GPS Distance Charge 5 vs Other Devices

[albrecd]

I have a Charge 5 and my wife has a Versa 3. When we run together using built-in GPS on both devices the Charge 5 consistently (virtually always) indicates about 10% higher distance (at 5km, the Versa indicates 4.5). I have also cross referenced with other mapping apps on my phone (Google maps, Gaia GPS) and they consistently agree with the Versa 3 shorter measurement.

Mapping data always shows the full route and same route in the Fitbit app for both devices, so it doesn't seem to be an issue with GPS getting dropped.

I have also tried restricting the Charge 5 to phone GPS, but in most cases it reports a loss of GPS despite the phone still accurately recording in one of the other mapping apps I use. The phone is a Pixel 5.

Is there any way to improve the GPS data, or does anyone have other ideas for workarounds that will cause the Charge 5 to report a more accurate distance, either with the internal GPS or otherwise?

[JohnnyRow]

Not sure if this really addresses your question, but if you don't have it yet, I think I saw new update to Charge 5 is to include "Dynamic GPS" which gives option to use phone's GPS, along with something like switching to internal if lose phone signal or vice versa - not sure of details, but option to use phone GPS might help you.

[albrecd]

Thank you! I have tried all three settings of phone only, watch only, and dynamic GPS. Unfortunately in dynamic it will not switch between sources if one fails, it chooses a GPS at the start and if that fails it drops altogether even if the other source is working.

From this help article:

"Note: If the GPS signal is lost during the exercise, Charge 5 doesn't switch to a different GPS type."

[albrecd]

I recorded a walk with both the Charge 5 and my phone via the Fitbit app, and the resulting maps show that the Charge 5 position jumps around quite a bit compared to the phone and that seems to be what is resulting in the higher distance measurement, so it seems like the Charge 5 GPS receiver just isn't as accurate as the Versa 3 or my phone, which is a bit disappointing (I tried to include a screenshot but images don't seem to be enabled for this forum).

I also took a look at app permissions on my phone and noticed that the Fitbit app location permissions were set to "only while using the app", so that may be why the Charge 5 has been losing GPS signal when in phone only mode. I have changed it to "always allowed" and hopefully that will allow me to use the more accurate phone location and distance.