[anon(1549765)]

Hi Guys

Since the launch of the Z10, I was devastated to see that Endomondo wasnt there from the start. Reluctantly i moved over to Sports Tracker and was let down massively by their app due to dropping out GPS and erratic app functionality.

Cue Endomondo launching close to 10.1, even though they said that the reason they werent launching was due to no access to Google Maps API on BB10... something still not resolved but we have an app and it works!

What I was interested in was the reliability of these apps under 10.1 and how their results compared. There doesnt seem to be any threads around this topic and the only comparison I can find online is an iOS compariosn with older versions of the apps in question. For clarity, I also ran my 9900 with Endomondo at the same time to provide a comparison result.

First the technical details...

Phone - Z10, STL100-2
Software Release - 10.1.0.2312
OS Version -10.1.0.2354

Endomondo - Version 1.0.4.0
Sports Tracker - Version 1.0.7.1

Phone - Bold 9900
OS - 7.1.0.714
Endomondo Free - Version 8.6.4.

The Test...

I do a lot of biking, Endomondo has been a faithful companion for a few years now on my Bold 9900 before i switched the the Z10. I will try and remain impartial in this review but be aware there is an element of bias .

My usual route around Edinburgh entails around 25km of road and off road routes with areas of both great and poor data coverage. A few times in the past the 9900 GPS would go a bit funny in areas of poor data coverage and I would end up with a rather strange looking map...



For this comparison I was running both Sports Tracker and Endomondo pro together on my Z10 and running Endomondo Free on my Bold 9900. All GPS were synced first then the apps were all started and finished within 5 seconds for each other. This is not a scientific result, more of a pointer to show the variation in apps and results.

App Impressions...

Endomondo is a port, a good one but a port none the less. You can feel its sluggish reactions when switching between screens or changing to the map view. It is very functional and the GPS mapping is superb. The audio coach is a nice touch and you can access your history of workouts and view the routes on google maps as well as find other local routes uploaded by other users. There is a lot of functionality in the app but it just doesnt feel polished like a native app does. One bug i did spot was with the map data when viewing a past route, not all the tile data loads leavin gyou with some grey areas, which you can see from the screenshot below...



Sports Tracker on the other hand, barring my bias and previous misconceptions... is a very nice app to use! You can tell its native by how well it runs and how well it performs. Similar to Endomondo, you can view your previous workouts and have them presented on a Google Map. The app feels less cluttered than Endomondo, its certainly easier to navigate and find what your looking for.

The app is very well laid out and the tracking page when you run the GPS tracker empahises on your time/speed/distance details with a mini map... you can also choose to view the map as a full screen GPS tracker. Endomondo only offers one or the other with a detail page with your stats or a map tracker. To be fair, its unlikely you will look at your phone that often when using the GPS function but this may be an issue for some people. Both apps feel as well featured as each other, but presentation is very different with Sports Tracker probably winning this battle.



The Stats...

Now for the comparison between Apps and the free Endomondo version running on my Bold 9900.

	Bold Endo	Z10 Endo	Z10 ST
Distance	26.17km	25.89km	25.2km
Avg Speed	14.3km/h	14.2km/h	13.8km
Max Speed	51.3km/h	52.3km/h	58.2km/h
Min Altitude	20m	20m	39m
Max Altitude	178m	123m	120m
Calories Burned	967	967	1246
Total Ascent	329m	349m	482m
Total Descent	353m	344m	471m

Well... quite a difference in data! Endomondo returned pretty similar stats over both devices apart from a 55m difference in altitude which is quite dramatic and a 300m difference in tital difference which could be attributed to GPS dropout on the Z10. The map shows no evidence of dropout though with a pretty smooth route round on each workout. Calorie burn exactly the same on both trackers suggesting a similar equation is used to calculate calorie burn based on distance travelled/time/elevation etc.

Sports Tracker on the other hand had some very strange results. Although the map tracker was very similar to Endomondo with no GPS dropout, the tracker reports a 19m difference in minimum elevation which is huge! Also, the calrie counter charts at 1246 which is probably more realistic for the workout in question bu very different to how Endomondo calculate their data. Fianlly, the total ascent and descent are wildly out with approx. 140m of a difference to what both Endomondo reports and what the elevation actually is. After working this out manually, Endomondo is pretty close to the actual figure. Finally, Sports tracker reports a 7km/h difference in top speed which is a large margin considering the so called accuracy of the GPS system which should prevent such large variances.

Conclusion...

Both apps surprised me, Sports tracker is a slick app which is easy to use and navigate... but the website is a mess of graphics and black/orange mind melting data. Endomondo has a good app but sluggish and unpolished but its website is a clear winner between the 2 services.

Endomondos' final tracking data was pretty accurate but the variations in results between the 2 trackers is slightly concerning, although the data is not wildly different. Sports Tracker however has some very surprising results with some data wildly out of sync with actuality. This could be attributed to having 2 trackers running on the phone at once. Now that I know that the Bold and Z10 versions are pretty close in results, I will run some more tests with Sports Tracker running on its own and compare the data again!

I hope this was helpful to you guys, if you have any questions drop me a line.

And add me on Endomondo as well (shameful plug!)

[kmcobra64]

Thanks for the review! You should also check out CascaRun, which is a native tracking app as well.

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[theclipart]

i too get lags too when switching screens, but i find it to be very accurate for me. +1 for endomondo.

[anon(1549765)]

Thanks for the replies guys, will check out CascaRun as well

[CascaRunner]

I would not rely too much on the GPS altitude, the GPS is not able to deliver an accurate one (that's a general issue, the app cannot be blamed). It will change as soon as the device altimeter is supported. CascaRun will support it when OS 10.2 is available. Another possibility is to use online services for altitude correction.

And yes, I also recommand using CascaRun but I am of course not neutral If you need help, just ask.

[anon(1549765)]

Thansk for the post, had a look at your app and it looks very interesting! Will give it a bash and weigh it up against the others as well. Good to know about the altimeter issue

[diarmuid66]

Thanks for posting that. It was disappointing to see how many reviews in bb world for these type of apps mentioned really poor GPS measuring . Personally I bought Runtastic as soon as it came out as I had quite a lot of data archived from using it with my BB Torch. So far so good , accurate mapping in my area at least.

[Powdah]

I would also look at Fitness Tracker. I to have purchased / downloaded all the candidates and ran them side by side. I find Fitness Tracker to be more accurate than any of the others as well as using less battery when ran by itself over long periods.

[carlone88]

thank you for the review!!!