Weeks into testing the Fitbit Cost 6, it is lived as much as my expectations for a health tracker. It is rather more snug than any operating look ahead to sleep monitoring, the Google integration is a pleasant bonus, and the straightforward UI makes it simple to seek out no matter data I would like. Just one main “perk” hasn’t lived as much as my hopes: the built-in GPS knowledge.
Sunday Runday
In his weekly column, our Senior Editor of Wearables and Health Michael Hicks discusses the world of smartwatches, apps, and health tech associated to operating and well being, in his quest to get quicker and healthier (and assist you to do the identical).
Health bands have gotten an increasing number of superior over time. Simply take a look at the Xiaomi Sensible Band 8 and the variety of options it has packed in for $40. However one constant draw back to the 1-inch tracker kind issue is that they do not normally have sufficient room for a useful GPS antenna, nor the battery capability to take care of the connection for lengthy. They all the time depend on a smartphone.
Fitbit modified this with the Cost 5, the primary non-watch health tracker to allow you to depart your cellphone at house when monitoring exercises. Cost 5 homeowners rapidly seen, nonetheless, that it had hassle establishing a GPS sign once they wore it snugly on their wrists. Your individual physique blocks the connection.
Fitbit’s GPS troubleshooting web page recommends “loosening the band 1 notch” if the Cost 5 (or 6) cannot join. What this resolution disregarded was that you simply wanted a comfortable match to get a correct coronary heart fee studying for exercises! You are buying and selling one essential metric for the sake of one other; of the 2, I am going to prioritize coronary heart fee knowledge over GPS knowledge each time.
Fitbit designed the Cost 5 earlier than the Google acquisition and evidently knew about this concern. I had agency hopes this team-up would result in a brand new resolution with the Fitbit Cost 6.
Google’s resolution, based on its press launch, was to make “coronary heart fee monitoring throughout vigorous actions…60% extra correct than earlier than.” The implication is that in case your tracker does not keep firmly connected to your wrist throughout HIIT actions with fast arm actions, it will nonetheless provide you with dependable coronary heart fee knowledge. So, in concept, you may put on the tracker loosely for the sake of GPS accuracy now.
As for the antenna, DC Rainmaker reported that the “antenna design was not modified” between the Cost 5 and 6. One can assume, since Fitbit is not telling, that the unchanged design between the 2 trackers left no room to enhance it — or that they did not see fixing it as a precedence.
How correct is the Fitbit Cost 6’s GPS? The reply is extra sophisticated than I anticipated.
Different websites have reported severe points. DC Rainmaker says that “until worn on the absolute loosest degree (hilariously free), GPS merely received’t keep locked on.” Coach claimed “the built-in GPS is ineffective” and ceaselessly confirmed him operating properly off the overwhelmed path. A Wareable information on “the best way to increase GPS accuracy” instructs you on the best way to change from Dynamic GPS — which makes use of each the Cost 6 and your cellphone’s GPS knowledge — to Related GPS, which gave them higher outcomes. In different phrases, you “repair” the Cost 6 GPS by not utilizing it in any respect.
My expertise with the Fitbit Cost 6 GPS was a lot much less doom-and-gloom; regardless of that, I would not essentially name it “good.”
In my testing, I caught with the default Dynamic GPS and did not trouble carrying the Cost 6 like a free bangle. Runners don’t need one thing hopping round on their wrist, so I caught with a comfortably comfortable setting to see if it may deal with it.
For some runs, the GPS related in seconds, together with after I wore it on the tightest doable setting. Different looser suits would see me ready wherever from 30 seconds to a number of minutes, for no obvious cause.
In contrast with my Garmin Forerunner 965 on dual-frequency GPS settings — which I’ve discovered extremely correct in testing, and serves as my baseline for different critiques — the Fitbit Cost 6 alternated between carefully matching its outcomes and extensively overestimating my distance:
- October 15: 3.1 (Fitbit) vs. 3.11 (Garmin)
- October 21: 4.2 (Fitbit) vs. 4 (Garmin)
- October 23: 2.89 (Fitbit) vs. 2.67 (Garmin)
- October 25: 3.31 (Fitbit) vs. 3.11 (Garmin)
- October 27: 5.03 (Fitbit) vs. 5.0 (Garmin)
- October 28*: 6.09 (Fitbit) vs. 6.2 (Garmin)
Most of those runs befell on metropolis streets or at an area park with minimal tree cowl, so any discrepancies ought to don’t have anything to do with blocked satellite tv for pc alerts. I suspected that the problem may stem from elevation modifications, for the reason that Cost 6 has no altimeter and my 10/23 and 10/25 runs had been on particularly hilly routes. However so was my 10/27 run, and the 2 gadgets had been practically completely synchronized the complete time, which nixed that concept.
When operating on my native observe, my Fitbit post-run map actually seemed about pretty much as good as some other GPS-only tracker, with some straying into outdoors lanes on the curves however in any other case on level for the straightaways.
For my most up-to-date run (starred above), I switched from dynamic GPS to built-in GPS to see if it did any worse, carrying it one notch looser than typical however nonetheless comfortably caught to my pores and skin. It was the one run to underreport my distance, however in any other case fell near Dynamic settings for accuracy, and solely fell 1bpm wanting my Garmin coronary heart fee common (maybe due to Google’s algorithm tips). I solely misplaced the GPS sign as soon as when going underneath an overpass, and it reconnected instantly.
I am hesitant to completely condemn the Fitbit Cost 6 as a GPS tracker, when it exhibits flashes of full competency and is, in any case, a $160 system. I am not anticipating multi-band ranges of accuracy at this value level, even when the COROS PACE 3 does it at $230. That, in any case, is a cumbersome watch, not a pill-shaped tracker.
Loads of GPS-only watches that value twice as a lot because the Cost 6 aren’t particularly correct, both. That is one more reason why I do not need to single out Fitbit and Google right here. And I definitely would not say that the GPS “will not keep locked on” or is “ineffective.”
Alternatively, I am going to emphasize {that a} constant 0.1- or 0.2-mile hole in outcomes is vital for runners with a purpose of hitting a sure race tempo. It modifications your “common tempo” knowledge by about 10–20 seconds, which may simply make you consider you are quicker or slower than you actually are till race day disabuses that notion otherwise you harm your self overtraining with out realizing it.
I am not going to negate what different Cost 6 reviewers skilled with their GPS points. It is one thing that ought to work constantly in each unit, not show a crapshoot primarily based on how loosely you put on it or on runners’ physique composition.
Fitbit could not remedy the inexorable bodily problems with a compact antenna buying a sign via our fleshy wrists. Solely a thicker health smartwatch that sits increased and has extra room for an antenna can ship constant outcomes.
So, ought to Fitbit have eliminated the GPS antenna fully, on condition that Dynamic, Constructed-in, and Related GPS settings all appear to ship equally wonky outcomes? Frankly, I might need most well-liked that they use that house so as to add an altimeter for judging effort at elevation as an alternative, one thing Fitbit dropped after the Cost 4.
However built-in GPS sounds higher on the field, and most “informal” athletes will simply assume the post-workout distance they see is correct. I am not likely shocked Fitbit saved the characteristic in its present state, and it is doable that software program updates will enhance its GPS reliability over time.
In the long run, I am nonetheless going to counsel we give the spot for finest health tracker to the Cost 6. All of its different perks — the well being sensor suite, Google apps, consolation, and different factors I am going to handle in my assessment this week — make it value the additional $60 in comparison with the GPS-less Fitbit Encourage 3.
On the similar time, I am much less more likely to suggest the Cost 6 in case you prefer to preserve your cellphone at house throughout exercises.
