The brand new Google Pixel Watch 4 has dual-band GPS for the primary time, catching up with rival manufacturers like Samsung, Apple, and Garmin. I had the possibility to talk with Munjal Shah, Senior Product Supervisor for the Pixel Watch 4, about how their model of dual-frequency GPS works, why it was essential so as to add, and why he is excited for me, personally, to strive it.
Once I reviewed the Pixel Watch 3, one among my few complaints was its unreliable GPS accuracy. Any timber, buildings, or different sign blockages would ship my exercise line careening astray, messing with my whole run distance. It made it arduous to suggest the Watch 3 to runners, regardless of the helpful teaching and coaching load instruments.
Seems, the Pixel Watch group learn my overview. They emailed me previous to launch, asking if I needed to be taught extra about their new L5 GPS monitoring and the way it works.
I will not know the way good the Pixel Watch 4 dual-frequency GPS is till I check it myself, someday round its October 9 launch date. However Shah stated all the appropriate issues to recommend they perceive why higher GPS accuracy issues to runners a lot.
How dual-frequency GPS works, and why it issues
By default, a normal health watch makes use of L1 GPS, the oldest sign customary obtainable. It is completely able to monitoring you in an open area, however the low-powered sign is well refracted by “city canyons and extremely dense tree areas,” Shah defined. They skew your detected place and make it arduous for GPS satellites to reacquire your location.
L5 GPS alerts have existed for a decade, however are nonetheless thought of cutting-edge. Initially designed for plane steerage the place precise positioning is important, L5 GPS has a extra steady sign with a wider bandwidth, able to reducing by means of sign noise.
Fewer satellites are able to broadcasting L5 alerts, and it has a better energy demand. However as a secondary supply, they’ll pinpoint you in tandem with L1 alerts, making certain that your location is correct…in principle.
In observe, some dual-frequency GPS watches are extra correct than others. It is as a lot concerning the watch’s satellite tv for pc chip and any course-correcting software program because the L5 sign itself.
“Twin-band GPS was one among our key curiosity areas,” Shah defined. They needed to “really resolve customers’ issues” with their exercise information, in response to buyer suggestions from athletes who had been annoyed with their wobbly GPS-only information (myself included).
Shah would not suppose it is a area of interest function, both. Twin-frequency GPS “really elevates the operating expertise” as a result of your “real-time tempo is much more correct.” Severe runners must gauge how briskly their goal race tempo feels, whereas informal runners should guarantee they do not overtrain or develop a false sense of safety.
On that very same be aware, Shah says higher GPS accuracy is actually essential in your “post-workout summaries.” Google depends in your exercise information to tell its new Fitbit AI coach, which judges how match you might be and recommends detailed exercise plans; so that you need its information on you to be as correct as doable.
How Google made its dual-frequency GPS extra correct
The Pixel Watch 4 has assistance on this entrance, as the primary smartwatch to make use of the brand new Snapdragon W5 Gen 2. This new chipset would not provide any main efficiency increase, nevertheless it encompasses a new RFFE for location-based machine studying. In accordance with Qualcomm, a dual-band Gen 2 watch will likely be 50% extra correct than a normal GPS-only watch in difficult areas.
Shah stated that “it has been nice” working with them, and that the “Watch 4 {hardware} enabled us to go within the course of dual-band GPS.” However he performed issues a bit coy once I requested how a lot of the Pixel Watch 4’s accuracy comes from them, and the way a lot comes from Qualcomm.
That stated, Shah made it clear that the product administration group needed to do numerous work to tug dual-frequency GPS off, and that it wasn’t simply Qualcomm’s new {hardware}.
They needed to acquire “1000’s of hours of information” from around the globe to ensure that the Watch 4’s dual-frequency GPS labored correctly. Not like Garmin watches, which concurrently use dual-frequency GPS and different GNSS like GLONASS or GALILEO, the Pixel Watch 4 depends globally on L1 + L5 GPS.
In accordance with Shah, it is dual-frequency GPS that gives the “most correct route monitoring doable” in all Pixel Watch 4 markets, making different satellite tv for pc system information redundant.
He additionally acknowledged that dual-frequency GPS usually has a serious impression on battery life, which they take “very significantly.” So that they “did their due diligence” and located a approach to implement it in order that the “efficiency of the battery is not impacted a lot.” Due to that, there isn’t any approach to decide on GPS-only monitoring to avoid wasting battery life; dual-frequency GPS would be the solely possibility.
Whereas Shah would not focus on future options or updates, he stated that the Pixel Watch group plans to proceed to ship the “better of the perfect” health {hardware}, and that he is excited for me to check out the Pixel Watch 4’s dual-frequency GPS accuracy for myself.
I lately reviewed the Galaxy Watch 8 Traditional and located that its dual-band GPS wasn’t almost as exact as I might anticipate, and that its dwell tempo information was constantly off my real-world tempo. So there’s room for the Pixel Watch 4 to swoop in as a a lot better Android operating watch possibility, if its accuracy lives as much as Shah’s hype.
If it does, the Pixel Watch 4 might simply turn out to be one of many finest operating watches of the 12 months. I am not taking it as a right till I check the GPS for myself, notably round forests, buildings, and tracks. However Shah appears supremely assured that his group’s watch will dwell as much as the problem.
Google Pixel Watch 4
The Google Pixel Watch 4 has an ultra-bright AMOLED show for sunny climate, 25% further battery life for these lengthy marathon runs, cardio load information, Fitbit AI teaching, a phone-less satellite tv for pc messaging software for emergencies, and different perks that make it an intriguing possibility for athletes. It launches on October 9.
