The results of some recent GPS tests were worthy of a post of their own for once. For those of you with Polar and Suunto devices here are some important and provisional findings.
It’s been a busy week for things to test. As well, I had some old data to go through. Busy. Busy.
What’s New
- COROS APEX – who? Read on and see. But they interestingly use the same Sony GNSS chip that both Polar (Vantage) and Suunto (9) have opted for. It’s mostly due to the low power consumption of the chip.
- Yesterday Suunto enabled GLONASS with a new firmware release for the Suunto 9.
For once there is positive stuff to report. But perhaps not from where you expected it.
I’ve only done one run with the COROS APEX. But it equalled the best-ever score which the AMBIT3 RUN turned in for me in 2017. It could be a fluke of course but the course is sufficiently hard for me to say that the COROS APEX obviously has at least a reasonably accurate GNSS device here. I used GPS+GLONASS for the COROS.
I had a similar experience with the COROS Pace earlier in the year but downgraded my opinion of its accuracy slightly with more usage.
- Q: How can a newcomer do so well at this? With two devices each using different chips?
- A: If I knew I would be offering consulting services in this field.
A massive sigh of relief at Suunto HQ. I was looking at results from a week or so ago with GPS and comparing to the new firmware using GPS+GLONASS. So two things have changed – firmware and GNSS mode. Well three. Accuracy, being the third. It is NOTABLY improved. With GLONASS enabled, the Suunto 9 put in a 79% score, which is the same as with the best-ever Garmin result I had recently for the Fenix 5S Plus in GPS-only mode (Galileo?…nah). It’s still not quite good enough for Suunto but this is a big move in the right direction (hopefully).
For some bizarre reason Suunto have hidden away the option to turn GLONASS on in the menu navigation. No doubt it will be a battery-eater…who cares?!?! The Suunto 9 has a bigger battery than my car.
Polar? Nothing to report with the Polar test. Nothing has changed at any rate.
The good news for Suunto and Polar is that the Sony chip obviously CAN BE GOOD. COROS proved it.
Lots of caveats here of course but generally happy, smiling faces in London tonight.
Special thanks to @RiphRaph for nagging me into doing this. It was worth it !!
