Charge 5 GNSS

[embiggenator]

I noticed when I went on a run today that the total distance estimated by my Charge 5 was about 7% less than what my Charge 4 was estimating. On my Charge 4, I had GLONASS enabled to try and improve the accuracy of my tracked runs, but that option doesn't seem to be available on the Charge 5 (only GPS). Is the Charge 5 less accurate at tracking your position than the Charge 4? Or was something improved with the GNSS chip that it can still manage the same/better accuracy with GPS only? Just curious.

[N8teGee]

Hi @embiggenator.

I don't know if this is what could be causing your issues, but from a recent DC Rainmaker review he notes that wearing the device too tightly (snuggly) can have severe detrimental effects on the GPS signal received. He demonstrated this by wearing the C5 at different levels of tightness. I know this doesn't answer your question about GLONASS, but it's worth checking to see if loosening it does improve things. 

I did have a look at the C5 help article and there is no mention of being able to enable/disable GLONASS (like it says on the C4 article), so I assume it's always enabled. 

[embiggenator]

Thanks for the reply. I guess the real issue is that I'm not even certain if the results from the Charge 5 are less accurate than what I was getting with my Charge 4...they're just not producing the same distance estimates. I guess I'd have to measure my route with something I know is accurate to see which one is closer. It would be unfortunate to find out they used a cheaper/worse GNSS chip in the Charge 5. Tracking my run times/distances is a huge reason I use these fitness trackers.

The help article on the Charge 5 GPS settings doesn't mention GLONASS, and GPS/GLONASS are two separate "brands" of GNSS...so the fact that they only call out GPS makes me think that's all that is being used. However it's always possible that whoever published the help article just wasn't aware of that distinction...

[embiggenator]

Actually @N8teGee, it looks like you're probably correct. The manual below states that it includes both GPS and GLONASS, so I'd also guess they're both enabled by default.

PREVIEW

https://help.fitbit.com/manuals/charge_5/Content/manuals/html/General%20Info%20and%20Specifications....

[N8teGee]

It's worth pointing out that the Charge 4 launched with GPS only (or at least no way to manually select) with the ability to choose between GPS and GPS + GLONASS (and also low power mode) being added in a later FW version. This might also be true with the Charge 5, although as you mention the help article advertises the inclusion of GLONASS, so it would be strange it's not in use. Although it wouldn't be out of character of Fitbit to release a device with functionality missing at launch (the C5 itself is missing advertised functions, although that's a conversation for a different thread).

Perhaps a Moderator could clarify the situation with the Charge 5 for us.