Running with Gear S3. How accurate?

[Fozzmeister]

But did you have the s3 in standalone mode? A lot of people think the s3 is accurate because it's using the phone gps when connected via bluetooth. In standalone mode there are widely reported issues.

 

[OriginalMrC]

But did you have the s3 in standalone mode? A lot of people think the s3 is accurate because it's using the phone gps when connected via bluetooth. In standalone mode there are widely reported issues.

Yep when tethered to the phone it is far more accurate. Standalone was hit and miss for me but overall mostly accurate. I did experience cutting corners and on occasion lost tracking. I decided to take my phone with me on runs now but not only for that reason. When running I want to access my Google playlists (though the watch music player worked well standalone). Also there have been times when I've been out running and thought I'd like to take a photo. Without my phone I couldn't do that. Yes the GPS should be more accurate in standalone but it's not a deal breaker for me.

 

[rindip]

Do you put it in running mode and press start or do auto mode? Just asking as i have no issues with mine seems weird

 

[craigyjp]

There was a software update to s-health on the watch 2 days ago, I have run 2 times with the watch since then and it has been fairly accurate.

Run 1: Gear S3 4.88km vs Garmin 735XT 4.90 - 20 meters difference
Run 2: Gear S3 5.01km vs Garmin 735XT 5.10 - 90 meters difference

This is acceptable compared to 500-600 meters out previously.

I will continue to monitor the watch for a few weeks and report back. But so far it is looking promising.

 

[Carl Boarder]

an update? interesting

Nothing appeared here in the uk yet....will let you know if i get anything but that data looks a lot better than the random number generator i am getting. literally every day i take it out just to laugh at it!

my trusty spark2 is consistent day in, day out.

 

[craigyjp]

One other thing is the stairs counting. I regularly use the stairs, about 12 steps, but the count very rarely changes.

 

[craigyjp]

an update? interesting

Nothing appeared here in the uk yet....will let you know if i get anything but that data looks a lot better than the random number generator i am getting. literally every day i take it out just to laugh at it!

my trusty spark2 is consistent day in, day out.

I'm in the UK and it was Tuesday afternoon when I checked my apps and there were several updates available. You do it through the Samsung Gear App on your phone,

 

[craigyjp]

It was all going so well, 2 runs within an acceptable tolerance and now after 3 more runs back to way off by 300m plus.That the feck Samsung, it is not that difficult, your a world class company with a second rate product. I even did 2 walks yesterday of 1km each and it only registered one of them.

1. Distance tracking awful
2. Floors tracking awful
3. Even walk tracking, inconsistent at best.

 

[Nicola Cevoli]

Totally agree with your assessment.

1) Need more than 1 data point on a screen. Should be customizable.
2) GPS is pretty good. Not as good as my Garmin 220
3) Heart rate read about 30-40 BPM high for me with a comfortable snugness.
4) Pace screen is useless because it goes from 7:00 pace to 13:30 pace as opposed to some kind of moving average?
5) Doesn't seem to sync with strava. Have tried MANY times.

confiming that till ow it quite annoying...

fast connection oto gps only if connected to a wifi...
useless pace-speed measurement..it shows 1-2 km/h less of what i m doing....
if u check the route on map is quite umprecise...especially if you change often directions
till now if i want something precise i have to connect through mobile gps via blutooth

 

[1James3]

I just purchased the S 3 and after 2 calls with Samsung was instructed to return the device and purchase from Verizon or AT&T as Sprint didnt offer cellular and gps connection. My S3 LOGGED 1.41 miles on a 3 mile run. I also tried with my car and it did the same thing. I was so upset! As I love the watch.

The rep said tge stand alone gps is not accurate for running without a gps connection. Go figure

 

[afblangley]

I just purchased the S 3 and after 2 calls with Samsung was instructed to return the device and purchase from Verizon or AT&T as Sprint didnt offer cellular and gps connection.

The LTE version of the Frontier Gear S3 is currently supported by T-Mobile and AT&T. It's not available for Verizon or Sprint.

 

[guitareth]

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?

Interesting - see my post about the tracking just giving up on MapMyRun and also with the built in SHeath tracking here: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-gear-s3/773649-map-my-run.html

My hikes are with a group of older people and certainly not a serious workout but more about keeping resonably fit and enjoying the great outdoors. So on these hikes we always stop frequently for short breathers. However, for first few weeks of owning the watch it seemed to happily auto-pause, and auto-resume when I started walking again, and the distance stats seemed very accurate when compared with other apps I ran. I normally would be running the SHealth app on my watch while running MapMyHike on the BT connected Smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S5 mini) at the same time. However, in past few weeks it does seem that at some point the watch app pauses when I take a rest but does NOT auto-resume everytime when I start walking again. This most recent hike was the first time I'd tried the new MapMyRun app on the watch to track my hike and as I described on that other thread the MapMyRun app just stopped updating the data about two thirds through my hike and would not auto-resume.

