This is the question – should Samsung replace my gear S3 on the assumption that I got a watch with a bad GPS, or should they refund my money, assuming that they foolishly consider this an acceptable margin of error?
My Samsung Gear S3 is simply inadequate for many of the purposes for which it is advertised. Whether it is simply that I received a dysfunctional watch, the GPS is a cheap piece of junk, or the software that manages the GPS is poorly programmed has yet to be determined. However, I do have some data that I have gathered that shows that one of these three conditions must exist.
1. Bad watch. If everyone else is getting much more accurate GPS readings, then the only problem I have with Samsung is their poor quality control. This would be the least problematic outcome, and they could simply overnight me a new watch (and return envelope for my current one if they want it back).
2. Bad GPS. Sub-1% accuracy is essential for any kind of GPS, otherwise you’re better off with a map and a compass. Frankly, if the GPS on my phone wasn’t shipped broken and is up to Samsung standards, then their advertising is fraudulent. As I have shown below, the Gear S3 is off by 2-12% on the runs I have had recently. I could count my paces and be more accurate.
3. Bad software. S-Health is a pretty poor app for running to begin with, but whatever algorithms it’s using to compensate for motion tracking might be horrendous, and the GPS chip itself might be OK. Others have reported that it cuts corners, and I have also found that it jumps wildly and is especially inaccurate during the first km, where it generally takes 5-20+ seconds to find satellites and actually begin reporting distance travelled (there ought to be a way to “warm up” the GPS tracking prior to starting the run). It is normally off by at least 10-20% on the first km – although I have had it as high as 70% – and gets generally more accurate the farther I run, although it never catches up to the phone’s GPS accuracy.
For testing purposes, I ran with the Gear S3 (on Airplane Mode, GPS only) and a phone (Samsung or iPhone) running a variety of running apps (S-Health, Endomondo, Map My Run, and Runkeeper) over the past month. The latest runs I have are shown on the table below. The rest are similarly deficient, except for the ones I ran before I turned off wifi location finding on the Gear S3 (which were much worse!).
Phone S3 gear Error Percent Error
Distance A 8.01 7.84 -.17 km -2%
Distance B 6.01 5.77 -.24 km -4%
Distance C 8.0 7.77 -.23 km -3%
Distance D 6.01 5.4 -.61 km -10%
Distance E 6.03 5.3 -.73 km -12%
Distance F 14.04 12.73 -1.31 km -10%
Distance G 8.02 7.67 -.35 km -4%
Distance H 6.0 5.85 -.15 km -3%
FYI there are also numerous usability and accessibility issues with the interfaces on the S3, and the heartrate sensor also appears to be under-reporting by about 10% (making me look almost like I’m not even breathing hard!). This makes me wonder when the first lawsuit will come, after someone who thinks they are running much less distance than they really are and much more slowly than they really are and with a much lower heartrate than they really are has a massive heart attack. Although Samsung will probably get lucky, and if nobody reads this, they may not suspect the watch caused them to over-exert themselves.
Overall, if this dumbwatch isn’t replaced by one that actually functions as advertised, then anyone would be better off buying a cheap watch to keep track of the time. This would have massive advantages over the Gear S3 in cost, charging time, and the ability to actually see what time it is when you look at the watch (the Gear S3 shows the time on the first try fairly often, but sometimes I have to turn my wrist several times to activate it). If you’re desperate for interchangeable watch faces, there are cheap watches that have those, and actually also show the face you chose instead of some useless placeholder as the Gear S3 does when you set the watch face to be “always on”. On the other hand, if you would rather look at your wrist when your phone buzzes instead of taking it out of your pocket to look at it, you’re lazy enough to get a small amount of value out of this device. And you’re also probably so lazy that you’re not running anywhere, so you won’t miss the worthless GPS.
My Samsung Gear S3 is simply inadequate for many of the purposes for which it is advertised. Whether it is simply that I received a dysfunctional watch, the GPS is a cheap piece of junk, or the software that manages the GPS is poorly programmed has yet to be determined. However, I do have some data that I have gathered that shows that one of these three conditions must exist.
1. Bad watch. If everyone else is getting much more accurate GPS readings, then the only problem I have with Samsung is their poor quality control. This would be the least problematic outcome, and they could simply overnight me a new watch (and return envelope for my current one if they want it back).
2. Bad GPS. Sub-1% accuracy is essential for any kind of GPS, otherwise you’re better off with a map and a compass. Frankly, if the GPS on my phone wasn’t shipped broken and is up to Samsung standards, then their advertising is fraudulent. As I have shown below, the Gear S3 is off by 2-12% on the runs I have had recently. I could count my paces and be more accurate.
3. Bad software. S-Health is a pretty poor app for running to begin with, but whatever algorithms it’s using to compensate for motion tracking might be horrendous, and the GPS chip itself might be OK. Others have reported that it cuts corners, and I have also found that it jumps wildly and is especially inaccurate during the first km, where it generally takes 5-20+ seconds to find satellites and actually begin reporting distance travelled (there ought to be a way to “warm up” the GPS tracking prior to starting the run). It is normally off by at least 10-20% on the first km – although I have had it as high as 70% – and gets generally more accurate the farther I run, although it never catches up to the phone’s GPS accuracy.
For testing purposes, I ran with the Gear S3 (on Airplane Mode, GPS only) and a phone (Samsung or iPhone) running a variety of running apps (S-Health, Endomondo, Map My Run, and Runkeeper) over the past month. The latest runs I have are shown on the table below. The rest are similarly deficient, except for the ones I ran before I turned off wifi location finding on the Gear S3 (which were much worse!).
Phone S3 gear Error Percent Error
Distance A 8.01 7.84 -.17 km -2%
Distance B 6.01 5.77 -.24 km -4%
Distance C 8.0 7.77 -.23 km -3%
Distance D 6.01 5.4 -.61 km -10%
Distance E 6.03 5.3 -.73 km -12%
Distance F 14.04 12.73 -1.31 km -10%
Distance G 8.02 7.67 -.35 km -4%
Distance H 6.0 5.85 -.15 km -3%
FYI there are also numerous usability and accessibility issues with the interfaces on the S3, and the heartrate sensor also appears to be under-reporting by about 10% (making me look almost like I’m not even breathing hard!). This makes me wonder when the first lawsuit will come, after someone who thinks they are running much less distance than they really are and much more slowly than they really are and with a much lower heartrate than they really are has a massive heart attack. Although Samsung will probably get lucky, and if nobody reads this, they may not suspect the watch caused them to over-exert themselves.
Overall, if this dumbwatch isn’t replaced by one that actually functions as advertised, then anyone would be better off buying a cheap watch to keep track of the time. This would have massive advantages over the Gear S3 in cost, charging time, and the ability to actually see what time it is when you look at the watch (the Gear S3 shows the time on the first try fairly often, but sometimes I have to turn my wrist several times to activate it). If you’re desperate for interchangeable watch faces, there are cheap watches that have those, and actually also show the face you chose instead of some useless placeholder as the Gear S3 does when you set the watch face to be “always on”. On the other hand, if you would rather look at your wrist when your phone buzzes instead of taking it out of your pocket to look at it, you’re lazy enough to get a small amount of value out of this device. And you’re also probably so lazy that you’re not running anywhere, so you won’t miss the worthless GPS.
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