also my 5k run tonight reported 4.6km which is terrible, I'm going to try GPS only tomorrow.

Sync to Strava doesn't seem to work except for when I slept the first night with my watch on, it reported two events to Strava overnight, so I must be sleep running.

Tempted to send this back and persevere with my non syncing Tomtom, ugly as hell and full of software bugs but in general it was accurate and could start a run with everyone else.

 

[yoggee]

This is the second time I connected the S3 with my phone via BT while running. I wanted it connected so that I could have a quick glance at the watch if a call comes in. The watch records zero mileage! After I've turned off BT on the watch, it starts counting but mileage was still off. I'm going to try with GPS only on my next run, and no BT. I swear that BT messes up everything.

 

[craigyjp]

Well I ran 5.65 km tonight and the S3 recorded 5.11 km. So even with the WIFI Location services turned off the watch was still over 500 m short of the actual distance. We used several other devices to test against and it is clear the S3 is rubbish at distance tracking. I thought maybe it was that I had no GPS lock, but even without this it should have recorded distance form where it thought I was.

I contacted Samsung today and pretty sure I'm sending this watch back.

 

[yoggee]

Well I ran 5.65 km tonight and the S3 recorded 5.11 km. So even with the WIFI Location services turned off the watch was still over 500 m short of the actual distance. We used several other devices to test against and it is clear the S3 is rubbish at distance tracking. I thought maybe it was that I had no GPS lock, but even without this it should have recorded distance form where it thought I was.

I contacted Samsung today and pretty sure I'm sending this watch back.

You know, the S3 is a smartwatch first, then a fitness watch second or maybe third. S Health's data wasn't that accurate even when I was using it simultaneously on the phone with Runkeeper, and wearing my Garmin Forerunner. If you had wanted a more accurate data on your run, you should have gotten a dedicated fitness watch. My Gear S3 has shown to be 500m less or sometimes more than the Garmin. My instructor told me that everyone in her running group has different watches and every watch show different mileage even they started at the same time and were running side by side.

 

[canerkarakurt]

Hi Guys,

I have raised a feature request with Strava to support the Gear S2/S3 natively. If you use Strava can you support it, the link is:

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us...0-Add-direct-Support-for-Samsung-Gear-devices

Thanks

 

[p1eric]

I just bought the gear S3 to replace a TomTom Runner 2 with constant sync issues. So far I'm more than disappointed with the S3 and it's lack of decent apps for running.

And whats with this countdown nonsense. I regularly attend Parkruns and having to wait 4 secs to start running with 800 people behind you is not easy. Is there anyway to disable the dam countdown so I can just start a run with everyone else.

Also my 5k run tonight reported 4.6km which is terrible, I'm going to try GPS only tomorrow.

Sync to Strava doesn't seem to work except for when I slept the first night with my watch on, it reported two events to Strava overnight, so I must be sleep running.

Tempted to send this back and persevere with my non syncing Tomtom, ugly as hell and full of software bugs but in general it was accurate and could start a run with everyone else.

I haven't had any problems with GPS accuracy on my S3. I wore it and my Garmin Vivoactive together on the first few runs and they were almost identical. If I had GPS problems I probably would've sent it the S3 back.

Regarding the lack of running app options and the shortcomings of S Health - I couldn't agree more. The good news is there should be better options coming at some point with MapMyRun and Endomondo.

https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-strengthens-innovative-wearables-with-enhanced-under-armour-fitness-apps

 

[craigyjp]

You know, the S3 is a smartwatch first, then a fitness watch second or maybe third. S Health's data wasn't that accurate even when I was using it simultaneously on the phone with Runkeeper, and wearing my Garmin Forerunner. If you had wanted a more accurate data on your run, you should have gotten a dedicated fitness watch. My Gear S3 has shown to be 500m less or sometimes more than the Garmin. My instructor told me that everyone in her running group has different watches and every watch show different mileage even they started at the same time and were running side by side.

I had a dedicated fitness watch "tomtom runner 2", but that was buggy as hell and failed sync more times than it worked and is a very ugly watch to boot. If you had read my first post you would have actually seen that. I'm comparing the S3 to the TomTom runner 2, an Iphone 6 running Endemondo and a garmin vivo active and all of them are within 100m of each other, so 400m to 600m is well wrong. Also when the run was exported into Strava the next day it registered 5.6km, so go figure.

 

[craigyjp]

Thanks for you update regarding running apps. I had a long chat with Samsung today regarding the lack of accuracy and the only advice they could offer was to reset the watch, But they took onboard my concerns.

 

[autonm]

just quick update - I ran 6km + on Sunday - following the same run / trail as I did previous when the S3 bombed out on me. This time I changed the following:

settings - connections - wifi - Off
settings - connections - location - on - methods GPS

It managed to track the entire 6km + without any issues or dropping out. I am running twice again this week and will let you know how it goes...

 

[autonm]

ok so cancel that... had the same settings as Sunday and it failed again tonight after 0.9km

Restarted the tracking again ... failed after 0.2km ... retired again - failed after 0.5km

Something is seriously wrong with the S Health app for tracking..

Next i am going to try a factory restart and see if I can block all notifications from my phone - incase the alerts / pop ups are causing issue....

not good

 

[Carl Boarder]

CraigyJP - Samsung took onboard your concerns? I really hope you were elligible for a refund because its not in any way fit for purpose for reporting distance. on a 10k its now consistantly 1-1.5k above what i have ran which means all data like pace etc is inaccurate also.

My wife's name is Lucie and svoice wont let me ring her because Lucie is not a valid spelling of Lucy apparently.

Like you i wanted to replace my spark 2 but now i have to run with both - spark to do the actual job and s3 to laugh at how inaccurate it is. Driving me nuts!

 

[craigyjp]

Samsung actually contacted me because I rated S-health on the gear as 1*

If more people do this that own the S3 frontier then maybe they will take notice.

 

[Fozzmeister]

Won't make a difference. I believe the issues are down to sampling rate.

if you compare the mapping between the S3 and a Garmin device it seems to cut corners. This suggests to me its only sampling every 3 or 5 seconds rather than the 1 sec my Garmin does. This led to inaccurate distances and useless information.

Those saying this is a smartwatch first and a fitness watch second I'm don't accept this is how it is marketed nor what you should expect from a £350 watch.

Mine went back after 4 weeks for a Garmin Fenix 3 HR which I am very happy with.