Fitbit Versa 4 Fitness Smartwatch

Do not buy this watch to track runs. I’ve had a persistent problem with the Versa 4 where the first mile or so of GPS tracking is wildly inaccurate even on perfectly clear days. It doesn’t always fail, but maybe 50% of the time or more, and appears to be getting worse lately. The two screenshots are of the same loop run. One shows a reasonable track, the other shows the issue I'm having with the watch, where the GPS tracking inaccurate and thus incorrectly reports distance and pace. I purchased this watch in December 2023 for my son who didn’t use it. I started using it 6 or 7 months later when my Versa 3 died. I have 30+ years of experience debugging and resolving issues, a master’s degree in computer science and work as a director of engineering. I’ve owned both Garmin and the prior Versa 3 GPS watches. I contacted fitbit support last November as I was fed up with the poor performance. They were cheery and stated their commitment to resolving the issue. Support: try loosening the watchband as far as possible. Me: I don’t like a loose watch while running, but I’ll try it. No luck Support: keep the watch away from your bones Me: The watch generally sits by the wrist bone, but since I’ve loosened it up, I’ll try sliding it up my forearm. The problem persists. Support: Factory reset the watch. Me: I went through the tedious factory reset process and appeared to have success on the first following run. But the problem reappeared on the next run Support: Your fitbit app is out of date, it’s 4.34.11 and needs to be 4.35 Me: I’m not having problems with the fitbit application, I’m having problems with the watch. I went to update to 4.35 on my Android phone, but it wasn’t available. Support: You need to wait for 4.35 to come out in order for us to continue this case. Me: I waited for 4.35 to come out and resent the screen-shots of my failed runs. Support: In the fitbit application go to exercises/run and make sure GPS is enabled. Me: There are no exercise/run settings in the phone app, but there are on the Versa 4 watch. I’ve sent them many screen-shots of the GPS tracked runs using the Versa 4. Sent them a picture of GPS being enabled on the watch. Support: Make sure the phone app has GPS always privileges and has privileges to run in the background. Me: What does this have to do with the GPS on my watch? Sent screenshots to show that GPS is always enabled on the phone app and it is permitted to run in the background. [I'm now waiting for another response, but they continue to throughout seemingly unrelated solutions to the fundamental issue] Note: I’ve noticed now, with V4.35 of the fitbit application on my phone, that the Versa 4 will immediately report “GPS Connected” when I start a run, even if I’m in the house with both my phone and watch. Neither can access the GPS satellites. I suspect, with this version of the phone app, the watch is using the phone’s location services to indicate GPS connection, even if the phone is using Cell or WiFi to get approximate location. The initial mile or so of my runs remains inaccurate, even though the watch starts off with “GPS connected”. Fitbit support does not seem to be focused on the source of my issue, the poor performance of the GPS system on this Versa 4 watch. Is my watch faulty, or does the Versa 4 have a weak GPS system in it’s design? I don’t know. This watch is not useful for tracking runs. I would recommend anyone looking for a run-tracking watch look elsewhere. The Versa 3 took a little time to get initial GPS lock, but then tracked without problems. The Garmins locked quickly and were accurate.