Apple v Garmin Accuracy

by Steve on 10-10-2016 Fitness Product Reviews
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Apple v Garmin Accuracy

For some time now my wife and I have wondered which is more accurate. My mightly Garmin Fenix 3 or her fancy Apple i watch.

What we did: Both watches were started at exactly the same time doing the Spit to Manly walk and obviously stopped at exactly the same time, standing still on both occassions. Other than some muscle flex in our fingers the differences should have been minimal.

Her Apple watch recorded a distance of 5.47km and a time of 55:33

My Garmin Fenix 3 recorded a distance of 4.72km and a time of 55:40

Quite odd that the timer would be 7 seconds different. As you can see both watches show the time as 8:55, while not showing seconds they are pretty much synced. Bigger surprise was the difference of 750m odd or 15.8%. Also over that distance that is 15.8% of the Garmin distance and 13.7% of the Apple distance, quite a difference indeed

So who was right? Using MapMyRun which I accept may not be the most accurate in the world more from me using it with my fingers than the actual App itself I found the following:

 

MapymyRun Map

Must closer to the Fenix. So on the face of it using GLONAS as well as US satelites I would expect so. Having said that it did read 21.54km on my last 21.1km half marathon. You decide.

Steve

Steve writes articles and resource pages for Health4you.com.au. He lives on the Northern beaches and is an avid tester of new fitness gadgets, shoes and accessories as well as being a keen runner, cyclist and swimmer. Note we said keen, not necessarily good. Steve also has an ongoing interest in weight management, given he is also a beer enthusiast.