I'm on the verge of buying my first Apple Watch. The major thing I'd use it for is fitness tracking, especially miles walked and steps taken.
How accurate —and how reliable — is the Watch in those departments?
I've recently compared two iPhone SEs (both the original model) and an iPod touch 6G and have gotten wildly varying results -- not only do they vary each time I use them -- they differ greatly from each other -- over the exact same path!
For example, I recently tested the two SEs three times on the same walk at the same time. (One SE in one pocket, the other SE in the other. 3 different days.)
One gave me results ranging from .78 mile to 1 mile, while the other varied from .92 to 1.2 miles. Steps on SE #1 ranged from 1,886 to 2,085 steps -- while those on SE #2 varied from 2,460 to 2,704.
As you can see, the phones are both unreliable and inaccurate as measures of distance and steps! The first varied a whopping 28% from low in high in distance; the second, 32%! Step variation was better, at 11% and 6%, but still high.
But they differed from each other substantially. The second one averaged 18% more in distance and a large 29% more in steps.
I'd have to dig up the IPT's measurements, but those differed from the iPhones' and varied greatly from walk to walk, too.
I'm hoping the Apple Watch would do substantially better than my iPhones! Does it?
Note that I'm concerned with two things: consistency and accuracy. In the social sciences, we refer to them as reliability and validity.
How accurate —and how reliable — is the Watch in those departments?
I've recently compared two iPhone SEs (both the original model) and an iPod touch 6G and have gotten wildly varying results -- not only do they vary each time I use them -- they differ greatly from each other -- over the exact same path!
For example, I recently tested the two SEs three times on the same walk at the same time. (One SE in one pocket, the other SE in the other. 3 different days.)
One gave me results ranging from .78 mile to 1 mile, while the other varied from .92 to 1.2 miles. Steps on SE #1 ranged from 1,886 to 2,085 steps -- while those on SE #2 varied from 2,460 to 2,704.
As you can see, the phones are both unreliable and inaccurate as measures of distance and steps! The first varied a whopping 28% from low in high in distance; the second, 32%! Step variation was better, at 11% and 6%, but still high.
But they differed from each other substantially. The second one averaged 18% more in distance and a large 29% more in steps.
I'd have to dig up the IPT's measurements, but those differed from the iPhones' and varied greatly from walk to walk, too.
I'm hoping the Apple Watch would do substantially better than my iPhones! Does it?
Note that I'm concerned with two things: consistency and accuracy. In the social sciences, we refer to them as reliability and validity.