Ride With GPS users: Android or Iphone more accurate?

icebiker

icebiker

JORBA: Morris Trails
JORBA.ORG
For those that use Ride With GPS, do you find a difference in recorded mileage (distance travelled) between tracks that are recorded via an iPhone vs an Android phone? A buddy of mine has an Android phone, I have an iPhone. We both have identical settings (e.g. logging interval 1 sec, logging type Distance), we both use RWGPS Premium, we both keep our device in the same location (shorts pocket). When we ride together, he regularly logs 15-20% more mileage than I do despite being next to each other. Here are two separate rides where we were riding together, and you can see his mileage is more (though our elevation and time in motion are about the same). I got in touch with RWGPS Help and they said there are many variables (such as tree cover, location on the rider, etc). However, in both of these example the only variable we could think of was our device. If you look at the tracks below, you can see his tracks look "finer"....a lot more "wiggle" to the track on the twisty singletrack, whereas my tracks are "smoothed out"...not as squiggly. Any thoughts on whether the Android GPS is more accurate than the iPhone's? Any other ideas other than getting myself an Android (not an option)?
My ride at 6MR:
Greg 6MR.jpg


His same ride with me at 6MR:


Andreas 6 MR.jpg


My ride at Dickerson Mine:
Greg Dickerson.jpg


Hi ride with me at Dickerson Mine:
Andreas Dickerson.jpg
 
Iphone 14 pro is dual band.
Previous versions were not.

That doesn't mean it is an instant fix tho. I'll try to ride 6mr recording with rwgps this week. See what it says.
 
idk how big the difference is but consensus (on the internet, so it has to be true? right?) used to be that android phones in general had better GPS antennas than Iphones do (especially Samsung for some reason).
 
Thanks. I actually paired a Wahoo wheel sensor to my RWGPS a while back and it was great (which is how I know my loop at Dickerson is always about 11.5 miles) but after a recent RWGPS update it no longer tracks the right miles nor shows accumulated miles mid-ride (even after disconnecting and re-pairing it). Opened a ticket with RWGPS and they acknowledge there’s a problem as others have had the same issue. Hence my wondering why my Android using friend can get accurate mileage without using a sensor.
 
in today's experiment i fired up the wahoo elemnt on the handlebars.
Forerunner 35 on my wrist, and my iphone 14 pro max in my pocket with RWGPS recording.
No wheel sensor on my fatbike. it would be all over the place anyway???

RideWithGPS recorded 6.8 Miles 736' climbing - with some good detail.

Screenshot 2023-04-10 18.01.21.png


My Elemnt claims 5.2 miles, with 730' climbing
It has a barometric altimeter, rather than relying on gps or surveyed altitude.

Screenshot 2023-04-10 18.03.07.png


Forerunner says 6.7 miles with 705' climbing

Screenshot 2023-04-10 18.05.48.png


It looks like the elemnt has a lower sample rate?
Although I question whether it is a mile from the tunnels to the top of otter slide on the others.

To the point - it seems that the new iphone is more accurate.
 
Ok that might be it. My iPhone is an 11. My friends Android is a Google Pixel 5a (which does have dual frequency GPS). Until I get a newer iPhone I just have to figure out how to get the darn sensor to register like it used to.
 
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