I got a Charge 4 because it has in-built GPS and I didn't want to have to bring my phone with me everytime I ran. However, I've found the GPS to be inaccurate and inconsistent. I have tried Built-in, Dynamic, and Phone GPS to different but unsatisfactory results.
Built-in GPS tracks really poorly leading to inaccurate distance measurements, and thus makes any analysis of my runs worthless. It willl occassionally drop out as well.
Dynamic GPS sometimes uses the phone GPS which is better at tracking but occassionally drops out and uses Built-in GPS instead, leading to the same issue. Or it will drop out entirely and I will have no GPS data for parts of my run.
When GPS drops out, I believe fitbit uses my stride length to calculate distance. This is set to automatic but is not accurate. Since I run at different paces, if I run slower my actual length is slower and therefore it thinks I've run further (e.g. run 7.5km, fitbit says 8.2km). Or if I run faster it thinks I've run less distance since my strides are longer (e.g. run 3km, fitbit says 2.8km).
Can anyone give any advice on how to improve GPS and distance measurements? I am running in a very open area so signal should not be an issue, app location settings are correct, and I wear the Charge 4 on my left wrist with my phone (iPhone 12) on my left upper arm.
Failing that, what I want to do is disable the GPS functionality and just use Strava on my phone for that, but upload heart rate data to the run separately. Is it possible to just use the Charge 4 as a heart rate sensor and connect to Strava that way? or export heart rate data from a run and upload it to Strava?
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