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Setting up a new Garmin devise (it's a running watch) and have options on the GPS settings:
GPS
GPS + GLONASS
GPS + GALILEO
I'll likley use one of the latter 2 as I believe that'll give me a quicker GPS lock, but wondered if there was any difference in the performance between GLONASS and GALILEO?
Satellite lock for a modern GPS watch should be very fast regardless as it syncs a catalogue of satellite positions. If it takes a long time with decent sky view it's likely that's out of date.
For accuracy especially with limited sky view you'll want to use one of the latter two. My understanding is the result might depend on the device, I've seen dcrainmaker saying he get the best results he's ever had from a GPS watch using a garmin 935 with GPS+Galileo but with the 945 GPS+GLONASS worked better.
If battery life is an issue you'll get longer run times with just GPS.
My old 935XT used to take ages to find satellites when using Glonas, its replacement I have left on GPS only due to this. I have an Edge 130 now on GPS and Galileo and it finds satellites much quicker then when I first tried using Glonas.
I've found all three to pretty accurate so would agree it depends on how much battery you want to use and then picking one from there.
You might have ultratrac too. That seems to be a battery save mode. Good for hiking esp if you have an overnight without recharge.
I've not found any noticeable real world difference between the three you posted. The biggest satellite hookup time difference seems to come from how far you have moved from when it was last used.
Thanks all.
Battery life isn't an issue, longest run will be circa 3 hours and that won't get close to draining it.
I had some issues with GLONASS in the past losing signal at the end of a run so I think I'll try GALILEO just to compare.
If you're in the UK then just GPS will work fine. As above, modern watches seem to get a lock really quickly - a few seconds - unless you've not used it for a while or have moved a long distance since last used.
There are some maps somewhere on coverage of the globe. I seem to recall that for Europe (where I'm based) the best option is GPS+Galileo from a coverage perspective. I suspect the real difference in well populated parts of the world like the UK and France is absolutely negligible, but might make a bigger difference in the middle of nowhere.
There's no consensus on the internet, despite lots of detailed anecdotes, and people being absolutely certain either way, which makes me think there's no answer to this question.
Some things are clear. It won't make a difference to the speed of the lock. It might make a difference to accuracy, but there are too many variables to say which setting will work for you.
I've moved away from the desperate quest to get it right now, and I don't even know what I'm using any more.