Battery Stretch feature for long workouts

[gv73]

Hey Microsoft: Unless you qualify for Boston, a max of 3.5h gps tracking does not cut it for most marathoners. The feature is a yes/no similar to "use gps". Once selected you could "request" life of the band to stretch to say 4.5h. The band would then space out gps measurements accordingly.

 

[Brian Gobrecht]

Alright we know there is a gps saver so what's the question? This feature has been around for months.

 

[poit57]

Alright we know there is a gps saver so what's the question?

The issue, I think, is that the GPS saver mode badly skews the distance measurement unless the wearer is travelling in a straight line. I tested it on a 2.5 mile run and only got about 2.12 tracked. What seems to me to be the logical solution would be to somehow combine both the GPS map points when they are locked while estimating the total distance based on the step counter - just like it does when tracking a run without GPS.

I tried to track a marathon a couple weeks ago. I already knew that the GPS saver mode would give inaccurate distance measurements, so I tried to test the battery limits with normal GPS mode. My Band 2 recorded 18 miles in 3h45m before the battery died. With GPS saver mode, I estimate that it would have recorded the full duration of the run and reported about 21.5 miles. At that point, it would seem more accurate to just track the run without GPS at all and let the entire distance be estimated based on my steps.

 

[Brian Gobrecht]

well the GPS saver only takes samples and isn't on the entire time like it would be if its off. In that sense if you are on a path and has twists and turns it wont see that and you'll need to put it on the full GPS. Only reason why gps is there with the runs, biking, and such is to see how fast your going at the path your going afterwards and make you push more. but that's what i think it does. but i don't use GPS because i honestly don't care how fast i'm going on the path i've traveled 1000 times unless i'm training for a marathon best record or something. i see it if there is a hill i'm going to be going slower and faster over the hill because you're still compensating for the incline and going faster down because its down lol