Q: Apple watch consistently falls short of distance calculation even running with iPhone (compared to third party apps)
I bought a Series 1 Apple Watch a few days back. I prefer running with my phone (and not a swimming guy), hence the choice for Series 1. So to compare the distance readings, I used Map my Run app on iPhone in conjunction with "Outdoor Run". I did that for a bunch of runs. I also compared distances for a walk with the "Outdoor Walk" on watch and Map my Walk on iPhone. Yesterday, I also compared distances using "Outdoor Run" and Runkeeper app on iPhone. I know the watch calibrates the first time so it won't be very accurate, but then every time after the calibration, the watch consistently showed a lower distance compared to the iPhone apps. Here's a summary:
1st run (out of the box): AW--> 2.21mi/11'04" per mi...........Map my Run--> 2.30mi/10'46" per mi
1st walk (out of the box): AW--> 1.44mi/16'44" per mi.........Map my Walk-->1.49mi/16'16" per mi
Walk: AW--> 2.27mi/14'55" per mi.............Map my Run-->2.31mi/14'41" per mi
Run: AW--> 2.03mi/10'00" per mi.............Map my Run-->2.26mi/9'08" per mi
Run: AW--> 2.20mi/11'24" per mi.............Map my Run-->2.30mi/11'23" per mi
Run: AW--> 2.04mi/12'09" per mi.............Map my Run-->2.10mi/11'53" per mi
Run: AW--> 2.53mi/11'39" per mi.............Runkeeper-->2.62mi/11'22" per mi
I did my best to start the workouts in the AW and app together, it could be a couple of seconds off at the most. My question is did anyone notice this trend with their watch? If yes, what's going on? Because, I thought the AW is pretty accurate when used with the iPhone gps. Thank you for your help!
Watch Series 1 42MM (2nd gen), watchOS 3
Posted on Sep 27, 2016 7:13 AM