I don't know if it's since an update that this has stopped working but it's very frustrating and I wish somebody could come up with a fix.

 

[funkymagicuk]

I've had really decent tracking for the last few weeks, however three runs in a row have had problems now

Ran midweek last week and noticed afterwards seemed to report short compared to the people I was running with.

On Saturday I did a parkrun and kept a close eye...after a couple of km I noticed that distance just stopped going up, and if I flicked to the map/route screen is just said "acquiring" or similar...it didn't relock for a few mins (where normally it takes seconds).
I ran the speedo app clicked start, and it seemed to grab gps. Flicked back to S Health and it now seemed fine, so closed Speedo.

But S Health just kept losing GPS constantly. Coverage was in and out of trees (but not that dense).



Then same on Sunday...ran a 10 mile race in really open terrain on the coast, perfect for GPS reception, no buildings or cliffs.

Noticed after a few km that my distance was lagging significantly behind the mile markers out on the course, and eventually (whilst out in the open with no building or tree within 200 metres) I noticed a "gps lost, go to a less built up area" message.

Fired up Speedo and it instantly got a GPS lock...just left that running in the background and S Health seemed to maintain lock...but if i closed Speedo then S Health quickly lost GPS


I did have the GPS&Wifi setting for location which theoretically could have messed things up, so I've gone to GPS only and will test again (shame there's no "discard" option with S Health so you can delete before sync...as I have to go round Runkeeper/Strava etc deleting "fake runs" if I try and test!)

 

[Robin2161]

Hello guys,

I've had my Gear S3 Frontier for a couple of months now and I started noticing problems when I wen't out for a run.

The distance wasn't correct and the heart rate was as high as 250bpm sometimes. Of course this wasn't correct so I brought the phone when I ran.

The watch got a distance of 2,15 km and the phone 3,05 km! I know for a fact that the phone was correct since other who ran with me got the same distance as the phone did.

ANyone know what the problem is? This was tracked with the S Health App..

 

[yoggee]

Someone in this forum or another gave a tip to set location to GPS only to get a more accurate tracking. I found it is pretty much more precise with GPS only. That said, I do not understand why and when the watch reverts the location back to GPS & Wifi only. It has gotten some of run messed up even though I've set it to GPS only a day before.

I've taken to check location setting first before starting a run.

 

[anon(782252)]

Did my first walk/jog/run today and the Gear S3 Frontier calculated 3.01 miles using GPS only and my GF's Fitbit Charge 2 calculated 3.05 miles, so very close.

 

[BlackHawkRider]

I noticed after the gear s3 frontier update, all of my fitness tracking became incorrect. The heart rate, the speed, and the burned calories are completely off. They are counting the steps correctly based on my understanding. The gear s3 sometimes loses gps signal witch causes the app to pause tracking automatically. I am trying to figure out how to reverse the gear s3 update in order to resolve the issue.

 

[yoggee]

Are you using S Health for your fitness tracking?

 

[guitareth]

Interesting - see my post about the tracking just giving up on MapMyRun and also with the built in SHeath tracking here: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-gear-s3/773649-map-my-run.html

My hikes are with a group of older people and certainly not a serious workout but more about keeping resonably fit and enjoying the great outdoors. So on these hikes we always stop frequently for short breathers. However, for first few weeks of owning the watch it seemed to happily auto-pause, and auto-resume when I started walking again, and the distance stats seemed very accurate when compared with other apps I ran. I normally would be running the SHealth app on my watch while running MapMyHike on the BT connected Smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S5 mini) at the same time. However, in past few weeks it does seem that at some point the watch app pauses when I take a rest but does NOT auto-resume everytime when I start walking again. This most recent hike was the first time I'd tried the new MapMyRun app on the watch to track my hike and as I described on that other thread the MapMyRun app just stopped updating the data about two thirds through my hike and would not auto-resume.

I don't know if it's since an update that this has stopped working but it's very frustrating and I wish somebody could come up with a fix.

Just to update on my own issues with MapMy Run app on the S3 locking up part way through a workout. Since installing latest version 1.1.3 of MapMy Run I tested the app on a 6 hours + hike on Friday and it worked great without locking up at all. I will test it again this coming Friday before being overly confident, but so far so good!

 

[marrapr7]

Any runners here who already have an S3? Comments on accuracy vs other smartwatches/garmin devices?

It's going to be one of the primary use cases for me - running in standalone mode while playing spotify (whenever that comes). But want to ensure it can accurately track a run.

My calories burned are grossly overstated. For a 30 minute ruin, I burn approximately 300 cals. Running with my S3 and Samsung health puts me over 600